1 Blessed is the man who doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in Yahweh's law. On his law he meditates day and night. 3 He will be like a tree planted by the streams of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither. Whatever he does shall prosper. 4 The wicked are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 6 For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish.
The blessedness of the righteous shown, in his avoiding every appearance of evil, Psalm 1:1. In his godly use of the law of the Lord, Psalm 1:2 This farther pointed out under the metaphor of a good tree planted in a good well-watered soil, Psalm 1:3. The opposite state of the ungodly pointed out, under the metaphor of chaff driven away by the wind, Psalm 1:4. The miserableness of sinners, and the final happiness of the godly, Psalm 1:5, Psalm 1:6.
(k) T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 9. 2.
(k) T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 9. 2.
(k) T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 9. 2.
The Radically Distinct Lot of the Pious and the Ungodly
The collection of the Psalm and that of the prophecies of Isaiah resemble one another in the fact, that the one begins with a discourse that bears no superscription, and the other with a Psalm of the same character; and these form the prologues to the two collections. From Acts 13:33, where the words: Thou art My Son... are quoted as being found ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ ψαλμῷ, we see that in early times Psalm 1:1-6 was regarded as the prologue to the collection. The reading ἐν τῷ ψαλμῷ τῷ δευτέρῳ, rejected by Griesbach, is an old correction. But this way of numbering the Psalm is based upon tradition. A scholium from Origen and Eusebius says of Psalm 1:1-6 and Psalm 2:1-12 : ἐν τῷ Ἑβραΐκῷ συνημμένοι, and just so Apollinaris:
Ἐπιγραφῆς ὁ ψαλμὸς εὑρέθη δίχα
Ἡνωμένος δὲ τοῖς παῤ Ἑβραίοις στίχοις.
For it is an old Jewish way of looking at it, as Albertus Magnus observes: Psalmus primus incipit a beatitudine et terminatur a beatitudine, i.e., it begins with אשׁרי Psalm 1:1 and ends with אשׁרי Psalm 2:12, so that consequently Psalm 1:1-6 and Psalm 2:1-12, as is said in B. Berachoth 9b (cf. Jeremiah. Taanith ii. 2), form one Psalm (חדא פרשׁה). As regards the subject-matter this is certainly not so. It is true Psalm 1:1-6 and Psalm 2:1-12 coincide in some respects (in the former יהגה, in the latter יהגו; in the former תאבד...ודרך, in the latter ותאכדו דוך; in the former אשׁרי at the beginning, in the latter, at the end), but these coincidences of phraseology are not sufficient to justify the conclusion of unity of authorship (Hitz.), much less that the two Psalm are so intimately connected as to form one whole. These two anonymous hymns are only so far related, as that the one is adapted to form the proaemium of the Psalter from its ethical, the other from its prophetic character. The question, however, arises whether this was in the mind of the collector. Perhaps Psalm 2:1-12 is only attached to Psalm 1:1-6 on account of those coincidences; Psalm 1:1-6 being the proper prologue of the Psalter in its pentateuchal arrangement after the pattern of the Tפra. For the Psalter is the Yea and Amen in the form of hymns to the word of God given in the Tפra. Therefore it begins with a Psalm which contrasts the lot of him who loves the Tפra with the lot of the ungodly, - an echo of that exhortation, Joshua 1:8, in which, after the death of Moses, Jahve charges his successor Joshua to do all that is written in the book of the Tפra. As the New Testament sermon on the Mount, as a sermon on the spiritualized Law, begins with maka'rioi, so the Old Testament Psalter, directed entirely to the application of the Law to the inner life, begins with אשׁרי. The First book of the Psalm begins with two אשׁרי Psalm 1:1; Psalm 2:12, and closes with two אשׁרי Psalm 40:5; Psalm 41:2. A number of Psalm begin with אשׁרי, Psalm 32:1-11; Psalm 41:1-13; Psalm 112:1-10; Ps 119; Psalm 128:1-6; but we must not therefore suppose the existence of a special kind of ashr-psalms; for, e.g., Psalm 32:1-11 is a משׂיל, Psalm 112:1-10 a Hallelujah, Psalm 128:1-6 a שׁיר המעלות.
As regards the time of the composition of the Psalm, we do not wish to lay any stress on the fact that 2-Chronicles 22:5 sounds like an allusion to it. But 1st, it is earlier than the time of Jeremiah; for Jeremiah was acquainted with it. The words of curse and blessing, Jeremiah 17:5-8, are like an expository and embellished paraphrase of it. It is customary with Jeremiah to reproduce the prophecies of his predecessors, and more especially the words of the Psalm, in the flow of his discourse and to transform their style to his own. In the present instance the following circumstance also favours the priority of the Psalm: Jeremiah refers the curse corresponding to the blessing to Jehoiakim and thus applies the Psalm to the history of his own times. It is 2ndly, not earlier than the time of Solomon. For לצים occurring only here in the whole Psalter, a word which came into use, for the unbelievers, in the time of the Chokma (vid., the definition of the word, Proverbs 21:24), points us to the time of Solomon and onwards. But since it contains no indications of contemporary history whatever, we give up the attempt to define more minutely the date of its composition, and say with St. Columba (against the reference of the Psalm to Joash the proteg of Jehoiada, which some incline to): Non audiendi sunt hi, qui ad excludendam Psalmorum veram expositionem falsas similitudines ab historia petitas conantur inducere.
(Note: Vid., Zeuss, Grammatica Celtica (1853) ii. 1065. The Commentary of Columba on the Psalm, with Irish explanations, and coming from the monastery of Bobbio, is among the treasures of the Ambrosiana.)
*More commentary available by clicking individual verses.