The Nature and Nuance of the Blessed in Psalm 1

On the very first page of the Bible, God creates the entire cosmos, calling each sphere and its inhabitants “good” as He makes them (Gen. 1). By the next page, God has already made humanity to reign and rule as His representatives to creation (vv. 26-30). However, the humans are presented with a choice: they can chose to live life on the terms God has set (eating from the Tree of Life) or chose to define good and bad for themselves (eating from the Tree of Knowing Good and Bad) (Gen. 2.16-17). Ultimately, the humans end up taking from the Tree of Knowing Good and Bad and are exiled from the garden to life live away from the presence of God (Gen. 3).

As the biblical drama unfolds, God choses to call one family to live in a covenenat with Him so that this family might be blessed and bring a blessing to all the rest of the world (Gen. 12.1-3). This family grows to be a nation that God saves from slavery and oppression and brings to safety and security. God sets the terms of the Covenant for this family in the Torah. While this family fails to live to the standard of the Torah (constantly), some faithful strand of Israel holds onto the Torah and constantly let it guide their way of life. The author of Psalm 1 meditates (haggah) on this very truth - That the Torah brings about blessing for those who live by its wisdom. The Torah (being a covenantal document) brings about covenantal blessing that permeates every part of the life of those mediate on it.

Psalm 1 opens as follows: “Blessed is the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, / Nor stand in the path of sinners, / Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! / But his delight is in the Law of the Lord, / And on His Law he meditates day and night” (Ps. 1.1-2). The author of this Psalm provides a profound look at the Torah as he continues. He compares the haggah-er of the Torah as a fruitful tree by water that prospers in everything (think the Tree of Life from Genesis 2). The reader should notice that the one that haggahs on the Torah is singular and surrounded by those who are wicked, sinners, and scoffers; this is the same as Israel (singular) being called to live by the ways of the Torah rather than all of the surrounding sinful nations (Deut 7.6-11). Further, the mentioned faithful Israelite is mentioned as also studying the Torah - The covenant document of Israel. In the context of the Psalm, it seems that the blessing implied must be covenantal.

While the blessing promised in Psalm 1 is inherently covenantal, the covenant wisdom was assummed to permeate every aspect of the life of the faithful meditating Israelite. His meditating on the Torah is contrasted with active participation in sin. It should be noted that every aspect of the tree is healthy: from the fruit to the soil surrounding its roots (v. 3). Similarly, the Covenant demanded whole-hearted devotion to God in the social, political, and personal lives of those that followed it (Deut. 6.4-5). This idea is similar to that of fearing Yahweh, on which Birch states the following: “Serious recognition of Yahweh the Creator is the focal point for all true understanding of reality. Disregard of the will and purpose of the Creator will surely invite foolish behavior that contains within itself the seeds of destructiveness given as consequence” (Birch et al. 384). Just as foresaking the Torah to live as one wants means self-destruction through sin, following Torah means prosperity - Even on a personal level.

Knowing that the meditator of the Torah is blessed is comforting nonetheless, but to what extent? The Psalm explicitly promises prosperity, but not necessarily in the way that most modern Christians think it does. As David and Barthalomew see it, “In general, wisdom will lead to a healthy, biblical prosperity, but central to that will be a deep encounter with God, which will involve radical purification and probably intense suffering” (David and Barthalomew 274). Wisdom itself is more valuable than money or materials (Prov. 16.16) - Those that believe it will be more content with the wisdom itself than with the money or materials that tend to come from it. The biblical principle of reaping what one sows still stands - But aphoristically. Even literally, there are times of hail, storms, fires, and famines that steal all the seed that farmers broke their backs to sow. The prosperity and blessing promised in Psalm 1 should be understood similarly.

However, those who may suffer or strive from following Yahweh will be fully rewarded in the resurrection. Though the concept is not necessarily outlined by the beginning of the Psalms, there is surely a hope for a future reward for the righteous and judgement for the wicked (Ps. 16.10). Christians should hold onto this promise for themselves, knowing that even if they are not rewarded for their work in this age, they will surely be rewarded in the age to come. As Birch states, “wisdom theology is a ‘theology of creation’” (Birch et al. 384). Therefore, any reward that is not received in this side of creation will surely be granted in the new creation.

Bibliography

Bartholomew, Craig G., and Ryan O'Dowd. Old Testament Wisdom Literature: A Theological Introduction. IVP Academic, 2018. 

Birch, Bruce C. A Theological Introduction to The Old Testament. Second ed., Abingdon Press, 2005.

NASB. The Bible. New American Standard Bible. The Lockman Foundation, 2020.