Psalm 1

Blessed is the man who

My small group has been talking about different kinds of prayer disciplines for the past month, and it’s prompted me to work through Psalms in a more deliberate way.  For the past couple of days I’ve been mulling over the Hebrew text of Psalm 1, eventually coming to the translation above.  Below are some of the meditative thoughts the Psalm has led me to so far this week.

Surroundings

This is a wisdom type psalm, or a Psalm of orientation, and so it more or less flows out of the way the world normally works, the way things should work.  It’s a generalization.  I wouldn’t have to poke around to hard to see exceptions here, but when you look at the opening verses about the wisdom of not surrounding yourself with wicked, evil, cynical people, it’s hard to argue.  I don’t think it’s an argument for cloistering ourselves up and insulating ourselves from the world, but a warning about the consequences of taking on the viewpoints, behaviors and assumptions of people without making some sort of judgment about who we’re listening to.

Personally, it’s the bit about sitting in the seat of cynics that has challenged me the most as I’ve meditated on this part of the Psalm.  The old translations use “scornful”, or “mockers”, or “scoffers”, which are just outdated enough to lose their bite.  When I started reading the word as “cynics”, it became more personal in a hurry. There is simply so much of this attitude, whatever you want to call it, in every corner of our culture. The spirit of mocking, judgmental cynicism is remarkably contagious and corrosive to the human heart, and who among us hasn’t felt the pull of all that negative gravity? You can’t drink all that poison and still thrive.  There’s a place for pushing away from those directions, and choosing, deliberately, to live with a different set of attitudes and assumptions. It might be hard work, but worthwhile.  It’s a path of blessing, whatever that means.

Blessed

I’m not really sure what that means – blessing.  That first word in the Psalm is fairly easy to translate, but it hard to get my mind around.  What does it mean to be blessed?  Things are just going to generally go your way? You’re going to feel good, or be lucky? Better parking spots or quicker lines at the DMV? Obviously it’s a positive designation–I mean, who wouldn’t want to be blessed? But still, the Psalm leaves me wondering what the content of that word “blessed” is when it just stands all on its own in a context like this. Reading the Psalm, the best I can come up with is that “blessed” in this context means something like “stable”, “secure”, “possessing meaning”, and “successful”, all rolled into one word.  Basically, “blessed” is the guy everyone wants to be. (Side note, culturally laden: The Dos Equis and Old Spice commercials might be seen as parodies of “blessed” Ha!.)

The safest part of the blessing bestowed here is that is eventual.  It relies on the watchful eye of the Lord to bring it about, but also just seems to be the natural order of things (not necessarily separate concepts here). As improbable as it seems, the psalm affirms that it is worthwhile to stay the course and pursue a life of righteousness and integrity.  That idea is easily questioned, and is often questioned even within the Psalter. Nonetheless, this psalm offers me the words to prayerfully consider in integrity as a source of blessing, and my cynicism and wickedness as threats to my own safety, security, and purposefulness. As I pray trough the Psalm, I find myself saying to God, “Please, let it be so.  Let it be true. I want to be the righteous man, and wholly desire the blessing. Let it only be true…”