Psalm 1 Commentary

Psalm 1 Commentary

There is a constant fight within the saint. It’s godliness versus wickedness.

On one side is wickedness. It sponsors many ‘feel-good’ and ‘make-good’ ideologies. It’s a make-believe world. People are made to believe that the way of godliness is joyless and bad.

This Psalm is written to dispel this wrong notion. The saint’s life is blessed, fortunate, prosperous, and favored by the LORD. This is true for both the future and the present.

It’s in black and white. The saint is blessed. The wicked are not blessed.

The saint is warned against the temptation to consider wickedness a blessing. The results of wickedness may have the appearance of success, but it is all nothing and come to nothing at the end of the day.

While the saint delights in the Law of the LORD, the wicked wallow in the mud of depression and endless pursuit of satisfaction – a chase after wind.

The New Testament saint may think of the fruit of the Spirit as the end product of their status. The fruit comes because of the constant supply of water, the living water that comes from the LORD Jesus.

This psalm opens the Book of Psalms and may function as an introduction. Some psalms are songs of praise to the LORD God meant to celebrate the fruitfulness of God’s “plantation”. Others express a longing for the fruitfulness that only God’s plants can produce.

Psalm 42 pictures a soul longing for water, the living water. Other psalms will lament the lack of water, while others will focus on a time when the LORD God would let the living water flow unhindered.

The geography of this book is varied. We have well-watered places and waterless places. These environments will give us different pictures, different songs, and proclamations.  

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