Psalm 1 (part 1): The Blessed Man (Psalm 1:1-3).

We start our studies in Psalms by introducing the Book of Psalms as a whole. It is God’s Hymnbook, the longest book of Bible (150 chapters), which shows the importance of praise and worship. It is poetry, the language of the heart, set to music, designed to tune our hearts to God. It is given to inspire our response to God and His revelation. Just like the Torah, it is divided into 5 books. The first book is Psalms 1-41. There are many different kinds of Psalms – Psalms of Praise, Psalms of Thanksgiving, Psalms of Lament, Psalms of Confidence, Psalm of Kingship, Psalms of Wisdom and Messianic Psalms (which were written under prophetic inspiration). King David wrote over half of them (including almost all of the first Book). Other writers were Moses, Hezekiah, the sons of Asaph, and the sons of Korah. Psalm 1 is a special Psalm, described as the Entrance Hall into the Mansion of the Book of Psalms – a Wisdom Psalm, contrasting the nature, way and destiny of the righteous and the ungodly, who ignore God and go their own way in life. In the Bible, all mankind divided into these 2 groups and Psalm 1 spells this out in the strongest way, pointing out you are either righteous or ungodly, either part of God’s people or not, and only the righteous qualify for the blessing of God. God makes this point in Psalm 1, because the rest of the Psalms are only for the righteous, so its pointless reading the other Psalms (like 23), if you are in the wrong camp, as it does not apply to you. So, Psalm 1 is saying, before you enter this Mansion, make sure first that you qualify. Placing Psalm 1 first also tells us that our WORSHIP (represented by the Psalms) is based on mediation on the WORD of God (the emphasis of Psalm 1). Psalm 1 describes the righteous as being characterised by holiness – being devoted to the Lord and His Word, and separated from evil, whereas the ungodly follow the way of the world (1:1-3). Whereas the righteous are blessed (with God's life), and are stable, strong, and fruitful, like trees (v1-3), the ungodly are cursed (cut off from God's life), unstable, weak and empty, like chaff (1:4-5). Whereas God watches over the way of the humble, and walks with them, and gives them His grace, so that they will reach their final destination (glory), the way of the ungodly will result in destruction, because God resists the proud (1:6). Psalm 1:1 describes the BLESSED man by contrast with the ungodly man, who starts by following the counsel of the ungodly world, which then leads to him hanging around sinners, and developing a sinful lifestyle and convictions. Thus, he becomes hardened in his heart, and stands for things that are ungodly. The next stage, if he continues on this path, is when he sits in the seat of the scornful, is even worse, for this is when he becomes one who is settled in his views and teaches others to reject God and His Laws, actively promoting his world-view, which mocks God and sacred things, and undermines His Word. These ones do not just live wrong, but encourage others to live wrong (Romans 1:32). These are now fully hardened in sin. The blessed man is marked by the fact that he says 'No' to this worldly viewpoint 91:1). Instead, he delights in God's Word, and meditates in it day and night, with the intention of basing his life upon it, seeing that it is the Law of the Lord (it carries the full authority of God). Thus he allows it to form his beliefs and lifestyle (1:2). We discuss what Bible meditation is and how to meditate (Joshua 1:8). The result of being a godly man who meditates on God's word, rather than following the world is that the blessing of God causes him to become like a strong, upright "TREE, planted by the rivers of WATER, that brings forth its FRUIT in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper" (1:3). When we receive Christ, we are PLANTED into Christ, by the RIVERS of WATER (the grace of the Holy Spirit, who now lives in us), and we become a TREE of righteousness (Isaiah 61:3). Then, the more we meditate in God's Word, the stronger our ROOT-system (FAITH) becomes, enabling us to draw upon more of the WATERS of the HOLY SPIRIT.