Psalm 5: Okay, Then–Define “Unrighteousness”
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The important thing is to go to God. That right there is how Psalm 5 defines righteousness. God himself does all the rest.
1 For the director of music. For pipes. A psalm of David. Listen to my words, LORD, consider my lament.
2 Hear my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray.
3 In the morning, LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait expectantly.
4 For you are not a God who is pleased with wickedness; with you, evil people are not welcome.
5 The arrogant cannot stand in your presence. You hate all who do wrong;
6 you destroy those who tell lies. The bloodthirsty and deceitful you, LORD, detest.
7 But I, by your great love, can come into your house; in reverence I bow down toward your holy temple.
8 Lead me, LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies– make your way straight before me.
9 Not a word from their mouth can be trusted; their heart is filled with malice. Their throat is an open grave; with their tongues they tell lies.
10 Declare them guilty, O God! Let their intrigues be their downfall. Banish them for their many sins, for they have rebelled against you.
11 But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you.
12 Surely, LORD, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield. (Psalm 5 NIV)
The Psalter has few characters: God, His Son, God’s friends, and God’s enemies. In describing the Psalter, no matter how politically objectionable such a description may appear, there are few to no tones of gray, just black and white. One of the basic black and white facts of the Psalter is the contrast between the righteous and the unrighteous. Psalm 5 contributes to the Psalter the first detailed portrait of unrighteousness and contrasts this portrait with details about the righteous.
I. The speaker is an unnamed single person throughout, although verse 12, the closing verse, could be spoken by the ever-present narrator/chorus common to many of the psalms, especially in the closing verses. Clearly, the speaker places himself among the righteous.
II. Contrasts between the righteous and the unrighteous.
A. The righteous speaker of the psalm–
1. approaches God to reverently speak to him in worship and humility (verses 1-3 and 7b).
2. God receives, welcomes, enjoys, blesses, and protects the righteous who come to him (verses 7a and 11-12).
3. The one and only positive characteristic of righteousness described in this psalm is the fact of the righteous ones approaching God to speak with him and shelter in his presence.
B. The characteristics of those who come are–
1. the fact that they come
2. they want to speak with God and shelter in his presence
3. they believe in God’s existence and voluntarily place him high above themselves
“… LORD …” (vss 1, 3, 6, 8, 12)
“… my King and my God …” (vs 2)
“… O God …” (vs 10)
4. they are happy and joyful when protected by God (vs 11)
5. and by inference, they are truthful, not arrogant, and not desirous of harming others (vss 4-10).
C. The unrighteous, as described by the speaker of the psalm–
1. do not please God (vs 4a) and are not welcomed by him (vs 4b)
2. they are arrogant and cannot stand before God, who hates all wrong, including arrogance (vs 5).
3. they tell lies, seek to harm others (bloodthirsty), and are deceitful (vs 6)
4. the Lord, who by inference is honest, loving, and truthful detests them (vs6)
5. they display enmity towards the speaker
6. all their words are untrustworthy, reeking of death, and deceitful (vs 9)
7. their hearts are filled with ill will (malice) toward others (vs 9)
8. they plan intrigues and they rebel against God (vs 9)
9. and their end is to be banished (vs 10).
III. What can we make of all this?
A. If the reader is already on God’s side and knows it, then Psalm 5 gives comfort and encouragement (vss 1-3, 7, 11-12).
B. It seems reasonable to conclude that Jesus Christ is the speaker of this psalm, because only a completely holy and humble one could in honest self-examination speak such stark realities, and, we know that Jesus had many enemies who verbally attacked him on every occasion. What we know of his life, words, and actions corresponds well with the portrait of the psalmist given here.
C. If the reader is not on God’s side and knows it, most likely Psalm 5 would add fuel to an already angry fire.
D. If the reader has academic interest only, there might not be a personal response.
IV. My Personal Takeaway
Love for God is a gift from God (Ephesians 2:8-10). Fear of God is a gift from God (Proverbs 9:10). The very best action in life that anyone can ever take is to approach God in order to ask his forgiveness and blessing. A first step is to approach God and ask him, period. What are the questions? God, do you exist? God, do you see me? A second step is to approach God with personal statements that summarize current heart conditions (confession) and combine those with a request. To request from God is to express humility before him. For example, “God, do you exist? I don’t see you, I don’t hear you, you are not real to me, but I want you. Please show yourself to me in a way that I can see, hear, and understand.” Another example, “God, right now I hate you. But I’m not satisfied with this condition. Please help me not to hate you.” Or, “God, I don’t believe in you, but if you are real, I want to know that. Please take away the hatred in my heart that I have towards you, so that I may see you.” There are endless possibilities, but one final example, “God, I think that I am righteous. What do you say?”
V. Conclusion
As I read Psalm 5, I see two kinds of people: 1) there are those who want an all-powerful, good God, and 2) there are those who don’t want such a God. In life, we ourselves cannot classify people as starkly black or white, starkly righteous or unrighteous. Our world is gray. We see so-called bad people doing good things and so-called good people doing bad things. We see all people doing both good things and bad things. This is why we are not to judge others. We can only judge ourselves, and even that judgment may be skewed; our own vision is not to be trusted.
God’s vision is much clearer than ours, and Scripture teaches that God has an exact, x-ray-like vision that makes no mistakes (Hebrews 4:12). If you want God, then go to him; he will not turn you away. If you do not want God, but you want to want him, then go to God and ask him for that. If you hate God, go to him anyway, and just say to him, “Oh all right! Why should I?” If you don’t care about God, then go to him anyway and say, “God, I don’t care about you one way or the other. You are irrelevant to me. But if you want me, here I am. You know where to find me. I’m not helping you in that. But I’m here.” The important thing is to go to God. That right there is how Psalm 5 defines righteousness. God himself does all the rest. If you don’t know how to go to God, then go to God and ask him to show you how you should go to him…and on and on and on.
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (John 3:19-21 ESV)
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Psalm 4: A Peek Inside the Prayer Closet
Psalm 4 is a window into the struggle that is prayer.
1 Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!
2 O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah
3 But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him.
4 Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah
5 Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the LORD.
6 There are many who say, “Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O LORD!”
7 You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.
8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. (Psalm 4 ESV)
This psalm is difficult, as it appears to lack a specific context or specific request to God. The several verses appear disjointed, moving along in a somewhat jumpy manner. What is clear is that the psalmist is struggling and he presents God with his state of urgency.
The prayer opens with intensity that is immediate. The psalmist seems to be in an excited emotional state. He demands of God, “Answer me when I call, O God … hear my prayer!”
The reader can imagine that the psalmist has already been praying repeatedly over time. Time is running out now. “Answer me … !” God has helped the psalmist in the past, and he asks God to help him again (1). And yet, the psalmist acknowledges that for God to hear would be grace on his part. Nevertheless, the psalmist insists, “… hear my prayer!” There is an intimacy with God implied by these insistent requests.
While the speaker is not named, the reader knows from verse 2 that the psalmist is a righteous person. In verse 2 the psalmist speaks of his long-abiding honor, or glory, which his apparent enemies from the human race are turning into shame. That is, they are taking the Lord’s pearls and trampling them underfoot. John Barclay observes the similarity between Psalm 4:2 and Proverbs 1:22, “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?” Such speech befits God alone and God’s Son, his representative on earth. And just as Proverbs 1:23 presents God’s offer of blessing were the scoffers to repent, Psalm 4 holds out an olive branch encouraging repentance in verses 4-5. What greater call to second chances and a rewritten ending than Christ’s cry from the cross, “Father, forgive them … “?
The stability of this seemingly disjointed prayer is God. God in his righteousness is the stability of all the Psalter’s prayers. Prayer is a battleground for the one praying. It’s where the suppliant/worshipper brings an often jumbled set of emotions, turmoil, confusion, hopes, and fear. When the petitioner comes before God in prayer, they open themselves to change. The one praying changes–God does not change. To effect change is the purpose for prayers of supplication. As often as not, it is the one praying who changes, apart from any change to circumstance.
God is the settler in a suppliant’s prayer. Verse 6 is key to understanding the marvelous transaction that occurs in a worshipper’s heart as she bends her knee to the grace of God in earnest prayer. It is God’s light that heals.
Word Study
Verse 6b in the Septuagint, the Bible Jesus would have used, reads differently than the Masoretic, or Hebrew text, printed above. Brenton’s translation of the Septuagint reads, “the light of thy countenance, O Lord, has been manifested towards us.” Notice the change from the Masoretic’s imperative, or second person tense of request, to past tense. This change of tense turns the tide of the prayer from supplication to accomplished encouragement. The speaker’s heart has already been strengthened as he focuses on the light that God has already manifested.
The Orthodox Study Bible goes a step further in its translation of verse 6b (7b LXE), “O Lord, the light of Your face was stamped upon us.” The Greek word for “stamped” is the middle verb ἐσημειώθη, which is of the verb family rendered “sign” in English. The reader will recognize this word from Revelation 12:1 and other verses, “And a great sign appeared in heaven…” John in his Gospel calls the miracles that Jesus performed “signs,” while God calls the rainbow he gave Noah and the act of circumcision he gave Abraham “signs.”
The idea in the Orthodox translation is that the light from God’s face has already shined upon the believer’s face, leaving its indelible imprint, mark, or stamp there. The idea (though not the exact word) is the same as in Ephesians 1:13, “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.” God’s light changes people. We hear this thought again in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” Much of this transformation occurs in prayer.
The believer goes to God in prayer, bringing everything that burdens his or her heart to the God who cares in order that God may shine his light upon both the person and upon the issue. God’s light is what effects change. God’s light transforms the darkness of the human condition into the glory that always accompanies his presence.
Verse 3 of this same psalm confirms the Greek Bible’s interpretation, just presented, “But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him.“ The stamp, seal, imprint, sign, or manifestation of the believer’s having been set apart for God (verse 3) is the light of God’s face upon them (verse 6).
As already mentioned above, although the unbeliever assaults the psalmist in verse 2, verses 4-5 are a call to repentance, a welcoming entreaty to nonbelievers to join in as recipients of God’s manifest blessings. The blessings of verses 3 and 6 wrap themselves around the nonbelievers of verses 4-5. Christ came to save sinners, not to condemn them, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
Verses 7 and 8 close out this short psalm on an entirely different note than its opening in verse 1, “7 You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. 8 In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.” This prayer has accomplished its purpose. Although there are no indications that the psalmist’s circumstances have changed an iota, his heart has made a complete turnaround. God heard and answered the psalmist’s impassioned plea for his divine response. Joy, peace, and rest, both physical and emotional, replace the distress and urgency of the prayer’s opening. This is what coming into God’s presence accomplishes. Yet, prayer is a struggle. It is like wrestling the enemy within one’s own heart, but in the healing light of God’s presence. God’s presence changes everything.
They came to Jesus and woke Him up, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And He got up and rebuked the wind and the surging waves, and they stopped, and it became calm. (Luke 8:24 NAU)
Blessings to you, as we move forward in this prayer study of Psalms together. (On a personal note, please do not think that it is easy for me to comprehend and dig out the treasures of Psalms. This psalm gave me extreme difficulty, as I wrestled with it all week long. And yes, I did pray over it.)
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1 English language does not currently have a neuter pronoun in reference to people. At times it is necessary to use the pronoun “he.” I hope that all the women reading this know and understand that God loves women as much, or even more, if that were possible, than he loves men. The Lord Jesus is a man, but his church, his body, is comprised of men and women, both of whom God welcomes to pray this prayer in Christ’s footsteps. This blog’s author is a woman, who writes these words.
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Psalm 4: Jesus’ Prayer Closet
Do you have a prayer closet?
After you pray your most private prayers, do you then publish them on your favorite social media to share with all the world? Jesus’ Father did. It’s called the Psalter.
Do we ever think how awesome it is that the world has a written record of Jesus’ prayers? What an amazing thing! Whose prayers does the world want to hear more than any other? The prayers of Jesus, of course. And yet Jesus prayed privately, just as he taught his disciples.
“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:5-6 ESV)
And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. (Mark 1:35 ESV)
Nevertheless, the private prayers of Jesus, and often God’s personal responses to these, are preserved as prophecies centuries before they occurred in human, real time. The Psalter, popularly known as the songbook of the church, is also the church’s book of Jesus’ prayers. We pray the psalms because Jesus prayed them before us.
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Psalm 3: Does God Have Multiple Personalities?
James J. Tissot, ‘David in the Wilderness of Ziph’ (1896-1902) gouache on board, Jewish Museum, New York.
Does God have multiple personalities? Some Psalms speak of God’s blessings upon his faithful, while others describe a God whose face is turned away. Psalms 1 and 2 speak of endless, magnificent blessings for the righteous man and for the King, God’s Son, while in Psalm 3 we see an ardent follower of the Lord, who by definition is righteous (Psalm 1:1-3), surrounded by countless foes in a seemingly hopeless situation (vs. 2). Where are God’s promises now? How can a “blessed” God-follower be having such a hard time?
Gladly for us the Bible is literature, as well as being inspired. All of us can take the rules of common speech we have learned since infancy and apply them towards understanding what God has written for our instruction. God wants the seeker to understand him (Proverbs 1:20-21).
One of the first facets of Psalm 3 lying in plain sight is the change of voice from that of the prior two: “I…I…I…me…my.” Psalm 3 is strongly first person, and the person speaking is neither God nor the glorified Son, as in Psalm 2, nor a neutral narrator, as in Psalm 1. Unlike Psalm 3, Psalms 1 and 2 present the overview to the Psalter, as demonstrated in the two prior posts, the long distance, high-in-the-sky, end-of-the-movie point of view. While Psalms 1 and 2 present the outcome of life as reported from God’s eternal point of view, the human speaker in Psalm 3 has his feet on the ground, running, as it were, heavily pursued by his multitude of enemies. Again, Psalms 1 and 2 are a summary view of the entire story, while Psalm 3 is a snapshot view of a certain moment of time in the psalmist’s life.
Who then is the psalmist?
- Historically, the superscription applies Psalm 3 to King David, when he was fleeing the persecution of his wicked son Absalom (2Sa 15:13-17, 29).
- In a broadly poetic, generic sense, the speaker is every righteous man and every righteous woman.
- Specifically, especially as the believing reader becomes familiar with the ways of the Psalter and the Bible as a whole, the speaker is the righteous man of Psalm 1 and the King, God’s Son, of Psalm 2. (See footnote 1.) What? This is a surprise! “But I thought … blessed!” Yes, until we look more closely at Psalm 2.
1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,
3 “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” (Psalm 2:1-3)
As a whole, Psalm 2 makes so light of the efficacy of the enemies of God–verse 9 describes them as mere, broken pottery–that their role as antagonists diminishes within the bounds of Psalm 2. Their end is destruction, but … their beginning is persecution of the Lord’s Anointed. Psalm 3 gives the reader a view of what that persecution looks like from the vantage of the Lord’s Anointed, Messiah on earth, incarnated, human.
From the point of view of Messiah in real time, God-as-man, the enemies look multitudinous: 1) the word “many” is repeated three times in verses 1 and 2, 2) the enemies are numbered as “many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around,” in verse 6, and 3) the psalmist labels them as “all my enemies” in verse 7. Clearly, the ground level view is very different than the heavenly.
What can we learn from Psalm 3?
Takeaways:
1. God is love. It was God’s love that sent his Son into this battleground. Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32; see also John 3:16)
2. A life of faith is a life of warfare. John 16:33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
3. Faith consistently cries out to the Lord.
4 I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah
7a Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! …
4. Faith lives in the final victory as it struggles through the conflicts of the moments.
3 But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.
5 I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.
6 I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.7b … For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.
5. The final victory of faith is eternal blessing. Psalm 3:8 Salvation belongs to the LORD; your blessing be on your people! Selah
As believers during the various seasons of our lives, we will experience security in the Lord, blessedness, battle, hardship, the attacks of our enemies (which may be the spiritual enemies of lust, anger, addiction, and so forth), crying for help, praise, thanksgiving, and finally, victory in Christ. We can each of us ask where we are in this cyclic continuum. If you are found by Christ still believing in him when you die, then you are a victor. Faith is the victory by which we overcome the world. (1 John 5:4)
Sidebar Tidbit: Notice how the wicked (see footnote 2) are compared to chaff in Psalm 1:4, pieces of broken pottery in Psalm 2:9, and broken teeth in Psalm 3:7.
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1 With reference to Acts 2:30, Matthew Bates writes, “Third, Peter affirms that David, ‘was a prophet’ (2:30), which suggests that the emphasis is on David’s future-oriented words not on David’s own past experiences as a righteous sufferer, making it even more unlikely that we are invited to see David as speaking for himself as a ‘type’ of the future Christ.” (Bates, Matthew. The Birth of the Trinity. Oxford University Press. Oxford: 2016, 154.) The same line of reasoning may be applied to this psalm as well. Jesus’ apostles, such as Peter, were so taken up with the person and resurrection of Christ that David qua David had little significance for them. (So if you don’t find yourself excited about King David, that’s okay–be excited about Christ!)
2 Within the context of these psalms, the wicked are those who willfully and consciously oppose God, oppose his Anointed Son the King, and oppose God’s good way.
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Psalm 2: Blessings to the King, an Apology (Apologia)
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Whereas Psalm 1 blesses the Lord’s generic, faithful follower (Footnote 1), Psalm 2 blesses an identified person–God’s Son the King. Because God guards the path of the righteous (1:6) and rejects those who reject him (1:1, 4-6), the reader must rightfully infer that the King, who receives God’s greatest blessing, is righteous and adheres very closely to God’s way. What does Psalm 2 tell us about this King?
- Verse 2: He is called God’s “Anointed One (Messiah),” and is named alongside God the LORD (Israel’s God, who is named Yahweh. See Genesis 2:4 and Exodus 3:15). Takeaway: Messiah is introduced in Psalm 2, at the very front of the Psalter.
- Verse 3a: The Messiah is fully on God’s team. (When the Pharisees accused Jesus of serving Beelzebul, the prince of demons, they were gravely mistaken. See Matthew 12:23-28.)
- Verses 1-3: The nations of the world take a united stand against God and his Anointed. The world perceives Messiah as its enemy (Messiah is translated “Christ” in the Septuagint (LXX), which is the Greek version of the Old Testament.) The Septuagint asks its readers to pause and think about this awhile. (See 1 John 2:15.)
- Verse 3: Even in the act of rebelling against the Lord and his Anointed, the kings of the world implicitly and vocally acknowledge that God is their ruler. “They say, ‘Let’s tear off the shackles they’ve put on us! Let’s free ourselves from their ropes!'” (Psalm 2:3 NET) Takeaway: What God gives as blessing–the rule of his Anointed One, his Messiah–the world perceives as bondage. Whose perspective is distorted? God’s? or the world’s? Before replying, consider the biblical portrait of Messiah given in the Gospel accounts–the life, words, actions, and crucifixion of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom the gospel writers, and Pilot the Roman governor, identify as Israel’s king. (John 19:19-22.)
- Verse 5: God himself, in direct speech, endorses his King by proclaiming that he personally installed him on Zion, his holy hill.
- Verses 7-9: The King in direct speech repeats God’s decree.
- Verse 7: The King reports that God announced his relationship with his King. The King is God’s Son, and God is the King’s Father.
- Verse 8: God encourages the King to request of him all the nations of earth as his inheritance, and he will do it.
- Verse 9: The King’s rule over the nations will be absolute, powerful, and punitive.
- Verses 10-12: The King permits repentance. The narrator of this dramatic, possibly choral, psalm encourages the worldly kings of the earth to stop their current course of rebellion and wisely to consider. They still have opportunity to serve the LORD God and to kiss the Son (verse 12). Judgment is not now, but future. His wrath is not yet realized and can be averted. Takeaway: The Son will bless all (even former enemies) who take refuge in him. (See Romans 5:10.)
Conclusion and Summary
While Psalm 1 speaks blessing upon God’s loyal followers and judgment upon his enemies, Psalm 2 speaks judgment upon his enemies and blessing upon all, including former enemies, who hide themselves in him. The tone is absolute, as it states the facts of life. There is no room for discussion, nor protest, nor exceptions. God speaks boldly and clearly as though to say, This is the way it is, folks. You can take it or leave it, and I God encourage you to take my offer of peace and blessing through my King the Son. While Psalm 1 appears to be generic (Footnote 1), Psalm 2 is specific.
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1 Even though God’s blessing is to a class of people who are righteous, Scripture teaches that among the human race, “None is righteous, no not one,” (Romans 3:10; Psalm 14:1-3; 53:1-3). Therefore, the only righteous one remaining is God himself, and as concerns humanity, God the Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus became human for the very reason that he would become the righteous human sacrifice to pay the penalty for all people. Such is God’s love and his determination to bring his fallen people back to himself. In Christ God created a way where there had been no way. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6.)
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Psalm 1: If You Eat All That Candy, You’ll Get Worms in Your Stomach
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My dad used to send me out trick-or-treating for Halloween, and then whenever he saw me eating some of my stash, he’d tell me I was going to get worms in my stomach. Go figure…
Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; 21 at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: (Proverbs 1:20-21 ESV)
Every culture teaches its own wisdom either for good or for evil, either freely or for pay. Parents come first to mind within the culture of homes. The American culture generally abounds with offers of wisdom for pay: secrets of obtaining wealth, secrets of losing weight, secrets of building confidence, and so forth. Then there are cultures of evil, which often require initiation rites to test the novice’s loyalty, to exact a payment, or to acquire incriminating evidence to hold over the initiate’s head as a threat if the person decides later to leave. Think fraternities or Oliver Twist or gangs. Movies provide many examples of cultures of crime that exact payment of one sort or another from initiates. God’s culture is different than all these.
Within the Psalter and the Bible as a whole, God claims to be the creator, owner, and ruler of everything. The Psalter offers a culture of wisdom, God’s wisdom, for those desiring to join his team, as it were, or to place themselves under his protection. Psalm 1 teaches wisdom in much the same way as Proverbs 1:20-21, quoted above. There we learn that God’s wisdom exacts no initiation fee from the novice, it is offered to everyone, it is not secretive or hidden, it seeks to give to all, and it presents itself in places where it is likely to be found. In other words, in the body of psalms, God shares his wisdom freely with all. Psalm 1 states in the clearest language possible the simple wisdom of God, the beginning and end of all things human, and how to survive the final judgment.
Think of a mountain high in heaven and picture a spring of clear, cold, fresh, pure water bubbling up from God as its source. The water from the spring forms a stream which flows down the mountain giving water to everything it meets. This is the position of Psalm 1 at the head of the Psalter. It lays the foundation of the psalms and tells the final outcome. Everyone seeking God’s wisdom, the wisdom that leads to a prosperous and fruitful life, should begin here.
These are the principles of Psalm 1:
- God exists and is all-powerful.
- God is good and his path leads to blessing.
- God is just and does not reward those who go against him.
Psalm 1 breathes out Proverbs 1:7–
Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. (ESV)
Psalm 1 is an invitation to enter into the presence of God, to drink deeply from his waters of instruction, and to travel the flow of his river to its final destination of happiness forever. God gives to all who come to him.
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Psalm 1: Headwater to the Psalter
San Andreas Fault. Photo by John Wiley.
There is a plain located on a fault line on the southwestern side of North America, where the Pacific Plate meets the North American Plate. These two plates slide past each other, the Pacific to the north, and the North American to the south. “For years the plates will be locked with no movement at all as they push against one another. Suddenly the built-up strain breaks the rock along the fault, and the plates slip a few feet all at once. The breaking rock sends out waves in all directions, and it is the waves that we feel as earthquakes.” (Lynch, see Bibliography)
A hill rises along the highway at the northwestern end of this plain which lies along the fault line. Visitors can walk up its short but steep incline to a view point and see the entire plain stretched out before them. It’s an exciting and breathtaking view, as various geological features can be noted. Such a view point is Psalm 1 at the head of the Psalter. Psalm 1 in six short verses sketches out the fault line between the blessedly happy righteous person, whom the Lord guards and protects for all eternity, and the wicked, whom the wind blows away like chaff and who ultimately perishes.
Psalm 1 describes real life in condensed form. As we live our lives, we see the righteous and the wicked side by side. Often they seem locked with no apparent movement as they push against one another. The righteous do not seem to be blessed, confer Psalms 22, 31, and 88 among many others, and the wicked apparently prosper, confer Psalms 37 and 73. Suddenly–for us, not for God–the built up strain causes breakage, as in an earthquake, slippage occurs, and the final outcomes for the righteous and the wicked are revealed. The righteous of earth continuously move toward God’s blessings, while the wicked move in the opposite direction. Psalm 1 describes the fault line between these two.
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Primer: How Do I Know That God Is Real?
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How do I know there is a God?
1. God gives us his word that he exists and is good.
…Because God says so. God speaks for himself. We can trust what he says, because he is God.
13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.'” (Exodus 3:13-14, ESV)
5 I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me,
6 that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other.
7 I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things. (Isaiah 45:5-7, ESV)For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the LORD, and there is no other. (Isaiah 45:18, ESV)
And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. (Revelation 21:6, ESV)
2. God gives us his Holy Spirit so that we may know his word is true and meant for us.
…God backs up his word with himself. The Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is God reaching out to us. God shows us he is real and his word is truth through special events in our life and by his keeping us company inside us. The Holy Spirit makes God’s word alive and real in our hearts. He shows us within our hearts that the Bible is God’s word and that it is true. The Holy Spirit shows each person that the words of God are meant for them. He helps each person believe and want God.
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:2, ESV)
139:7 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? (Psalm 139:7, ESV)
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (John 14:26, ESV)
Romans 5:5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5:5, ESV)
One Small Voice 