My Introduction to Psalm 1

(I will have my notes on this psalm posted later today. Here is the introduction)
This is a psalm of instruction concerning good and evil, setting before us life and death, the blessing and the curse, that we may take the right way which leads to happiness and avoid that which will certainly end in our misery and ruin. The different character and condition of godly people and wicked people, those that serve God and those that serve him not, is here plainly stated in a few words; so that every man, if he will be faithful to himself, may here see his own face and then read his own doom. That division of the children of men into saints and sinners, righteous and unrighteous, the children of God and the children of the wicked one, as it is ancient, ever since the struggle began between sin and grace, the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, so it is lasting, and will survive all other divisions and subdivisions of men into high and low, rich and poor, bond and free; for by this men’s everlasting state will be determined, and the distinction will last as long as heaven and hell. This psalm shows us, 1) The holiness and happiness of a godly man (v. 1-3). 2) The sinfulness and misery of a wicked man (v. 4, 5). 3) The ground

and reason of both (v. 6). Whoever collected the psalms of David (probably it was Ezra) with good reason put this psalm first, as a preface to the rest, because it is absolutely necessary to the acceptance of our devotions that we be righteous before God (for it is only the prayer of the upright that is his delight), and therefore that we be right in our notions of blessedness and in our choice of the way that leads to it. Those are not fit to put up good prayers who do not walk in good ways. (From the MATTHEW HENRY BIBLE COMMENTARY: PSALMS, CH 1)

This psalm is usually classified as a wsdom psalm inasmuch as it contains characteristics common to that genre. These include macarisms (i.e. blessed or happy sayings); extoling of the Torah; two-ways teaching (i.e. contrasting the actions and/or fate of the just and wicked); and acroustic structure (i.e. alphabetic structure).

The psalm can be easily devided into four parts (note that the three part structure given above is more generally accepted):

A) Vss 1-3. These verses focus on the just man. Vs 1 defines the just man by way of negation, detailing what the just man is not. Vs 2 looks at the just man in a positve fashion by describing something a just man does. Vs 3 applies a descriptive image of the just man.

B) Vs 4 Focus upon the wicked and applies a descriptive image of them.

C) Vs 5 Gives the consequences of the differences that exist between the just and the wicked.

D) Vs 6 The ultimate reason for these consequences.