Psalm 1

Psalm 1

Happy are those

   who do not follow the advice of the wicked,

or take the path that sinners tread,

   or sit in the seat of scoffers;

but their delight is in the law of the Lord,

   and on his law they meditate day and night.

They are like trees

   planted by streams of water,

which yield their fruit in its season,

   and their leaves do not wither.

In all that they do, they prosper.

The wicked are not so,

   but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgement,

   nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;

for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,

   but the way of the wicked will perish.

The Psalter Reading for this past Sunday in the New Revised Common Lectionary (NRCL) is Psalm 1.  It is a delightful text and is worthy of our meditation. 

When I ponder this text, one of the questions I ask is, “Why is this Psalm 1?  It is not that it is unworthy of a place of prominence.  But I simply wonder, “Why this one.”  Now, I know that this text has occupied this particular position for a thousand years and more.  I have no point of contention or dispute over its right to be here.  I just wonder, “Why this one?” 

If you think of the entire body of The Psalter, you see texts that we know simply by reference.  All you have to say is “Psalm 23,” and the entirety of “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,” floods over you in its entirety.  You might say the same thing about Psalm 51 (a Psalm of repentance) or Psalm 100 (Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth…).

One might observe that Psalm 119 is the lengthiest Psalm.  The reader might also remember that the 117^th Psalm is the briefest poem in the collection. 

We remember that Jesus quoted Psalm 22 (My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?)  and Psalm 31 (Father, into your hands I commend my spirit!) from the cross.

The first text in a 150-psalm collection sets the tone for all the rest.  It cannot possible embody all of the emotions and experience of the entire Psalter.  But, it of necessity carries an appropriate tone as it introduces all that is to follow.

There is a fiction in The United Methodist Church that the Charles Wesley hymn “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing” has been the initial hymn in all Methodist hymn-books since the beginning.  This is not true.  There have been a few – not many, but a few – Methodist song books where this song was not the first.  The most recent is The Methodist Hymnal of 1935, which had “Holy, Holy, Holy” as its first hymn-text.  This is to say that “O for a Thousand Tongues” set the tone for all that was to follow in most of the Methodist song-books throughout the church's history.  For a denomination that transmitted its theology largely through the content of its hymns, the initial hymn carries a lot of freight.

So, Psalm 1 is an admirable choice for the beginning of the Psalter.  In a simple – but never simplistic – fashion, it speaks of blessing, of communion with God, and of the reward of righteousness.  These themes and their antitheses are the subject of much that is to follow. 

Good choice!