In the following article you will find a brief commentary on Psalm 1 that goes along with our Riverside Church Two Year Bible Reading Plan (Volume 1 & Volume 2). This plan will allow you to read the New Testament and Psalms once every year and the Old Testament once every two years.
Introducing the Psalms
For our study in Psalms, I will be sharing longer excerpts from a variety of resources that hopefully readers will find encouraging on their journey through the psalter.
Psalm 1 introduces the whole book of Psalms. First, it is a psalm of faith (3d). This promise of prosperity is not a pledge of good fortune in return for good behavior—the Psalms know life too well for that! (see 42, 73). Rather, just as we continue to say ‘I believe in God the Father Almighty’ yet find that life often seems to deny both his fatherliness and his almightiness, so also v 3 professes a ‘creed’: this world is God’s world and those who side with him will surely and ultimately enjoy blessing (6). Secondly, it is a psalm of commitment: to a distinct lifestyle (1) and to the word of God (2). Indeed ‘distinctiveness’ is the theme around which the poem is structured.[1]
[1] Carson, D. A., France, R. T., Motyer, J. A., & Wenham, G. J. (Eds.). (1994). New Bible commentary: 21st century edition (4th ed., p. 489). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press.
