1 Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked, *
nor lingered in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seats of the scornful!
2 Their delight is in the law of Yahweh, *
and they meditate on his law day and night.
3 They are like trees planted by streams of water, bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither; *
everything they do shall prosper.
4 It is not so with the wicked; *
they are like chaff which the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked shall not stand upright when judgment comes, *
nor the sinner in the council of the righteous.
6 For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, *
but the way of the wicked is doomed.
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This is the accompanying Psalm to the Track 2 Old Testament reading selection from Deuteronomy 30. This Psalm 1 reading is found on six occasion in the lectionary cycle, with five of those Sunday services. I have written commentaries about this Psalm 1 lesson when it was part of the Epiphany 6C, earlier this year. I also posed a commentary when it was the reading selection on Easter 7B and Proper 20B. With this the chosen selection for the track 2 path on Proper 18C, only a commentary for it coming up for the Proper 25A Sunday is left. Because I have already posted a verse-by-verse breakdown of the meaning of what David was inspired to sing, I will leave that up to the serious student of Christianity to click on the above links and read what has already been written. I will make the assumption that only serious students of Christianity will read beyond this point, where I will only make comments about how this song of praise fits the warning made by Moses to the true Israelites, prior to them being deemed ready to cross into their ‘Promised Land’ (led by Joshua, following the death of Moses).
The title that my main source for the Hebrew text (BibleHub Interlinear) presents for this Psalm 1 is “The Two Paths.” The NRSV states that as “The Two Ways,” with the NASB stating those “two paths” as “The Righteous and the Wicked Contrasted.” This should be seen in the warning Moses gave to the true Israelites, as the “two ways” are always those taken by a soul in its body of flesh, which is either led by the soul of the Son of Yahweh [righteousness] or led by a soul unmarried to Yahweh [self-ego driven], which is often a soul possessed by a demon spirit.
In verse one, where David sings of the “happiness” that “comes to a soul inhabiting a body of flesh [a man or one of mankind] “ that “happiness cannot be fully realized unless it has the sorrow of a wicked life known, to which a comparison can be made. This means all human beings will know sin, such that being saved from a judgment for sins is a true “blessing” by Yahweh. That “blessing” can only be known through total self-sacrifice to Yahweh in divine marriage, with a test of that total devotion being the waiting period between spiritual engagement and the actual outpouring of Spirit that cleanses a soul of all past sins on the wedding day.
In the Deuteronomy reading, every soul of the true Israelites had proved their devotion to Yahweh and had become His wife-souls. Prior to that day when Moses gave them the warning about the future, that future foretold of a repeating of the past. Every soul that had been saved by divine marriage had previously rebelled against Moses, Aaron and Yahweh, knowing sinful ways and the sorrows that path brought them. Each soul had to individually submit willing to Yahweh – out of love – and spend their time in the wilderness proving their devotion. That proof was learning the lessons of Moses from their parents (who were saved souls), so they could grow in understanding what the Law meant. Thus, each saved soul had children who were like them and wayward, being in need of lessons that they could cling to when their sins brought upon them sorrows. The warnings of Moses was to teach their children as they had been taught, eat the manna from heaven (divine insight for Scriptural lessons), and learn to love Yahweh deeply and spiritually.
Everything then sung by David in Psalm 1 sings of knowledge and personal experience of righteousness and wickedness. One path is where everything a soul needs is provided; and, the other way is where all the material lusts of the world will lead to pains and sufferings. To “meditate on the Laws” of such goods and evils in both “day and night” means to see the truth of one’s Scriptural lessons in the light of truth, as well as in the darkness when Yahweh is absent from one’s soul.
The elements of David singing about the ways of the wicked are then the projection by Moses to the true Israelites that says, “If you enter into the ‘Promised Land’ and see that as being dead earth as your inheritance from Yahweh, then you will “wither” and bear no useful fruit. Your souls and those souls of your children will then be dry and without the everlasting waters that Yahweh provides to those wife-souls of His, who have His Son as the Lord over each of them. Without that inner soul watering, their souls will become like chaff that is as dead as the material realm – blown away as are ashes to ashes.
When David sang of the time when “judgment” will come, that is the path to the true Promised Land – the spiritual realm, one with Yahweh forever. To be judges as wicked – a soul unmarried to Yahweh and unborn as His Son – will be deemed a failure and sent back into the realm of dead matter, in order to try to find commitment to Yahweh in a new body of flesh (reincarnation). Those who sacrifice the lures of Satan and the offers to sell their souls for money, property, influence and power over others on earth, remaining strong in their commitment to the marriage vows (the Covenant), due to the inner strength given them by Jesus’ resurrection, they will be saved [“Jesus” means “YAH Saves”]. They will find eternal peace and happiness the truth of Yahweh’s Promise.