Twitter #DailyDeal: get 50% off The Vitality of Worship: A Commentary on the Book of Psalms with code 3397 http://lgs.to/PrcCih
I'm trying to gear up to teach/preach on some Psalms and was wondering if this resource would be useful. Also, if you have any recommendations of your own, they'll be welcomed too.
DAL
I haven't used it yet, but I do have it in my library. Here's what it has to say on Psalm 1, so you can evaluate it yourself:
Psalm 1
The Challenge of the Two Ways
Worship and faith unite, but they also separate. They unite those who appear in the Psalms repeatedly as “the righteous,” but they separate the righteous from “the wicked.” A rich cluster of descriptive words gather round both “the righteous” and “the wicked” in the Psalms, and the meaning to be assigned to the words will vary according to context. One thing, however, must be said at the outset or many of the Psalms will be misunderstood: “the righteous” are not the self-righteous. Essentially they are those who seek to be in the right with God, often humble folk who find their true home in life within the fellowship of God’s people. “The wicked,” by contrast, are those who flout the authority of God and who seek in a variety of ways to oppress or to undermine the people of God.
Psalm 1 is carefully structured to draw attention to this contrast. Verses 1–3 describe the way of the righteous and the consequences which flow from following this way, though the word “righteous” does not occur in these verses. Verses 4–5 describe the consequences which follow from walking in the footsteps of the wicked. The psalm then concludes in verse 6 by sharply contrasting the respective fates of the righteous and the wicked.
Some of the characteristic features of Hebrew poetry are well illustrated in this psalm: the same basic thought repeated in parallel lines and phrases (see verses 1, 2, and 5); the neatly stated contrast in verse 6; and the use of chiasm, where the order of words in the first part of a verse is inverted in the second part to give an ABBA pattern (see verse 2). There remains, however, a basic freedom in the poetry with sometimes three pictures in a verse, sometimes two. There is still considerable discussion about Hebrew poetry, concerning how many stresses or accents make up a unit or line and how these stresses are to be calculated. We shall look at this issue only when different ways of dividing the poetry have implications for our understanding of a psalm.
1–3 The psalm is introduced by the Hebrew word ʾašrê, traditionally translated “blessed.” It is the word which in its Greek form makarios is central to the Beatitudes in Matt. 5:3–12. If we translate, as most modern versions do, “happy,” that leaves us asking what kind of happiness is meant. The word is found most frequently in the wisdom books of the Old Testament. In Proverbs it has close links with that wisdom which leads to responsible and desirable conduct, the fruit of which includes long life, riches, and honor (see Prov. 3:13, 16; 14:21). In the Psalms, however, a strong emphasis is often placed upon the basis for such a happy and rewarding life being in a personal relationship with the living God, a relationship celebrated joyfully in worship since it evokes from people a response of praise and trust (e.g., Ps. 2:11; 65:4; 84:4, 5; 89:15). Here in Psalm 1 the life of a person experiencing such happiness is described both negatively and positively. There is a “no” to be said; “no” to following the advice of the wicked; “no” to conniving with (literally, “standing in the way of”) “sinners,” those who are well wide of the mark in their attitude towards life; “no” to cultivating the company of “scoffers” or cynics. The word translated “scoffers” occurs only here in the Psalms. Its meaning is well illustrated in Prov. 21:24, “The proud, haughty person, named ‘Scoffer,’ acts with arrogant pride.” This is the insolent “Mr. Know-it-all” who accepts no authority other than his own. The spiritual need to say “No” to such people, and the dangers involved in saying it are well explored in C. S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms.
Positively, here is a person whose life centers on “the Law of the Lord,” on the Torah—the five books of Moses, Genesis to Deuteronomy. The Torah is God’s gift to Israel, that story of God’s gracious dealings with his people and the people’s necessary response enshrined in what was to be forever central to Jewish faith. Forget about harsh legalism. In the Psalms the response to the Torah is not that of trying to climb an impossibly high mountain out of a cold sense of duty. God has placed the Torah in the hearts of his faithful people (Ps. 37:31; 40:8). It is central to their happiness (Ps. 94:12), its richness explored in the symphonic poem which is Psalm 119. It elicits an obedience, a way of life gladly given, rooted in “delight,” the fruit of constant meditation. Such meditation probably involved memorizing and reciting the words of the Torah. Such is the basis for human life which is effective and successful. This is spelled out in the picture of the tree planted beside natural flowing streams or an irrigation channel (the Hebrew word in verse 3 can mean either), fruitful and ever green because assured of a constant supply of water. There is a close parallel to this picture in Jer. 17:7–8, where those who trust in the Lord are compared to an ever green, fruitful tree planted beside water. Attempts have been made to draw conclusions about the date of Psalm 1 on the basis of its relation to Jeremiah 17. It is doubtful, however, whether we need assume any link for what is, after all, a fairly natural simile.
But what kind of success in life is implied in the words “In all that they do, they prosper” (v. 3)? Joshua 1:8, which linguistically has many points of contact with Ps. 1:2–3, poses the issue. There Joshua is commanded to meditate on the book of the Law day and night and to act in accordance with its instructions. “For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful.” Such success is then spelled out in tangible, this-worldly terms—crossing the Jordan, defeating Israel’s enemies, and settling in the promised land. So it is in many of the Psalms. The person who fears the Lord and walks in his ways will, according to Psalm 128, be blessed with a large family, his wife “a fruitful vine” (Ps. 128:3). The author of Psalm 37 declares, “I have been young, and am now old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging for bread” (Ps. 37:25).
Psalm 144 depicts the happiness which comes to those whose God is the Lord in terms of healthy children, abundant crops and fertile flocks, national security, and “no cry of distress in our streets” (Ps. 144:12–14). Belief in the link between obedience to God and worldly, material prosperity is widespread in the Old Testament both at a national level (see Deuteronomy) and at a personal level (see the arguments of Job’s friends). No doubt for some in ancient Israel life did follow this script, and there are those who today claim that it still does. But what of the many others whose experience was and is different? Famine, ethnic cleansing, and bloodshed do not distinguish between the innocent and the guilty, or the God-fearing and the godless.
4–6 The problem is intensified by the contrary description of the wicked in verses 4–5. They are no flourishing tree, fruitful and ever green; “but they are like chaff that the wind drives away” (v. 4). How true is this to experience? When one of Job’s friends declares that
the exulting of the wicked is short,
and the joy of the godless is but for a moment (Job 20:5)
Job can only retort:
Why do the wicked live on,
reach old age and grow mighty in power?
Their children are established in their presence,
and their offspring before their eyes.
Their houses are safe from fear,
and no rod of God is upon them. (Job 21:7–9)
Bitterly he asks the question,
How often are they like straw before the wind,
and like chaff that the storm carries away? (Job 21:18)
What then are we to make of the central assertion of Psalm 1, neatly summarized in its concluding words:
The Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked perishes?
1. We may argue that what the psalmist is giving us is a confession of faith, not a description of life. The trouble with this is that the more life’s experiences call into question statements of faith, the more we need to examine and reexamine what we claim to believe. If indeed the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, then
Why, O Lord, do you stand far off?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? (Ps. 10:1)
Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord?
Awake, do not cast us off for ever!
Why do you hide your face?
Why do you forget our affliction and oppression? (Ps. 44:23–24)
If “the way of the wicked perishes,” why is it that the wicked sometimes seem to experience that fullness of life which is called šalôm in Hebrew? Why are they carefree, successful, popular, flinging defiance in God’s face yet amassing wealth (see Psalm 73)? If Psalm 1 provides us with an introductory overture to the entire Psalter, then perhaps it is not surprising that many other psalms seem to enter into dialogue with it, questioning and searching for meaning in the midst of experiences which seem cruelly meaningless. Perhaps it is only those who have struggled with such questions who can fully and honestly join in the great hallelujah chorus in Psalms 148–150.
2. We may argue that the prosperity of the righteous whose life is rooted in the Torah refers not, or not only, to material success but to an inner quality of life which by very definition lies outside the experience of the wicked. Likewise, the judgment which is to befall the wicked points to God’s ultimate verdict on their lives. Thus Calvin, commenting on verses 5–6, declares: “We see now how the prophet considers the ungodly to be miserable, because happiness is the inward good of the conscience. He denies not that before driven to the trial all things go well with them, but he denies that they are happy unless they are sustained by solid and steadfast integrity.” Calvin is driven to this comment because in terms of his own personal experience he was only too well aware that the true worshippers of God often seemed to get no tangible reward in this life, while those whom he regarded as the enemies of true faith often seemed to flourish. The phrase “the wicked will not stand in the judgment” (v. 5) he then takes to refer to a future beyond this present life when God will sit in judgment and pronounce his final, irrevocable verdict. But this seems unlikely, unless one follows M. Dahood in finding frequent references to eternal life and to the final judgment in the Psalms. Rather, verse 5 means that when called to account either by due legal process in society or spiritually by God in the here and now, the wicked have no valid defense. They have no true part in the worshipping community. If the psalmists had been able to call in the next world to redress the balance of the present, they could have eased their problems. But they couldn’t and they didn’t. They had to struggle to make sense of the meaning of life both for the righteous and for the wicked in what they believed to be God’s world.
Although Psalm 1 has many of the features of the wisdom teaching in the Old Testament (e.g., the doctrine of the two ways and the contrast between righteous and wicked), it is not merely a piece of wisdom teaching. It has its setting in the worship of the Israelite-Jewish community, probably after the return from exile. Like all liturgical material, whether hymns or prayers, it was therefore adaptable to meet the needs of different worshipping communities. Not surprisingly, within Christian tradition it has been given a distinctively Christian interpretation. Thus Augustine argued that the person referred to in verse 1 must be none other than Jesus Christ, since no other person comes near to the human perfection implied in the portrait of that person. A hidden Christian spiritual meaning has often been found in other details of the psalm. Thus, for example, a nineteenth-century commentator claims concerning verse 3: “The green foliage is an emblem of faith which converts the water of life of the divine word into sap and strength, and the fruit an emblem of works which gradually ripen and scatter their blessings around” (F. Delitzsch). While some may find such an approach spiritually helpful, it takes us far beyond the original text and seems to have little organic relationship to it. The central claim of Psalm 1, however, and the way in which it is questioned in other psalms, poses a problem as germane to Christian experience and the often tragic world in which we live, as it was and is to the Jewish community. As Christians we need to reflect upon it in the light of the cross and the two words from the cross which are quotations from the Psalms. According to Luke 23:46 the last words of Jesus were “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit,” words taken from Ps. 31:5 and rooted in the conviction that “the Lord watches over the way of the righteous.” If these are the words of the only one whom Christians claim to be wholly righteous, then let us remember that according to the other Gospels (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34) they were preceded in the agony of crucifixion by the opening words of Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” In the midst of faith’s assurance there is often the dark night of the soul, dark precisely because the soul has once known the light of that happiness of which Psalm 1 so confidently speaks. Such happiness has often to be rediscovered and affirmed anew in the midst of what seems to be darkness.
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As for other resources to check out, I would highly recommend The Psalms as Christian Worship: A Historical Commentary by Bruce Waltke and James Houston, two former professors of mine. It doesn't cover every psalm, only some selected ones (1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 15, 16, 19, 22, 23, 51, 110, 139), but the ones it does cover it covers amazingly well, bringing in commentary from church fathers and other classical sources (e.g., John Calvin), doing a thorough exegesis, and teaching you a lot about how the psalms work in general. Very much worth the price. Here's the chapter on Psalm 1: 5050.PsalmsAsChristianWorship-excerpt.docx
A sequel, which is due out at the end of this month in print, will cover psalms of lament: The Psalms as Christian Lament. Hopefully Logos will get that one soon too.
Thanks Rosie! I didn't go with it, because I have a few commentaries that can help me to prepare. I do have one question, though, do you own the Encountering the Book of Psalms volume? If so, how is it? Thanks!
I have it, but don't have time to review it for you. It does appear to be rather thin on the individual psalms, but has more general information about the context of the psalms, the structure of the whole book, etc:
Here's the entire Table of Contents:
Logos Bible Software @Logos 2h Twitter #DailyDeal: get 50% off The Vitality of Worship: A Commentary on the Book of Psalms with code 3397 http://lgs.to/PrcCih I'm trying to gear up to teach/preach on some Psalms and was wondering if this resource would be useful. Also, if you have any recommendations of your own, they'll be welcomed too. DAL
Seemed like a good price on a substantial volume on Psalms - so I went for it! I'm starting a class on Psalms for my MABTS in a few weeks' time, so I hope this will be useful.
Bruggemann also had a few volumes on Psalms I picked up in March Madness, but I haven't read them yet so can't comment on them: http://www.logosmarchmadness.com/2014/round-1-deals/#Brueggemann
