Oxford Bible Commentary

Psalm 1   The first two psalms lack titles, which is unusual in Book 1 of the Psalter, and it is probable that they provide an introduction to the whole book of Psalms. Whether they originally formed a single psalm is very doubtful, however, in spite of an ancient Jewish saying that the first psalm begins and ends with a beatitude (v. 1 and  2:11). A few manuscripts of Acts 13:33 refer to Ps 2 as the ‘first’ psalm, which suggests that among some Christians either the two psalms were combined or they knew of texts which began with the present Ps 2. Certainly it seems likely that Ps 1 was placed here after Book 1 or  the entire Psalter was completed.

It is similar to Ps 19:7–14 and  119 in its delight in the ‘law’, and probably is post-exilic. Whether it is correctly termed a ‘wisdom’ psalm, and whether it was intended for use in the cult are both uncertain. Perhaps it is best understood as a poem to encourage faithfulness to the religion of the Torah. Although often described as ‘The Two Ways’ (cf. v. 6) its tone is set by the initial, ‘Happy are those...’. The poet is convinced that the way of goodness is an attractive way, and it would be wrong to regard it as presenting a moralistic religion in which goodness is pursued for reward.

The structure is clear: vv. 1–3 describe the righteous, closing with the simile of a tree planted beside an irrigation canal, a comparison found in ancient Egypt and in pictures from the ancient Middle East. Although the phrases in v. 1 might ascend to a climax (‘walk’, ‘stand’, ‘sit’; ‘wicked’, ‘sinners’, ‘scoffers’) they may be simple poetic parallels. If the psalm is post-exilic, the reference to the ‘law’ may be to the written Pentateuch. The picture is of the pious reader speaking the words of the law half aloud until they become part of his being, rather than of silent and passive meditation. The point of the tree simile is that it flourishes, not that the fruit is a ‘reward’, despite the last line of v. 3, which speaks of the prosperity of the good man.

The wicked are described more briefly in vv. 4–5: the godly man is described in detail; the side glance at the wicked is but to light up the blessing of his life by contrast. The picture is of winnowing the corn, throwing it up into the air after it has been threshed by a flail or a threshing sledge, so that the wind will blow away the straw and the husks and allow the heavier grains to fall to the ground. v. 5 is uncertain. Most translations render the verbs as futures, although they do not differ from the form of many of the verbs earlier in the psalm, implying that the judgement is a future judgement by God. Some early Christian commentators saw a reference to the resurrection by translating the verb as ‘rise up’, perhaps influenced by the LXX. Since the general OT belief was that the dead went to Sheol and remained there (see ps g.13), this is unlikely unless the psalm were very late indeed. The reference appears to be to day-by-day judgements either by the elders in the gate, or possibly by God himself, and continues the description of the two types of people. This would form a better parallel to ‘nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous’. The verb translated ‘watches over’ in v. 6 is ‘knows’, with the sense of ‘takes care of’: other psalmists and the writer of Job will have to question whether life is always as simple as this.

 John Barton and John Muddiman, eds., Oxford Bible Commentary (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), Job 42:1.

As you can see it used to be available for LOGOS users... I received a CDROM with my copy of  OBC and called into Logos and unlocked it. This was also sold as a CDROM stand alone. Now LOGOS never sold the CDROM. I believe if you found a NEW CDROM It could be unlocked to your Logos account. Now I am not 100% sure why Logos was never able to get distribution rights for this work or why it never became available when they added in the large amount of OUP works a few years back.

-Dan

PS: I should also mention IF you do get a copy because of it's age and status it will not be able to use it on mobile, also as you might note above... there are errors since the database thinks this selection from Psalms is actually from Job 42:1 meaning it doesn't always come up on the passage guide.

I searched OBC CD-ROM but couldn't find  . . .let's know if anyone of you could find it. Thanks !

I bought a brand new sealed copy of the OBC on Amazon some years ago for $10!  It was here, but there are none currently available.

Denise said:

I still enjoy OBC. Doesn't mince words. I was curious about Logosland back then.   The IVP Essentials also remains a star.

http://www.bmsoftware.com/logoslibrary.htm 

Note the Chistian History Interactive .. a couple decades ahead of Faithlife. I'd think that'd be a nice interactive (unless I missed it).

Wow, that link sure brought back memories!

DAL