Psalms : Volume 1 (Baker Commentary on the Old Testament)

Psalms 1-41

John Goldingay, Longman, Tremper III, Tremper III Longman

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2006
• Print ISBN: 9780801027031
• eBook ISBN: 9781441205315
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

In this first volume of a three-volume commentary on the book of Psalms, John Goldingay, a creative and respected Old Testament scholar, considers literary, historical, and grammatical dimensions of the text as well as theological implications. Goldingay writes with a scholar's eye and a pastor's heart. The resulting commentary will bring the Psalms to life for a new generation of pastors and students.

In addition to the commentary on Psalms 1-41, this volume contains Goldingay's introduction to the entire book of Psalms. Also included is an extensive glossary section treating the vocabulary of Psalms 1-41, which notes how certain words are used to convey critical concepts. This is the third volume in the Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms series.

Psalm 1

Promises to Keep in Mind (I)

Translation

1The good fortune of the person who

has not liveda by the plans of the faithless

Or stood in the path of failures

or sat in the seat of mockers!

2Rather, his pleasure lies in Yhwh’s teaching:

he talks about his teaching day and night.

3He becomesb like a tree

planted by water channels,

Which produces its fruit in season,

and its foliage does not wither—

he makes everything that he does thrive.c

4Not so the faithless;

rather, they are like the chaff that a wind blows away.

5Thus the faithless do not stand in the judgment,

nor the failures in the assembly of the faithful.

6Because Yhwh acknowledges the path of the faithful,

but the path of the faithless perishes.

Interpretation

Psalm 1 constitutes an unexpected beginning to a collection of songs and prayers, since it is not itself a song or prayer but a poem commenting on how life works, in such a way as to constitute a promise and an implicit exhortation. As a piece of teaching, it contrasts with the bulk of the Psalter, whereas within Prov. 1–9 it would not have seemed out of place. It does not look as if it was written especially to open the Psalter; perhaps it is a teacher’s poem that has been secondarily utilized in this context.[1] Some of its syntax is that of prose (notably the three occurrences of ʾăšer, “who/which/that”), but its poetic aspect shows itself substantially in its use of imagery and formally in its creative use of parallelism, repetition, and stepped structure.[2]

Specifically, this opening psalm commends attentiveness to Yhwh’s teaching—the word tôrâ comes twice in v. 2. It is often translated “law” (e.g., LXX, NIVI). Elsewhere, “Yhwh’s teaching” can refer to material in the Pentateuch (e.g., 2 Chron. 17:9), and that translation encourages the impression that the psalm refers to meditation on the teaching in Genesis–Deuteronomy, the Torah.[3] Psalm 1 would in fact have made a fine introduction to the Pentateuch or to the teaching that begins in Exodus, though “law” is a misleading term to describe those books as a whole, or even to describe the direct instruction about life that they contain. “Law” suggests requirements a society lays on its members. While Genesis–Deuteronomy includes requirements laid on Israelite society, they are laid by God, not by the society itself. Further, the books also comprise the story of what God has done and how God related to Israel’s first generations and their ancestors. They are not merely instruction on what people should do. To put it another way, “law” suggests something in antithesis to “grace,” whereas Genesis–Deuteronomy does not oppose grace and tôrâ. The word itself does mean “teaching,” not just “law,” and it can thus include story as well as command. As a subject for meditation contrasting with and counteracting the folly of the mockers, this Torah importantly embraces the story of Yhwh’s dealings with Israel as well as the collected instructions of Yhwh. The story shapes people into a community that walks in Yhwh’s way as decisively as do the commands.

But Yhwh’s teaching is not confined to Genesis–Deuteronomy. Indeed, that is more often termed “Moses’s teaching.” The expression “Yhwh’s teaching” is more characteristic of the Psalms (esp. Ps. 119) and the prophets (e.g., Isa. 1:10; Jer. 8:8) and is not at all confined in its reference to material that now appears in Genesis–Deuteronomy. Against the background of the links with Proverbs in v. 1, “teaching” also recalls an emphasis of Proverbs (e.g., 3:1; 7:2; 28:4, 7, 9), though Proverbs never explicitly refers to Yhwh’s teaching; the teaching there is that of father or mother or the scholars.

The fact that elsewhere in the OT tôrâ refers to the teaching of priests, prophets, or scholars again suggests that the psalm implicitly invites meditation on something broader than Yhwh’s commands. The great Torah psalm, Ps. 119, emphasizes Yhwh’s promises as well as Yhwh’s commands, and the teaching about the faithless makes promises as well as offering exhortations (e.g., Prov. 1:8–19). Such teaching presupposes a whole worldview. The same is true of the teaching on which the faithful need to meditate. It comprises promises as well as exhortations, and an alternative whole worldview.

1:1–3. Declarations about the “good fortune” of someone appear frequently in the Psalter, though they generally form part of a poem involving praise or prayer, as one would expect in a book such as the Psalter (Pss. 127 and 128 are the exceptions). This beginning to the first “psalm” immediately establishes a resemblance to poems in Proverbs (e.g., 3:13; 8:32, 34). Indeed, if we allow for the difference in the books’ lengths, the expression is as characteristic of Proverbs as of the Psalms.

---

1The good fortune of the person who

has not lived by the plans of the faithless

Or stood in the path of failures

or sat in the seat of mockers!

---

The expression “the *good fortune of” (ʾašrê) recalls the verb ʾāšar (“go straight”), whether or not these are historically linked; ʾăšûr means “step/walk” (e.g., 17:5). It thus immediately introduces the idea of the walk of life, with which the whole psalm works. The subject of this declaration is hāʾîš, often a term for an individual person;[4] vv. 1–3 refer to such an individual over against a group of faithless. The individual has to stand against the pressure of this crowd, though vv. 5–6 will offer a reminder that this person does not actually stand alone—the explicit references to the “faithful” are plural. “Plans” (ʿēṣâ) is another frequent word in Proverbs and in Job, which urges people to believe that God frustrates the plans of the faithless and not to support such plans (Job 5:13; 10:3; 21:16; 22:18; cf. Ps. 33:10–11).[5] The mockers appear almost exclusively in Proverbs, which often warns readers about their fate (e.g., 1:22; 13:1; 19:29).

The three parallel accounts of the life that will not lead to success progressively heighten the description. They again recall Proverbs, though they also overlap with Deut. 6:7.[6] Each description incorporates a noun prefixed by the preposition bĕ (by/in).

The basic form of wrongdoing involves simply action—“walking” by the advice of the faithless. Worse than that is “standing” (ʿāmad) in the path of moral failures, which implies more than simply taking that path but standing firm in it; the single action has become a way of life. Behind that is “sitting” in the “seat/session/company” of the mockers (cf. 107:32, where môšāb stands in parallelism with qāhāl, “congregation/assembly”). This implies not merely living their way but also taking part in their deliberations as they gather in a dark parody of the gathering of the elders at the city gate.[7] The analysis of the problem thus deepens through v. 1, though this need not imply a narrative progression—as if people first walk, then stand firm, and finally sit down.[8] The sitting might precede the walking and the standing firm.

In the threefold characterization of wrongdoers, the first term, *faithless, is a conventional yet significant one; the faithless are quite prominent in the Psalter and the Wisdom Books. As for the second term, although forms from the root ḥāṭāʾ are also prominent in both contexts, the noun *failures is less so (e.g., Pss. 25:8; 104:35; Prov. 1:10), so that gives some heightening. “Mockers” (lēṣîm) sharpens the point further. These are people who know what they think and do not want anyone telling them otherwise. Meditation on Yhwh’s teaching, or on anything else, is not part of their way of life. “If not the most scandalous of sinners,” they are “the farthest from repentance (Pr. 3:34).”[9] And dwelling or sitting in the company of such people risks becoming immersed in their worldview.

The final parallel sequence (plans, path, home) again turns the screw tighter and tighter. Listening to people formulating plans is one thing. Acting on them is another. Spending one’s life in the company of such schemers is to walk into a marsh from which one is unlikely to emerge.

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2Rather, his pleasure lies in Yhwh’s teaching:

he talks about his teaching day and night.

---

In these two parallel descriptions of the positive alternative the psalm commends, “teaching” appears in both cola, giving it significant emphasis. Both cola incorporate a noun prefixed by the preposition bĕ (in), like the clauses in v. 1, with the positives here contrasting with the negatives there.

Taking “pleasure” (ḥēpeṣ), delighting, in Yhwh’s teaching is the “normal” stance for ordinary, faithful Israelites to take.[10] They thus contrast with mockers, who do not take pleasure in understanding (Prov. 18:2). Psalm 19 will in due course expand on the delightfulness of Yhwh’s tôrâ, and there tôrâ will have more the connotation of direction and command (cf. the delighting of 112:1; 119:35). Insofar as Ps. 1 does have in mind such direction and command, this heightens the paradox of v. 2a. In Christian thinking, pleasure and direction/command do not belong together. Pleasure and teaching do not even belong together. Hans Frei has described a decisive development in modern thought in the following terms: Once, people read the scriptural story and sought to set their own story in its context. Since the eighteenth century we are more inclined to set Scripture’s story in the context of ours. It is our story that provides the criteria for deciding whether the scriptural story is true or relevant. We measure Scripture’s story by ours.[11] The attitude the psalm commends involves delighting in Yhwh’s teaching—especially (we might add) when its story seems irrelevant or it takes a different stance from us. That is the moment when studying Scripture becomes interesting, significant, and important. We then delight in it. The way that delight expresses itself is by *talking about it day and night—in other words, ceaselessly.

In the present context, there is a further and more concrete referent for the word “teaching.” While teaching about the moral life appears in the Psalms, it does not have a central place. The Psalter’s central concern is to teach people to praise, pray, and testify. Perhaps the teaching on which it invites meditation is its own teaching on praise, prayer, and testimony. The faithless, failures, and mockers are people who do not believe in praise, testimony, and prayer. Inevitably, the lives of such people turn out to be unfruitful. The faithful, however, meet together as a congregation to praise, pray, and testify, and there they prove the truth of Ps. 1. Insofar as they spend their time in that way, they discover that they become people of good fortune.[12]

---

3He becomes like a tree

planted by water channels,

Which produces its fruit in season,

and its foliage does not wither—

he makes everything that he does thrive.

---

To put it less prosaically, they find that their lives become fruitful. The image of a well-located tree, planted (perhaps transplanted) by water, is natural and familiar. In a Middle Eastern climate, the long dry season comes when a fruit tree most needs water as its fruit grows to maturity. It therefore needs to be planted near a water supply toward which its roots can reach. “Water channels” could then denote natural streams or irrigation ditches (cf. Prov. 21:1). The opening clause is exactly the same as the first clause in Jer. 17:8 except that the latter lacks the word “channels.” The context in Jer. 17:5–8 spells out the simile, though it applies it to the results of trust in Yhwh rather than of godliness.[13] Ezekiel 17:1–10; 19:10–14 also work with the image, though applying it to the king as someone Yhwh planted. In its context, Jer. 17 may also have political implications.

Over against these, Ps. 1 declares that its principle applies to everyone (cf. the opening hāʾîš, the person), that it makes demands on their ordinary lives, and that its demands concern moral life. Though the “channels” are missing from Jer. 17, they are present in Ps. 46:4 [5]; 65:9 [10], and these l...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• Series Preface
• Author’s Preface
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Psalm 1: Promises to Keep in Mind (I)
• Psalm 2: Promises to Keep in Mind (II)
• Psalm 3: The Question of Deliverance
• Psalm 4: Who Shows Us Good?
• Psalm 5: Responding to Life-Threatening Falsehood (I)
• Psalm 6: Responding to Life-Threatening Falsehood (II)
• Psalm 7: On Trial, in Battle, Hunted
• Psalm 8: Humanity’s Position in Creation
• Psalms 9-10: How to Pray against the Powerful
• Psalm 11: Stay or Flit?
• Psalm 12: Responding to Faithless Triviality
• Psalm 13: How Long, How Long, How Long, How Long?
• Psalm 14: The Scoundrel
• Psalm 15: Qualifications for Staying with God
• Psalm 16: Trust in God for Life
• Psalm 17: Yhwh’s Eyes, Lips, Right Hand, and Face
• Psalm 18: God’s Acts and David’s Acts
• Psalm 19: The Fiery Cosmos and the Encouraging Law
• Psalm 20: A Blessing for the King
• Psalm 21: The Implications of Someone Else’s Deliverance
• Psalm 22: Prayer That Honors Two Sets of Facts
• Psalm 23: God as Our Shepherd and Host
• Psalm 24: Yhwh’s Ownership of the World, Conditions for Approaching Yhwh, Admitting Yhwh to the City
• Psalm 25: The Bases of Prayer from A to Z
• Psalm 26: Prayer and Moral Integrity
• Psalm 27: Prayer Arising out of Testimony
• Psalm 28: Praying for the Punishment of the Faithless
• Psalm 29: The Power of Yhwh’s Voice
• Psalm 30: How to Give Your Testimony
• Psalm 31: When a Prayer Needs to Be Prayed Twice
• Psalm 32: When Suffering Issues from Sin
• Psalm 33: The Creator and the Lord of History
• Psalm 34: Deliverance by Yhwh and Reverence for Yhwh
• Psalm 35: How to Respond to Attack
• Psalm 36: Human Faithlessness and Divine Commitment
• Psalm 37: The Weak Will Take Possession of the Land
• Psalm 38: Suffering and Sin
• Psalm 39: Living in Light of the Fact That We Will Die
• Psalm 40: Testimony Warrants Plea
• Psalm 41: The Good Fortune of the Person Who Thinks
• Psalm 41:13: Coda to Psalms 1-41: Yes, Yes!
• Glossary
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Subject Index
• Author Index
• Index of Scripture and Other Ancient Writings
• Back Cover