Author: Alexander Belyakov
Blessed is the man who does not go into the assembly of the wicked, does not stand in the way of sinners, and does not sit in the assembly of reprobates,
but in the law of the Lord is his will,
and on His law he meditates day and night!
Although small in volume, this psalm plays in St. Writing a unique role. Being the first in the book of prayers, the psalm itself is not a prayer in the proper sense of the word: the prayers in the Psalter begin with the second psalm. In the Acts of the Apostles 13:33, a quote from the second psalm is quoted with the instruction – “just as it is written in the second psalm”. However, in a fifth-century New Testament manuscript, and also in Origen, it is assumed that in this passage the psalm is called the first and not the second, in any case, we can still safely consider Psalm 1 as not belonging to the book of prayers and praises (ie the Psalter), and as an introduction to it. In such an introduction, the way in which a person will be able to enter a state in which, according to the psalmist, prayers and praises to the Lord God can be performed must be revealed. In modern parlance, the psalm should be seen as an exposition of the methodology of proper prayer. We, as if we will not find another place in St. A scripture where not the prayer itself is given, but the approach to it (cf. the New Testament teaching and testimony about prayer in Matt. 6:5-8). He who is interested not only in the performance on the formal side, but also in the experiences during the prayer communion with God and in the soul forces that move the prayer, must hear the testimony of the Holy Scriptures about this.
In order to clarify the psalmist’s system of understandings and ideas, we must delve into the specifics of his language and style, the associations and metaphors that arise in him. Only in this way will we get a sense of his way of thinking and his inner intentions when writing the first psalm.
The Hebrew text of the psalm differs slightly from the Greek translation, but it is clearly preferable to work with the original Hebrew biblical text because the translator was from a different era. The Hebrew original does not indicate that the psalm belongs to David, even more so, considering that the inscriptions to the psalms were composed later than the psalms themselves with a view to their liturgical use in the cult of Solomon’s temple. So we will refer to the author of this psalm as a “psalmist”.
No one needs to be made clear that good is good and evil is bad for man. The phrase “blessed man” in the psalm sounds like an invitation to accept bliss or a call to seek bliss. The psalm is a means that points the way to bliss. The feeling of bliss will accompany the person and will testify to him that he is walking on the right path and not “following the advice of the dishonest”, that he “does not stand in the assembly of corrupters”. Of all the variety of directions in life, he, the righteous one, will prefer the bliss of approaching God and of all the variety of goals in this world – the attainment of mutual communication with Him. Beatitude is an approach to the life of God, thanks to communication with Him, and it gives a person the wisdom to see the way of the wicked, which leads to distance from God and union with the wicked spirits opposed to the Lord from the world of dark and evil forces. The wicked turns to man with a word-counsel, which carries within itself sin and leads away from the truth. If a person accepts the advice, he himself commits the same crime as the evil counselor (the devil in the New Testament is called the “father of lies and murderer” because he gave deceitful advice to Eve and thus caused the entire human race to fall into sin). And if a person falls under the influence of such advice in the path of sinners, he follows it and already sins independently and becomes guilty before the Lord. Why should a piece of advice be so terrible to the lot of man? For a man is not an immutable essence, but on the contrary, if a counsel changes the constitution of his soul, the mood of his soul becomes the way of his life or acquires the character of sinners and finally begins to spread its influence – seduction into sin and vice and to his neighbors around him.
In the first verse, the wrong path is described as a succession of evil deeds that are done on that path, not even as a description of the development during the vicious state, viewed as a malignant disease with its characteristic symptoms. Here the light of truth illuminates this disease from within, making it possible to see the causes that drive the progression of the disease, the deterioration of the sufferer, the forces of the process that turn a person into a wicked person, through a sinner to a depraved (the worst form of the fall). Therefore, the law of the Lord, the Word of God, a person must place in his entire being, to fulfill his entire psychophysical being, and he alone will be able to remain in agreement with God, in adequate communion with Him.
The path that leads to true bliss passes through the change of a person in the direction of a final decision to live with God according to His will. At the same time, the active direction of a person seeks to be in harmony with the direction indicated by the Lord Himself. A person carefully and consciously accepts the Word of God, transforms his nature according to it. In the Sacrament of Communion today in the St. Orthodox Church we have real communication with God. The first psalm reveals to us that the singing of psalms is part of communion with God. As man’s heart is open to God’s Word, so God’s ear is open to man’s prayer when it is sincerely and properly offered.
The way of life described in the second verse is presented as a stage of perceiving the Word of God. In the third verse, the character acquired by man is likened to the growth of the tree, which not only grows, but is cultivated in a garden: it is specially planted, its watering regulated, and thus guaranteed the life-giving moisture without which it would perish. If in the first verse the character of man is presented against the background of his conflict with God (cf. “sinners”), in the third verse man is the tree for which the gardener takes care, i.e. does not remain without God and is nourished by Him. Just as moisture flows into the tissue of a tree, so also a person takes the Word of God and keeps it in his living soul, precisely because it animates it. Just as water gives life and transforms into fruit, so the Word of God does not leave man empty, but accomplishes in him what the Lord has always instructed him to do – “Be holy, as the Lord your God is holy.” In this place, the psalmist amazes us with the power of his speech, describing the tree’s life processes, he does not seem to contemplate a tree, but experiences this beneficial process in himself. There follows a slight transition from the description of the tree to the description directly of the man: and in all that he does he will succeed. Man is partaker of eternal life if he keeps his life and that of others from the deadly sting of sin.
Unlike the tree that bears fruit, there are also plants that wither – the chaff is a remnant of the grain (fruit), useless to anyone, devoid of life. And if the corrupters calmly sit in their places and from them create the perversion of the truth, then this situation is only in this world, until the time when the wind of God’s breath will appear, and since there is no righteousness and truth in them, they will not withstand the current of this wind and they will be scattered, so that only the purified fruit will remain – the righteous. The inward power will become outward and manifest to everyone at the coming of the Lord. Then the Life-Giver God will reveal the difference between the corrupt nature of the wicked and the gracious nature of those who will receive bliss. Only then will it become clear to everyone that the life of sinners is originally alien to the Lord. On the Day of God’s Judgment, the Spirit of God will collect the good fruits – the righteous, and scatter the wicked (“ruach”, in the ancient Hebrew language “spirit”, can also be translated as wind) as a wind of purification.
The path of the righteous in the stage of natural change is seen as reaching union with God. This union took place thanks to the cooperation of the two wills: the will of the farmer, who planted the tree and watered it with the water of life, and the will of the tree, which craved the moisture and received it with the consciousness of bringing fruit to the gardener. This unity is expressed in the fact that the righteous do not run away from the face of God, from God’s presence, they endure the Terrible Judgment of God, which is humiliation for the wicked, but fruitful for the followers of God’s will. Those who walk on the right path live according to the laws of God-likeness, the righteous have true knowledge of God, and the knowledge of God and the pursuit of perfection are the driving forces for Christians.
Source: “First Psalm”, “Orthodox Way” magazine, 1990 (in Russian).
