They are the product of the Semitic mind of 3,000 years ago. They reflect a social, tribal, agricultural life completely different from ours. The mind of a feudal age with wars, and kings, and their armies, and their triumphalisms, and with their hatreds and curses as essential ingredients. Seen in the light of Christ even, and of the spirit of the new covenant of universal love, they are unable to become an adequate expression not only of the modern, but not even of our Christian mind. Now, these criticisms should by no means be ignored or taken lightly. Unfortunately, they remain usually in the fog of generalities, or they take offense at one or the other expression, very often taken out of the context, even without regard to other

[01:12]

much more numerous sentences that express exactly the opposite of the attitudes one criticizes so severely and attributes rashly to the Psalms in general. As a result, the Psalter that essentially is meant to be a bond of unity and immediate The other expression, very often taken out of the context, even without regard to other, much more numerous sentences, that express exactly the opposite of the attitudes one criticizes so severely and attributes rashly to the Psalms in general. As a result, the Psalter that essentially is meant to be a bond of unity and a means to unite all things, races, nations, history, rich and poor, old and young, men and women, friend and enemy, past, present and future, a means of universal reconciliation and peace, has become a stumbling block and a source of frictions.

[02:36]

The worst thing we could do in order to deal with this situation would be to remain in generalities, like, I don't get anything out of the Psalms, or I simply don't understand them. Instead, we have to get down to particulars, I mean to the text itself. taking it word by word, and then build our judgment on realities. Goethe invites in his Dichtung und Wahrheit, Poetry and Truth, the critics who complain that they are unable to understand his poems by telling them, and who complains that he does not understand me, should first learn to read better. We accept this challenge. We kindle the candles, get our Bibles, and open them at the first psalm.

[03:41]

May the Holy Spirit open our hearts, give us humility and patience, and let us now read the first psalm, and it might be good then if I first tell you some of the first reactions that people have at such a first hearing of the psalm. Or maybe I'll read first to you the psalm in the translation of Guardini in the book that I mentioned before. Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And on his law he shall meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit in due season.

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And his leaf shall not fall off, and all whatsoever he shall do shall prosper. Not so the wicked, not so. But like the chaff which the wind drives from the face of the Therefore the wicked shall not rise again in judgment, nor sinners in the counsel of the just. For the Lord knoweth the way of the just, and the way of the wicked shall perish. Some time ago I read this psalm with some students and asked them to give their first reactions to the text. Those who spoke up pointed out as it gave them the impression of self-righteousness of one who refuses to associate with the sinners. They found that this attitude was directly opposed to the attitude of Christ, who sat down with the sinners at table, who allowed Mary Magdalene anoint his feet, and they themselves were eager to do the same.

[05:55]

and to go out to those who are not respected by society to help them and to show their respect for them as human persons. Was there not also a strong note of the unreal wishful thinking in this psalm, where the just and holy one is represented as living in plenty and enjoying his peace? The conclusion was that they found it difficult, if not impossible, to pray this psalm because one could not do so without identifying oneself with the holy ones who leave the sinners to their fate. One sees right away that while the attitudes and motives expressed by the students are good, they have in fact misunderstood its meaning because they did not really read the text of the psalm as it stands.

[06:58]

The reason for this is partly that the translation, also the one that Bardini proposes, does not square too well with the Hebrew original. Let me give you some examples. Blessed is the man, it says. It does not say, I am the blessed man who does not walk according to the counsel of the sinners. This psalm really is not a psalm in the sense of a personal prayer addressed to God by me. It is a, in German one would say, weissheitsspruch, a logion. We use the Greek expression. In English perhaps a saying, or better, a wisdom poem, because we are dealing here with a highly poetical, artistically formed text. But it is truly a preface to the Psalter, a head for the whole, stating a universal as well as a final truth.

[08:04]

It is the fruit of a general meditation before God and conceived in the light of God's wisdom, but is not a personal confession of any kind, rather a statement opposing or contrasting the happiness of one who finds his delight in the Word of God with those who don't. It says that he is happy. Guardini says, blessed, and this is the older English version of the biblical text. The Hebrew ashray is a plural form indicating the fullness of blessing or happiness, but beside that the Hebrew form is a verb form, a participle, and equals the English word thriving. the German Gedient. One could also say prospering.

[09:09]

It is not something merely emotional or expressing only a subjective feeling. Happy for this reason does not really hit the point, but flattens the expression and brings it too close to the banal or the cheap happiness of the many. The Hebrew word contains the notion of progress, of an unfolding, of growth, but of a growth that moves toward complete fulfillment, such as a member of the chosen people can only reach in union with God. But because the word means a development towards this goal, it does not exclude suffering and calamity on the way. Also for this reason it would have been better to retain the older form, blessed, because that keeps the connotation of fulfillment to be reached through life-giving sufferings.

[10:16]

So, blessed is the man, any man, who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence. There are mainly two considerations that arise immediately before this text. The first, that the one man is in contrast to a great variety of sinners. A variety, however, which does not make too much sense in the translation as it stands. Guardini translated from the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Roman Church. If we take the Hebrew terms and their literal meaning, we get three different species of sinners. The first, the ungodly, are those

[11:20]

with counsel, that means deliberately, intentionally, consider themselves above the law. They are not only ungodly but godless. They want complete independence. They decide for themselves what is good and what is not. They lack the fear of the Lord, which is, according to the Old Testament, the beginning of all wisdom. They are rebels. The second group, in the translation called sinners, a word which really is just a pleonasm and as such meaningless, because the godless are sinners too. Again, the Hebrew expression expresses a different nuance or sort of sinners, those who do not sin with a high hand, as the Old Testament said when speaking about the first group.

[12:30]

These sinners sin out of a superficial, frivolous attitude, or out of forgetfulness and weakness. They are opportunists, or also drifters. They take the way of least resistance. Inertia is at the bottom of their way. They lack the inner weight that could give consistency and constancy to their way of life. The third group, here called the chair of pestilence, an expression that could easily lead our imagination into a completely wrong direction without any immediate connection with sin, is again in the Hebrew text a specific and for that matter very dangerous because destructive group of sinners those who scoff and mock at the law of God they might observe it but they make light of it or make fun of it they are skeptics they destroy confidence they have no faith

[13:44]

but they are rather talkers than doers. They sit in their chairs comfortably, sip a glass of cognac or two or three, and in the process their wits sharpen and they feel more and more superior to the rest of the world. Now the second point that is also immediately evident in relation to this text concerns the kind of association with the sinners that the blessed man spurns. It is not a matter of avoiding their presence in space, but a matter of not entering into their mental attitude. The psalm does not say that the good man should never approach them, but that he should not agree with the sinners or follow their ways.

[14:45]

Nor does it say he should look down on them, but he certainly should not look up to. I have dwelt on this at some length, first of all, in order to make it clear whom the Old Testament has in mind when it speaks about sinners. Our 19th century concept of sin is much too much, much too narrow, and dominated too much by the Sixth Commandment. In our days, however, arrogance, conformism, or the wrong kind of human respect, or the general apathy expressed in the word, I couldn't care less, and scoffing, mocking, the tendency to tear down everything that has been done before, Our grim and destructive realities in our days have to lead us into catastrophe and chaos. Our text now develops the positive aspect of the way of the blessed man.

[15:50]

It says, His delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he shall meditate day and night. It belongs to the less fortunate facts in translating and handing down the sacred books that the Hebrew word Torah was translated by law, lex in Latin, nomos in Greek, while in reality it means something quite different. We realize that immediately we consider that the blessed man's attitude towards the law consists in a basic fundamental delight. Now who could say that of the arrogance of the guardless, or the inertia of the sinners, or the biting mockery of the scoffers? These are all born either of hatred or of indifference, and therefore are either bitter or cold, while delight is the sweet and warm reflection in man who is encountering God's agape love in his world.

[17:07]

Indeed, if divine revelation would consist simply in the publication and imposition of an impersonal law on the life of the people, who would study it with delight, and who would feel impelled to meditate on it by night and by day. But this difficulty disappears as soon as we realize that the Hebrew word Torah means instruction, direction, in German, Weisung. The Pentateuch, or the five books of Moses, which formed the Torah, are not a civil code published by a lawgiver. They are instructions of a loving father who tells his children many different stories about their grandfathers and ancestors, about the world around them, and about themselves and their own hearts.

[18:10]

The father speaks his children's language and they lap it all up. They eagerly study it, giving themselves to it. What they receive, in the context of the psalm, is the instruction of Jahweh. Again, we meet this personal name, the revelation of the Absolute Divine I. I am who I am. Or I shall be who I shall be. We are unable to adequately translate what is conveyed by this name. Absolute faithfulness on God's part, asking for absolute trust on man's part. Yahweh is the God of the covenant, and the covenant or pact itself is like a marriage contract between husband and wife, and the Torah is the document that seals it.

[19:12]

The total offering of one's own art or self is the only possible answer to this kind of law, and therefore the good man meditates on it by day and by night. By day, that means he does not forget it over the activities of the day. By night, that means during the time of leisure and of rest. And also during the time of darkness, sickness, calamity or sadness, he meditates on it, he does not forget. And to meditate is the translation of the Hebrew word chagah, an excited, enthusiastic mulling over of such intensity that it spills over into utterances, grunts and shouts. In this way, God's wisdom becomes my whole innermost life. Those expressions which characterize the relation of the good man to God's teachings, to delight, meditate, are expressions of unusual intensity, tenderness, and devotion.

[20:31]

and stand in sharp contrast to the attitudes of pride, carelessness, and scorn that form the attitude of the sinners toward God's wisdom. We see how deliberately the words have been chosen and how easily we miss the point to careless translation or careless reading. And he shall be, so the psalm continues, like a tree which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit in due season. And his leaves shall not fall off, and all whatsoever he shall do shall prosper. The intensive spiritual concentration of the blessed man or the just one on the Torah and the prosperous growth that follows from it is now presented in these sentences in the image of the tree.

[21:33]

It is very remarkable also here the careful choice of words, which emphasizes the contrast which the way of life of the just one presents in comparison with that of the unjust, and makes it clear that the way of the just is not by any means a matter of improvisation, but of careful, deliberate cultivation. The Hebrew term, for example, used here for planting the tree immediately confirms this observation. Planting in the Hebrew sense, corresponding to the Hebrew expression, means the second planting. The transplanting from the nursery stage to the definitive place where the fruit tree is meant to stay and to bring fruit.

[22:36]

This place is carefully chosen, a place watered by carefully handled irrigation at the waters. And again, the Hebrew expression here means carefully planned, planned irrigation. The blessed man draws his spiritual food not simply from the milieu into which he was born. He goes to school and chooses carefully the master and the company, his companions, with whom he is going to pursue his study of the Torah. The latter is the general source of wisdom from which various canals bring the waters into the various places.

[23:38]

Following a carefully planned course of instruction, the just one brings forth his fruit in due time. That means he develops his own personal capability and lets the fruit grow organically and in its time, again in contrast to the way of the revels or of the loafers. His leaves do not fall off. The leaves are that part of the tree through which it establishes, is in contact with the air and with the light. That means, in the case of the Blessed, that he carefully maintains constant full contact with the Spirit in the light of divine revelation, in contrast to the scoffers who waste their time sitting around all day long in the poisoning atmosphere of their own club or gas.

[24:53]

The concluding sentence, and whatever he shall do shall prosper, or better, all that he does he brings to a happy conclusion, is not meant as a sure reward or success in store for everyone who lives according to the law. It expresses rather the fact that the blessed man does not leave the success of his undertakings to chance or luck, but he does all that is in him to reach his goal. A life lived in harmony with God's will which then, through the very nature of God as the absolute goodness, cannot possibly peter out, as does the life of the sinners.

[26:00]

The end, I mean, of the sinners, is characterized in the next verse, Not so the wicked, not so. But like the chap which the wind drives on the faith of the earth, therefore the wicked shall not rise again in judgment, nor sinners in the counsel of the just. Not so the wicked, which means they do not cultivate their lives through careful, intimate, loving contact. with the life-giving instructions of God as a loving Father. Following their own whims, they become like Jah. That means they may have the external shell or husk of the fruit, but not the inner weight, the inner reality or truth or authenticity or genuineness which is derived from God's goodness.

[27:08]

They are at the mercy of the wind, lacking in a direction at work. They have no stability, no roots, and for this reason are unable to stand up under God's judgment. The frivolous ones, those who have in their way of life not followed the Torah out of levity and thoughtlessness, they will not find a place, said in the psalm, in the community of the sadiki, the just one. Those who have, in contrast to the lawless rebels and the thoughtless happy-go-lucky people, in all earnestness and devotion, made the Torah the source and guide of their lives. Now we come to the conclusion of our psalm. For the Lord knows the way of the just, and the way of the wicked shall perish.

[28:14]

God's knowledge of the way of the just is a knowledge of the heart. That means a knowledge combined with fatherly care. The heart of God, His knowledge, His wisdom and care embrace the whole of mankind. and it extends to the end of time. The actions of God's true children, or those who enter with their whole heart and their whole soul and with all their possessions into God's loving intentions, will therefore never be in vain. They are a part of God's kingdom forever. While the way of the sinners Peters out. In German we say, Verläuft sich im Sande. If we now look back on this first psalm, let us remember what we said before about the general meaning of a beginning, that it plays the function of a preface, a foreword, which sums up or contains in the form of a seed what unfolds later in the Book of Psalms itself.

[29:37]

Evidently, what we call here, following the present way of counting the Psalms, the first psalm, differs in character from the other psalms. In fact, one should say that it is not a psalm at all, but rather a blessing. It is in itself a beautiful thing that the Book of Psalms begins with a blessing, and now one has to do justice to the text. a blessing not of a Pharisee, or what we mean when we use that word Pharisee, a man who has lost the spirit and has become a fanatic of the letter of the law, a man who is proud of his own perfect observance and withdraws from the impure rest of mankind. On the contrary, the blessing is addressed to a man whose whole heart is given in love and in joy, Bujave, the God of mercy, the husband of Israel, a man who is like a fruit tree,

[30:41]

planted with care at the ever-running waters, and abounding in fruit, a man who evidently transcends the psychological and moral possibilities of the ordinary human. He is THE man. He is THE just one. THE tree of life. In whom else has this ideal been fulfilled if not in Jesus Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption? It was his fool to do the will of the one who sent him. And the Father sent him to die for us when we were still his enemies. Dying with him in baptism we may live in him and with him like the trees planted at the running waters. And all this that the word of the prophet may be fulfilled, he that glories, let him glory in the Lord. Now we see, and this purpose has been at the head of this book of Psalms, that we may pray them in the blessed one, the risen Savior, who did not shun the sinners, but judged them by becoming sin for them, he who knew no sin.

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