1. Psalm 1 as the preface

From today, we commence the series of reflection on Psalm as Sunday service and the Bible study classes lecture. The book consists of 150 poems of various themes. Some poems praise God and give thanks to. Some others are prayers written under difficulties in seeking God’s mercy. Today’s reading portion is the first poem. It is the introduction which states the standing point of the whole book. Contents of Psalm represent the full range of Israel’s faith: Those who love God will be blessed and those who do not will vanish. The writer of the first poem commences his lyrics ; - Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.(Psalm1:1)

The blessed man is defined in negative form “does not,” who opposes “the wicked, sinners or mockers.” Then the sentence of the following verse changes into affirmative ; - But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.((Psalm1:2)

The law of the LORD is ”וּבְתוֹרָתוֹ” in Hebrew, which indicates “Torah.” According to Jewish morality, those who respect Torah by reading it aloud every day are blessed. Then the poet continues ; - He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.(Psalm1:3)

Palestine is a very dry region so the supply of water is crucial for life of all creatures. Therefore the poet said the man was awarded for his righteousness with abundance of precious water. “A tree” might be a palm tree which symbolizes prosperity of the faithful man. However the poet recognized that in reality the society won’t give back necessarily desirable results to the good. The poem should be the compiler of Psalm and knew very well that the book contained also lamenting poems. Those who wrote sorrowful poems might be suffering from injustice of the earthy word.

Indeed, we admit that the wicked enjoy often prosperity whereas the good suffer from unfairness or misfortune. For example, Psalm 73 is showing the case ; - For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills. Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence.From their callous hearts comes iniquity ; the wicked conceits of their minds know no limits. They scoff, and speak with malice; in their arrogance they threaten oppression.Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth. Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance. They say, “How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge? “This is what the wicked are like— always carefree, they increase in wealth.(Psalm 73:3-12)

But the compiler declared that those who love God would flourish after all, beyond earthy pains. He praised humans who “won’t walk in the counsel of the wicked.” He was sure that they deserved happiness.

Then the theme was developed ; - Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.(Psalm 1: 4-5)

After the harvest, farmers took kernels off from hard shells. In ancient time, they beat grains to throw up in the air. Then, the wind blew chaffs away and kernels fell down back into containers. “Chaff” is a metaphor of the wicked who are void and worthless even though they enjoy temporal life. Therefore they will not stand in the judgment, said the poet. The Bible teaches that all humans will be judged on the last day of the world. So the poet sings the wicked who go against God’s will must be destroyed on that judgement. And he concludes the poem this way ; - For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1:6)

Even if the wicked live happily and the good are suffering bad luck or injustice for certain time, God will condemn and adjust unfairness ultimately. Thus the wicked cannot survive for longtime. The song is the witness of the poet to God who is the absolute righteousness.

*1 Psalm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psalm
*2 Hebrew & English Psalm 1:1-6 in (with listening service) http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt2601.htm

2. Psalm cannot give the salvation

The first poem of Psalm emphasizes the gap between lives of the righteous and of the wicked. The poet wrote, ‘a tree planted by streams’ and ‘chaff blown away by the wind’ as their allusions respectively. His way of thinking was based on the theory of causality which correlates humans’ acts with the result. The theory represents also a wish largely shared by peoples. We want to believe that the good will be awarded and the wicked will be severely punished.

For that reason the proverb, “We reap what we sow” is very popular. We hope naturally that efforts will be rewarded. General morality of this modern society is still based on that thinking. However Mr. Tukimoto Akio, a Japanese scholar of Old testament said that definition of good and wicked was not absolute, but relative. He think all judgements rely on different points of view. As a result, any human cannot determine what is definitely good or wicked. “Being good” for certain persons might be “being wicked” for others. Happiness and unhappiness are likewise. And in such a fuzzy world, the dualism of good and wicked might be dangerous because it can justify biased judgement. For example, a person like Job, who was faithful but suffered from absurd pains*1, should be condemned as the wicked by the society due to his sufferings. Moreover we easily think that the same principle would be applied also in the afterlife. The majority of people prefer to think that we will be compensated in accordance with each one’s conduct. ” *2

In contrast, The Bible teaches us not to take whatever as results of personal behaviors because it is God who determines them. God’s will realizes the absolute justice as the ultimate goal for humans. As we saw till now, the life of the good doesn’t always seem happier than that of the wicked. We must accept the fact and remain courageous to seek the righteousness in the same time, regardless of present adversities. Such a way of living represents the authentic happiness, says the Bible.

Yet, we see the boundary of the poet’s point of view. Because he still places the good against the wicked in dualistic schema. But nobody can be perfectly good. Certain poems of Psalm reveals that ; - The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.(Psalm 14:2-3)

All humans have a dark hole in heart, the original sin, as Paul said ; - “For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:22-24)

It is true that Psalm 1 is a great poem but it is incapable to save sinful humans from perdition.

*1 Job http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Job_(Biblical_figure)
*2 [Faith and thinking of Psalm] by Tukimoto Akio ISBN¡§4-400-12741-9 (in Japanese)

3. From Psalm to The Good News

We chose Matthew 5:3-5 as todays’ invocation verses; - “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

The verses are from the Sermon on the Mount *1. Psalm 1 begins with the word ‘Blessed’, ‘¦Ì¦Á¦Ê¦Á¦Ñ¦É¦Ïς’ in Septuagint *2, which also means happy. And the opening word of the Sermon on the Mount is ‘¦Ì¦Á¦Ê¦Á¦Ñ¦É¦Ïς’ too.
It is obvious that Jesus gave the Sermon by referring to Psalm 1 which must be well known by the surrounding crowd.

Regardless of eras, humans want to be happy. So did the people who came to Jesus. Many wanted to be cured from longterm diseases and others sought to be free from extreme poverty or shortage of daily food. Some might look for assuagement of depression. All of them were sure that they could be happy if they gat rid of those burdens. But Jesus said to them that they were already happy just because of sufferings. Jesus taught that their unhappiness and sufferings were the blessing.

Normally they didn’t understand at all what Jesus meant. It was impossible for them to accept poverty or illness as blessing. Why did Jesus said that those unfortunate people were already blessed ?

Jesus didn’t ignore misery of the poor and the sick. Therefore, despite all, he declared to those miserable people ; - “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."(Luke 4:18-19)

He blessed thus desperate persons, then open to them the path to happiness by laying his own life down through the Passion and the Cross. Peter witnessed to that as one of the Apostles; - He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.(1Peter 2:24)

The world of Old testament didn’t know Jesus. Therefore the people in that era were looking for hope by believing that God would bless the good and punished the wicked. Those who struggled against difficulties by trusting in mercy God encourage other unhappy persons. They showed their bravery through acts.

However that faith was not necessarily be reflected in the real world. Persons who observed the law and sang hymns unceasingly were praised in the time of Psalm. But, in such a society, the law turned into a yoke. Difference of capability of observing the law generated a social split. Those who could respect strictly the law blamed and look down others. The weak who didn’t have enough determination were condemned as sinners. They were disparaged and called ”עַם־הָאָרֶץ (am haares),” which means “People of the land” in Hebrew*3. But just into the very fissure Jesus arrived and took the part of disdained and segregated persons in the society.

Jesus said that the kingdom of God was for those unfortunate people. And he blamed in contrast the law teachers and Pharisees who were complacent of their faith in the parable of different behaviors of the two sons toward their father(see Matthew 21:28 ~) ; - “I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him. (see Matthew 21:31-32)

Jesus recognized the limit of the Old Testament which relied on the law. So he tried to spread blessings with mercy and forgiveness, which must go beyond the old world. Thus the Psalm 1 was sublimated by Jesus into the Sermon on the Mount, or the Good News. Mr. Mizuno Genzoh was a Japanese christian poet. He had been totally paralyzed from a severe fever in childhood. He could move by himself eyes alone. Apparently his life was miserable. But he arrived successfully to create poems with his mother’s aid. She wrote down signals of his movement of eyelids and eyeballs . He said in one of his poems that without suffering, love of God could not be revealed. He learned that humans would recognize God’s love through pains.

He lived in a world in which illness and disability altered into blessing. What we really need is authentic happiness God accords, beyond sickness or poverty. Cure of diseases or material wealth are not so important. When we open ears to the Good News, any difficulties change into blessing. Jesus gave the very promise through the Sermon on the Mount, which prevail strongly over Psalm 1. We, as christians, must be perfectly happy because the Son of God embraces us!

*1 The Sermon on the Mount http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sermon_on_the_Mount
*2 Septuagint http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuagint
*3 people of the land http://www.bible.gen.nz/amos/history/people.htm