The Function and Form of Psalm 1
Psalm 1
This psalm serves as an introduction, or prologue, to the collection of the Psalms in its final form. It is a teaching, or wisdom, psalm advising the readers to dedicate themselves to the study of the Law of God, the Torah, and warning them of the consequences if they don’t.
The psalm consists of two strophes. The first one (verses 1–3) describes the truly pious person, stating what he refuses to do (verse 1), what he does (verse 2), and then describing him as like a healthy tree (verse 3).
The second strophe (verses 4–6) compares the evil person to chaff, which is blown away by the wind. Such a person will not share the future happiness of the righteous but will instead be destined to destruction.
As suggested in the introduction, “Translating the Psalms,” it will help the translator to see how certain psalms are built up so that the parallelism within verses contributes to the larger structure of the psalm and thus gives shape and meaning to the whole. Unlike some psalms, Psalm 1 is both brief and tightly knit, based as it is on oppositions. These oppositions or contrasts are sharpened forcefully and logically by the use of well-placed markers at the beginning of verses 2a, 4a, 4b, and 5a.
Verse 1 has three parallel lines, an exception to the usual two. The first two lines consist of a metaphor (“walk,” “stand”) used in relation to the general category of “the wicked” and “sinners.” The third line (usually the second) narrows down to the more specific “scoffers.” The happy person is defined as one who does not do as these persons do. The second verse has two positive parallel lines, establishing the first contrast and marked as such. “Delights in the law of the Lord” in line a provides the ground or basis, which is typically followed in line b by the consequence “on his law he meditates.” Having established the contrast, the psalmist turns in verse 3 to a comparison (which will provide the basis for a further contrast). In verse 3 parallelism is not emphasized. The image used is the tree. It is planted in a productive place, fruitful, and dependable. Verse 3 summarizes: “he is prosperous,” which again anticipates the opposite fate of the wicked, to be summarized at the end of verse 6.
In Hebrew verse 4a says “Not so the wicked.” Line b then makes concrete what the suggested opposition is: “but merely chaff which the wind drives away.” Thus the psalmist, using the contrasts of the solidly planted tree and the instability of chaff, poetically heightens the difference between the two kinds of persons. Verse 5 opens as a conclusion to the psalm and returns to the wicked and sinners mentioned in verse 1. Here the parallelism is complete in that in line a “stand [a different verb than in verse 1] in the judgment” is a common expression, whereas in line b “the congregation of the righteous” represents a shifting to a heightened level of vocabulary. It is at this point that the word “righteous” is introduced as a way of speaking about the kind of person who has all along been the focus of attention but until now has never been named. Verse 6 completes the conclusion, in which repeats “the righteous” from line b of the previous verse and contrasts “the way of the righteous” with the “way of the wicked” in line b.
It is instructive to note that a chiastic pattern is developed in verses 5 and 6: wicked, sinners, righteous, righteous, wicked. Furthermore, the psalmist contrasts the syntactic order of the two clauses in verse 6 so that line a has the verb before the object, while in line b the verb is placed at the end. Thus, having established the contrasts, the psalm closes by picking up again “the way” from verse 1b and “the wicked” from verse 1a, and tying the end to the beginning like a loop.
Bratcher, Robert G., and William David Reyburn. A Translator’s Handbook on the Book of Psalms. New York: United Bible Societies, 1991. Print. UBS Handbook Series.
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