Footnotes

1. Psalm 1:1 These first two psalms are regarded as a preface to the entire Psalter. Collections of psalms that were originally different were gradually regrouped to comprise the Psalter as we have it; the psalms attributed to David (3–41 and 51–72), the songs of Ascents (120–134), and the chants of the Hallel (105–107, 111–118, 135–150) constitute the most remarkable of these primary collections. But as presently arranged in our Bible, the Book of Psalms is divided like the Pentateuch (the first five Books of the Bible that are called the Law) into five unequal parts, each of which ends with a formula of acclamation.
2. Psalm 1:1 At the entrance to the collection of the Psalms, we are immediately placed before a life-choice: God or nothingness. This option imposes itself on us throughout all the pages of the Bible. In the historical accounts, law codes, prophecies, prayers, and meditative texts, a line of division is set forth. It distinguishes between righteousness and impiety, self-reliance and faith, good and evil, wickedness and love. The words are varied and the experiences are numerous in order to bear witness to this rupture.
   They mark a division between peoples, between individuals, and between the acts and projects of our lives. Appearances may produce change and daily contradict the faithful’s overly naive dreams about prosperity; however, one fact remains: a life of righteousness and truth is a path of happiness, a path to God, whereas those who deaden their conscience for their own ends have no other future but ruin.
   Every time a reader prays a psalm, he or she is forced to choose between the “two ways” (see Deut 30:15; Prov 4:18f; Jer 21:8), the difference between which is underscored by Jesus (see Mt 7:13; 25). The righteous are blessed for they are separated from sin, Bible-centered, and prosperous. Unlike them are the wicked who are doomed to judgment.
3. Psalm 1:1 The Psalter begins by declaring the blessedness of the righteous (v. 1) and concludes by summoning all creation to praise God in heaven and on earth (Ps 150). Human beings are made for happiness, and the revealed moral law is oriented toward that happiness. Blessed: the happy state of life in fellowship with God, revering him and obeying his laws (see Pss 94:12; 112:1; 119:1f; 128:1; Prov 29:18). Scoffers: those who reject God and his law (see Prov 1:10-19).