I get excited when I find one passage of scripture that’s virtually identical to another written by different authors at different times. In the case of Psalm 1, Jeremiah wrote exactly the same words to warn the nation of Israel. Was he copying the psalmist? I don’t know. But it makes me think that this piece of wisdom is very important.
(6 mins. reading time)
Book Ends
Jeremiah provided an identical piece of wisdom from God to the Jewish people around the time that Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians, the temple was destroyed, and the Jewish nation taken into exile. This took place approximately 500 years after the King David in the reign of King Jeconiah (Jeremiah 17).
5 This is what the Lord says:
“Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans,
who rely on human strength
and turn their hearts away from the Lord.
6 They are like stunted shrubs in the desert,
with no hope for the future.
They will live in the barren wilderness,
in an uninhabited salty land.
7 “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord
and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.
8 They are like trees planted along a riverbank,
with roots that reach deep into the water.
Such trees are not bothered by the heat
or worried by long months of drought.
Their leaves stay green,
and they never stop producing fruit.
9 “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things,
and desperately wicked.
Who really knows how bad it is?
10 But I, the Lord, search all hearts
and examine secret motives.
I give all people their due rewards,
according to what their actions deserve.”
Psalm 1 and Jeremiah 17 both distinguish between the ungodly and godly people using rich agricultural metaphors. While Psalm 1 begins with God’s heart to bless his people, Jeremiah begins by pointing to people’s tendency towards evil beginning with the words “cursed.” The words “blessing” and “cursing” are covenantal language where God made promises to the Jewish people. If they followed his instructions, his promises would be fulfilled. If they rejected his words, his curses would inevitably follow.
Psalm 1 and Jeremiah 17 both end with judgment or the separation of the godly and ungodly. In Jeremiah, by looking at the heart, God distinguished between those who trusted him and those who trusted in themselves. In Psalm 1, it was the fruit of people’s lives which revealed their hearts and their eventual destination at judgment.
heart of the matter
Jeremiah warned that the heart is, “by nature deceitful, incorrigible, and unfathomable in its twisted and perverse behaviour.” 2 Isaiah echoed the sentiment that humans innately go in the opposite direction to God, “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own” (Isaiah 53:6). No one is excluded from this temptation. This warning is intended to remind us to put our reliance on God and not on ourselves. Solomon understood this when he warned, “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life” (Proverbs 4:23).
rise and fall
Like book ends, David’s words of wisdom come at the beginning of Israel’s glory years while Jeremiah’s words coincide with the fall of Jerusalem and exile into Babylon.
Following the wisdom of God, the fledgling monarchy under King David experienced the “blessings” side of the covenant. Rejecting the wisdom of God and following the wisdom of men, King Jeconiah and many of his predecessors experienced the “curses” side of the covenant.
God sent many prophets in between the two kings to turn the nation back to himself, but only a handful listened. Within a few generations of David, namely his grandson Rehoboam, the nation of Israel was well on its way on the path away from God. If it happened that quickly for the nation, and since Isaiah proclaimed that we are all innately bent to evil, what hope is there for people anyway?
The second part of Isaiah 53:6 provides the response, “Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.” God knew our tendency to wander and provided a way back to himself through the redeeming work of Jesus. What has stood out to me as I was writing these posts is how often Psalm 1 pointed ahead to Jesus, who brought us back onto the path of the godly and who shows us the way.
The Path and The Tree
There is rich imagery in the path. By intentionally and regularly putting ourselves in the path of God’s word through meditation, it becomes part of our lives. Like eating bread, meditating is an incremental and daily exercise that keeps us on the path of the godly. Jesus is the bread that we meditate on.
Staying on the godly path is like a vibrant tree. The tree reaches outward and upward while at the same time staying grounded and rooted. We face a choice between fulfilling our potential or denying it. By listening to and acting on Jesus’ words, we become like a well rooted tree planted by streams of water instead of a dead chaff.
Through the connection to Jesus, we experience God’s presence not in doing things (going to the temple) but by becoming individual temples (Jesus living inside of us). This is how we grow fruit. We need the connection to the life-giving source. Without that connection we drift. Without that connection we cannot produce anything of lasting value.
Creations
Psalm 1 brought us face to face with the creator in whose image we were created by presenting us with the choice to stay or stray. That implied that we were created for a purpose – to worship and live for God’s glory and not our own. Jesus summarized God’s instructions to the Israelite nation (Torah) in two great commands: to love and live for God rather than ourselves, and to love and put the needs of others ahead of our own (Matt. 22:37-40). Not only did Jesus summarize the law or teachings of the Torah, he showed people how to walk in it by imitating his example. Jesus is the path.
Head and Heart Collide Paraphrase
If I were to write my own paraphrase for Psalm 1, it would read something like this:
1The intentional, purposeful, and fruitful people don’t hang out with the smooth talking, self-absorbed know-it-alls.
2Instead they chew daily on God’s bread, completely dependent on him for nourishment and growth.
3With the energy from God’s bread, they put down deep roots and continuously spread their purposeful life outwards.
4-5The self-absorbed know-it-alls become purposeless, empty shells blown about by every wind and they end up in the dump outside the city walls.
6But those who eat God’s bread and walk on the Jesus road will arrive at God’s city and party with him forever.
Up Next
How to get lost! My summer adventure of wandering aimlessly in the forest.
Notes:
- D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, G. J. Wenham ed., New Bible Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1994)
- R. Albert Mohler Jr., NIV Grace and Truth Study Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2021)
Head and Heart Collide 