What is something you would not recommend attempting before reading the accompanying instructions or directions? Assembling IKEA furniture? Learning a board game? Taking a new prescription? Operating heavy equipment? Knitting a sweater? Our cats are especially guilty of that last one.

Without following the directions, the process can be very frustrating and can lead to some interesting and unintended results.

(10 mins. reading time)

In the same way, those who have studied the book of Psalms agree that the first two books together provide the main theme that prepare the reader for the rest of the book – the Psalm 1 wisdom of the Torah, and the Psalm 2 promise of the Messianic King. The book of Psalms has been described as a literary sanctuary with Psalms 1 and 2 serving as the entrance to the house. “This is a temple not of stones but of words with Psalms 1 and 2 as a wide entrance portal.”¹

Word Mirrors

There is significant mirroring and parallel of words and themes between Psalms 1 and 2. Clearly, the two psalms were intended to be together.

Psalm 2 mirrors Psalm 1 in several ways. First, in the use of the Hebrew word hagah, the word used for meditate in Psalm 1. The Lion, Mr. Strickland and Silver Chair post explained that hagah was used in Isaiah 31:4 to describe how a lion meditated on its prey, “they purr and growl in anticipation of what will make them more of themselves, strong, lithe, swift.” ² In Psalm 2 hagah is used in a negative sense referring to nations plotting their futile plans. The idea here was murmuring or muttering. While the Psalm 1 person’s meditation grows into a flourishing tree, the Psalm 2 nation’s discontented muttering slowly grows into a resolve for an all-out rebellion against God.³

Second is the use of the word blessed. In today’s culture blessed has lost its weightiness. Next to “amen” it is the most recognized biblical word. But what does it really mean to be blessed? A look at the use of the word blessed in Psalms 1 and 2 provides a good understanding. Psalm 1 celebrated how blessed the person is who meditates on God’s instructions, reading them day and night. Psalm 2 concluded that all those who take refuge in the Messianic King will be blessed. The Hebrew word asre is the word used for blessed in both psalms. The definition of asre is, “a heightened state of happiness and joy, implying very favourable circumstances, often resulting from the kind acts of God.”⁴

Blessed in Psalm 1 referred to flourishing, fruitfulness and abundance – it’s the tree of life planted next to streams of water, always bearing fruit. This image looks back to the Garden of Eden where the word blessed first appeared in the creation story, “Then God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply. Let the fish fill the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth” (Gen. 1:22). The meaning is clear – to enable animal life to flourish and prosper in the domain for which these animals were created. Fullness and flourishing life are the prime indicators of blessing in Psalm 1.⁵

Blessed in Psalm 2 had a slightly different meaning. It referred to security, safety, stability, and protection in a hostile and chaotic environment. Outside the Garden of Eden was wilderness, being a domain not originally intended for humans. This became a hostile environment governed by kings and rulers preparing for battle against God. But God had prepared a place of refuge in the wilderness for those who submit to him. Security, safety and protection from the chaos were the prime indicators of blessing in Psalm 2.

Blessed then is a marker of the good life of God’s abundance and security. The Psalm 1 blessed was connected to the person who adheres to God’s instructions. The Psalm 2 blessed referred to the person who willingly submitted to God’s chosen one. Psalms 1 and 2 looked at the circumstances of a person and said – that’s somebody who’s experiencing the good life! This is what human flourishing looks like – this is the way of life that leads to blessing.⁶

The word plays continued between the two poems. Psalm 1:1 warned against “sitting in the seat of scoffers,” and Psalm 2:4 reassured that God “sits in the heavens.” Psalm 1:1 warned against “joining in with mockers,” and in Psalm 2:4 it is God who mocked the earthly kings. Both poems ended by presenting the reader with two pathways and showing the outcome of each.⁷

Wisdom and the King

Psalm 1 provided us with insight into the purpose of the book – instruction for wisdom – and told us who would profit from reading the book. Psalm 2 provided us with a window into the message of the book – the Messiah’s reign – and told us for whom the book was written. The Messiah is the subject and hero who is celebrated throughout the book.⁸

Like the rest of the Bible, the main theme of Psalms is God establishing his kingdom on earth through his chosen King, Jesus the Messiah. Psalm 1 looked back to the partnership between God and humans in the Garden of Eden. In this garden temple where heaven and earth overlap, humans delighted in God’s wisdom as they partnered with him. It is the tree of life planted next to streams of water. But because humans decided to define good and evil on their own terms, they were exiled from the Garden of Eden. The partnership that was the Garden of Eden was no more. But the story didn’t end there.

After humanity’s foolish rebellion, God made a promise that the seed of the woman would come and defeat evil and restore the world to its original creation and thereby re-establish the overlapping partnership with God. From the Bible Project’s write-up on How to Read the Psalms, “Psalm 2 is about God’s promise that a king would come from the line of David. He is called ‘the Son of God’ and ‘the Messiah’. God appoints him to bring justice on human evil and to restore God’s kingdom and peace over the nations.”⁹

Real to Ideal

The first Psalm painted a portrait of hope about an upright human who delighted in God’s wisdom which was called “torah” or “instruction”. This person was like the tree of life in the garden temple. They eternally blossomed because they were planted in the river of God’s life. That is beautiful, but after humanity’s foolish rebellion, who was this person? The second Psalm answered the question. God’s chosen one, the Messiah, who would come and defeat evil and restore the world.¹⁰ The Psalm 1 flourishing person foreshadowed the Psalm 2 chosen one who is to be enthroned and will bring God’s kingdom to full realization. The wisdom of Psalm 1 is realized in the story of Psalm 2.¹¹

Psalm 1 resonates with the righteous person who loves God’s word and sees it as the path for God’s will being done on earth. Then Psalm 2 introduces the Messiah who is the perfect embodiment of the righteous person in Psalm 1 who brought heaven to earth. The redeemed person looks at the Psalm 1 ideal and realizes that they cannot live up to that goal. No one except for the Psalm 2 Messiah has ever attained that goal. Not David or Solomon or any of the other Old Testament messiahs and heroes attained that ideal.

In-Between

The redeemed person from 2024 lives in the tension of striving to be faithful (Psalm 1) but knowing they cannot attain the ideal of the Messiah (Psalm 2). They live in the reality of Psalm 1½  – somewhere between Psalm 1 and Psalm 2! They are like the Jewish people freed from Egyptian slavery but wandering in the desert waiting to enter the promised land. The tension of Psalm 1½ prepares us for the rest of book. How do we live in the “in-between?” We all find ourselves “in-between” the Genesis Garden of Eden and the heavenly Garden of Eden described in Revelation 22.

The In-Between post described how the Psalms gave us words to navigate the “in-between” – what life ought to be and what we experience. They were written by Jewish poets and songwriters as an expression of their experiences while they lived in their own “in-between” – the 500 years between the glory days of King David and King Solomon and the end of the Babylonian exile.

The poems in the book of Psalms are prayers that walk with us through the full range of the human experience: abandonment to intimacy, distress to well-being, lament to praise, glory to misery, and living between the curse and the promise. David and the Hebrew poets and songwriters of the Psalms gave us language to pray in any situation as they, “offer images and stories that resonate with our lives.”¹²

Psalms 1 and 2 act as the two pillars at the entranceway to a virtual temple. Looking at Psalms 1 and 2, the Bible Project’s How to Read the Psalms summarizes,  “these two poems tell us that the Book of Psalms is designed to be a prayer book of God’s people as they strive to be faithful to the commands of the Torah and as they hope and wait for the future Messianic Kingdom.”¹³ Like an entranceway, Psalms 1 and 2 funnel us into the temple by directing the wisdom of the Torah and the promise of the Messiah to a place where we can take our seat.

I really like Eugene Peterson’s description of how Psalms 1 and 2 prepare us to meet God.

“By means of Psalm 1 we become a tree, putting down roots into the soil and streams of God’s word. By means of Psalm 2 we observe Messiah, God personally involved in this world, often incognito, but here, ruling. Psalm 1 concentrates our energies into listening attention. Psalm 2 expands our vision to take in the messianic revelation. At attention and in adoration, we are ready to pray.”¹⁴

Conclusion

Approaching the rest of the book of Psalms, we enter a temple of words after we pass by the two gateposts of Psalm 1 and Psalm 2.

Psalm 1	Gateway	Psalm 2
Torah		Messiah
Instruction		King
Wisdom		Promise
Delight		Justice
Flourishing		Restoration
Fruitfulness		Security
Abundance		Safety
Pathway		Protection
Attention		Adoration

The next time you read a psalm, see if you notice how the themes of Psalms 1 and 2 materialize.

Here’s an example from Psalm 27:4,

The one thing I ask of the Lord—
    the thing I seek most—
is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
    delighting in the Lord’s perfections
    and meditating in his Temple.

In the last two lines notice the Psalm 1 theme of meditating and delighting. Who is the psalmist delighting in? The perfect Messiah from Psalm 2.

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Up Next

Psalm 24

Notes:

1. Tremper Longman III, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, Psalms (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2014) p35.
2. Eugene Peterson, Answering God: The Psalms as Tools of Prayer (San Fransisco: Happer & Row, 1989) p29.
3. Derek Kidner, Kidner Classic Commentaries – Psalms 1-72 (Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 2008) p66.
4. John R. Kohlenberger III, NIV Exhaustive Concordance Dictionary, Third Edition (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015)
5. NIV Grace and Truth Study Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2021)
6. BibleProject, What does “blessed” mean? (The Beatitudes, Part 1) https://bibleproject.com/podcast/what-does-blessed-mean-beatitudes-pt-1/
7. Bruce K. Waltke and Fred G. Zaspel, How to Read & Understand the Psalms (Wheaton: Crossway, 2023) p19.
8. Bruce K. Waltke and Fred G. Zaspel, p19.
9. Bible Project, How to Read the Psalms https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/psalms
10. Bible Project, How to Read the Psalms
11. T. M. Suffield, https://nuakh.uk/home/the-plot-of-the-psalms/
12. Kathleen Norris, The Cloister Walk quoted in Philip Yancey, The Bible Jesus Read (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999) p113.
13. Bible Project, How to Read the Psalms
14. Eugene Peterson, p32.