The Good Life According to Psalm 1
2/23/20261 hr 6 min
Psalms 1 & 2 E1 — The Psalms scroll—Israel’s ancient hymn book—has deeply shaped the worship and prayers of millions of people over several millennia. The first two psalms work together as a unified introduction to the whole collection. Psalm 1 starts with the phrase “How good is life for the man who…” or in most English translations, “Blessed is the man who…” We then find a list of activities to avoid and an instruction to practice daily Scripture meditation. So how does this way of living lead to “the good life”? And what happens to those who follow it—and to those who don’t? In this episode, Jon and Tim start a short series in Psalms 1 and 2 by first meditating on Psalm 1.
FULL SHOW NOTES
For chapter-by-chapter summaries, biblical words, referenced Scriptures, and reflection questions, check out the full show notes for this episode.
CHAPTERS
- The Path of Tragedy (0:00-21:35)
- Becoming Like a Tree (21:35-40:40)
- Standing in the Judgment (40:40-1:06:14)
OFFICIAL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
View this episode’s official transcript.
REFERENCED RESOURCES
- The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter
- Check out Tim’s extensive collection of recommended books here.
SHOW MUSIC
- “Growing Season” by Gas Lab & Guillaume Muschalle
- “New Dae” by El Train & G Mills
- BibleProject theme song by TENTS
SHOW CREDITS
Production of today’s episode is by Lindsey Ponder, producer, and Cooper Peltz, managing producer. Tyler Bailey is our supervising engineer, who also edited today’s episode and provided the sound design and mix. JB Witty writes the show notes. Our host and creative director is Jon Collins, and our lead scholar is Tim Mackie.
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsTim Mackie· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Welcome to BibleProject Podcast. Tim and I wanna start reading the Psalms together, and so today we begin. The Psalms are Israel's hymn book, full of songs that are intended to train our hearts and teach us how to approach God. There are 150 individual psalms. So where do you start? You gotta start with Psalm 1 and 2, 'cause the two distinct poems have been brought together into a unity as an introduction to the whole Psalms scroll. Today, we're starting with Psalm 1. Most translations begin Psalm 1 with the phrase, "Blessed is the man who..." Tim translates it, "How good is life for the man who..." This word ashrei is the Hebrew word underneath Jesus' nine-part opening to the Sermon on the Mount. How good is life for, or how happy is... This is opening with, "Here's an ideal way to be human." Psalm 1 introduces us to a key idea: we're meant to meditate on the Bible and delight in it. We think deeply about that which we find arresting and interesting, fascinating, beautiful, and that's the experience that the good life person has with God's instruction embodied in Scripture. But the poem begins with what the good life is not. It describes a person on a journey towards a