17 norman whybray reading the psalms as a book

17 Norman Whybray, Reading the Psalms as a Book (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996), 39.
18 Michael Lefebvre, “On His Law He Meditates’: What Is Psalm 1 Introducing?” Journal for the Study of
the Old Testament (2016): 444.
19 Walter Brueggemann, “Bounded by Obedience and Praise: The Psalms as Canon,” JSOT 50 (1991): 64.
20 Michael Lefebvre, “On His Law He Meditates’: What Is Psalm 1 Introducing?” Journal for the Study of
the Old Testament (2016): 446.

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healthy. The law of God is his nourishment. No mention is given of other needs that this tree may
have. It seems the emphasis and unwavering focus is on the law of God, that if one obeys it, it is
enough to bring stability and prosperity to an individual.
When it comes to the wicked, the Psalter vehemently declares that the wicked do not
come close to this imagery. Instead the wicked are like withered leaves or chaff. As opposed to
the righteous man who was likened to a tree, the wicked man is like chaff which is blown away
by the wind. Implicitly, the psalter is making a claim that the wicked man is unstable. His center
cannot hold as it is on a shaky ground.
The outcome of the two people is given in verse 5 and 6. It is interesting to note that the
wicked man began in verse 1 walking, standing and sitting in the assembly of sinners but here he
is unable to stand in the judgement nor the assembly of the righteous. The wicked person cannot
stand in the assembly of sinners and stand in the assembly of the righteous at the same time. He
had chosen the assembly of the wicked and thus by default forfeited the assembly of the
righteous. The law of noncontradiction states that two opposing views cannot be true at the same
time.
21
One has to be right and the other wrong. As such is the case, the Psalter deliberately picks
the man that delights in the law of the Lord to be the right one by making his destiny look
blissful. He is protected and the presence of God is with him. He has life. The wicked man on the
other hand has no future, only destruction.
22
The description of the journeys of these two people in verse 3 to 6 has a potential to cause
problems to hermeneutics. Does the Psalmist appear to suggest that the righteous man never
22 J. Clinton McCann, Jr, A Theological Introduction to the Book of Psalms: The Psalms as Torah
(Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1993), 13.

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doctrine of suffering. Throughout the Bible God’s people have faced persecution and suffering,
not because of their sins but because they believed in God. The Psalmist could not have been
privy to this. He had seen the righteous going through difficult circumstances. What possibly
then could he be saying? Most likely he is saying there is a dichotomy between good and evil.