Two Psalms That Sum Up the Hebrew Bible

These are really cool. Show notes now have chapter by chapter summaries, reflection questions for you to dig deeper.

“Every time we reference scripture or look at a biblical word, that's all going to be referenced in the show notes.”

And you can find a link in our episode description. You could also find them in the Bible Project app. Alright, here's the show. Welcome to Bible Project Podcast. Today we're going to do something unique. We're going to spend a whole hour comparing two biblical passages together. Two weeks ago we read someone. Last week we read Psalm 2 today.

We're going to read Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 as if these two poems become something more.

When we read them and light of each other. And reading texts and light of each other is a part of what we mean by meditating on the Bible.

The art of learning how to meditate on scripture means learning how to appreciate every individual little paragraph unto itself. But then also backing up and saying, "Hmm, it was put alongside the thing before it and the thing after it." On purpose. We'll focus on repeated words and repeated ideas shared by those poems. For example, Psalm 1 talks of a man placed by God as a tree by a string. Psalm 2 talks about a king placed by God on a throne. This tree doesn't plant itself. This king doesn't

install himself as the ruler of the world. Both are done by God. Both poems are reflections on the good life.

“And Psalm 1, the good life is meditating on Yahweh's instruction and being known by Yahweh.”

And Psalm 2, the good life is taking refuge in Yahweh's anointed king and giving him your full allegiance.

What the poem calls kissing the sun. Both poems are saying the same thing in two different ways. The way to avoid a life that leads to nothingness or lossiness is both to be known by Yahweh and to kiss the sun. Half a dozen paragraphs in the Gospel of John are leaping to my mind. If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. If you know me, you know the Father. If you kiss the sun, Yahweh knows you. And this is just the beginning. Psalm 1 and 2 sit at a strategic place

in the shape of the Hebrew Bible and they carry key language that's shared with the Torah and prophets. And so in this way, Psalm 1 and 2 become a key to understanding the whole

“of the Hebrew Bible. Let Psalm 1 and 2 really take up space in your mind and you'll find”

all the parts of the Bible coming alive. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. Hey Tim. Hey John, hello. Hello. Hi. We are talking about Psalms. We've been going through Psalms. We went through Psalm 1. And then we went through Psalm 2. Those are both things that we did. And then you said, hey John, did you know? Hmm. Psalm 1 and 2 work together. Yeah. It's like a little couple of it. And also as a little too part poem, they introduce you to,

yeah. The Psalms grow as a whole. Hmm. And they also hyperlink to the entire Bible. Yep. They lay along one of the major divisions of the three parts of the Hebrew Bible. Yeah. And each one of those expanding contexts informs how we think about the meaning of Psalms 1 and 2. Yeah. Yeah. So Psalm 1 is all about what's the good life? Yeah. That's right. Right. Yep. Yeah. And then Psalm 2 is all about like hmm. And what are we going to do with these raging nations? Raging nations spreading violence

on the land. What's got to do in about it? Okay. Those are the two big ideas. Hmm. Somehow those two ideas work together in this chemistry between them. And in that chemistry between them, somehow introduces us not only to the collection of Psalms, but also to how it fits in the world of the whole Bible. That's right. Okay. Yeah. The art of learning how to meditate on scripture. And again, that phrase comes from Psalm 1. Means learning how to appreciate every individual

little paragraph or poem or story unto itself. Okay. But then also backing up and saying hmm, it was put alongside the thing before it and the thing after it on purpose. And then meditating on the thing you're looking at in relationship to what came before or what came after is a part of understanding it's meaning. You don't think of like any time if you get on Google Earth or something you're here little like phone device map and you like zoom in to see your apartment or your house

or something like that. It's your school or whatever. Yeah. And then the moment you zoom out and you see the location of that building you're looking at like with a you know and it's neighborhood.

Hmm zoom out even more. It's that. Okay. Learning the art of that process of meditating

“close up and then at the levels going out is an important skill to develop and learning how to read”

biblical literature. So we're going to do that for Psalms 1 and 2. Great. You'd dive in. Here's

it. All right. So first thing to just notice when you're reading through the Psalms the book of Psalms

has been organized as a patchwork of you know hundreds of individual poems, 150 individual poems. But they've been organized into little bundles, little groupings, little groupings. So learning how Psalms are grouped together, what are the techniques and it's different for Psalms 1 and 2. It's great because Psalm 1 and 2 are set apart by a number of features that link them together. You're saying Psalm 1 and 2 is a grouping. Yeah. It's the first little bundle of poems. It's just

2. Okay. What sets them apart? Well, we're going to say there's a bunch of unique repeated words between these two poems that when you look forward into Psalm 3 or 4, you know, it's different. Those words stopped occurring. So that's one thing. Usually it's repeated words. We'll look at that in a moment. Another thing that's unique if you look to Psalm 1 and Psalm 2, there's no actual like little heading that like a Psalm of David. Exactly. Let's look at Psalm 3 and you can

get the first appearance one of these headings. A Psalm of David when he fled from the presence of

Absalom his son. Okay. That's a good example. It's not really the title of the poem. Mm-hmm. No, that's right. It's not a title. That's a function. But it is giving you a little clue Deer reader read this poem in relationship to this other story found in the prophets. Okay, former prophets. Psalm 4 for the music director with stringed instruments, a Psalm of David. Psalm 5 for the music director with flutes. Mm-hmm. This one needs flutes.

Psalm of David. Psalm 6 for a music director, you know, with stringed instruments on the

“shimminite. Shimminite is the word eight. I think what it means is on an eight stringed instrument.”

Oh. With stringed instruments specifically on the eight string. Okay. A Psalm of David. These are written for specific instruments. Yeah. No, these are little notes from the Levi choir that performed these songs in the temple. Yeah. So a number of these songs comes from David, but then it had a after life in the history of the temple literature. And then had another after life in the Psalms scroll that was shaped in the collection here. Exactly.

So here's the point is you can go through all the Psalms that follow and all accept a very few exceptions that prove the rule, the majority of the poems in all the Psalms that follow have these

little headings. The ones that don't have it are the first two. Mm-hmm. Another little feature

that makes some stand-apart sets someone into a part is that they don't have these little headings. That's one feature. So there's a lot of words between that they share. Mm-hmm. And that's where we're going to look at the real universe. And then also they don't have superscript. Exactly. And all the ones that follow. You got it. Ten two. You got it. Okay. So we read through slowly and as a whole, you know, Psalms one and two. What I want to do is do a reading,

we're going to read them alongside each other. Okay. Both forward and backward. Okay. Or forward and backward. And then as a chaiism. Okay. And this is how this literature is meant to be read. So what we're doing is we'll read the kind of the first stands or a paragraph, someone. Then we'll look at the first couple stands as if Psalm 2. And I'm showing you them in parallel columns. Mm-hmm. We're just literally going to read through them next to each other and notice things.

“Psalm 1. How good is life for the man who doesn't walk by the counsel of the wicked?”

In the path of sinners, he does not stand in the seat of mockers. He does not sit rather in the instruction of Yahweh is his delight and on his instruction, he meditates day and night. Mm-hmm. That's the good life. That's the good life, right? But just things that the good life person does not do. Mm-hmm. And then what they do, based on their delight. Yeah. And then they meditate.

puts him in a place that's just where he gets counsel and input, right? But leads him down wrong path. Mm-hmm. That gets him stuck in a way of thinking of the world that just constantly failing at morally at life. Yeah. To the point where you just become a cynical mocker, guy, well, yep, this is all ridiculous. And I'm above it all. That's the tragedy. Mm-hmm. But the good life in contrast is the one who understands that there is wisdom that comes from Yahweh.

Mm-hmm. And that wisdom or instruction is something you can both meditate on and delight in.

Yeah. You got it. So let's ponder that in a relationship to the first main part of Psalm 2.

Verse 1, 2, 3, which was about the rebel nations. And then verses 4 through 6, which is God's response

“to the rebel nations. So that went. Why do the nations rage and the people's meditate on emptiness?”

There's meditation. So meditate. Mm-hmm. It's the same Hebrew word, Haga. If you look in the Psalms that follow for Haga, it doesn't appear. It's just unique. These Psalms 1 and 2. Okay. So two ways to meditate. Two ways. And whenever you see it repeated word, I'm trying to like open up the hood of the car of reading biblical literature so to speak. What do you do when you notice the repeated word? What should you do?

Comparing contrast. Usually. Yeah. Comparing contrast. So let's contrast Psalm 2. Verse 1.

And then Psalm 1. Verse 2. One verse 2 is meditating on the instruction of Yahweh. Yeah. Delighting in it. That's right. So Yahweh's got things he wants to teach you. And those things become an object of delight. And then you just find yourself. Remember Haga. Meditate means to say out loud to murmur. Repeat quietly to yourself as a way to focus your attention on. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And later in the poem, there's a connection to this

being known by Yahweh. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right. Which is an intimate word of like relational connection.

“You got it. Yeah. So that's what the good life person meditates on. What's beautiful and good”

and true that Yahweh wants to instruct them. What is it that the nations are meditating on?

The emptiness. Yeah. Nothingness. That's funny. That's how we're going to meditate. Empty your mind. In the modern contemporary meaning. This doesn't mean that. This doesn't mean like find some inner Zen. Yeah. You're meditating on destroying other nations. Yeah. And then it's saying that is an actual futile empty. There you go. Conquest. Yeah. So conquering your enemies, dominating and defeating them, and then benefiting from their stuff that you've taken. Yeah.

They're trying to win our life in a different way. Yeah. That's right. They're trying to say meditate. And destroy. Yeah. Let's keep reading verse two. It's interesting. The verse two said the kings of the land take their stand and the rulers take counsel together. Counsel. Counsel. Counsel. Counsel. Counsel. Okay. That's interesting because the good life person of Psalm one doesn't walk by the counsel of the wicked. Different Hebrew words. Oh, okay.

And Psalm one. It's Epsa in Psalm two. It's a verb. Noes do. But they have the same to noes do. Means that you get a group of people together for collective like information and guidance. Okay. Like I don't know what you know. You don't know what I know. Let's get together. Yeah. Well, brainstorm session. Yep. That's right. So there's just synonyms. There's synonyms. Yeah. And then it works this way too. It doesn't have to be the exact word as absolutely as a clue

for you, the reader, to say I need to, you know, hair, contrasting very often. The book of authors will give you one or two like low hanging fruit as a word by exact repeated words. But then they've loaded the bundled sections you're looking at with other ways that link the ideas together.

“So this word counts as a good one. So who is it that is offering counsel in Psalm one?”

It's the wicked and the sinners and the mockers right there. It's sort of like those are the bad guys. Yeah, of the opening of Psalm one. Who are the bad guys of the opening of Psalm two? And you can kind of see the relationship there. The nations, the people, the kings, the rulers. Yeah. Both groups end up perishing on the way by the end of the month. That's right. The poems. Yeah. Both groups, their behavior sets them on the trajectory away from life and goodness.

Okay. In a way from God. And notice how it's real individual terms. There's the good life, person, individual, and then the wicked one and the sinner and the mocker. In Psalm two,

that are destructive to others. I see a way from life. Someone,

focus on the individual. Psalm two focuses on the corporate nature of people. Rebellion. The Psalm one individual, though, does find counsel from people who are leading them astray. Yeah. And this idea of a group of people, conspiring together is a connection. Yeah, too. The rulers and Psalm two are taking counsel together. They take their stand. That's a key word. Yeah, it's true. And that's a symbol of their rebellion against Yahweh

and his anointed one. Ah, and you read that back into Psalm one where

“that person just started standing in the path. And you're just like, why did he stand?”

In the path of sinners. Yeah. Did he just kind of, is he tired? Did he just need a break?

Why did he stop walking and stand? And now when you think of Psalm two, it's like, well, standing is saying, like, okay, I'm, I'm now in rebellion against Yahweh. Yeah. So in Psalm one, standing in the path of sinners shows your alignment with them. And in Psalm two, rebel kings taking their stand together, showing their alignment with each other. Okay. The good life person doesn't join that alliance. The last connection is the opposite of standing, but it's sitting. So in Psalm one,

the good life person doesn't sit in the seat of markers. The seat of markers. The throne of those who think they're above it all. I think they're above it all. Who's really above it all? Psalm two,

“verse four, the one sitting in the skies. Yeah, I'm God. He mocks. Yes, he is mocking. This is”

the word rebel kings, different words, different words, different words, but synonyms. Okay. Yeah, it's late in Psalm one and it's a log in Psalm two. Yeah. So they're both sitting in a seat of mockery. God is sitting in a seat of markers. And I guess you could say he's the only one who really is outside at all to have an accurate take on what is mockable or not. And what's mockable are violent kings who think that they are gods on the land. Yeah. Yeah, because in Psalm one we created

this world of the person who's like, you think I need to take care of the poor? You think I need to love my neighbor? I can just do what I want. And then they're king. The warrior king is just taking that to 11 and just being like, I'm going to just use the layman character. Yeah. So that's that type of mockery, which is then contrasted with the way that yaway mocks, which is just like,

you don't get it. Yeah. You don't get it. Yeah. Okay. So let's pause. All we've done is read the first

paragraph of Psalm one for Stanza and the first dance of Psalm two. And we've noticed the identical words of meditating and of sitting and then of synonyms that is different Hebrew words, but that have similar meaning of counsel, standing and mocking. That's a lot, man. There's a lot packed in there. So this is very typical of how biblical authors do it. Give you a few identical words then that tip to off like, oh, I should just kind of read through both of these slowly and meditate

on their relationship to each other. That was rich, man. Well, that was, that was some good insights

“right there. And that's how this works. Okay. Let's keep going. Keep going. Okay. The middle stands”

of Psalm one, which is verses three and four. Reads like this. He, that is the good life. Person will become like a tree planted by streams of water, which gives its fruit in its time. Its leaf does not wither everything he will do. He makes successful. Not so, the wicked, rather he's like chaff, but the wind drives away. Come. That's the middle of Psalm two. Yeah, the one who delights in y'all is instruction. The image here is someone who

has been planted. They don't decide where they're going to stand the y'all way. Who have the right plants them and plants them near a source of just perpetual life. What you kind of imagine being y'all is wisdom and because of that is fruitful bears fruit, which is like when a tree bears fruit, it's for the benefit of others. So it's like benefiting others. Yeah. And does it in this way that's just full of life, doesn't wither, and we then we meditate on

everything he will do. He makes successful. If you make this an extreme character of someone in full union with y'all way, then yeah, everything is for good. Yeah, that's right.

I guess it was the leafy part that then dries up. And when you harvest the grain,

“then crumbles away. And that's chaff. Yeah, crumbles and then just the wind will blow it away.”

You don't worry about it. It just kind of just goes away. Lifeless. It's died and it's just transitory temporary. Just blows away. Okay. So that's the middle of Psalm 1. Let's look at the middle as a word of Psalm 2, which is verses 7 through 9. And I'll just read or alert. There's no identical repeated Hebrew words. Share with the middle of Psalm 1. So looking at shared ideas.

But the first dance already told me, like, hey, do a reader. There's a lot of payoff. When you compare

these two poems. So even if I don't find repeated identical Hebrew words, I might find repeated synonyms or ideas. So let's read it. So the middle of Psalm 2 was when the king in first person spoke up to us and said, hey, do a reader. Let me tell you the decree, the hour made. He said to me, you are my son. Today I've burst you. Ask of me. I'll give the nations as your inheritance. The ends of the land as your possession. Whoa. Wow. This this king's kitten installed as the

divine son. And he's getting, well, the whole world rule in the world. Yeah, as his inheritance, you will break them. That them refers back to the violent rebel nations and kings from the first part of the poem. You'll break them with a rod of iron, like the vessel of a potter. You will shatter them. Okay. Yeah. I don't see much of a connection. Yeah. So this is so great. Or chaff. Okay. Streams of water. Yeah. So let's go back. What is the first lines? Someone. Good life person is like a

“tree planted by streams of water. And you remember to think that we noticed that if it's planted by”

a stream of water, it's been planted by someone. Yeah. So God planted it by the stream of water.

In a similar way, the middle of Psalm 2, a king is telling us, here's what God did for me.

Or here's what God appointed me to to become the divine son who is the ruler of everything. So you're imagining that the enthrominant of the son is the planting of him. It's like being plant. All I'm saying is both are people who, um, God puts into a situation that they couldn't have done. A tree's don't plant themselves. Yeah. And kings don't, well, actually kings do a point themselves. This king doesn't. This king doesn't. This tree doesn't plant itself. This king doesn't

install himself as the ruler of the world. Both are done by God. That's interesting. Okay.

“Also interesting is that the tree were told as its planted offers fruit and perpetually green leaves.”

And what the king does when he's installed is he used to clear the divine son who's Earthed by God. Does it where? So this is a deep cut. I mean, this is deep hyperlink. But I'm convinced that this is what's going on because it happens all over the Hebrew Bible. Okay. Psalm 1, verse 3, and you're like, hmm, trees that are planted and come up out of the ground because of water

that offer fruit and leaves. Where's the first time that idea? Okay. And the Hebrew Bible.

Day three. Oh. Day three. It's the bonus of day three. Okay. God separates day from night. Oh. One. God separates water from water. Day two. Day three. God separates the land from the seed. Bonus. Day three. Fruit trees are summoned up out of the ground. And then there's this long paragraph about now the fruit has the seed and the seed of the fruit. Yeah. And their fruit trees with all this foliage and their green and it gives it fruit and you're not okay. Cool.

Bonus. Day three. Yeah. We go start into the next try out of creation days. Day four. God puts the lights in the sky to separate day from the night. Yep. Not just matching day one. Day five. God puts the birds in the fish in the waters above and waters below matching day two, matching day two. Day six. God summons land animals to come up out of the ground. Then he appoints humans as the rulers on the land and then he says to them

make fruit. Make more of yourselves and make fruit and rule over the land. That's another little bonus part. Yeah. So the bonus of day six is human to make fruit. Okay. Who rule over?

But the land when it's created gets this little bonus of the trees and the fruit of the

“trees and you just met here and their green leaves. And then you get the day six where the land is”

populated with creatures, the creatures. Yeah. And then particularly the humans and bonus humans. Yeah. And then they're called to make fruit. Make so the trees bear fruit. Putty. And then the humans are called to make fruit on day six. All right. Paga. Okay. And what is human fruit? Bursing in children. Isn't it interesting that someone at its center, the good life persons compared to a tree bearing green leaves and fruit? And Psalm two has as its middle a divine

birding of a divine sun as it were the fruit of the fruit of God. So you might think I'm out to lunch on that one. And that's okay. But the claim you're making is that when these poems were put

into this position of first and second, yeah, that describes and profits, you do they notice this

“or they even like maybe adjusted the length of the language to cement this connection.”

So I'm at this connection. Yep. That's right. Because why again? Because they want you to think about how. Yeah. Psalm one is about how God is bringing life out of the chaos waters and wilderness through speaking his word that summons up fruitful trees out of the ground, creates fruit when there was no fruit. Psalm two is all about God installing rulers and they're called to make fruit and make more themselves. And that's a way of reflecting on what God's up to in Psalm two. But in

Psalm two, this is a very particular son. Mm-hmm. Exactly. In image, singular image of God. Notice in Genesis one, humans are called the image of God. Here in Psalm two, God is installing a son. And son in image are themselves connected ideas in the book of Genesis. To be a son of God is to

“be an image. Yeah. So also, here's another interesting thought connections between the”

middle of Psalm one and two. Everything, the good life person doesn't Psalm one, he makes successful. Yaps liach. You go through and looks through the uses of yaps liach. What it usually means is someone who has had a successful career that generates abundance for themselves and then for their family and for their neighbors to share. It's interesting that the middle of Psalm two is about the divine son who's given the whole world as his inheritance. That's where like

his career future. Okay. Either way. So both are images of success in the abundance that results. Mm-hmm. The abundance in Psalm two is the king inheriting the abundance of all creation, wealth of the nation. The wealth of the nation. Mm-hmm. Okay. In Psalm one, the wicked that are the opposite of the fruitful tree are like chaff. Mm-hmm. You may just blow away. Yeah, which is, you know, dry. Mm-hmm. In the similar way, any rebel nations that want to keep spreading violence on the land,

the son will bring justice and smash them like a potter, a potter's vessel. So dry pottery, both are objects that are dry and brittle. Yeah. It's interesting to compare these two because chaff, you're just like you and a big deal. There's no purpose for chaff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And this goes away. Oh yeah. Pottery. Mm-hmm. It's meant for a purpose. It's meant for a purpose. Yeah. And it's tragic when pottery. When you drop your potter. Yeah, that's horrible. Oh, man. I could write a whole

history of my favorite coffee mugs that I've drawn broken on the floor. You know, you get a cool like handmade one, it's somewhat gift shop one vacation. You're like, oh, you know, and then six months later, you drop it. Oh, so sad. It is sad. Anyway, I get attached to my coffee mugs because

I love my first cup of coffee in the morning. You're also sending kind of clumsy here. This happens

enough that you could write a history of it. Well, okay. I'm being a little generous. I have roommates that drop. Yeah. And a lot of valuable ceramic goods have been dropped in my house. But I like this contrast that you're drawing. It's really cool. Yeah. And in one sense, you could think of the wicked as like, yeah. Well, they've come to nothing. Yeah. Yeah. But in some too, it's like, how tragic when pottery is going to pot. Yeah. It's made for a purpose. People come to roles of

responsibility and they have to chance so that their leadership can fit into a beautiful purpose of God in the world to share God's right. Why is generous rule in the land? And when that gets

passive. Hmm. Yeah. The wind just blows. The wind just takes it away. Mm-hmm. In some too.

“Yeah. Divine sun is going to smash. Yeah. Mm-hmm. That's a significant contrast.”

So notice no repeated words between the middle of someone and the middle of some too. But you can see meaningful relationships that provide cool meditations. Let's look at the end of someone too. Okay. [Music] The end of Psalm 1 reads like this, verse 5 and 6. "Therefore the wicked will not stand up in the judgment nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous ones because Yahweh knows the path of the

righteous but the path of the wicked will perish." So maybe let's just try and summarize that

in our own words real quick. There's going to be a final day of sorting out what really is

someone who lived by the wisdom of Yahweh and created good and what are the people creating chaos and failure. And it's court language. The word wicked actually comes from the language of ancient

“Israel's courts. You need to be guilty or in the wrong. That's interesting. And to be righteous”

means you're declared to be in the right. And then the word judgment is that word justice. Man, it feels like we could have a better word than the wicked then. It just means the the one in the wrong. Ah, in a courtroom setting. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah. We could go to a number of passages in Exodus or Deuteronomy in the prophets and you've got a figure called the judge, the chauffate. And he makes a declaration and there's the Russia, the one in the wrong, and then there's the

study, the one in the right, the righteous and the wicked. So the one in the wrong will not stand in the judgment. Mm-hmm. You did it wrong. Yeah. Yeah. Man, you your whole life was a series of decisions that was set on a trajectory and led to a result that just produced a lot of sadness and hurt in the world. It's not what God made humans for. It's in the wrong. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

“No one's whole life is ever that way. Sure. Okay. No, so now we're back to the fact that someone”

is a form of ancient wisdom and structure. It is create that character of the person who imagine their whole life. Okay. Yeah. So as a characterization, there's someone who's their whole life is led to Jeff. Yeah. In that final judgment moment. There's an ultimate sword. Yeah. That's not it.

That's not the way to be human. Never was. And so you're on the wrong side. First is the right side.

Mm-hmm. There will be an assembly of people to be heard right. Yeah. For six comes along and uses a non-court from kind of metaphor to make the same point like that. Mm-hmm. Yeah, we know is the path. Yeah. So there's a way to walk the path of life. Mm-hmm. That's united with the knowledge of God. Mm-hmm. Because it's always path. Yeah, we know it because that's how we always. Mm-hmm. Walks. Yeah. That's where. Mm-hmm. That's the path of being the tree. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Which trees don't walk paths. But... Yeah. Yeah. Right. So there's one type of path. The other path is the path of the wicked and that is a path that will perish. Yeah. Well, perish. That is come to nothing. Mm-hmm. Come to lostness. Yep. Okay. All right. That's the end of someone. The end of someone too. And now, O King's be wise. Show discernment. Be warned judges of the land. Serve Yahweh with fear. Rejoice with trembling. Kiss the sun. Lesty become angry. And you

perish in the path. For his anger burns hot in an instant. How good is life? For those who take refuge in him. Mm-hmm. So the path. There's the parashing in the path. Yeah. Like a real clear. Yep. Hyperlars. Unique phrase. Hebrew or data. In the verb avad. Mm-hmm. It's only used right here in these soup homes next to each other. You can go onward into the Psalms and you're going to have to go a long ways before these words occur again. Mm-hmm. So these are unique phrases.

And so let's draw these two moments of parashing in the path together in our minds. There are one is a person and someone. Yeah. It's the more individualized picture. Yeah. And this person's standing for the judgment and the judgment is the path you walked. It is just a path that leads to nothing. Mm-hmm. Leeds to ruin. Mm-hmm. You've reached the end of it. Yep. You've reached the ruin. Yeah. And it's not Yahweh's path. Because Yahweh has a path. Mm-hmm.

That leads to the life and fruit and all that. And that's the path of the righteous.

who are in rebellion. The raging kings are brought up again. And unless they kiss the sun that is

“honor the sun as their authority, they will perish in the path. Mm-hmm. So similar phrase”

recognizing the divine sun as your authority and guide. That's put on parallel to knowing Yahweh. Yeah, it is. Yeah, that's right. And Psalm 1 when you're on the path, Yahweh knows you. Mm-hmm. Those are paths. Mm-hmm. Is a unity there. Mm-hmm. That's put in parallel of.

Wow, that's a great lesson. I've never noticed that. Mm-hmm. That, like,

half a dozen paragraphs in the Gospel of John are leaping to my mind. How you relate to me? It's how you relate to the one who sent me. Jesus says that, like, 10 times in the Gospel of John. Mm-hmm. If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. If you know me, you know the Father. Mm-hmm. If you kiss the sun, Yahweh knows you. Yeah, that's cool. That's cool. That's really interesting. Yeah. So, um, the way to avoid a life that leads to nothingness or lossiness

“is both to be known by Yahweh and to kiss the sun. That's how you avoid perishing in the path.”

Yeah, there you go. Now, all of a sudden though, I come to the last line of Psalm 2, how good is life for those who take refuge in Him? Yeah, Psalm 1 begins with how good is life. It begins. It's Psalm 2 ends with how good is life. Yes. It's like obviously we got to think of these. Yeah. It's connected. So somebody wants me to read Psalm 1 and 2 as a unit, not just by linking them in forward parallelism. Mm-hmm. Look, we just read through

Psalm 1 and 2 next week, each other, part of my part. Yeah. And there's a lot of action going on. Yeah. A lot of invitations to meditate and just in case you missed it. You get this bonus line

at the end of verse 12 that matches the uniquely the first word of Psalm 1 as if it's a little

book end. Yeah. Yeah. So the good life of Psalm 1 is meditating on Torah that leads you to avoid destructive ways of life that perish in the path and lead you to Yahweh's instruction that

“plants you like a tree. Psalm 2, the good life is for people who recognize the sun as their authority.”

And then what they find is instead of being their like cruel overlord, what he is is their refuge and protector, the end of Psalm 2. Yeah. So Psalm 1 is primarily working in the Eden language and imagery of Genesis kind of 1 through 3. Every human sits before their own tree if knowing good and bad, you have a decision to make. Will you trust God's command? Right? How about the instruction of Yahweh? The instruction of Yahweh and one leads to the tree of life,

the other leads to being blown out into exile where you return to the dust. Yeah. That's kind of Psalm 1. One leads to not just eating of the tree of life, becoming a tree of life, becoming a tree of life. It's a great wild. It's great. Yeah. Psalm 2 comes along and it's more taking its language and imagery from the stories of the prophets, with the former prophets, specifically the story of David,

who set up capital in Jerusalem. And then God made a promise to David, second Samuel 7,

a seed will come from you. I will be a father to him and he will be my son, he'll rule forever and ever, and oppressor nations won't disturb my people anymore. And I'm going to plant them in Jerusalem. So it itself has like eating echoes. Psalm 2 comes along and works within that story world. But it's very similar because God's word to David of the promise of a king forces the rebel kings of the world to give up their violence and reckon with the messianic

kings of their authority. Yeah. That's the hope. That's the hope. That's the decision put in front of the kings in Psalm 2. The decision put in front of the reader in Psalm 1 is which passed, do I want to take the path that leads to exile and death or the path that leads to becoming a tree of life? Psalm 1 seems to be written to just the normal person. Everyone's going to walk the path of life. Everyone has to make calls which are good and bad. You can do it in a way

that's united with the wisdom of Yahweh and become a tree of life. Yeah. In Psalm 1 every reader of the poem gets to be like an Adam and Eve with your chance at the tree. Yeah. Psalm 2 is like there's this very small crew of violent warrior kings just making a mess with the world. But they

That actually, they don't. They don't. They don't. They're accountable to someone greater than them. Yeah. And they have their own counsel of wickedness and their raging and God's kind of had enough with them. And they need to acknowledge who's truly in charge, which is Yahweh and this son or they've met the end. Yeah. Yep. They'll come to nothing. They'll perish in the path. So that's Psalm 1 and 2. Somebody put those two poems next to each other,

“knit them together so that we would do exactly what we just did. Okay. That's what they're there for.”

Now these are just the first two poems at the beginning of a whole long biblical book called

the book of Psalm. Okay. Are you ready to zoom out? Mm-hmm. So we long ago made a video overview about the book of Psalms. And what I noted in that overview video, we're looking at the poster. You could go to the bar project website and look at the poster where you could watch the video here, is that Psalms 1 and 2, Psalm 1, it has the word Torah in it. Yes. The Torah of Yahweh, the instruction of Yahweh. Yep. Psalm 2 is all

about the promise that God made to David about a seed king that would come from his line.

“And that's the key idea in the prophets. That's the key idea in the prophets. Oh that's interesting.”

Psalm 1 is connected to Torah. Psalm 2 is connected to the prophets. And you're taking for granted the understanding of the Hebrew Bible. That's right. That it's broken up into three parts. Torah, prophets. You got it. And then the writings. Yeah, you got it. Psalms is the beginning of the writings. You're saying Psalm 1 and 2 is a big wing to you saying, I want you to keep in mind all of the Torah and all of the prophets. All the prophets. Psalm 1, Torah. So two prophets. You got it.

Okay. Yep. Okay. That's one thing that's going on. All right. Second is basically God's commands

that are meant to give wisdom and life as a theme. It's a major theme throughout the whole rest

“of the book of Psalms constantly. And God's promise to David to deal with the violence of the”

nations is going to be a major theme brought up. Okay. And they're right next to each other here in Psalms 1 and 2. They're going to be places where these two things get put right next to each other elsewhere. And this is I drew attention to this in the video. So for example, the Psalms scroll has divided into five parts. Yeah. And the five parts all have the same little conclusion. The last sentences of Psalm 41. Psalm 72. Psalm 89. Psalm 106. Let's say may the Lord God of Israel be blessed forever.

Amen. And amen. That ends each collection of norms. You're often called the books. Yeah, book one, book two, book three. Yeah. And there's five, which is kind of like the five books towards five books of Torah. But it's like a messianic Torah because also connected all through Psalms that emphasize God's instruction are closely connected Psalms the meditating on God's promise to David. For example, in book one, there's this really cool set of poems where Psalm 19

is at the center. Psalm 19 is all about the Word of the Lord, the Word and the commands and the statutes of God that give you wisdom that make you pure, that lead you to life. You're like, oh, it's just like a restatement of Psalm 1. And then right after it, Psalm 19 come a collection of poems called 20 to 23 that are all about a king who is going to encounter resistance from hostile nations and God's going to rescue that king from death and exalt him as the ruler over the nations.

Yeah, I go. Let's just like Psalm two. And it is because of now it's called Psalms 19 to 23. And this pattern just repeats itself. Okay. This idea of Torah and Messiah, Torah and Prophets is just going to get recycled and developed throughout the whole Psalms scroll. So Psalms one, two, truly are like an introduction to the main themes of the Psalms scroll. Okay. Meaning as you travel

through the Psalms scroll, always have those two Psalms on your mind. Yep. Yeah. And you're going to find

the king is going to develop. You're going to find out that this king doesn't just come to his rule over the nations easily. He actually fills in the story of the sun. Yeah, fills in the story of the sun. Yeah. And does it fill in the story of the tree? It fills in the story of the good life person who, because they don't walk in the council of the wicked, life actually becomes pretty complicated for them. Yeah, someone makes sound very simple. And the simple binary, righteous and wicked,

success or failure, all that gets problematized. And you end up with righteous people doing God's word to suffer and terrible things happen to them and they cry out to God and it seems like God's

never listening. So these are what we call the lament. So that's such a wonderful example. Do you

“remember how you were kind of resisting the simplicity of Psalm 1? Yes. I was resisting the binary”

nature of Psalm 1. And then I also was feeling the tension of Psalm 2 of just this overpowering just the discomfort of the warrior God image. Just great. So good. Raining through the sun is just going to shatter the nations like pottery. Great. And you were not the first one to feel like those statements are by themselves inadequate. They're important things to say. They're just the like introductory description that become melodies that you continue to discover. Exactly. Yeah.

Yeah. What if that reigning ruler divine son King himself allows himself to be trampled by the violent kings and identifies with the poor and the oppressed and then through that suffering? That's how he becomes the king of the nations. Wow. That's explored in the Psalms. Yeah. I just summarize

“Psalms 20 through 23. Psalm 73. How good is the Lord for those who fear him? But asked for”

me the poet of Psalm 73 says I looked out and I see the wicked succeeding and the poor are pressed and where are you God? And that's like I read Psalm 1 and it didn't work out. So I'm going to take up this issue with God and that Psalm 73. Okay. So what I loved and I didn't want to say it earlier because this is where this is the way you journey through this. Yeah. Every time you have a problem with something you're reading in the Bible, not alone. And the issue's been raised for you on purpose.

And as you keep reading, you realize like, whoa. The biblical authors felt how I'm feeling too. I was starting to feel that as we talked through Psalm 2. I tried it like just tell myself, I think I'm supposed to be feeling irritated. Yeah. It's good. About some of this. And that's okay.

“Yep. Yeah. Let's told you. Okay. Yeah. So maybe just one more zoom out.”

Quick, at the end here. Is that all right? Okay. So we've already paid attention to how Psalms 1 and 2 are connected all the way back to Genesis 1, 2, 3, the Eden language. How it's connected to God's promise to David in the middle of the prophet's 2 Samuel 7. Also this phrase meditating on Torah, God's Torah day and night that leads to success. That phrase appears one other time in the Hebrew Bible and it's at the beginning of a major section of the Hebrew Bible called the prophet's, the middle section.

From Joshua chapter 1. Joshua is the first scroll of the prophet's. Yes. Yeah. The prophet's

began after Deuteronomy, which is the fifth and final book of Torah. And then you get the collection of the prophets. Joshua judges Samuel and King. And then the writing prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zikil and the 12. Okay. Yeah. So Joshua judges Samuel and King's. Those weren't prophets. Those are names of books. Each of those books is telling you who was the leader of Israel during the period of Joshua. Joshua, then the judges, then Samuel. And then Samuel. And then the King.

And then he's okay. Yeah. But it's Israel's history in the land told from the perspective of Israel's prophets. Okay. So they begin the book of the prophets. Yeah. It's a prophetic retelling of Israel's history. And these are sometimes referred to as the uh, the former prophets. Okay. Former prophets are telling you the story of Israel in the land. Okay. The latter prophets are then the writing prophets. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zikil, the poetic collections of different prophets who lived during

the story told to you by the former prophets. Okay. Together they make up the collection of the

prophets. All right. The prophets begin with Joshua with Joshua. The first line of Joshua is

Get up. Lead the people across the Jordan River in the land. I'm going to give the land to my people.

God says, I'm going to fight for you. If anybody's hostile, pick the fight with you. I'll protect you. I'll take care of you. Verse six, be strong and courageous. I'm giving the land as an inheritance.

“That's interesting. That's what God promised the divine son. Sounds great. Yeah, land. Verse seven,”

only be strong and courageous to keep diligently the whole Torah that Moses, my servant, commanded you. Don't turn aside from it to the right or to the left so that you may have success wherever you go. Success. This scroll of the Torah will not depart from your mouth. You will hug a meditate on a day and night.

So that you can keep everything written in it, then you will have success the same word as someone.

Okay. And prosper. So yeah, you read these together and clearly someone was riffing off of this. Yeah, the opening of the Psalms scroll is coordinated with this picture of Joshua, which is the beginning of the prophetic scrolls. That's right. So Psalm one,

“it, at a way, is coordinated with the picture of Joshua as Israel's leader,”

leading them into the Promised Land, not taking counsel with a wicked trusting only gods instruction that he meditates on and it leads to Israel's successful entry into the land where they settle in

make homes and gardens and all that. Yeah. So Joshua is like a narrative illustration.

That can go well. Yeah. Somebody who lived the reality of Psalm one. So that's a little coordinated connection. That's interesting. Okay. That's the beginning of the prophet. So if I turn to the end of the prophets, later prophets. Yeah. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and then you get the 12, called the minor prophets. Who's the last of the 12? Malachi. Malachi. Yeah. And if I turn to the end of the prophet of Malachi? Okay. So what do we get for it? In tonight, order,

the ending of Malachi is right before Psalm one and Psalm one. Yeah. And what do I find at the end of Malachi? Malachi, forever, one. Look, the day is out to come. Did you know that? Burning like an oven. Every arrogant and evil door, rasha. That's the rasha. Mm-hmm. People who does rasha. Okay. So there's another word, the wicked, the evil door. Yep. The one who does evil. Okay. Every arrogant and evil door will become like stubble. stubble before fire. Different

word than chaff, but same basic idea. What is a stubble? stubble would be like you've cut your grass, and then the dried grass three days later. That's stubble. Yeah. That's the stubble. Mm-hmm. Okay. And the day that is coming will burn them up. Mm-hmm. Says Yahweh of hosts, it that is the coming day will not leave behind for them root or ranch. So a purifying fire is coming. The day of Yahweh is coming. Mm-hmm. It's like the judgment at the end of someone. Mm-hmm.

And it's connected to the hot anger of Psalm 2. Exactly. It borrows the language of heat and fire from Psalm 2, but connects it with the idea of the final sorting of Psalm 1. So those whose way of life has produced in the world pain, oppression and hardship for others, all of that is going to get consumed in the great purifying day of Yahweh. But verse 2, for you who fear my name, serve the Lord with fear. That was the end of Psalm 2.

Right? So it's the Lord with fear. For those, the sun, and it's not the word "so" and actually the light and the light and the sky. The sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out leaping like fat little calves. This makes me uncomfortable, verse 3. You will trample down the wicked. They will be ashes under the souls of your feet on the day that I'm going to act. Mm-hmm. Yeah. The people who trampled you, the people who write,

“yeah, you've been under their boots for so many generations. Remember the biblical literature comes”

from the underground. It's going to get inverted and reversed. So this is a picture of the day of Yahweh coming. And in a way it's a very poetic metaphorical way of describing the end of both Psalm 1 and 2.

That's my servant Moses. Oh, yeah. You know the one I commanded him in Mount Horab, all the rules

“and regulations. That's how all the prophets began when Joshua. Yeah. Remember the Torah.”

Exactly right. And here we are again. My servant Moses. Mm-hmm. Look, I'm going to send you Elijah the prophet. Well, okay. He's coming again. Need to go meditate on his story. Okay. Yeah. Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great awesome day of Yahweh. And he's going to turn back the hearts of the fathers to their sons. The hearts of sons of their fathers so that I don't come and strike the land with the curse. So there's a lot going on here. My point is Malachi and

using similar language of Psalms 1 and 2 and similar ideas of there's a coming the day of Yahweh that will sort out the righteous in the wicked and how you respond in the present now to God's Torah given to Ramosa will foster hope and faithfulness as you await that future sorting out. It's

“very similar to what Psalm 1 and 2 are trying to do. There's nothing in Malachi about a son or a king”

is there. No, the promise of a king coming from line of David is not explicitly a part of the conclusion of Malachi. It is a part elsewhere in the prophets, especially Isaiah, which is at the beginning of the prophet, so of the latter. Isaiah and Malachi is standing at the beginning and ending of the latter prophets. And really into the day of Yahweh and to the promise of the coming king from line of David Malachi and so on the note primarily about the day of Yahweh. So when we back out on the highest

level Psalm 1 and 2 have been brought together as the introduction to the Psalm scroll is the introduction

to the third major part of the Hebrew Bible writings and linked together to the beginning and

endings of the Torah and of the former prophets and of the latter prophets. So basic point is what's the meaning of Psalms 1 and 2 and it seems like they've been given an intentional layer of meaning at every one of the levels of Psalm. Somebody sat down and thought and shaped the language of these poems and if you learn how to meditate on these poems on all of those levels individually together, zoom out to Malamorth. Every layer seems intentional, like an invitation to meditate.

Any part of the Bible is worth sitting and meditating on and really absorbing. But it seems like there's maybe passages like this that sit at seams that are doing so much work and connecting extra-loaded. Yeah, load bearing. Yeah, like in a building. It would do you well to spend even extra time really absorbing these ideas and letting them stick with you as you read the level. Yeah, someone in two or an invitation to ask two questions perpetually as I kind of move through

these next few days and I may be this will hopefully stick with me. How good is life for the man? Like what's the good life? And then why all the raging? Right? Like I could walk through my city. Where's the good life? And I could ask one of those two questions or both at the same time.

“Yeah, why? Why is there so much pain and suffering and so much chaos? Why all the raging?”

And meditate on that, and meditate on the hope of the Messianic Messianic King. And then I can also be thinking about like, as I walk down the street, what is the good life here? How do I step into the instruction of y'all in this moment? Those two lenses, someone in two, they really do invite you into a universe of thought. Yeah, a wave, not just seeing the world a bit of way of living. Being in the world. Yeah, how good is life for someone who let someone into just really take up space in their mind?

And you'll find all the parts of the Bible coming alive and new and interesting ways. And that's just the Hebrew Bible. We didn't even talk about how important Psalm 2 is for Jesus and the Apostles in the New Testament. It's one of the most recoded and alluded to Psalms in the New Testament.

It's actually second only to Psalm 110. Okay. So what we should do then is explore how

Psalm 2 gets quoted and used in the New Testament and might of all of these hyperlikes. It's super cool. Great. Let's do that next. Thanks for listening to Bible Project Podcast. Next week, we're going to look at how Psalm 2 is quoted in the New Testament. And the first person to quote Psalm 2 is God, calling out from heaven,

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