Reflections on Psalm 1 and my first psalm

During my morning devotional today, I thought of Psalm 1, the first passage of Scripture I ever committed to memory. Here is the First Psalm 1 from the Amplified Bible:

Blessed [fortunate, prosperous, and favored by God] is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked [following their advice and example],
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit [down to rest] in the seat of scoffers (ridiculers).
² 
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And on His law [His precepts and teachings] he [habitually] meditates day and night.
³ 
And he will be like a tree firmly planted [and fed] by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season;
Its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers [and comes to maturity].

⁴ 
The wicked [those who live in disobedience to God’s law] are not so,
But they are like the chaff [worthless and without substance] which the wind blows away.
⁵ 
Therefore the wicked will not stand [unpunished] in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
⁶ 
For the Lord knows and fully approves the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked shall perish.

As I completed reading the passage, an original psalm, a blues sonnet, written more than 15 years ago also came to mind:

Talk about a Man

Psalm 1

Talk about a man who show is blessed—I’m the man.

Talk about a man who show is blessed—I’m the man.

At first, I couldn’t, but now I see God’s master plan.

To study the Word of Life show is my delight.

To study the Word of Life show is my delight.

I’m all the time thinking about it—day and night.

Planted by the rivers of water, my roots reach deep.

Planted by the rivers of water, my roots reach deep.

By the still waters, the Good Shepherd leads his sheep.

In God, all His promises are yes and amen.       

In God, all His promises are yes and amen.

I have been so blessed since I can remember when.

The Word of God soothes my soul like a healing balm.   

I’m the man they talking about in that First Psalm.

                                                                 

I would like to comment on Psalm 1 and the first “psalm” I ever wrote as a poet strongly influenced by David, the Psalmist whose work continues to delight me.  In my freshman composition course at Purdue University in 1961, we were given this prompt to discuss in an in-class essay: “May I tell you what delights me?” I completed the assignment by making a list of items that bring me pleasure: specific kinds of music, a variety of foods, certain literary works, and other delights. The professor asked for volunteers to share what they had written, and I offered to read mine. When I finished, she said, “Oh, you’ve written a poem.” I responded, “I did?” In my mind, I only shared “a few of my favorite things.” (By the way, there was a performance of the Broadway musical, “The Sound of Music,” during the time I was enrolled at Purdue.) Years later when I began to acknowledge my poetic inclination and attempted to refine my efforts, I learned that I had actually written a free-verse catalog poem in the style of Walt Whitman and other 20th-century writers. Although that experience occurred more than 60 years ago, the Psalms of David continue to be near the top of my list of “what delights me.”

In a recent blog post I concluded with this song of worship which seems an appropriate way to close today’s entry:

“My Delight is in You Lord,” featuring Christy Nockels:

Tags: First Psalm, Lonnell Johnson, My Delight is in You, Poetry, Psalm 1, Verse of the Day