NOTES for Psa 1:1
At first glance, the first verse of the first psalm recalls the old Roman saying about bad company corrupting good morals. It undoubtedly has its own deep meaning, which was known to the author of the psalm.
Fallen man is inclined to imitation, to playing roles; he strives to adapt himself to his surroundings. Even if at first such adaptation has as its aim a kind of mimicry, in the end it can lead to the morals and convictions of the person mimicking in this way really becoming the same as the views of his surroundings. As another Roman proverb says, habit is second nature. But there is also another, deeper meaning in the first verse of the first psalm.
Spiritual life is, first of all, relationships: relationships that bind us with God, relationships that determine our connections with other people, and finally relationships to various things or events, which we evaluate in one way or another, in which we participate or from which we withdraw. It may seem to us that certain words and actions of ours are conditioned exclusively by the situation in which we find ourselves, that sometimes we inevitably have to communicate with people to whom, in good conscience, we would not offer our hand, and participate in matters in which, generally speaking, not only should one not participate, but which it is indecent even to talk about.
At the same time, we may think that since we do all this under compulsion, since it does not affect our views and convictions, and if it were up to us we certainly would never do anything of the kind, then it has no effect, or almost no effect, on our spiritual life. Meanwhile, in reality everything is far from so simple. Of course, there is a difference between someone who sins freely and with pleasure and someone who agrees to sin reluctantly.
And yet sin committed against one's desire remains sin. Like any sin, it affects our spiritual life, drawing us into relationships incompatible with communion with God. Incompatibility with communion with God always places us in a situation of choice, and we have to choose between God and what is usually called worldly expediency.
The author of the psalm is neither a rigorist nor a misanthrope; he only calls us to choose in favor of God. Not out of contempt for sinners and the impious, not out of moral fastidiousness, but because otherwise, for the sake of fellowship with them, we will have to sacrifice our own spiritual life, and that is too much for anyone.