NOTES for Psa 1

It is easy, after slipping into condemnation of those who take part in countless unworthy activities that fit the description “the counsel of the wicked,” to go on to condemn those who “meditate on the law” and accuse them of Pharisaism. Indeed, there are countless examples of such zealots turning out to be lawbreakers who stand in the path of sinners alongside the openly wicked, so is there really much difference between them?

But the psalmist gives an essential description of one who sincerely follows the path of righteousness: his will is in the law of the Lord. It is a will that directs the whole person toward the necessary actions, not merely toward theoretical reflection. It is therefore entirely fitting that the image of the righteous person is a flourishing, fruit-bearing tree by streams of water—a symbol of the life we can receive from the Lord if we turn to Him with the fullness of our being.

At first glance, the first verse of the first psalm recalls the old Roman saying about bad company corrupting good morals. It certainly has its own deep meaning, which was known to the author of the psalm.

The fallen person is inclined to imitation, to play. He strives to adapt himself to his surroundings, and even if at first such adaptation has as its goal 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 in the first verse of the first psalm there is also another, deeper meaning.

Spiritual life is first of all relationships: relationships connecting us with God, relationships defining our ties with other people, and finally relationships toward certain things or events that we evaluate in one way or another, in which we participate or from which we distance ourselves. It may seem to us that certain words and actions of ours are conditioned exclusively by the situation in which we have found ourselves, that sometimes we inevitably have to communicate with people to whom in good conscience we would not offer our hand, and participate in affairs in which, by and large, not only should one not participate, but of which it is indecent even to speak.

At the same time, we may think that since we do all this under compulsion, since it does not touch our views and convictions, and if it were up to us we would of course never do anything of the kind, then it does not affect our spiritual life, or almost does not. Meanwhile, in fact everything is far from so simple. Of course, there is a difference between the one who sins freely and with pleasure and the one who agrees to sin unwillingly.

And yet a sin committed against one's desire remains a 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 not a rigorist and not a hater of humanity. He only calls us to make a choice in favor of God. Not out of contempt for sinners and the ungodly, not out of moral squeamishness, but because otherwise, for the sake of communication with them, we will have to sacrifice our own spiritual life, and that is too much for anyone.