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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 1:1 - 1:1
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The exclamatory אַֽשְׁרֵי, as also Psa 32:2; Psa 40:5; Pro 8:34, has Gaja (Metheg) by the Aleph, and in some Codd. even a second by שְׁ, because it is intended to be read asherê as an exception, on account of the significance of the word (Baer, in Comm. ii. 495). It is the construct of the pluralet. אֲשָׁרִים (from אָשַׁר, cogn.יָשַׁר, כָּשַׁר, to be straight, right, well-ordered), and always in the form אַֽשְׁרֵי, even before the light suffixes (Olsh. §135, c), as an exclamation: O the blessedness of so and so. The man who is characterised as blessed is first described according to the things he does not do, then (which is the chief thought of the whole Ps.) according to what he actually does: he is not a companion of the unrighteous, but he abides by the revealed word of God. רְשָׁעִים are the godless, whose moral condition is lax, devoid of stay, and as it were gone beyond the reasonable bounds of true unity (wanting in stability of character), so that they are like a tossed and stormy sea, Isa 57:20.;
(Note: Nevertheless we have not to compare רעשׁ, רגשׁ, for רשׁע, but the Arabic in the two roots Arab. rs' and rsg shows for רשׁע the primary notion to be slack, loose, in opposition to Arab. tsdq, צדק to be hard, firm, tight; as Arab. rumhun tsadqun, i.e., according to the Kamus Arab. rmh ṣlb mtı̂n mstwin, a hard, firm and straight spear. We too transfer the idea of being lax and loose to the province of ethics: the difference is only one of degree. The same two primary notions are also opposed to one another in speaking of the intellect: Arab. hakuma, wise, prop. thick, firm, stout, solid, and Arab. sachufa, foolish, simple, prop. thin, loose, without stay, like a bad piece of weaving, vid., Fleischer's translation of Samachschari's Golden Necklace pp. 26 and 27 Anm. 76. Thus רָשָׁע means the loose man and indeed as a moral-religyous notion loose from God, godless comp. Bibl. Psychol. p. 189. transl.].)
חַטָּאִים (from the sing. חַטָּא, instead of which חֹטֵא is usually found) sinners, ἁμαρτωλοί, who pass their lives in sin, especially coarse and manifest sin; לֵצִים (from לוּץ, as מִת from מוּת) scoffers, who make that which is divine, holy, and true a subject of frivolous jesting. The three appellations form a climax: impii corde, peccatores opere, illusores ore, in accordance with which עֵצָה (from יָעַץ figere, statuere), resolution, bias of the will, and thus way of thinking, is used in reference to the first, as in Job 21:16; Job 22:18; in reference to the second, דֶּרֶךְ mode of conduct, action, life; in reference to the third, מֹושָׁב which like the Arabic méglis signifies both seat (Job 29:7) and assembling (Psa 107:32), be it official or social (cf. Psa 26:4., Jer 15:17). On הָלַךְ בְּ, in an ethical sense, cf. Mic 6:16; Jer 7:24. Therefore: Blessed is he who does not walk in the state of mind which the ungodly cherish, much less that he should associate with the vicious life of sinners, or even delight in the company of those who scoff at religion. The description now continues with כִּי אִם (imo si, Ges. §155, 2, 9): but (if) his delight is, = (substantival instead of the verbal clause:) he delights (חֵפֶץ cf. Arab. chfd f. i. with the primary notion of firmly adhering, vid., on Job 40:17) in תורַת ה, the teaching of Jahve, which is become Israel's νόμος, rule of life; in this he meditates profoundly by day and night (two acc. with the old accusative terminations am and ah). The perff. in Psa 1:1 describe what he all along has never done, the fut. יֶהְגֶּה, what he is always striving to do; הָגָה of a deep (cf. Arab. hjj, depressum e{\Language:English}sse), dull sound, as if vibrating between within and without, here signifies the quiet soliloquy (cf. Arab. hjs, mussitando secum loqui) of one who is searching and thinking.
With וְהָיָה,
(Note: By the Shebâ stands Metheg (Gaja), as it does wherever a word, with Shebâ in the first syllable, has Olewejored, Rebia magnum, or Dechî without a conjunctive preceding, in case at least one vowel and no Metheg-except perhaps that standing before Shebâ compos. - lies between the Shebâ and the tone, e.g., נְנֳתְּקָה (with Dechî) Psa 2:3, וְאֶעֱנֵהוּ Psa 91:15 and the like. The intonation of the accent is said in these instances to begin, by anticipation, with the fugitive ĕ.)
in Psa 1:3, the development of the אשׁרי now begins; it is the praet. consec.: he becomes in consequence of this, he is thereby, like a tree planted beside the water-courses, which yields its fruit at the proper season and its leaf does not fall off. In distinction from נָטוּעַ, according to Jalkut §614, שָׁתוּל means firmly planted, so that no winds that may rage around it are able to remove it from its place (אין מזיזין אתו ממקומו). In פַּלְגֵי מַיִם, both מַיִם and the plur. serve to give intensity to the figure; פֶּלֶג (Arab. fal'g, from פלג to divide, Job 38:25) means the brook meandering and cleaving its course for itself through the soil and stones; the plur. denotes either one brook regarded from its abundance of water, or even several which from different directions supply the tree with nourishing and refreshing moisture. In the relative clause the whole emphasis does not rest on בְּעִתֹּו (Calvin: impii, licet praecoces fructus ostentent, nihil tamen producunt nisi abortivum), but פִּרְיֹו is the first, בְּעִתֹּו the second tone-word: the fruit which one expects from it, it yields (equivalent to יַעֲשֶׂה it produces, elsewhere), and that at its appointed, proper time (= בְּעִדְתֹּו, for עֵת is = עֵדֶת or עֶדֶת, like רֶדֶת, לֶדֶת, from וָעַד), without ever disappointing that hope in the course of the recurring seasons. The clause וְעָלֵהוּ לֹא יִבֹּול is the other half of the relative clause: and its foliage does not fall off or wither (נָבֵל like the synon. Arab. dbl, from the root בל).
The green foliage is an emblem of faith, which converts the water of life of the divine word into sap and strength, and the fruit, an emblem of works, which gradually ripen and scatter their blessings around; a tree that has lost its leaves, does not bring its fruit to maturity. It is only with וְכֹל, where the language becomes unemblematic, that the man who loves the Law of God again becomes the direct subject. The accentuation treats this member of the verse as the third member of the relative clause; one may, however, say of a thriving plant צָלֵחַ, but not הִצְלִיחַ. This Hiph. (from צלח, Arab. tslh, to divide, press forward, press through, vid., Psa 45:5) signifies both causative: to cause anything to go through, or prosper (Gen 34:23), and transitive: to carry through, and intransitive: to succeed, prosper (Jdg 18:5). With the first meaning, Jahve would be the subject; with the third, the project of the righteous; with the middle one, the righteous man himself. This last is the most natural: everything he takes in hand he brings to a successful issue (an expression like 2Ch 7:11; 2Ch 31:21; Dan 8:24). What a richly flowing brook is to the tree that is planted on its bank, such is the word of God to him who devotes himself to it: it makes him, according to his position and calling, ever fruitful in good and well-timed deeds and keeps him fresh in his inner and outward life, and whatsoever such an one undertakes, he brings to a successful issue, for the might of the word and of the blessing of God is in his actions.