Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers. (Psalm 1:1-3 NIV)
If you’ve ever had a bout of insomnia (I have occasional stretches myself), you’ve likely found yourself watching television in the wee hours when you’ll find infomercials for various multi-disc musical compilations such as “Soft Rock of the 70s.”
Our journey into the Psalms might well begin like a cheesy early morning infomercial complete with perky and beautiful middle-aged couple or elderly has-been musicians who are uber-excited about the hits of ancient Hebrew worship. That’s because you can consider Psalms as a book of lyrics to a giant musical compilation. These were the greatest worship hits of ancient Israel. The cool thing is, not only did the producers put together this compilation book of lyrics (c. 300 B.C.), they took great pains to arrange the song lyrics in very specific order so that that entire collection is a work of instructional art in and of itself. The compilation is a single work of art made up of 150 works of lyrical/poetic art.
The first two songs (Psalms 1 and 2) were chosen as introduction to the entire book. They have no title, but act as a lyric overture to the entire compilation. Take notice of the bookends. The first line of Psalm 1 and the last line of Psalm 2 start with “Blessed is….” The message being that those who journey through this compilation, those who delight in God’s Message (Psalm 1:1-2) and take refuge God (Psalm 2:12) will be blessed.
Today, I’m excited about creativity. I’m grateful that Creator God inspires musicians, poets and writers. I’m knocked out by the artistic detail of those who compiled the Psalms and creatively assembled this volume in such a way that it added layers of depth and meaning to the compilation itself, extending the metaphorical value of the individual songs themselves.
The deeper I journey into God’s Message, the more layers of meaning I peel away, the more I’m blown away at how limitless it is.
