Psalms 1:2

_BUT HIS DELIGHT IS IN THE LAW OF THE LORD; AND IN HIS LAW DOTH HE MEDITATE DAY AND NIGHT._ But - Hebrew, _ KIY_ (H3588) _ 'IM_ (H518), but if; i:e., But who (if there be anything in which he) delights (Romans 7:22), (it is) in the law (_ TOWRAAH_ (H8451), literally, the directory, from a root, _ YAARAH_ (H3384), to point the way or direct; the law of Moses: the representative of the whole inspired volume) of the Lord. So Maurer. Thus even the Psalms are called "the law" of the Jews (John 10:34; John 15:25). Jesus, the faul

In the second verse, the Psalmist does not simply pronounce those happy who fear God, as in other places, but designates godliness _by the study of the law, _teaching us that God is only rightly served when had law is obeyed. It is not left to every man to frame a system of religion according to his own judgment, but the standard of godliness is to be taken from the Word of God. When David here speaks of _the law, _it ought not to be understood as if the other parts of Scripture should be excluded, but rather, since the whole of Scripture is nothing else than an exposition of the law, under it as the head is comprehended the whole body. The prophet, therefore, in commending the law, includes all the rest of the inspired writings. He must, therefore, be understood as meaning to exhort the faithful to the reading of the Psalms also. From his characterising the godly as delighting in the la...

1-3 To meditate in God's word, is to discourse with ourselves concerning the great things contained in it, with close application of mind and fixedness of thought. We must have constant regard to the word of God, as the rule of our actions, and the spring of our comforts; and have it in our thoughts night and day. For this purpose no time is amiss....

Verse Psalms 1:2. _BUT HIS DELIGHT IS IN THE LAW OF THE LORD_] חפצו _chephtso_, his will, desire, affection, every _motive_ in his heart, and every _moving principle_ in his soul, are on the side of _God_ and his _truth_. He takes up _the law of the Lord_ as the _rule_ of _his life_; he brings all his actions and affections to this holy _standard_. He looketh into the perfect law of liberty; and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word; and is therefore blessed in his deed. He not only _reads_ to gain knowledge from the Divine oracles, but he _meditates_ on what he has read, feeds on it; and thus receiving _the sincere milk of the word_, he grows thereby unto eternal life. This is not an _occasional_ study to him; it is his work _day and night_. As his _heart_ is in it, the _employment_ must be freque...

BUT HIS DELIGHT - His pleasure; his happiness. Instead of finding his happiness in the society and the occupations of the wicked, he finds it in the truth of God. The law or truth of God is not distasteful to him, but he so delights in it as to desire to become more and more acquainted with it, and to have its truths impressed more and more on his heart. IN THE LAW OF THE LORD - The law of Yahweh - the small capitals in the translation indicating here as elsewhere that the original word is Yahweh. The word law in the Scriptures is used in a considerable variety of significations. The Hebrew word תורה _tôrâh_, properly means instruction, precept; and then, an injunction, command, law, in the usual sense of the word. It was applied particularly to the Pentateuch, or law of Moses (compare the notes at...

EXPOSITION IT is remarkable that neither the first nor the second psalm has any title. Titles are so much the rule in the first and second books of the Psalter, that, when they are absent, their absence requires to be accounted for. As thirty-eight out of the forty-one psalms in this section are distinctly assigned to David, we must suppose that the compiler did not view this psalm as his. Perhaps he did not know the author. Perhaps, if he was himself the author, he shrank from giving himself the prominence which could not but have attached to him if his name had, in a certain sense, headed the collection. Reticence would have specially become Solomon, if he was the author. Commentators have generally recognized that this psalm is introductory and prefatory. Jerome says that many called it "the Preface of the Holy Ghost." Some of the Fathers did not even regard it as a psalm at all, but...

BUT HIS DELIGHT [IS] IN THE LAW OF THE LORD,.... Not the law of nature, which was inscribed on Adam's heart in innocence, but now greatly impaired by sin, and become very imperfect and very insufficient to make men happy, or to lead them to true felicity; nor the law of Moses, which is a fiery law, and works wrath, accuses of sin, pronounces guilty, curses and condemns to death; and therefore cannot be delighted in by a sensible sinner, unless as it is in the hands of Christ, and as fulfilled by him, who is the end of it; and as it is written on the heart of a regenerate man, who, so far as it is, delights in it after the inward man, and serves it with his spirit: but rather the Scriptures, as much and as many parts of them as were written in David's time; particularly the five books of Moses, which are called the Law and the Testimony of the Lord; which being inspired by God, were profi...

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS I. THE GENESIS SECTION: BOOK ONE:Psalm 1-41 Psalm 1-8 Psalms 1 The Godly and the Ungodly _ 1. The godly, his character and his fruit (Psalms 1:1)_ 2. The ungodly in comparison with the godly (Psalms 1:4) The first eight Psalms are the Psalms in embryo, just as the opening Chapter s of the book of Genesis are the Bible in a nutshell. Throughout the Psalms we can trace the subjects of these eight Psalms, the godly and the ungodly; but especially the great theme of the Psalms, Christ, the Perfect Man, the King rejected, the suffering of the righteous during the time of His rejection, the King enthroned and all things put under His feet. These are the leading themes

BOOK I. PSS. I- XLI. I. The Jewish Saint. This and Psalms 2 (see, however, on Psalms 33) are the only Pss. in Book I. which have no title or superscription. In Acts 13:33, there is very ancient authority for reading in the first Ps., though the Ps. quoted stands second in the Psalter, as we have it. Origen had seen Psalms 1 joined with Psalms 2 in a Heb. copy, and the same arrangement is still found in some Heb. MSS. Probably then Psalms 1 was prefixed as an introduction to the rest of the Psalter after its completion. But it is not one with Psalms 2, nor even resembles it. It expresses the general spirit of the Psalter admirably. For that very reason it does not reach a high level. It has nothing of the spiritual tone which is so striking in 4, 73, and in other Pss. Rather it represents the current orthodoxy of its time, which must have been a very late one. It is legalistic, and accen...

THE LAW. instruction: i.e. the whole Pentateuch which contains it. MEDITATE: i.e. continually and habitually....