I doubt I will do in-depth studies on each Psalm encountered in the time of Counting the Omer, but this one has particularly stood out to me, both for current personal life meaning, and for an upcoming entry. It helps demonstrate the amazing potential that the LORD has provided us in giving us this life revelation, not as an end in itself, but to help us to know him better primarily, and secondarily to understand our own life better (the two, I believe, go hand-in-hand). I highlight four different groups of cognate permutations here that are seen repetitively – “multiple witnesses.” It appears to me that this Psalm is focused a great deal on “strength,” from God’s perspective.
And don’t be put off by the use of the word “the man האיש:” it applies to any person. Clearly, as you read through the Psalm, you will see that there are positive and negative things about “strength.” Hopefully it will help you think about your strengths and your weaknesses, and will help you focus on whether they tend to fit into “righteous” or “ungodly” categories. When our strength is from ourselves, and our focus, it is different from our focus being the LORD (יהוה), which brings out the LORD’s strength in us (ungodly vs. righteous). We will talk about this idea in regard to mammon upcoming. God’s economy is often quite different from that of mankind.
Psalms 1 NKJV
BOOK ONE
Psalms 1–41
1 Blessed is the man (h0376. אִישׁ ’îyš)
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
3 He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.
4 The ungodly are not so,
But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the ungodly shall perish.
See that both איש and אשה include אש, a cognate permutation of עץ.
Fruit in its season. Our lives definitely have seasons.
I believe this will all make even more sense with the upcoming entry.
Ⓒ Copyright LogAndSpeck April, 2023. Please cite if copying.