Psalm 1
Psalm 1: Blessed Is the Man
The doorway to the Book of Psalms: two ways a life can go, and the tree planted where the water is.
Psalm 1, “Blessed is the man,” is the gateway psalm of the whole Psalter. It sets out the two ways a life can go, the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked, and what each one produces.
Pray it now
Psalm 1 in full
1Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand on the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers;2but his delight is in the LORD’s law. On his law he meditates day and night.3He will be like a tree planted by the streams of water, that produces its fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither. Whatever he does shall prosper.4The wicked are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.5Therefore the wicked shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.6For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish.
Psalm 1 · WEBC
“And he shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit, in due season.”
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What Psalm 1 Means
Psalm 1 is the doorway to the Psalter, and it was placed first deliberately. Before a single prayer is offered, the book states the choice everything else assumes: there are two ways to live, and they end differently.
The opening is a series of refusals. The blessed man does not walk, stand, or sit with the wicked, and the three verbs describe a drift rather than a decision. You walk past something, then you stop and stand near it, then you sit down and stay. Almost nobody chooses the wrong life outright. They stop moving somewhere they only meant to pass.
Against that, one image: a tree planted by streams of water. Not growing wild but planted, deliberately placed near a source, and therefore fruitful in its season and not withered when the weather turns. The point is not that the righteous avoid drought. It is that they are rooted where the water is.
The contrast the psalm gives the wicked is chaff, the husk left after threshing, which has the shape of grain and none of the substance and is carried off by the first wind. It is not a picture of punishment so much as of weightlessness.
Liturgical Use in the Catholic Church
Psalm 1 opens the first week of the Liturgy of the Hours and is used at the Office of Readings. Because it is the Psalter's preface, it is also the psalm most often used to introduce children and new Catholics to praying the psalms at all.
Praying Psalm 1 — A Simple Practice
Read it slowly once and notice the three verbs in the first verse. Then ask which of the three you are currently doing about something you know is not good for you, because the psalm is unusually precise about the stages. It is short enough to memorise in a week, and it functions well as the psalm you return to whenever the habit of daily prayer has lapsed and you are starting again.
Questions people ask
What does Psalm 1 mean?
It sets out the two ways a life can go: rooted like a tree planted by water, or weightless like chaff blown away. It is placed first in the Psalter deliberately, as the choice every psalm after it assumes.
Why does Psalm 1 say walk, stand, and sit?
The three verbs describe a drift rather than a single decision. You walk past something, then stand near it, then sit down and stay. The psalm is describing how people end up somewhere they only meant to pass.
Is Psalm 1 numbered differently in Catholic Bibles?
No. Psalm 1 is the same number in both traditions. The divergence between Hebrew and Septuagint numbering begins later in the Psalter.
