The Good Life According to Psalm 1

Psalms 1 & 2 E1 — The Psalms scroll—Israel’s ancient hymn book—has deeply shaped the worship and prayers of millions of people over several millennia. The first two psalms work together as a unified introduction to the whole collection. Psalm 1 starts with the phrase “How good is life for the man who…” or in most English translations, “Blessed is the man who…” We then find a list of activities to avoid and an instruction to practice daily Scripture meditation. So how does this way of living lead to “the good life”? And what happens to those who follow it—and to those who don’t? In this episode, Jon and Tim start a short series in Psalms 1 and 2 by first meditating on Psalm 1.

FULL SHOW NOTES

For chapter-by-chapter summaries, biblical words, referenced Scriptures, and reflection questions, check out the full show notes for this episode.

CHAPTERS

1. The Path of Tragedy (0:00-21:35)
2. Becoming Like a Tree (21:35-40:40)
3. Standing in the Judgment (40:40-1:06:14)

OFFICIAL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

View this episode’s official transcript.

REFERENCED RESOURCES

• The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter
• Check out Tim’s extensive collection of recommended books here.

SHOW MUSIC

• “Growing Season” by Gas Lab & Guillaume Muschalle
• “New Dae” by El Train & G Mills
• BibleProject theme song by TENTS 

SHOW CREDITS

Production of today’s episode is by Lindsey Ponder, producer, and Cooper Peltz, managing producer. Tyler Bailey is our supervising engineer, who also edited today’s episode and provided the sound design and mix. JB Witty writes the show notes. Our host and creative director is Jon Collins, and our lead scholar is Tim Mackie. 

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.