The Meaning of "Blessed" in Psalm 1
The Psalms open with a word Jesus would later make central. What does it really mean to be blessed?
The first word of the Psalms in the original Hebrew is "ashrei"—often translated "blessed." It is the same word Jesus uses at the start of the Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are the poor in spirit." To be blessed, in this sense, is not to have everything go well; it is to be in a right and happy condition before God.
Psalm 1 describes the blessed person negatively and positively. Negatively, they do not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of the scornful. There is a progression—walking, standing, sitting—that suggests how we slowly take on the posture of the world around us.
Positively, the blessed person delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night. Blessing is not first a circumstance but a delight. What we love shapes what we become.
The result is a tree planted by streams of water, fruitful in season, with leaves that do not wither. To be blessed is to be rooted—to have a hidden source of life that sustains us through every season. Psalm 1 tells us that blessing is not what we have but where we are planted.
Related Psalms
Psalm 1
“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.”
Two paths, two destinies: the righteous rooted like a tree by streams, the wicked blown away like chaff.
Read morePsalm 19
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.”
God revealed in creation and Scripture, ending in a prayer of surrender.
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