Most likely, Psalms one and two were composed as a sort of introduction to the entire Psalter. Psalm two is classified as a royal psalm which highlights earthly rulers’ accountability to God. Psalm one is “a faithful doorkeeper, confronting those who would be in congregation of the righteous” (Kidner, 47). The psalm holds before us a choice between two different ways to live. It involves a choice between the ways of God which are righteous and the ways of the world which are wicked. Together, Psalms one and two encompass the “main themes of the book, the way the righteous are to live among the ungodly, and the salvation the righteous have in their divinely chosen King” (Ross, 182).

Much of the content of this Psalm suggests that it belongs in the category of biblical wisdom literature in that it shares much of the interest found in Proverbs. Themes of blessing in this life and eternity are contrasted with the futility of ungodliness and the judgment that follows. On the one hand, the blessed individual is the one whose life is characterized by delight in and obedience to God’s law. On the other hand is the unrighteous individual whose life is bound for a future without hope.

There is much in Psalm one which is applicable to the life of the Christian. A life of obedience to the Lord is the good and blessed life. But as we read just a bit below the surface we see that what the Psalmist commends is beyond us. The obedience and holy delight of the blessed man is ultimately too high a mark to reach. Who among us can say that they have never once walked in ungodliness? Who of us have lived lives of such uninterrupted godliness as to be compared to a tree that is always in season? The good news is that the righteousness by which God will judge his people is not their own but that of the truly Blessed Man, the Lord Jesus. As Martin Luther observed:

“The first psalm speaks literally concerning Christ thus: Blessed is the man. He is the only blessed One and the only Man from whose fullness they have all received (John 3:16) that they might be blessed.”