Psalm 1 - Tree
Blessed Is The Man
A long time ago, when gas was 45 cents a liter, back when the world did not contain my six youngest children, and when nobody I knew owned a computer, when phones were attached to the wall with a curly cord, when more cassettes were sold than CDs, I started writing songs from the Psalms.
I had undergone a paradigm shift a few years before, coming around to the idea that Jesus intends to win the world and that as the King, he will get what he wants. I came to an understanding of the Word of God that honored Jesus as Lord over everything, that the Word was to shape me rather than me shaping it. I came to understand that God had songs that he liked, and that he had put them right in the middle of our Bibles so that we would not miss them, but rather learn to sing them.
Psalm 1 was one of my first goes at writing a whole psalm. I wrote it in 1993. I added a line at the end of the song that is not in the psalm, but is rather a retelling phrase, encapsulating the idea in a phrase. In later times I tried to avoid adding lines to the psalm, but in these early days I was still learning my craft. The song still works just fine.
This has been a staple song in the churches of which I have been a part for upwards of thirty years now. We still sing it today when we want to sing Psalm 1. I recorded it on two different albums; the first being Prayers Of The Saints (1994), a bunch of songs from our worship band at McLaurin Baptist Church in Grande Prairie, the second being 14 years later as the opening song on Pure Words (2008). Do follow these links, and go purchase some good music!
Psalm 1
Blessed is the man who does not walk in the wisdom of man
Or stands in the path of sinners, or sits in the seat of the scoffer
Blessed is the man who does not walk in the wisdom of man
Or stands in the path of sinners or sits in the seat of the scoffer
But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in His law he meditates day and night
He shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water
Bearing its fruit in its season, and its leaf shall not wither
He shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water
Bearing its fruit in its season and whatever he does will prosper
Blessed is the man
The ungodly are not so, they are chaff which the wind drives away
So the wicked won't stand in the judgment, or sinners with the saints
For the Lord knows the way of His righteous ones,
But the way of the godless man will die
Blessed is the man in whom the Lord delights
He shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water
Bearing its fruit in its season, and its leaf shall not wither
He shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water
Bearing its fruit in its season and whatever he does will prosper
Blessed is the man
Feb. 1993 Jamie Soles
