Reflection on Psalm one for March21, 2019
If you are of a certain age, you may remember a hugely popular song recorded by the rock and roll band, Aerosmith, “Walk this Way”. The number of popular songs featuring the word, “walking” is rather striking, and indeed telling. In Sacred Scripture, walking on a way is a traditional metaphor for pursuing a set of goals in life. In the first Psalm, we read, “Happy the man who has not walked in the wicked’s counsel, nor in the way of the offenders has stood, nor in the session of scoffers has sat” (vs.1) The way is shown by God in the Torah, otherwise known as the Law of Moses.. It is the reader’s map of life. God teaches us to distinguish between the true way and the false ways. “Those who are constant in the way of God, writes the Jewish scholar Martin Buber, “stand in contrast to those other classes of men, the sinners and the wicked”.
Two roads are open to every human being: one road leads to happiness, symbolized in this Psalm by the verdant tree; the other road to nothingness symbolized by the chaff being blown away by the wind.
In John gospel, Jesus identifies himself as the “way”. As disciples of Jesus we are called to follow him on the true path of righteousness. He is the Good Shepherd, who “guides me along right paths for the sake of his name” (Ps.23). Which path have we chosen?