The Good Life According to Psalm 1

BibleProject

BibleProject Podcast

Jesus, Theology, Old Testament, Demons, Satan, New Testament, Angels, Tim Mackie, Christianity, God, Spiritual Beings, Spirit, Religion & Spirituality, Bible, Jon Collins, Torah, Bible Study

4.8 • 20.5K Ratings

🗓️ 23 February 2026

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Bible Project podcast. Tim and I want to start reading the Psalms together. And so today we begin. The Psalms are Israel's hymn book, full of songs that are intended to train our hearts and teach us how to approach God.
0:24.2	There are 150 individual Psalms.
0:25.5	So where do you start?
0:27.8	You got to start with Psalm 1 and 2,
0:31.7	because the two distinct poems have been brought together into a unity as an introduction to the whole Psalm scroll.
0:35.4	Today, we're starting with Psalm 1.
0:38.4	Most translations begin Psalm 1 with the phrase,
0:41.8	Blessed is the man who.
0:43.9	Tim translates it,
0:45.6	How good is life for the man who?
0:47.9	This word, Asheret, is the Hebrew word underneath
0:51.9	Jesus' nine-part opening to the sermon on the Mount.
0:55.3	How good is life, four, or how happy is.
0:58.7	This is opening with, here's an ideal way to be human.
1:02.0	Psalm 1 introduces us to a key idea.
1:05.1	We're meant to meditate on the Bible and delight in it.
1:09.2	We think deeply about that which we find a resting and interesting, fascinating, beautiful,
1:16.5	and that's the experience that the good life person has with God's instruction embodied in
1:22.7	scripture.
1:23.9	But the poem begins with what the good life is not.
1:27.7	It describes a person on a journey towards a place called The Seed of the Mocker.
1:32.4	It's a person who pretends to sit above it all, critiquing everything in life with contempt for people around him.
	...

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