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Psalm 1 is series of beatitudes and woes very much like the beatitudes and woes of Jesus which make up the opening section of the sermon on the mount (Matt. 5:1ff; Luke 6:17ff). Both of these are in different ways condensed versions, in poetic verse, of the fundamental principles of the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). They outline the blessed life in contrast to the cursed life and call the individual into the former. The Blessed man is first of all distinguished by the philosophy of life (counsel) he adheres to. He does not follow worldly thinking but remains distinct in the way he views the world and his own life in relation to God and others. Secondly the blessed man is distinguished by the general direction and goal of his life upon which all his actions and choices are based. His path is going in a completely different direction to that of those who have no regard for the directives of God. Thirdly the blessed person will not join with the world in making a mockery of life as God intended it to be. In fact he would rather live God’s way and be mocked than be one who mocks.The blessed life is conceived by one simple but profound spiritual activity: That of meditating upon the ‘Law’ of Yahweh. In other words the blessed man is preoccupied by reading, thinking over, and applying the scriptures. The terminology here should be noted carefully, that is, the terms ‘law’ and ‘meditate.’ The term law is important because it says something about the view that the psalmist has of scripture which will then be important for how we understand what ‘mediation’ entails in this case. The Hebrew word here is ‘Torah’ and it is correctly translated in the English word ‘law.’ It is important however to understand what kind of ‘law’ the scriptures actually are. If you open your bible to the first title page you come to you are likely to find the word ‘testament’ there somewhere.