Bible verse wall art
Psalm 1: a tree planted by the rivers of water
The book of Psalms has a front door, and this is it. Six verses set out two ways to live, and give the first of them the picture of a tree that never runs dry.
Psalm 1 print
Psalm 1 · King James Version
3 he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water
An introduction to the whole Psalter
Psalm 1 has no title and no author named. Many scholars think it was placed first on purpose, as an introduction to the hundred and fifty psalms that follow, along with Psalm 2. It opens with the word “Blessed”, or happy: “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.”
Notice the slide from walking to standing to sitting. The poem describes how someone drifts into a crowd and finally settles there. The alternative comes in verse 2: “his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.”
What does Psalm 1:3 mean?
The full verse reads: “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”
The word “planted” matters. In a dry land a tree beside flowing water rarely grows there by chance; the Hebrew phrase suggests channels of water, the kind dug to irrigate an orchard. Someone put the tree there. Its fruit comes “in his season”, not all the time, which is honest about the rhythms of a life. Its leaves stay green through summer, because its roots reach water the drought cannot touch.
Verse 4 gives the contrast in a single line: “The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.” Tree and chaff, rooted and weightless.
A psalm for beginnings
Because it is about roots and growth, Psalm 1 is often read at confirmations, graduations and the dedication of children, and a tree is a natural image for a family. It is also a good psalm to begin a habit of daily Bible reading, since it describes exactly that.
Trees by water elsewhere in Scripture
Jeremiah 17:7 to 8 uses nearly the same picture of the man who trusts in the LORD, a tree that does not fear when heat comes. Ezekiel 47 and Revelation 22 end with trees growing along a river that flows from God's presence, their leaves for healing. The Bible begins and ends in a garden, and Psalm 1 plants a tree in between.