Sunday begins our summer in the Psalms!
Since we start with Psalm 1, the following is from a commentary on how the opening Psalm sets the course for our journey together this summer:
The Book of Psalms begins with a beatitude. Not a prayer or a hymn, but a statement about human existence. Here at the threshold of the Psalter we are asked to consider the teaching that the way life is lived is decisive for how it turns out. This opening beatitude also serves as an introduction to the book. Its location as the first psalm is not accidental; the psalm is there to invite us to read and use the entire book as a guide to a blessed life.
The first psalm teaches without qualification that each way has its distinctive destiny. The claim is the claim of faith, not experience. It will be reiterated at other points in the psalms (e.g., Psalm 37). But it will also be qualified in many ways. The prayers testify that the righteous meet affliction rather than fulfillment in life. Some psalms wrestle with the enigma of the prosperity and power of the wicked (e.g. Psalm 73). A few perceive that only the forgiveness of God can sustain life because of the sinfulness of the human condition (e.g. Psalm 130). Almost certainly verse 5 came to be understood in the light of apocalyptic eschatology like that of Daniel (see Daniel 7; 12). Nevertheless, qualified in all these ways, the doctrine endures and is heard again in the New Testament from another teacher who uses beatitudes and warns that the outcome of life depends on one’s guidance by the torah (Matthew 5-7). “Blessed,” he says, “are those who hear the word of God and keep it.” (Luke 11:28)
Psalms Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching.
James L. Mays, pages 40 and 44