HOLY PSALM OF DAVID (ZABUR) ONE

PSALM (ZABUR) 1

1 Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. 2 But they delight in the law of the Lord[1], meditating on it day and night.

These are the opening words of the first Psalm of David (Islamic, ‘Zabur’) in God’s Book (described by the prophet Muhammad in the Qur'an as ‘The Book’ and by Christians as ‘The Bible’).  And Jews, Muslims & Christians all echo the truth of these words and claim that they define a devout man or woman of their particular faith.   The laws of God, which David spoke of here, are in fact the first five books of the Torah (Arabic, Taurat). These laws together with the other Jewish Scriptures (viz., the Prophets, Psalms and Wisdom books) and the Christian NT books (viz., Arabic, the Ingil/ Ingeel), have been adopted by Christians as part of the ‘Word of God.’ Whereas Islam acknowledges that these are all the true scriptures that God told Muhammad ‘had gone before’ him (Surah 10 v.94 see end notes), Islam now teaches that the Bible is corrupted and only the Quran can be relied on to give the correct version of their content. The Dead Sea Scrolls (found in the 1930’s) however have demonstrated that the Hebrew scriptures have remained unaltered since around 300 BCE and so we can be fairly confident that the Greek version of the Psalms of David (Arabic, Zabur) and the other scriptures at the time of Muhammad (640 CE) were the same as they are today. The five books of the Torah are not just the laws given to Moses for Israel, but are also the story of Creation, Abraham and the patriarchs, as well as the story of God bringing the Israelites miraculously out of Egypt and enabling them to possess the ‘promised land’.   Again these ‘laws’ will have different, but vital meaning for Jews, Muslims and Christians today.

The author and man of God who became King David (the Muslim prophet, Davud), then declared that the truly devout give out healing, refreshment and joy to those around them.

3 They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.

This ‘fruit’ comes from God’s Spirit working within them, regardless of the ‘seasons’ of their lives.  David is saying that ‘godliness’ does not wither under the circumstances of life, but draws water from God’s Word.

The first Psalm ends with the words: -

4 But not the wicked! They are like worthless chaff, scattered by the wind. 5 They will be condemned at the time of judgment. Sinners will have no place among the godly. 6 For the Lord watches over the path of the godly, but the path of the wicked leads to destruction.

Again, all devout Jews, Muslims and Christians echo the truth of these words.   The pity is that many Jews, Muslims and Christians will deny this truth about all faiths other than their own!  Although the Old Testament clearly teaches that godly Gentiles are acceptable to Yahweh, there have been Jews who have persecuted them.  And although the New Testament teaches that some who have never heard of Christ will be saved, many Christians have not believed this.  And although the Qur’an clearly teaches that Christians and Jews who follow the Book are acceptable to Allah, many Muslims are not willing to face this and later traditions have negated the truth of these Quranic texts (Surah 2:62 ; 3:113). 

As for the Laws of God (v.2), they show up how desperately we all need God’s enabling power to live by, for, as God’s prophet Paul proclaimed, “All have sinned and fallen short of the standard that God’s eternal glory demands.” (The Book, Romans 3 v.23).

A poem inspired by Psalm 1: -

The good are under your care O Lord 

Teach us to swim against the tide 

That careless humanity floats in.

Produce good fruit in us we pray

We hear your word, we seek your way, 

Our roots your living waters draw in.

A prayer: -  O God, may I be a fruitful tree for you.

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[1]  David is here referring to YHWY (Hebrew) which translates into English as ‘The Lord God’ and into Arabic as ‘Allah’. For clarification of this please read the Forward.  For the rest of this book I will use the word ‘God’ to mean ‘The Lord God,’ or YHWH (in Hebrew) or ‘Allah’ (in Arabic).