Psalm 1
“Why is there so much praising of God,” I emailed Rabbi David Ostrich, “does not God know how wonderful God is? Why is it necessary to praise God so much?” Rabbi Ostrich replied: “
“While there are some thinkers who maintain that God “requires” lavish praise, this is not universal. Indeed, much of the Psalmist’s need to praise comes as a kind of automatic response to the wondrous presence of God as he/she becomes aware of it.”
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I first started recording Psalm 1 on June 4th the day before kidney cancer imaging. [Note: the kidney surgery that followed was astonishingly successful and Dr. Russo’s skill was so great he saved my right kidney during the operation.]
The recording (not reproduced here) had the fewest number of mistakes. I can hear my mother correcting me whenever I make a mistake as Mother always did when she was alive. My mother had a passion for correcting my Hebrew which still is in need of correction.
At the time, I was staying in a guest room too narrow for my portable wheel chair (12 pounds) [shown above] , but narrow enough that my skinny Amigo travel scooter got me in and out.
This is the King James Version:
1 Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
3 He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.
4 The ungodly are not so,
But are like the chaff which the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6 For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the ungodly shall perish.
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The following is my informal translation:
Blessed is the person who does not follow the path of people who are evil, who do not:
- Follow in the footsteps of sinners
- Sit in the path of evil
- Behave as a sinner
One obtain’s one’s desire in the Bible
the Old Testament, God gave the Jewish people.
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When one studies the Bible intensely–
day and night.
one becomes like a tree planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season and does not wither.
In all one does, one will succeed.
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The wicked are merely chaff.
The wind drives the chaff away.
God disapproves of the wicked–
sinners inside the congregation of the righteous.
God appreciates the path the righteous have chosen.
The wicked will perish
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Copyright © 2013 by Joel Solkoff. All rights reserved.
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The next day I took the following photograph of the kidney imaging machine that told my surgeon Dr. Paul Russo where to cut when he operates on me August 8th.