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Psalm 1 · a question people ask

"Whatever he does shall prosper" (1:3). Does that mean life always goes well for a righteous person?

In the text

The psalm says it plainly, "Whatever he does shall prosper" (1:3), and doesn't explain it further. Other verses speak of the righteous and the wicked in other ways. A psalm says, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all" (Psalm 34:19). Another says, "For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked" (Psalm 73:3), and "When I tried to understand this, it was too painful for me" (Psalm 73:16), "until I entered God’s sanctuary, and considered their latter end" (Psalm 73:17). Jeremiah asks the LORD, "Why does the way of the wicked prosper?" (Jeremiah 12:1). In Hebrew his the way of the wicked has the words of Psalm 1:6, and his prosper is the verb of Psalm 1:3 (tap prosper). These verses stand side by side in Scripture, and these notes don't choose how they fit together.

The verses

“He will be like a tree planted by the streams of water, that produces its fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither. Whatever he does shall prosper.”
Psalm 1:3 · World English Bible
“For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish.”
Psalm 1:6 · World English Bible
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.”
Psalm 34:19 · World English Bible
“For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.”
Psalm 73:3 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 1

Psalm 1: Blessed is the man

The first verse and the last share one Hebrew word: "the path of sinners" (1:1) and "the way of the wicked" (1:6) are both derekh. And the stand the blessed man won't take (1:1) isn't the stand the wicked can't make in the judgment (1:5): the WEB has one word, the Hebrew two verbs.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions