Psalm 1

New Century Version

Two Ways to Live

1 Happy are those who don’t listen to the wicked,
    who don’t go where sinners go,
    who don’t do what evil people do.
²They love the Lord’s teachings,
    and they think about those teachings day and night.
³They are strong, like a tree planted by a river.
    The tree produces fruit in season,
    and its leaves don’t die.
Everything they do will succeed.

⁴But wicked people are not like that.
    They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
⁵So the wicked will not escape God’s punishment.
    Sinners will not worship with God’s people.
⁶This is because the Lord takes care of his people,
    but the wicked will be destroyed.

Psalm 1

Holman Christian Standard Bible

BOOK I
(Psalms 1–41)

Psalm 1

The Two Ways

¹How happy is the man
who does not follow^[a] the advice of the wicked
or take^[b] the path of sinners
or join a group^[c] of mockers!^(A)
²Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction,
and he meditates on it day and night.^(B)
³He is like a tree planted beside streams of water^[d]
that bears its fruit in season^[e]^(C)
and whose leaf does not wither.^(D)
Whatever he does prospers.^(E)

⁴The wicked are not like this;
instead, they are like chaff that the wind blows away.^(F)
⁵Therefore the wicked will not survive^[f] the judgment,^(G)
and sinners will not be in the community of the righteous.

⁶For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,^(H)
but the way of the wicked leads to ruin.^(I)

Footnotes

Psalm 1:1 Lit not walk in
Psalm 1:1 Lit stand in
Psalm 1:1 Or or sit in the seat
Psalm 1:3 Or beside irrigation canals
Psalm 1:3 Lit in its season
Psalm 1:5 Lit stand in

New Century Version (NCV)

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

Psalm 1 New Century Version