John Calvin's Commentary: Psalm 1:1

1. Blessed are they who are upright in their way, walking in the law of Jehovah. Psalm 1:1

1. Blessed are they who are upright. In these words the prophet sets forth the same paradox which we met with at the commencement of the Book of Psalms. All men naturally aspire after happiness, but instead of searching for it in the right path, they designedly prefer wandering up and down through endless by-paths, to their ruin and destruction. The Holy Spirit deservedly condemns this apathy and blindness. And but for man's cupidity, which, with brutish impetuosity, hurries him in the opposite direction, the meaning of the words would appear quite plain to him. And the farther a man wanders from God, the happier does he imagine himself to be; and hence all treat, as a fable, what the Holy Spirit declares about true piety and the service of God. This is a doctrine which scarcely one among a hundred receives.

Excerpt from Calvin's Commentaries Volume VI, Psalms 93-150, Baker Books, 2009, p.399, 402-403

July 2009 in John Calvin Month on Koinonia in celebration of his 500th birthday! As part of the celebration we'll be posting small excerpts of writing as well as posts from Zondervan Academic authors.