But the characteristic of the people of Israel, and of Jewish literature, is that none of these ideals of happiness, whether of beauty or glory or power, have animated their best representatives. The one ideal which was always before the minds of their great prophets, and poets, and teachers was the ideal of righteousness, the ideal of the law of God, which is the subject of this first Psalm. The truth, with which the Book of Genesis opens, that God has given a law to men, that He has declared His will to them, and given them statutes and commandments in which that will is expressed--this is the supreme thought in the mind of the Jewish Psalmist or prophet, and, in spite of all their faults, of the Jewish nation as a whole. Psalm cxix. is, perhaps, the fullest expression of this conviction and passion. That psalm is one long variation of its opening verse, “Blessed are they that are undefiled in the way, and walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep His testimonies, and seek Him with their whole heart.” “O how love I Thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” “How sweet are Thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through Thy precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way.” You will see that these phrases express a positive passion in the mind of the Psalmist for the law of God--as strong a passion at least, or even stronger, than the passions of some men for the pleasures of sense, and of others for the pleasures of ambition and worldly success. “I opened my mouth,” says the Psalmist, “and drew in my breath, for my delight was in Thy commandments.” The whole frame of the man, his body as well as his mind, is absorbed in this passion for the law of God. The Jew craves for blessing, or for happiness, as much as the Greek or the Roman, but he seeks that blessing in the knowledge and obedience of the law of God. He knows it is to be found in the way of righteousness and nowhere else. Thus the first Psalm is a fitting introduction to all the rest. “His delight,” it says, “is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the waterside, that will bring forth his fruit in due season. His leaf also shall not wither; and look, whatsoever he doeth, it shall prosper.” This psalm, in short, embodies the very essence of the belief of the true Jew, which is that the law of God and the righteousness of God are the one source of all happiness and blessedness, and that the highest privilege of men and women is to give themselves up, body and soul, to the pursuit of the happiness which is there to be found.