Psalms of Praise 101; 103-104; 106-112

The following material is adopted from James’s Montgomery Boice’s 3 volume commentary on Psalms. Additional material from MacArthur Bible Studies, Psalms: Hymns for God’s People. Introductory material from Psalms of Grace, Philip Webb, editor. Additional material taken from sources listed at the end

The psalms included in Book IV of the Psalter are 90-106. The psalms included in Book V are 107-10. In this lesson, we will cover a few psalms from each of those books. Among those, we know that Psalms 101, 103 and 109 were written by David, because they are directly attributed to him. Many scholars believe that Psalm 104 is a continuation of Psalm 103 and was also written by David. The origins of Psalm 105 are unknown, though David is a candidate for its authorship.

The psalms included in this lesson are all centered on praising God. Of course, that theme applies to many of the songs found throughout all five books of the Psalter — praise and worship are primary themes. However, these psalms have a particular goal of leading others to join with the author in exalting God and declaring His praises.

The final psalm in this lesson, Psalm 109, is what scholars often refer to as an “imprecatory psalm.” This is a poem or prayer that implores God to call down judgment or destruction on someone who has violated His commands. There are several examples of imprecatory psalms throughout the Psalter. Importantly, the goal is not to curse wrongdoers out of anger or vengeance but to enlist God in the administration of justice.

Psalm 101

Psalm 101 speaks of absolute commitment to God’s righteousness and to God’s righteous ones. David commits to give praise to Yahweh because Yahweh is the source of lovingkindness and justice. Then David commits himself to the way of the blameless as he longs for the presence of God, desires to live in integrity, determines to remove evil from his presence, and even declares that he will destroy the wicked. David ends the psalm with a commitment to surround himself with the righteous and to destroy those who work iniquity.

Pattern for an Upright Administration

— This psalm is attributed to David

— The last one was Psalm 86, and this is the first in book four of the Psalter

— There is one more yet to come (Ps 103)

— David extols the standard by which he intends to run his kingdom

— Spurgeon called this “the Psalm of Pious Resolutions”

“How Can the Lord Come to Me?”

— We get a clue in the second verse as to when this psalm was written

— 2 Sam 6:1-11 recounts the story of the ark coming back to Jerusalem

— David along with thirty-thousand men accompanied the ark with loud music, harps, lyres, and tambourines

— Then a terrible thing happened, the cart stumbled and Uzzah reached out and was struck dead (2 Sam 6:7)

Needless to say, the singing and instrumental music stopped. The party was over. The king was angry and embarrassed, and the ark was not moved forward any further. For a long time it was left in the house of Oded-Edom.

But here is the important thing. David said in his distress, “How can the ark of the LORD ever come to me?” (2 Sam 6:9)

Love and Justice

— Luther wrote a commentary of eighty-pages about this particular psalm

— He was deeply concerned about civil government and wanted to expound the psalm as a listing of qualities toward which every Christian or magistrate should strive

— He picked up on the words in the first verse “love and justice” which are not being attributed to God but rather qualities David needed as a government official

— The NIV has inserted the word “your” love and justice in the first line

The New International Version translators obviously thought that it was God’s love and justice that David had in mind. That is why they added the word your, meaning God’s. But I think this is a mistake. It is true that love and justice are frequently noted as characteristics of God’s rule, rather than man’s, since human beings are usually neither just nor loving. But the words are used of good human rule in Isaiah 16:5, and this is what David writes about in the psalm. I think this is very important. For when we relate characteristics such as these to God, however appropriate that might be, we tend to avoid applying these same standards to ourselves, and this is harmful because it is precisely these characteristics that are needed for any upright administration.

Blameless Heart and Blameless Life

— Next David writes about personal moral character which he refers to as leading a “blameless life” and having a “blameless heart” (v. 2)

— The only way to have a blameless life is to have a blameless heart (Matt 12:34)

War against Evil

— After extolling virtues (love, justice mercy, and a blameless life) David now rejects the vices

1. “Faithless men” (v. 3)

— Faithless means failing to keep faith — that is, breaking agreements

— In regard to human agreements it means being dishonest or untrustworthy

2. “Men of perverse heart” (v. 4)

— Perverse means wicked

— It has the added idea of having turned aside from what is known to be good, true, or morally right

— It also carries the idea of willfully diverting someone from those ends

3. “Slander” (v. 5)

— Words and not actions

— This is a reminder of how concerned David was with the deadly effects of words maliciously spoken

4. “Haughty eyes and a proud heart” (v. 5)

— This is arrogance

— These are people that can handle everything by themselves without God

— David said that he will “put to silence all the wicked in the land” (v. 8)

Promoting the Faithful in the Land

— David will drive people who practice such things our of his government and positions of power (v. 6)

— David wanted to surround himself with good people

“Come, Lord Jesus”

— No human ever lives up to a perfect standard of righteousness

— In the later years of David’s life he was marked by his own personal sin and growing violence in his own family and government

— The good news is that there is one who does not fail in whom God has placed the governing of the universe in his hands - Jesus Christ (Rev 11:15)

Exploring the Meaning

Praising God includes our actions

David began Psalm 101 by stating his goal: “I will sing of mercy and justice; to You, O LORD, I will sing praises” (v. 1). Praising God is certainly a worthy goal. But the remainder of the psalm focuses on David’s actions and attitudes rather than on words of worship. “I will behave wisely in a perfect way,” he declared. “I will walk within my house with a perfect heart” (v. 2). Later he added promises such as, “I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me” (v. 3). And, “He who works deceit shall not dwell within my house; he who tells lies shall not continue in my presence” (v. 7). David’s message was clear: praising God includes more than verbal expressions. David was a master of those verbal expressions, as we see in his other psalms. However, Psalm 101 is David’s declared intention to praise God through his actions. His decisions and attitudes each day woudl serve as an offering of worship.

Psalm 103

Psalm 103 calls everyone to bless Yahweh. David begins and ends the psalm by calling out to his own soul to bless Yahweh, and in between these two bookends, David calls all creation to do the same, for that is the only proper response to the loving character of God. David exhorts his soul not to forget all the benefits of God — forgiveness, healing, deliverance, lovingkindness, compassion, and a full and fulfilling life. Yahweh defended the oppressed, He revealed Himself to Moses, He showed His acts to Israel, and He removed Israel’s sins as far as the east is from the west. In light of all this, David states that Yahweh is a compassionate Father to His children who are frail and who will ultimately return to dust. David ends this psalm just as he began, by calling all creation to bless Yahweh — His angels, His hosts, and all His works; and indeed, David calls his own soul to bless Yahweh.

“Praise the Lord, O My Soul”

— Some psalms are addressed to God

— Others to other peoples or nations

— But in Psalm 103 the psalmist is speaking to himself

— He wants to remember God’s blessings to remain grateful for all He has done

— David wanted his words to be praise

How Should a Person Praise God?

— We should praise God with “all my inmost being” (v. 1) or with all my soul

— He wants to praise God with all his heart, soul and strength (cf. Deut 6:5)

— This is a good place to begin noticing the “alls” in this psalm

— “all my being” (v. 1)

— and for “all his benefits” (v. 2)

— which includes forgiveness for “all your sins” and the healing of “all your diseases” (v. 3)

— Later David will call on “all [God’s] heavenly hosts” and “all his works” to join him in his praise (vv. 21-22)

Why Should a Person Praise God?

— It is a terrible thing to forget God’s “benefits”

— It is said of Hezekiah that his “heart was proud and he did not respond to the kindness shown him; therefore the LORD’s wrath was on him and on Judah and Jerusalem” (2 Chron 32:25)

— Similarly, God warned the Israelites (Deut 8:10-14)

— David says that we should praise God because of “all his benefits” and then goes on to describe what this means

1. Forgiveness of sins (v. 3)

— The first thing David is thankful for is the forgiveness of his sins

— He has forgiven our sins as far as the east is from the west (v. 12)

2. Healing (v. 3)

— David is thankful for the healing of “all” his diseases

— David is speaking of physical healing not spiritual

— Of course we do get sick but David is saying that when we are healed, it is God who has done it

— Therefore, such health as we have been given is a sure gift from God and he we should praise him for it

Macarthur

(103:3) Diseases:

This is not a promise but a testimony which should be understood in the light of Deuteronomy 32:39.

3. Redemption from the pit (v. 4)

— God brings us back from the very brink of death

— The “pit” is Sheol, where the dead go when they die

— He does not mean that he was sparred from death and is in heaven

— He means that God has redeemed him by sparring him from death, presumably by healing his diseases

4. Satisfaction with good things (v.5)

— We can praise God for the abundance of good things

— Hasn’t that been your experience?

What is God Like That We Should Praise Him?

— David answers the next question: What is God like that we should praise him? (vv. 6-18)

(1) God works “righteousness and justice” for the oppressed (v.6)

(2) God is “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love” (v. 8)

(3) He does “not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever” (v. 9)

(4) “he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities” (v. 10)

(5) his love is “from everlasting to everlasting…with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children” (v. 17)

Who Should Praise God?

— We come to the last stanza (vv. 19-22)

— God wants all creation to praise Him

(1) “Praise the LORD, you his angels (v. 20)

(2) “Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts” (v. 21)

(3) “Praise the LORD, all his works” (v. 22)

(4) “Praise the LORD, O my soul” (v. 22)

Exploring the Meaning

Praising God should be specific rather than vague

Psalm 103 is a beautiful expression of worship, and it is book ended by two wonderful injunctions of praise. “Bless the LORD, O my soul,” David proclaimed to begin this psalm, “and all that is within me, bless His holy name!” (v. 1). “Bless the LORD, all His works,” David proclaimed to end this psalm, “In all places of His dominion. Bless the LORD, O my soul!” (v. 22). In between those two declarations, David took care to be specific in his praise. For example, he extolled the way God “forgives all your iniquities” and “heals all your diseases” (v. 3). He praised God’s character: “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy” (v. 8). If we are not careful, we can drift into generalities when we do remember to verbally express praise and worship to God. “Father, we praise You…Lord God, you are worthy of praise...” and so on. Such expressions are not wrong, yet we will do better to emulate David in identifying specific, thoughtful avenues for expressing our praise and appreciation of the Most High.

Psalm 104

In this psalm, the psalmist exhorts his soul to bless Yahweh for His greatness and for His creation of the universe and all that is within int. The psalmist describes God as the majestic Creator of the earth, exclaiming that everything God had spoken came into existence. He describes God as the Sustainer of everything He created. He is the Governor of time through the sun and moon, which produce seasons, light, and darkness. God is the Possessor of all created things, including sea, the fish that fill the sea, the ships that move on the sea, and even the great leviathan that swims in the sea. God is the Sovereign One over all creation — the One who determines when all His creatures obtain life and when they return to dust. For all these reasons, the psalmist exhorts everything to recognize the supremacy of God, calling his own soul to bless Yahweh.

God and God’s Creation

—This is a praise Psalm

— The first part follows the creation story found in Genesis 1 in a general way and shows how the cosmos rejoices in its good God (vv. 1-30)

— The second, surprising part, shows God rejoicing in his creation (vv. 31-35)

— John Piper published Desiring God

— He wrote that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him

— In his second book, The Pleasures of God, Piper added the truth that he had discovered in the meantime, namely, that “we will be most satisfied in God when we know why God himself is most satisfied in God”

—Years earlier Jonathan Edwards came to a similar conclusion, noting that God delights in creation because creation displays His glory and the glory of God is God’s chief end in all His works

God and God’s Creation: Two Accounts

—The author of this psalm has Genesis in mind when he composed this psalm

— We will not be far wrong if we think of Psalm 104 as a poetic reflection on the more factual account in Genesis

— Day 1: (Gen 1:3-5) : Light (Ps. 104:2a)

— Day 2: (Gen 1:6-8) : The “firmament” divides the waters (Ps. 104:2b-4)

— Day 3: (Gen 1:9-10): Land and water distinct (Ps. 104:5-9; 10-13?);

(Gen 1:11-13) : Vegetation and trees (Ps. 104:14-17, plus 18?)

— Day 4: (Gen 1:14-19) : Luminaries as timekeepers (Ps. 104:19-23, plus 24)

— Day 5 (Gen 1:20-23) : Creatures of sea and air (Ps. 104:25-26; sea only)

— Day 6 (Gen 1:24-28) : Animals and man (anticipated in Ps. 104:21-24);

(Gen 1:29-31): Food appointed for all creatures ( Ps. 104:27-28 plus 29-30)

God’s Creation Glorifying God

—The first four verses parallel the the first two days of creation

— The psalmist isn’t so much concerned with the sequence of God’s acts

— He is more concerned with how creation reveals God’s greatness and his “splendor and majesty” (v. 1)

— The ancient Jews (unlike pagan religions) separated God and nature

— God had taught them to do so

— This meant that nature could be a vehicle of God’s self-revelation

— Jonathan Edwards said that God’s chief design in creation is to make himself known, to manifest his glory

— This means that creation is designed to show forth his might, wisdom, and goodness

— And Edwards adds “his happiness,” as well as his other attributes

— This is exactly what the psalm shows

The Perfection of God’s Creation

—The next three stanzas cover days three and four (vv. 5-23)

— Again the order is not on creation itself nor the order but on how creation displays God’s glory

1. The Separation of land and water (vv. 5-9)

—What makes this stanza interesting are the overtones of danger in the Hebrew mind associated with water

— The Jews were not a seagoing people

— They lived on land and loved the land

— To their way of thinking the oceans were always dangerous

— It is important to them, then, that God had “set the earth on its foundations” (v. 5)

— And at his “rebuke the waters fled” (v. 7) and God’s promise to never send a flood again (v. 9)

2. Water and food for God’s creatures (vv. 10-18)

—God provides water for the wild animals (vv. 10-12)

— And homes for them in the trees and mountains (vv. 12, 17-18)

— For domesticated animals such as cattle, he provides grass for food (v. 14)

— For humans he is lavish (v. 15)

— Also notice that before the verbs were in the past tense, they are now in the present

— John Stott reminds us that Christians are not deists

— What he means is that God has not merely created the cosmos as some skilled clock maker might have made a clock, winding it up and then placing it on a shelf to run by itself, showing no further interest in it

— To the Jew God has always been actively involved with his creation

3. The beneficial regulation of time (vv. 19-23)

—The fourth stanza corresponds to the fourth day of creation

— God made two great lights (Gen 1:16)

— In the psalm the night was established for animals to hunt and find food; the day for men to work (v. 20, 23)

The alternating sequence of day and night is a reminder that there is a time to work but also a time to rest and recuperate from work. Work is good, but to do nothing but work is against God’s wise and benevolent will.

God’s Creation Rejoicing in God

— Stanzas five and six speak of the dependence of creation on God

— God provides for his creatures

— There is a vast number and variety of creatures (vv. 24-26)

— They have a childlike dependence on God (vv. 27-30)

Special attention should be drawn to verses 29-30. They state in a negative way the same creaturely dependence affirmed positively in verses 27-28. The author has just said that the creatures wait with open mouths for God to feed them, and that he does. Now he asserts that if God withholds their breadth for even a moment, they die and return to dust. What is interesting here is that the word breath in verse 29 and the word translated “Spirit” in verse 30 are the same word, which reminds us that everything about us is dependent upon the Spirit or life-giving breath of God. This carries us back, on the one hand, to Genesis 2 where it is said that “God formed the man from dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breadth of life, and the man became a living being” (Gen 2:7), and forward to into the New Testament, on the other hand, where we find Jesus teaching that no one can enter the kindgom of God unless he is “born of water and the spirit” (John 3:5). In other words, both in regard to our physical lives and our spiritual lives, we are utterly dependent upon God. Without God we perish.

God Rejoicing in Creation

—Here God is said to rejoice in His creation

— John Piper in his book, The Pleasures of God, calls attention to Job 38:4-7, where God asks Job where he was when He created the universe

— When God created the universe “all the angels shouted for joy”

— No angel had ever seen anything like it

— They were spirit beings

— Piper imagines God to have said, “Watch this!”

Piper writes:

Imagine the awe and wonder that exploded among the angels. They had never seen or even imagined matter. They are all “ministering spirits” (Heb 1:14) and have no material bodies as we do. When God brought material stuff into existence with all its incredible variety and utterly unheard of qualities of sight and sound and smell and touch and taste, this was totally unknown to the angels. God had made it all up. It was not like the unveiling of a new picture made of all the colors and paints we are familiar with. It was absolutely, totally, unimaginably new! And the response of the sons of God was to shout for joy.

— There is only one jarring note as the psalmist concludes

— He wishes that “sinners [might] vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more” (v. 35)

— The only thing marring a perfect, harmonious universe is man

— It is helpful to not that the psalm ends with the Hebrew word hallelujah, “Praise the Lord”

— This is the first occurence of the word in the plaster

— It is significant that it is joined to a prayer for the destruction of the wicked, just as in the NT (Rev 19)

— Sinners will perish! To God be the glory!

Exploring the Meaning

Praising God should include our voices and our words

In addition to praising God through his actions and attitudes, David was intentional about verbalizing his worship. And we should be thankful for it. As we have seen, David’s expressions of praise are some of the most lyrical and memorable ever recorded. It is important that we follow the example of David and otehr psalmist by intentionally and actively praising God with our voices and our words. “I will sing to the LORD as long as I live,” wrote on psalmist. “I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. May my meditations be sweet to Him; I will be glad in the LORD” (104:33-34). “Oh, give thanks to the LORD, fro He is good!” declared another psalmist. “For His mercy endures forever. Who can utter the mighty acts of the LORD? Who can declare all His praise?” (106:1-2). Sometimes we think thoughts of praise or appreciation to God— and certainly He does hear them. However, there is power in raising our voices to worship God, the Lord Almighty. There is also power in gathering corporately to praise His name and proclaim His glory throughout the nations.

Psalm 106

This psalm calls Israel to praise Yahweh for His lovingkindness in light of Israel’s sinfulness against God. The psalmist exhorts his audience to praise Yahweh for his lovingkindness, and he appeals to God to show this lovingkindness toward sinful Israel. The psalmist calls to memory a long history of Israel’s sin — in Egypt, during the Exodus, in the Wilderness, with the golden calf, at Baal Peor, and even in the Promised Land — and exclaims the patient mercy of God toward Israel during all this time of sin. Finally, the psalmist calls to God to save Israel and to bring His people back from exile so that all Israel could come together and worship God.

Let All God’s People Say, “Amen!”

— This psalm is a long litany of sins that Israel committed in the wilderness for which God chastened them again and again

— The people seem to be in exile, and the final “Amen” (v. 48) is a recognition that God was in right in having judged them as he did

Psalm 106 is one of two psalms that go together. This means that although it is a somber note on which to end this section of the Psalter, it is nevertheless a realistic one. I pointed out in the last study that Psalms 106 and 106 represent two very different ways of telling the same story. Psalm 105 tells Israel’s story from the point of view of God’s faithfulness because of his covenant with Abraham and his descendants. Psalm 106 reviews the story from the point of view of Israel’s unfaithfulness to that same covenant and over the same period of history. Derek Kidner calls the psalm “the dark counterpart of its predecessor, a shadow cast by human self-will in the long struggle against the light.” Yet he also adds rightly, “For all its exposure of man’s ingratitude, this is a song of praise, for it is God’s extraordinary long suffering that emerges as the real theme. This is the basis of the final prayer (v. 47), and this gives reality to the doxology that closes not only the psalm but the fourth book of the Psalter.

We cannot miss the fact that Psalm 106 begins and ends with Hallelujah (“Praise the LORD”).

Israel’s Long-Suffering God

— The people have sinned repeatedly, and God has disciplined them repeatedly

— But God did not cast them off, as they deserved

— Instead “he remembered his covenant” (v. 45)

— Israel’s history is as much the story of God’s mercy and longsuffering as it it the story of Israel’s unfaithfulness and unbelief

Q: Isn’t that your story too?

— Isn’t that the chief content of your testimony when you praise God for his many mercies?

— We do not praise him because he is wonderful and we are wonderful too

— We praise him because he is kind to us even when we sin and merciful to us when we don’t deserve mercy (v. 1)

Israel’s Sin in Egypt

— The people confess their sin (v. 6)

— What follows from this point is a litany of Israel’s transgressions (vv. 6-39)

— It is most helpful to note that there are eight distinguishable sins spread out over three periods of history

(1) The time of leaving Egypt

(2) The years in the desert

(3) The occupation of the Promised Land

— The chief sin of the people when leaving Egypt was their rebellion against God (v. 7)

— His “many kindnesses” would be sending Moses and Aaron as God’s agents of deliverance

— His “miracles” (v. 7) would be the plagues that visited on the Egyptians

— But no sooner had they left and as early as the on the border of the Red Seas (and not yet out of Egypt) they started complaining (Ex 14:11-12)

— Were there no graves for us in Egypt?

— Didn’t we say leave us alone and let us stay in Egypt?

— Better for us to be slaves than die in the desert!

— Despite their rebellion God “saved them for his name’s sake, to make his mighty power known” (v. 8)

Spurgeon wrote

This is mentioned, not to their credit but to their shame since those who do not believe the Lord’s word til they see it performed are not believers at all… Their song was very excellent…but sweet as it was, it was quite short, and when it was ended they fell to murmuring

Is that the way with you? You see God’s miracles, but at the first sign of any new opposition you forget what God has done and are soon rebelling against what you suppose to be your hard and painful life? Then, when God saves you again, you save your praises but soon forget even that deliverance?

Israel’s Sins in the Desert

— The psalmist remembers six sins associated with Israel’s years of wandering

1. The sin of discontent (vv. 13-15)

— This stanza combines Numbers 11 and Exodus 16 where the people grumbled against Moses

— In Exodus they grumbled and God gave them manna

— In Num 11 they had grown tired of the manna and complained they had no meat

— We are given much and still we grumble

2. The sin of jealousy (vv. 16-18)

— The next section describes when Korah and 250 of his accomplices rebelled against Moses (Num 16)

— God judged them by having the earth open up and swallow them

— God sent a plague that killed over 14,000 people before Aaron intervened to make atonement for their sin

3. The sin of idolatry (vv. 19-23)

— The next incident is the making of the golden cafe

— The calf reminded them of Apis, the bull god of Egypt

— Worship of Apis was orgiastic

— The result was a sexual romp in which the people “ran wild” (Ex 32:25) \

Leslie Allen makes this observation

It is interesting that Paul quotes the first half of verse 20 in his indictment of the entire human race in Romans. The psalm says

They exchanged their Glory

for an image of a bull, which eats grass (v. 20)

This refers to Israel’s sin at Sinai. However, in Romans Paul broadens the verse to embrace the sin of mankind in general, writing, “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles” (Rom 1:22-23). In other words, it is not Israel alone that has been guilty of the sin of idolatry. This is humanity’s sin in general. We too are idolaters when we put anything but God in God’s place.

4. The sin of unbelief (vv. 24-27)

— The next is the sin of unbelief connected with the refusal of the people to enter the Promised Land (Num 13-14)

— Often we miss the good that God has for us because we will not believe his promises and act upon them

5. The sin of apostasy (vv. 28-31)

— Num 25 recounts the time when the men of Israel “began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women” (vv. 1-2)

— They were invited to make sacrifices to their gods

— The Baal gods (in this case, the Baal of Peor) were fertility gods who were served by cultic immorality

— Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, killed two of the most blatant offenders

— God rewarded him giving him “a lasting priesthood” for his family (v. 13)

6. The sin of insurrection (vv. 32-33)

— The insurrection at Kadesh where the people had no water (Num 20)

— God told Moses to speak to the rock but he struck it instead

Israel’s Sin in the Promised Land

— Even in the promised land the unfaithfulness of the people continued

— They mingled with the Canaanites

— They were warned against the sins of the Canaanites (Ex 34:11-14)

— Instead of destroying them, they “mingled with the nations and adopted their customs” (v. 35)

— They worshiped their idols (v. 36)

— They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons (v. 37)

God’s Response to Israel’s Sin

— God’s response was twofold

— First there was judgment

— God handed them over and allowed an alien people to conquer and oppress them (v. 40-42)

— The northern kingdom was overcome by the Assyrians (721 B.C.)

— The southern kingdom was conquered by the Babylonians (586 B.C.)

— Second, there was compassion and deliverance

— God remembered his covenant (v. 45)

— Despite the people’s unfaithfulness, God remained faithful (Rom 3:3-4)

Psalm 107

Psalm 107 begins book 5 of the Psalter and invites the audience to give thanks to God because God saved in times of trouble. The psalmist calls on those who are redeemed by Yahweh to respond with thanks and praises to Yahweh. He then recites the pattern of the sinfulness and repentance of the people and declares that when the Israelites repented, God heard and delivered them. The psalmist declares that the people have seen the hand of God in the affairs of the world and that, therefore, the only right response is to cry out to God and praise Him. God responds to the obedience of the people with punishment; the psalmist calls the people to be wise and understand God’s hand of lovingkindness in the life of mankind.

The Pilgrims’ Psalm: Part 1

— The Pilgrims who cross the Atlantic often referred to this psalm

— Governor William Bradford in his account of the founding of the Plymouth Plantation explicitly referred to Psalm 107 in his well-known summation of their achievement

— The Pilgrims came ashore on December 11, 1620

— They spent the prior day worshipping

—It is likely that Psalm 107 was the basis of that Sabbath’s meditation

— The psalm is a praise song of the regathered people of Israel after their Babylonian bondage

— The psalm thanks God for their deliverance from exile

— The psalm was aptly used by the Pilgrims because it gives examples of the perils from which the people of God were delivered

A Call to Praise God

— Thanksgiving is the note struck in the opening verses

This call should cause us to ask a probing, personal question, namely, Am I among the redeemed? meaning, Am I one who has been delivered from sin and so been gathered from my aimless secular wanderings to be a part of God’s well-loved, well-grounded, and well-established covenant people? If you have been redeemed from your sin by the death of Jesus Christ, you should thank God for your deliverance and tell others that God is indeed “good” and that “his love endures forever,” as the psalm says. This is its first lesson. According to the first chapter of Romans, it is a mark of the unregenerate that “they neither [glorify God] as God nor [give] thanks to him” (v. 21).

Pictures of Peril

— The main body of the psalm (vv. 4-32) is a picture of the perils common to man

— After describing our peril and God’s deliverance, the psalmist reminds us how much we should be thankful.

1. Homes for the homeless

— Homelessness or being lost in the wilderness is the first peril (vv. 4-9)

— It is easy to see why this would appeal to the Pilgrims

— They were driven from their homes and hounded from place to place

— First driven from England to Holland

— At last they set sail for the American continent

— We are all homeless without God

— Like the prodigal son

— He left his father’s home to squander his substance in a far country (Lk 15:11-32)

— Salvation began when he came to his senses, confessed his sin, and returned to his father

2. Freedom for captives

— The next section describes the distress of prisoners (vv. 10-16)

— We may not be able to speak about being literally delivered from prison

— But we can speak of being delivered from the prison house of sin

— Jesus said he came to “proclaim freedom fro the prisoners” (Lk 4:18; cf. Is 61:1-2)

— He freed us from sin’s shackles

3. Healing for sick

— The third image (vv. 17–22) pictures people who “suffered affliction because of their iniquities” (v. 17)

— It describes illness so severe that it brought those afflicted “near the gates of death” (v. 18)

This section describes the Pilgrim experience too. Four of the original small band of 102 passengers died before they even reached America, one just before the ship landed. Most terrible of all, half of the remainder died in that first cruel winter, which Bradford called “the starving time.” Only twelve of the original twenty-six heads of families and four of the original twelve unattached men or boys survived, and all but a few of the women perished. As for the rest, there was much sickness

— God’s Word is the only thing that heals our spiritual sickness

—We were worse than sick, we were dead (Eph 2:1)

— If you are a Christian, God saved you “from the grave” (v. 20)

4. Safe for those at sea

— The most stirring section is the description of the perils at sea (vv. 23-32)

— It might have been written to describe that difficult sixty-five-day, late-fall crossing of the turbulent North Atlantic by the Pilgrim fathers and their families

The Experience of the Pilgrims

— The pilgrims suffered terribly that first winter

— Come spring the few healthy men planted crops while the sick recovered

— Who does not know the story of that first harvest celebration in November?

It is not from Bradford that we learn the details of that thanksgiving celebration; they are found in a letter written by Edward Winslow to a friend in England in December 1621. Winslow tells of a three-day feast attended not only by the Pilgrims but also by the local Indians, the great chief Massasoit himself arriving for the feast with ninety men.

— Well might have the survivors had said, “he brought forth the hungry to live, and they founded a city where they could settle” (v. 36)

The Other Side of the Story

— There is another side to this story: The good times were succeeded by hard times again

— God gave a fruitful harvest and then also allowed the harvests of these same people to fail and their numbers to decrease

— In fact, it repeats this cycle twice in the last section:

— hard times (vv. 33–34)

— blessing (vv. 35–38)

— hard times again (vv. 39–40)

— and blessing again (vv. 41–42)

Uses of This Doctrine

— I suggest four uses of the doctrine that even for the righteous God sends sorrow as well as joy, hardship as well as material blessing—yet is not arbitrary

1. Reverence for God

— We must revere God and be humble

— We don’t understand His ways

2. Looking for things that are eternal

— Looking beyond the seen to the unseen and eternal is faith

— Abraham is one example of those with faith

— Habakkuk said, “The just shall live by his faith” (Hab 2:4) 3. Calling Sinners to repentance

— The psalm’s last verse is telling not only the righteous but also everyone to wise up and consider how things actually are (v. 43)

— We live in a moral world governed by a moral God

4. Thanksgiving

— Believers should thank God for being what he is and acting as he does

—and not only when things are going our way or we have it easy

— Be content in every situation (Phil 4:12)

Heeding and Considering

— A true life story illustrates the message of this psalm

Alexander Duff was an eloquent pastor and missionary pioneer, the first sent to India by the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. On October 14, 1829, he and his wife set out for the Indian subcontinent on a ship called the Lady Holland, and four months later, at midnight on the 13th of February 1830, the ship ran aground while attempting to navigate the Cape of Good Hope. The pounding surf soon destroyed the ship, washing everything it held away, but miraculously all the passengers and crew made it safely to land. Nothing remained of their belongings, but as one sailor walked along the shore looking for food and fuel, he came upon two books, a Bible and the Scottish Psalm Book. He found the name of Alexander Duff in both of them, so he brought them to the missionary. Duff had been transporting eight hundred books to India, where he hoped to (and later did) establish a college, but of those eight hundred books only these two remained. In spite of this loss, Duff at once opened the Bible to Psalm 107 and read it to the other survivors, concluding with the words, Whoever is wise, let him heed these things and consider the great love of the Lord (v. 43). Can you do that? What matters most in life is not the number or severity of the perils from which we are delivered, but whether we are actually in the hands of that greatly loving God. If we are in his hands, we can “heed these things,” “consider the great love of the Lord,” and then praise him as Psalm 107 does. By this praise it has been a blessing to God’s people throughout the ages.

Psalm 108

In the psalm, David exalts Yahweh for His lovingkindness toward Israel. He declares his praises to Yahweh because God’s love for Israel is high above the heavens. David acknowledges that Yahweh is sovereign because of His control over all the nations — both over the chosen people of Israel and over all the enemies of Israel. David proclaims that God is the One who will deliver Israel from all the enemies, and therefore, David’s heart is set to worship God.

A Warrior’s Morning Song

— This psalm is made up from parts of two other psalms

— Psalm 57 an 60

— In Psalm 57 David was hiding in a cave escaping from Saul

— In Psalm 60 there is a war between David’s armies and the Edomites

— The title of Psalm 108 says that the psalm is “of David” but only because the psalms from which it is taken both identify David as their author

A Morning Praise Song

—The first thing that the author says is that “his heart is steadfast,” or fixed (v. 1)

— He is a faithful God and because He is faithful, the psalmist can also be faithful

— Unfortunately, we are often unfaithful and are like the parable of the farmer who sowed seed (Matt 13:4-9)

— Since the writer’s confidence is in God, rather than in himself, we are not surprised to find the opening stanza of the psalm calling for God to be exalted:

“Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let your glory be over all the earth” (v. 5)

— This is a prayer that God will be exalted in king’s own circumstances

A Prayer for Deliverance and Victory

—The second section of the psalm contains a prayer to God to save, help, and deliver those who have been attacked

— As we saw in Psalm 60, the Word of God is the basis of the psalmist’s faith

A Prayer for Victory Over Edom

—The final stanza is a prayer for victory over Edom

— David defeated the Edomites and made it part of his kingdom (2 Sam 8:1-14; 1 Chron 18:1-13)

— This was probably in the mind of the author

— And may have been the reason for this new psalm

— The psalmist asks in verse 10: Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom?

— When the psalm speaks of the fortified city it can only mean Petra, the legendary, inaccessible, and apparently impregnable mountain stronghold of Edom

— It is approached through a narrow cut in the limestone cliffs that winds inward for about a mile and is called a siq

— The cliffs rise for thousands of feet on both sides

— In places the passage is so narrow that no more than two horses can pass abreast — Only God could give victory over a fortress like that, and the writer knows it (v. 12)

Two Conflicts, Two Victories

—How can we take this psalm from its ancient setting and carry its value into our own time and beyond? There are two ways

1. By gaining strength for our conflicts

—As Christians have spiritual battles (Eph 6:12)

— Therefore, we need to ask God for help, as the psalmist does (James 4:2; Matt 7:7)

2. By trusting the warrior from Edom

—In Isaiah 63 there is a dramatic scene in which a bloodstained divine warrior comes marching up the valley of the Kidron from the west toward Jerusalem

— This is a prophetic vision of Jesus Christ in the end times after subduing the enemies of the world

— Here we see the sure punishment of the wicked and the certain vindication of those who trust God and look to him for their deliverance

— Judgement has not yet come and some in Peter’s day were asking when will it come? (2 Pet 3:4)

— But Peter answered, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (v. 9).

— God is delaying the ultimate working out of judgment until those whom he will call to faith in Jesus Christ come to him.

— Judgment is not yet; this is the day of God’s grace

— But judgment will come

— If you are not a believer in Jesus, God warns you to believe on Jesus now, while there is still time

Psalm 109

In this psalm, David asks that Yahweh would not be silent but that He would judge the wicked who have attacked David. He makes the plea that God would take action against David’s enemies who have oppressed him. David then outlines the punishment he is asking God to execute against the wicked — for the days of the wicked to be few, for the sin of the wicked to be remembered by God, and for any remembrance of the wicked to be cut off from the world. David prays for protection from the wicked on account of God’s lovingkindness, and finally, he declares praises to God for His deliverance of the afflicted.

An Evil End for Evil Men

— This is the last of the imprecatory psalms

— Psalm 109 is not only the last of the imprecatory psalms, but it is also the strongest, most intense or worst

Imprecations of King David

— We have already covered the other imprecatory psalms and how these curses should be understood

— Let’s put this psalm in perspective

1. All the imprecatory psalms are by David, and in these psalms David is writing as a king and not merely as a private citizen

— The specific and most intense of these curses are by a king whose responsibility as king was to see justice dispensed to evil persons

— Moreover, David was God’s “anointed” ruler in a way rulers of other kingdoms are not

— So attacks on David were also attacks on God

2. David leaves vindication and judgment in the hands of God; he does not take vengeance into his own hands

— David was praised for being non-vindictive

— He had an opportunity to kill Saul but he did not (1 Sam 24, 26)

3. It is right to desire the punishment of evil and the triumph and reward of good people

— We want unbelievers to come to Christ

— But if they fail to do so, if they persist in doing harm to others, the only right thing is to desire their punishment—that they might be stopped and their victims be protected

4. The judgments described in these psalms—and worse—are nevertheless exactly what will come to the wicked eventually — Now there is time to repent

— But these judgments will one day come to all who do not repent

A Man of Prayer — David asks God not to be silent, i.e. to act against his foes (vv. 1-5)

—David knew the danger of slander

— What was David’s response?

— “But I pray” (Literally in the Hebrew) (v. 5)

— While my enemies are uttering false words about me to other people, trying to do me harm, I am speaking to God

— I am praying to God always

Curses Spoken and Received

— In the second section of the psalm David changes from the plural to the singular when speaking of his enemies (vv. 6-20)

— This may be a Hebrew idiom meaning “each and every one of them”

— The apostle Peter took verse 8 specifically when he interpreted it as a prophetic reference to Judas Iscariot (in Acts 1:20)

1. An accuser’s accuser

— The setting of verses 6 and 7 is a court of law, giving the entire passage a legal or judicial tone

— They should be seen as his appeal to God to give justice to a person who has been extremely harmful

— The word “accuser” (v. 6) appears throughout the psalm (vv. 20, 29, 4)

— It is the Hebrew word for Satan

The one who ought to be standing at the right hand of the defendant is his advocate or lawyer, not an accuser. Here the psalmist imagines a scene in which his enemy is hauled into court by an evil man and while there discovers that his lawyer is also an evil man who accuses him rather than defends him. He has no defenders at all, in fact—because his actions are defenseless.

2. Sin’s solidarity

— The hardest part of this psalm is what comes next (vv. 9-15)

— Here the curses pronounced on the man who has been doing evil are extended in the future as maledictions on his children

— In the present as curses on his wife,

— And in the past as judgments on his parents, his mother in particular

— The best we can do with these curses is to see them as a reminder of the solidarity of humanity

— The sin of one person always harms others, especially those closest to him or her

— The Ten Commandments also find curses extending to family members (Ex 20:5-6)

— Even Jesus recognized the principle of sin’s solidarity when he wept over Jerusalem,

— He foresaw the day when the city would be destroyed

— and its children dashed to the ground because of their fathers’ sins (cf. Luke 19:41–44)

3. No repentance

— The person being spoken about shows no sign of repentance

— This person sins against God and intends to keep doing so

— The punishment asked for is with strict correspondence to the sins.

— Verses 16–20 explain the curses of verses 6–15, showing that the evil person will get exactly what he gave others

— He cursed them, so he will be accursed

A Passionate Appeal

— The mood changes radically from the evil person to God (v. 21)

1. God’s name and honor

—David is concerned here not so much with his own reputation as with God’s

— He wants God’s name to be vindicated most of all

2. The psalmist’s weak condition

— David refers to himself as “poor and needy”

— All of us feel this way at times

— We are all weak creatures at best

3. God’s steadfast love

— The final grounds for appeal (vv. 26–29) is God’s love and what God is both willing and able to do to help the psalmist

— David’s enemies may curse, but God, who loves to bless his people, will be sure to bless them and put their accusers to shame (vv. 28–29)

God at My Right Hand

— The last two verses (vv. 30–31) are a powerful and effective ending to this admittedly difficult psalm

— Notice the deliberate contrast between this last sentence and the words that introduced the imprecatory section in verse 6

— Verse 6 asked that an accuser might stand at the right hand of the one who is doing evil to accuse him and secure his condemnation

— Here, in the case of the righteous, the accuser is replaced by God, who stands at the right hand of his own beloved people to defend and save them

How do we become righteous when we are not? In the third chapter of Zechariah there is a vision that shows us how. In his vision the prophet saw Joshua, Israel’s high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, presumably representing the people before God in the temple. Satan, the accuser of the brethren, was there to accuse him. Since we are told later that Joshua was clothed in filthy clothes, representing his and the people’s sin, Satan must have been pointing to these and declaring forcefully that Joshua was unfit to stand before God in this service. Joshua said nothing, perhaps because he had nothing to say. He was sinful. He was unworthy. He is a picture of ourselves in our sin. But God spoke though his angel, and his words were a sharp rebuke to Satan: “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?” (Zech. 3:2). Then Joshua’s filthy clothes were taken from him and rich garments and a clean turban were put on him, while the angel of the Lord stood nearby. If you see David’s psalm in light of Zechariah’s vision, you understand that in the divine scheme of things you and I are not righteous people being unjustly accused by the wicked, but rather the wicked who are being rightly accused for our sins and who need to be saved by God. That is exactly what has been done for us by Jesus Christ, for by his death Jesus has become “our righteousness, holiness and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30).

Psalm 110

Psalm 119 presents the Messiah as a King-Priest who will ultimately achieve absolute victory over His enemies. Yahweh reveals that the Messiah is the supreme King when Yahweh invites the Messiah to sit at His right hand until the enemies of the Messiah are subjugated. The Messiah is the supreme Priest, and we see that as the psalmist compares the Messiah to Melchizedek. As King, the Messiah will rule over the people in the political domain; as Priest, the Messiah will rule over the people in the spiritual domain - mediating between the people and God. It is this supreme King-Priest in whom we have hope for spiritual redemption and for ultimate justice in the world.

The Psalm Most Quoted in the New Testament

David and David’s Lord

— Not long before Jesus’ crucifixion the leaders of Israel tried to trap Jesus

— He turned the table by asking them a question:

— “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?”m (Matt 22:41-45)

— He continued:

— “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’?

For he says, The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”

— “If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” (Matt. 22:41–45; see Mark 12:35–37; Luke 20:41–44)

— The answer to the question, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” must therefore be, “He is both the son of David and the Son of God.” (cf. Rom 1:3-4)

The Greatest Messianic Psalm

— When Jesus was asking the Pharisees this question He was referring to this psalm ( Psalm 110:1)

— This psalm is quoted by NT writers no less than twenty-seven times

— It is the greatest of the Messianic psalm (other include Pss 2, 22, 45, 72, 110)

The Powerful Reign of Christ 1. “The Lord says to my Lord.”

— In Hebrew the first word for “Lord” in verse 1 is Jehovah, or Yahweh

— This is printed in all CAPS and refers to the God of Israel

— The second “Lord” is Adonai and this is someone greater than David who will sit at God’s right hand

— This person can only be the Messiah, Jesus Christ

2. “Sit at my right hand.”

— God the Father invited God the Son in His ascension to sit at the place of honor in the heavenly throne room (cf. Act 2:22-36; Heb 10:10-12)

— Footstool was an ancient Near Eastern picture of absolute victory portraying the idea that one’s enemy was now underfoot 9cf. Pss 8:6,7;47:3; Is 66:1; 1 Co 15:27)

— This anticipates Christ’s Second Advent (cf. Rev 19:11-21) and a conquering king (cf. Heb 10:13)

The Spiritual Reign of Christ

— Sitting signifies rest from Jesus’ atoning work

— But it doesn’t mean inactivity

— He is ruling from His throne in order to extend His kingdom

— Two phrases in this stanza show us what Jesus’ reign is like

1. “In the midst of your enemies.”

— If this psalm were about a mere earthly king, it would never speak of ruling “in the midst of” enemies

— That is not how earthly kings rule

— They make boundaries; defend and extend their frontiers; and confront, and overpower enemies

— Here is a king who rules in the midst of his enemies

— This can only mean that his is a spiritual rule that infiltrates the hostile powers of this world in a nearly invisible fashion

— He exerts indirectly through his people, the church

This verse meant a great deal to Martin Luther because of the nature of his battles at the time of the Reformation. At one point, when he was sick, he praised the psalm, saying, “If I were well, I would endeavor to make a commentary on it.” Luther did get well and in time did write a commentary on Psalm 110 that ran to 120 pages. In it he said, “We must live in the midst of Christ’s enemies.… However, it is not the meaning of this verse that we physically resist our enemies, which is part of the thinking of the anabaptists and other rebels. In his kingdom Christ has nothing to do with secular power and government. Nor are we Christians able to defeat and subdue the devil and the world by means of physical power or weapons.” No, said Luther. We are to fight for Christ by suffering, by faith, and by the preaching of God’s Word.

2. “Your troops will be willing.”

— Those who are enlisted in Christ’s service have enlisted willingly (v. 3)

Q: Are you willing? Have you presented yourself to Jesus as a living sacrifice?

— When Isaiah saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, he heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

— Isaiah could only answer, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isa. 6:1–8)

The Order of Melchizedek

— Verse 1 was the first of two special revelations

— The second is found in verse 4:

The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.” (v. 4)

— This is something that “the LORD has sworn”

— Second, “he will not change his mind”

— Very few people in the average church would be able to explain why Melchizedek is important

— He appears at only three places in the Bible

— He is introduced in Genesis 14, as part of the story of Abraham

— After one thousand years and without any additional references, he suddenly appears again as a cryptic reference in this psalm

— Then again, after another thousand years, he emerges as a major personage in Hebrews

— Hebrews mentions Melchizedek eight times (Heb. 5:6, 10; 6:20; 7:1, 10–11, 15, 17)

— The phrase “the order of Melchizedek” four times (Heb. 5:6, 10; 6:20; 7:17)

King and Priest in One Person

— In Genesis 14 Abraham has succeeded in rescuing his nephew Lot and his family

— On his way back from the battle, Abraham is met by Melchizedek

— He is identified as a “priest of God Most High.”

— Melchizedek blesses Abraham, and Abraham gives him a tithe of the spoils of the battle (Gen 14:18-20)

— The whole story is just three verses

— Melchizedek is not Jesus Christ, but although he is not, he is nevertheless an important Old Testament type of Christ

— An old ancient Jewish view is that he was Shem, one of Noah’s three sons and an ancestor of Abraham

— According to the lifetime figures given in Genesis 11 he would have lived thirty-five years beyond the death of Abraham

— The early church father Origin thought he was an angel

— Ambrose and some other commentators suggest that he was a preincarnate appearance of Jesus Christ

— John Calvin described Melchizedek simply but respectfully as a man who, although we know nothing else about him, “alone in that land was an upright and sincere cultivator and guardian of religion.”

— Two important things about Melchizedek

— His name is a title, meaning “king of righteousness”

— This is a significant title for Jesus who has become “our righteousness” (1 Cor 1:30)

— Second, Melchizedek is said to have been a “king of Salem,” which means “king of peace”

— This is also an apt title for Jesus Christ

— Verse 4 adds that the Messiah will also be a priest, a priest according to “the order of Melchizedek.”

— This would have been a shocking idea because these two offices were never combined — No priest could be a king

— In fact, when Uzziah, the king of Judah, attempted to offer incense to the Lord by entering the temple, where only priests were allowed to go, God judged him by afflicting him with leprosy (see 2 Chron. 26:16–23).

The Priestly Reign of Christ

— Hebrews provides us with an inspired New Testament exposition of what this all means

1. “The Lord has sworn.”

— Hebrews introduces Melchizedek early in the fifth chapter (5:10)

— But stops short explaining, “We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn” (v. 11)

John Macarthur adds:

The Hebrews spiritual lethargy and slow response to gospel teaching prevented additional teaching at this time. This is a reminder that failure to appropriate the truth of the gospel produces stagnation in spiritual advancement and the inability to understand or assimilate additional teaching (cf. Jn 16:12). Such a situation exists also among the Gentiles who have received revelatory truth (natural or general revelation) from God in the creation (Ro 1:18-20). Rejection of that revelation results in a process of hardening (Ro 1:21-32). The Hebrews had not only received the same general revelation, they had also received special revelation consisting of the OT Scriptures (Ro 9:4), the Messiah Himself (Ro 9:5), and the teaching of the apostles (2:3,4). Until the Hebrews obeyed the revelation they had received and obtained eternal salvation (v. 8), additional teaching about the Messiah’s Melchizedekian priesthood would be of no profit to them.

— The writer before explaining who Melchizedek is, first explains the importance of an oath

— He says that an oath stresses the certainty` of what is said (Heb 6:16-18)

2. “A priest forever.”

— In chapter 7 of Hebrews the author focuses on the word “forever”

— The writer makes two points

1. Because no genealogy of Melchizedek is given, this ancient king becomes an apt symbol of an eternal priesthood

2. Because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood

— Therefore, He is able to save completely all those who come to God through him (Heb 7:23-25)

— And He is able to always intercede for us — The last verse of the chapter combines the idea of God’s oath with the idea of forever (Heb 7:28)

3. “The order of Melchizedek.”

— In Hebrews 7 the writer explains the meaning of the words “the order of Melchizedek” (7:11)

— The former system was Levitical system could not save anyone, if it could we would not need another priest

— It was weak and useless (7:18)

— A better hope is introduced by which we draw near to God (7:18-19)

— The new priesthood is superior to the order of Aaron in three ways

1. It established a better covenant

— The principle of the old covenant was that if the people would remain faithful to obey God, he would protect and bless them

— But the people were not able to live up to it (Heb 8:8-13; cf. Jer 31:31-34)

— This new covenant brought by Jesus

— Changes the heart

— Those who are affected by it both know and are able to obey God

2. Jesus’ priesthood is superior because He made a real atonement

— Hebrews says that the old sacrifices did not actually remove sins (Heb 9:9-10)

— Jesus’ atonement removed our sin (Heb 9:12-14)

3. Jesus’ priesthood is superior because it did not need to be repeated

— When Jesus completed his work He sat down at the Father’s right hand (Heb 10:11-14) The Judicial Reign of Christ

— Psalm 110 is about the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Messiah, in terms of:

(1) his enthronement

(2) his governmental rule through his people, the church

(3) his priestly work of atonement and intercession

(4) the final judgment

— The last three verses of the psalm introduce this work of judgment

Alexander Maclaren says, “The choice for every man is, being crushed beneath his foot, or being exalted to sit with him on his throne. ‘He that overcometh, to him will I give to sit with me on my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father on his throne.’ It is better to sit on his throne than to be his footstool.”

Psalm 111

In this psalm, the psalmist praises God because He is a good God. He declares that he intends to praise God with his heart in the company of the righteous. He declares that God’s works are great, majestic, wondrous, and powerful. He declares that God’s works are true, just, and upright, and that His Name is awesome. Finally, he declares that the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of widsom and that obedience to God is evidence of good understanding.

An Acrostic Poem about God

— This is another praise psalm

— It begins with hallelujah, which translates to “Praise the LORD”

— The psalm is an acrostic poem in which the first words of each of its twenty-two lines (minus the hallelujah of verse 1) begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet

— The next psalm (112) is also an acrostic poem; in fact the two are a pair

— The first is about God

— The second is about a godly man

— What is said about God in the first of these psalms is affirmed of the godly man in the second

— Which is a way of saying, “You will become like the god you worship

— The theme of the psalm is the goodness of God which is displayed in His works

Praise the Lord

— In the first verse the psalmist announces that he is going to praise God himself.

— He wants other people to do so too,

— The bulk of the psalm gives them specific reasons and instructions for doing so

— It tells us that we should set an example by doing it

— That we should worship intensely and with our whole heart

— That we should worship God publicly and identify publicly with the Christian assembly (v. 1)

The Works of the Lord

— Here he speaks of the works of the LORD in general (vv. 1-3)

— The greatness of his “works”

— The glory and majesty of his “deeds”

— The unforgettable nature of his “wonders”

— It is a way of saying that wherever a person looks, if the person knows God and has eyes to see his wonders, the wonders of God are brilliantly displayed

— God’s works are “great,” “glorious,” and “majestic” (vv. 2-3)

God’s Provisions for His People

— In the next section the psalmist continues to look at the works of the LORD (vv. 5-8)

— But contrary to the rending of the NIV, all the verbs are in the past tense

— The psalmist is looking at specific incidents from Israel’s history

— Praise of God for his general works in creation has turned into praise of God for his specific saving works on behalf of the Jewish people

— He provided “food” (manna) during Israel’s wandering in the desert (v. 5)

— “Covenant” is that which He established on Mount Sinai (v. 5)

— His “works” are the plagues in Egypt (v. 6)

— “Giving them the lands of the nations” refers to the conquest of Canaan (v. 6)

— And the giving of God’s law (vv. 7-8)

These are past events, but they continue, which is why the New International Version and others use the present tense. It is not entirely wrong to do so. God provides our food on a daily basis; Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us today our daily bread” (Matt. 6:11). As Christians we enjoy a better and more enduring covenant than the one the psalmist is referring to; the author of Hebrews says, “Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant” (Heb. 7:22), adding, “Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant” (Heb. 9:15). Our exodus is the deliverance from sin (see next section); the conquest of Canaan is our promised eternal inheritance (referred to above). Lastly, the law is a permanent possession with present promises, demands, and implications; verses 7–8 say, “His precept.… are steadfast for ever and ever.”

The Lord’s Salvation

— We have a similar parallel between God’s past and present saving work which refers to redemption (v. 9)

— This might be redemption from Egypt or the Babylonian captivity if this psalm was written later

— On this side of the cross we think of the redemption provided by Jesus Christ (1 Cor 1:30)

— In the earlier section the adjectives described God’s works (vv. 2-4)

— Now they describe God himself (vv. 5-9)

— Here the works of God are called “faithful,” “just,” and “trustworthy” (v. 7)

— “steadfast,” “faithful,” and “upright” (v. 8)

— These words even more aptly describe God himself, and the section ends with “holy and awesome is his [God’s] name” (v. 9).

A Practical Conclusion

— Psalm 111 has been a practical psalm exhorting us to praise God for his general and specific works:

— those seen in nature, in the salvation history of his people, and in redemption

— So we are not surprised to find that this practical psalm also has a practical conclusion (v. 10).

— It is probably a safe bet to say that most people today are not much interested in wisdom

— They are interested in making money and in having a good time

Q: Where does wisdom come from?

1. Reverence for God

— The word translated “beginning” is reshith, which means “the starting point” or “the first principle”

— In other words, reverence for God is the bedrock requirement if a man or woman would be wise

2. Knowing the Bible

— It is only in the Bible and by a careful study of the Bible that God can be known and wisdom acquired

No people ever rise higher than their idea of God, and conversely, a loss of the sense of God’s high and awesome character always involves a loss of a people’s moral values and even what we commonly call humanity. We are startled by the disregard for human life that has overtaken large segments of the western world, but what do we expect when countries like ours openly turn their back upon God?

Psalm 112

In this psalm, the psalmist declares the ultimate victory of the righteous over the wicked because the righteous depend on Yahweh. First, the psalmist exclaims that the righteous man who fears Yahweh is blessed by God — his descendants will be mighty; he will possess wealth; he will see light; he will be stable; he will be remembered forever; he will see his enemies fail; and he will be exalted in honor. Second, the psalmist exclaims that the wicked will fail — he will be vexed and enraged at the successes of the righteous, and the desires of the wicked will perish.

An Acrostic Poem about Godliness

— This psalm picks up where the last psalm left off

—Psalm 112 describes the character of the person who fears the Lord and honestly obeys his precepts

— Both this psalm and the prior psalm (111) are the same length and are matched in every way

— Both are acrostics

The relationship of God to the godly person is like the relationship of the sun to the moon. The sun shines by its own glorious light. The moon does not, but still it shines, and the way it shines is by reflecting the light coming to it from the sun. If you are devoutly looking to God as you live your life, something of the glory of God will be seen in you and will be reflected from you to others. If nothing of God is reflected in you, it is a proof that you do not know him. It is because you are not truly a Christian.

A Great Beatitude

— The psalm begins with a beatitude

— A beatitude is a blessing that is also usually a promise

— That is, it is a promise of blessing to a person who lives in a certain way

— The specific blessings are described in the following verses (vv. 2-9)

1. He fears God

— This is talking about reverence

— We stand in awe of Him

— God is holy, majestic, forceful, and frighteningly opposed to everything that is unholy or would seek to diminish his glory

— The person who is blessed according to this psalm is, first of all, the person who takes God seriously

2. He Obeys God

— We will obey God if we take Him seriously

— We will conform to God’s “commands” (v. 1)

3. He delights in God’s commands

— We do not only do what God commands, but we delight in them as well (v. 1)

— We need to examine ourselves by this probing definition of the godly person

— He enjoys blessing his people, but there are conditions to blessing:

— We must fear or reverence him

— obey him

— and delight in his commandments

The Blessedness of the Godly

— The middle and chief section of this psalm (vv. 2–9) describes the specific blessings of the person who fears and joyfully obeys God

— We see the outer and inner blessings of God in this section

1. Might with uprightness (v. 2)

—The verse is saying that the person who lives an upright life will see such character passed to his or her children, and they in turn will be regarded as people of high moral standing

— This generational similarity is a general observation

— Sometimes are children do not turn out as we hope

2. Riches with righteousness (v. 3)

—Riches are said to be a gift to those who love wisdom (Prov. 3:16; 8:18; 22:4)

— It is true that not all who live godly lives are prospered financially

— But, Jesus said nearly the same thing (Mark 10:29-30)

—And Jesus also said that it is only a general statement and does not hold true in every case (Mk 10:31)

— The second line of verse 3 is identical in both psalms (Pss 111, 112)

— This must have been an extremely important idea for the psalmist, because the same line occurs again in verse 9

— The psalmist’s point is probably something like this: “If I fear God and obey his commands, I will grow in righteousness, just as God is righteous

— And, oh yes, incidentally, I will probably do well in business too”

— But if we must choose between the two, it is far more important to be godly than rich (1 Tim 6:6)

3. Light with compassion (v. 4)

— Verse 4 refers back to Moses on Mount Sinai (Ex 34:6)

— There is some difficulty determining who is the source of the light mentioned in this verse

— Some say that this is the godly man who becomes a light for other upright people

4. Good with generosity and justice (v. 5)

— Verse 5 is saying that good things come to the person who is generous with other people, willing to lend to those who are in need

5. Stability with faith (vv. 6–8)

— There are many temptations to the rich man

— Beginning in verse 5, we see how the rich man overcomes these temptations:

— Instead of being greedy, he is generous (vv. 5, 9)

— Instead of abusing the power wealth brings, he is just (v. 5)

— Instead of indulgent vacillations, he is steadfast in his way of life (v. 6)

— Instead of fear that his power and wealth might be lost, he is fearless because he trusts God (vv. 7–8)

— Verses 6–8 emphasize the godly person’s steady trust in God even when he or she receives bad news or deals with enemies

— The godly person gets bad news from time to time

— Nevertheless, he is not shaken either by his enemies or bad news, because his trust is in God and not in his material possessions

6. Honor with compassion (v. 9)

— The last verse of this section returns to three of the psalm’s earlier themes:

— the godly man’s generosity;

— his righteousness;

— and his well-deserved might, power, or reputation.

— Paul quotes this verse to encourage generosity in Christians (2 Cor 9:9)

— The reference to God supplying “bread for food” ( 2 Cor 9:6-11) shows that Paul also saw the connection between Psalms 111:5 and 112:5, which I pointed out earlier

The Life of the Wicked

— The last two verses make a contrast (vv. 9-10)

—These verses make a contrast like Psalm 1 between two ways of life

Verse 10 says the wicked man “will gnash his teeth” when he looks on the prosperity of the righteous. I do not think that always happens in this life. The wicked often remain quite content with themselves and despise the righteous. But it will happen one day, when life is done. The Bible describes hell as a place where there is an eternal “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 8:12). If you are not yet a Christian, don’t wait until then to discover what life is actually about.

Additional Resources

James Montgomery Boice, Psalms 107–150: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005)

MacArthur, J. (2023). Psalms. Hymns for God’s People. Harper Christian Resources.

Webb, P. (Ed.). (2022). Psalms of grace. The Master's Seminary Press.

John Piper, The Pleasures of God (Portland, Oreg.: Multnomah Press, 1991)

Jonathan Edwards, “A Dissertation Concerning the End for Which God Created the World,” in The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol 1. (Carlisle, Pa: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1974)

John R. Stott, Favorite Psalms (Chicago: Moody, 1988)

Derek Kidner, Psalms 73-150: A Commentary on Books III-V of the Psalms (Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity, 1977)

C. H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, vol 2b, Psalms 88-110 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1966)

Leslie Allen points out how much Paul was dependent on this psalm (106). “Paul not only quoted v. 20 in Rom. 1:23 but echoed v. 14 at 1:24, v.39 in 1:26,27 and v. 48 in 1:26 (cf. vv 23,32, 40 with 1:18). Moreover, he used v. 41 as the basis for a threefold refrain in 1:24, 26, 28.” See Leslie C. Allen, Psalms 101-150, vol 21 in the Word Biblical Commentary (Waco: Word, 1983)

William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation 1620–1647 (New York: The Modern Library, 1952)

Martin Luther, Selected Psalms II, vol. 13 of Luther’s Works, ed. Jaroslav Pelikan (St. Louis: Concordia, 1956)

John Calvin, Commentaries on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis, vol. 1, trans. John King (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1948)