Psalm 112
Notes
Transcript
Psalm 112
Both open with “Hallelujah!”
Last verse of 111 sets the theme of 112:
(10) The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
all who follow his instructions[b] have good insight.
Psalm 112:1 - Happy is the person who fears the Lord,
taking great delight in his commands.
1 Hallelujah! Happy is the person who fears the Lord, taking great delight in his commands.
The psalmist will spend the rest of the song unpacking what kinds of happiness/blessing comes as a result of fearing the Lord.
Everything mentioned are things we would want for our lives. But…
You might be asking, “What does that even mean?” Fear the Lord?
Like Psalm 111:10, Proverbs 9:10
10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
also says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy One is understanding. Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and discipline.”
7 The fear of the Lord
is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and discipline.
So we know wisdom has something to do with knowledge of the Holy One (God) and fools despise this. Paul demonstrated this wisdom in Philippians 3:7-11
7 But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ[a]—the righteousness from God based on faith. 10 My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, 11 assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.
I’ve become convinced that we might be just a little out of balance in our teaching about God. We are big on grace here and we continue to be – salvation is all grace because we have nothing else to stand on!
We talk about being saved from the “wrath of God,” but I wonder if that really means anything to us anymore. I wonder if we ONLY think about God as a loving Father to the degree that we’ve forgotten what He really saved us from.
Piper: “we are so quick to solve the problem of God's fearsomeness with the gospel that we may not give people a chance to really let it sink in how deeply sinful they are or how fearful God really is.”
That brings to mind the scene if C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe where Mr. Beaver says to Susan, “Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.
Have we come to understand that He’s good at the expense of remembering He’s the King – the King with absolute power and to whom we must bow in holy awe and reverence? We forget that at the expense of His glory and our blessing.
Proverbs 28: 14 - “blessed is the one who fears the Lord always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.”
14 Happy is the one who is always reverent,
but one who hardens his heart falls into trouble.
Heart hardening always precedes calamity (even if that’s just not getting what God would have given you), and is preceded by forgetting who God is and all that He has done – forgetting all the works of God that we talked about last week in 111. Instead, we begin to take credit for the good things in our life (in practice at least, if not in declaration).
Romans 11:19, “Do not be arrogant, but beware”. ESV uses “fear” instead of “beware.”
We should fear becoming arrogant, proud, and self-sufficient, and end up drifting away from God.
Instead, consider Philippians 2:12-13:
12 Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose.
Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose.
We skip over that “fear and trembling” part, don’t we?
Again, Piper: “this is really interesting: you should fear and tremble because God is working to keep you. And I think it means the sheer awesome presence of God in our lives working for us, not against us, should produce trembling... So the New Testament treats the fear of God as a motive for not turning away from him. We should fear in the sense that we seek refuge from God away from God's terrible wrath. God's grace in Christ is the refuge from God's wrath outside of Christ. There is terror outside of Christ, and there is a different kind of trembling inside Christ... you don't come near to him without reverence and awe.”
Do you fear God? Are you in absolute awe of Him, or is He rather “Ho-hum”? When we lack this awesome fear of God we grow in apathy towards God, and we’re left with a life of mediocrity and that’s not the kind of life God wants for us:
27 The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life,
turning people away from the snares of death.
The psalmist helps us here by describing the one who fears the Lord. Essentially, he will tell us that if we fear God, we will become like God because we are in a position of humility, open to being changed – changed to look more like Jesus.
Let’s look:
1. (Psalm 112:2 ) Family blessing – doesn’t mean trouble-free, but it does mean that He will give you wisdom in leading your family. It means that as you become more like Jesus, you will love your family more like Jesus.
2 His descendants will be powerful in the land;
the generation of the upright will be blessed.
Deuteronomy 7:9 - Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations…
9 Know that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps his gracious covenant loyalty for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commands.
Proverbs 22:6 - Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
6 Start a youth out on his way;
even when he grows old he will not depart from it.
2. (3a, 9b) -
3 Wealth and riches are in his house,
and his righteousness endures forever.
Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.
I think this can be seen in two aspects:
a.) Financially: Those who fear the Lord are in a position to be trusted with great wealth.
10 Whoever is faithful in very little is also faithful in much, and whoever is unrighteous in very little is also unrighteous in much. 11 So if you have not been faithful with worldly wealth, who will trust you with what is genuine? 12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to someone else, who will give you what is your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
Whoever is faithful in very little is also faithful in much, and whoever is unrighteous in very little is also unrighteous in much. 11 So if you have not been faithful with worldly wealth, who will trust you with what is genuine? 12 And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to someone else, who will give you what is your own? 13 No servant can serve two masters, since either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”
Look at (Psalm 112:9 ): He distributes freely to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever.
His horn will be exalted in honor.
9 He distributes freely to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever.
His horn will be exalted in honor.
The one who fears the Lord understands he is only a steward of what he has and he looks for ways that he can be a blessing to others.
This is less about how much you have and more about what you do with whatever you have and your attitude in doing it.
He is blessed by doing his work with integrity out of holy awe and fear of the Lord (Psalm 112:5-6 ):
5 Good will come to the one who lends generously
and conducts his business fairly.
6 He will never be shaken.
The righteous one will be remembered forever.
Good will come to the one who lends generously
and conducts his business fairly.
6 He will never be shaken.
The righteous one will be remembered forever.
b.) Spiritually: This is more than just material wealth because that will pass away, but (3) and (9) both deal with enduring righteousness, lasting forever. The outward expressions of generosity are evidence of a great wealth of the soul: the righteousness of Christ imputed to you producing fruit that will last forever, regardless of how much or how little you have financially.
The Bible is clear that self-centeredness is evidence of a life that is not being shaped by Christ.
3. (Psalm 112:7-8 ) Fearless –
7 He will not fear bad news;
his heart is confident, trusting in the Lord.
8 His heart is assured; he will not fear.
In the end he will look in triumph on his foes.
· In troubled times:
The fear of the Lord leads to life;
one will sleep at night[h] without danger.
The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life,
turning people away from the snares of death.
God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power,[a] love, and sound judgment.
Isaiah 41:10
Do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be afraid, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you; I will help you;
I will hold on to you with my righteous right hand.
27 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the light. What you hear in a whisper, proclaim on the housetops. 28 Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Aren’t two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s consent. 30 But even the hairs of your head have all been counted. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
What I tell you in the dark, speak in the light. What you hear in a whisper,[h] proclaim on the housetops. 28 Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Aren’t two sparrows sold for a penny?[i] Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father’s consent.[j] 30 But even the hairs of your head have all been counted. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
· In giving his money away –
6 Or do only Barnabas and I have no right to refrain from working? 7 Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who shepherds a flock and does not drink the milk from the flock?
8 Am I saying this from a human perspective? Doesn’t the law also say the same thing? 9 For it is written in the law of Moses, Do not muzzle an ox while it treads out grain. Is God really concerned about oxen? 10 Isn’t he really saying it for our sake? Yes, this is written for our sake, because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes should thresh in hope of sharing the crop. 11 If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it too much if we reap material benefits from you? 12 If others have this right to receive benefits from you, don’t we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right; instead, we endure everything so that we will not hinder the gospel of Christ.
6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully[d] will also reap bountifully. 7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency[e] in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. 9 As it is written,
“He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever.”
10 He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. 12 For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.
(Psalm 112:10 ) The wicked get one verse: anger, despair, and ruin!
10 The wicked one will see it and be angry;
he will gnash his teeth in despair.
The desire of the wicked leads to ruin.
