Psalm 112
Notes
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Introduction/Background
Open to Psalm 112 as we extend our journey through the book of Psalms
Originally we were going to spend 15 weeks in Psalms, but we decided to add on the month of September, so we’ll spend 4 extra weeks in this book.
Psalms is one of the books of poetry in the Bible. We tend to not pick up on the poetry as much due to the fact that they were originally written in ancient Hebrew, so in the translation to English, we don’t see the poetry as well.
They are the basis of many worship songs which Pastor Eric has so bravely tried to sing from the pulpit here during this series
Don’t expect any of that from me
Psalm 112 is what is known as an acrostic Psalm, meaning it has 22 lines, and each line begins with the successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet
Instead of A-Z, its Alef to Tav
Psalm 112 is also very closely related to Psalm 111
They share a lot of the same phrases
Psalm 111 tells us about God, and Psalm 112 tells us about the man or woman of God
In fact, verse 10 in the previous chapter is really a jumping off point into chapter 112
Let’s look at and discuss that verse first before we get into Ps 112
Psalm 111:10.
The first thing we need to get an understanding of is the fear of the Lord
The idea of the fear of the Lord is this idea of awe, wonder, respect, or reverence
Not that we’re terrified of Him, but we want to honor Him, we don’t want to disappoint Him with our actions.
God is great, He is holy, He is mighty, He should be revered
Yes, Jesus does refer to us as His friends, and yes, He does desire a close relationship with us, but that doesn’t change the fact of who He is
A great book to read on this subject is The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer. It’s a bit of an older book, but he does such a good job of trying to paint the picture of the difference characteristics and traits of God
Many time when we think of God’s nature, His love, His wisdom, His power, we think of them in human terms
But that falls so short of who He really is and what He is really like
And because of that, we can take God for granted, or we can have a lack of reverence for Him.
That’s why Tozer wrote that book actually, as he saw the church as a whole losing her awe and wonder for the Lord bit by bit.
Tozer says in his book, “With our loss of the sense of majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine Presence. We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence. Modern Christianity is simply not producing the kind of Christian who can appreciate or experience the life in the Spirit. The words, ‘Be still, and know that I am God,’ mean next to nothing to the self-confident, bustling worshipper in this period.”
Maybe you’re here this morning and you need to be reminded of who God is, and how great He is
If you feel like you don’t really connect with the Lord during worship, you sing the lyrics on the screen because that’s just what you do at church, but your heart isn’t in it. You’d never even consider raising your hands up or closing your eyes. Maybe you’ve lost that sense of majesty and awe.
Our society, and our modern American church culture, tells us self above all else
And while taking care of your self is not a bad thing in and of itself, we take it too far when we include it in our picture of Christianity.
Our faith becomes a self help tool, how do I better myself, how do I feel self confident, whatever it may be, instead of making the object of our faith the Lord.
We cite verses like Philippians 4:13, which is an amazing verse, but we cite it in self-confidence with an emphasis on “I” and not an emphasis on “Christ”
You see, what we need to be doing, is pursuing Him because of who He is. We should have a sense of awe and wonder, a sense of insignificance, or unworthiness compared to Him
Like John the Baptist would say about Jesus, He must increase, and I must decrease
And we pursue Him, we worship Him, not because it makes us feel good, but because there is no where else we could run to find the answers to eternal life as Peter would say
And then we experience His grace and His forgiveness, and then God starts to do a work in our hearts and change us, and that should make us more in awe of Him that He’d even be willing to do that for a loser like me.
We need to be reminded of who God is and how great He is, and that He is worthy to be feared, to be revered.
The fear of the Lord, we’re told here in Psalms, is then directly linked to wisdom and understanding
This idea is found many places across scripture
28 And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, And to depart from evil is understanding.’ ”
10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.
In a way, that’s pretty simple!
Fear the Lord, have an awe/reverence for His majesty, and that’s how you become a wise person
Wisdom, as you know, is different that intelligence or knowledge
You can be smart, but not very wise
British journalist & humorist Miles Kington summed it up very well when he said, “Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.”
Wisdom is something we should all desire
13 Happy is the man who finds wisdom, And the man who gains understanding; 14 For her proceeds are better than the profits of silver, And her gain than fine gold. 15 She is more precious than rubies, And all the things you may desire cannot compare with her. 16 Length of days is in her right hand, In her left hand riches and honor. 17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness, And all her paths are peace. 18 She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, And happy are all who retain her.
Solomon tells us that, “all the things you may desire cannot compare with” wisdom.
God puts a high price on wisdom. The entire books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are devoted to sharing wisdom with us.
Jesus, the Bible tells us, as a boy growing up grew in wisdom and stature and favor among God and men (Luke 2:42)
It was an emphasis that our Savior had during His time on earth, and it should be an emphasis we have
But it all starts with that fear of the Lord, the awe and wonder of our God.
That is how we start to gain wisdom.
Now flipping to Psalm 112, the one we’re actually studying this morning, the psalmist continues on the idea of the fear of the Lord.
Verse 1
We read right off the bat, “Blessed” or “oh how happy” is the man or woman who fears the Lord
So we’ve learned that wisdom and understanding comes from the fear of the Lord
Now we learn that you will be blessed by fearing God and that happiness comes from it as well
My wife told me the other day that I’m always in the best mood when I come home on church days
Work days, not so much.
I think it was her polite way of trying to tell me I’m a grump....
But if you’ve experienced the Lord and His love and grace and His might and power, you know the feeling I’m talking about.
There’s no better place to be than in God’s presence.
The rest of the verse goes on to say that blessings also come to the person who delights greatly in God’s commandments
This part of the verse, this might be a little bit more of a challenge for you
“Yes, I want to know the Lord. I love being in His presence, I love to worship Him, I want all that”
But then to say that I delight, greatly delight in being obedient to His word, that can be another story
Just like we should have a love for the Lord, we should delight or take pleasure in His word and His commandments for us
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.
We talk to the high schoolers a lot about this verse
It’s easy for kids their age to get this false idea that being a Christian is no fun
“My friends all get to go to the parties and watch whatever show/movie they want to watch. They get to drink or have sex with their bf/gf and it seems like they’re having all the fun.”
They get this false impression of what being a Christian is all about and that the world says it offers fun, and it might be fun in the moment, but in the long run it’s going to leave heartache and pain
Those of you parents with teenagers and even with elementary school kids, I’m sure you’ve gotten the debate in your house about why your kid can’t do something or go somewhere that the other kids are doing or going to
You’ve probably gotten an eye roll or two and been called boring, but you do it out of love for your kids
The Lord is the same with us, His commandments are not so we don’t have any fun, but they’re there to protect us, and to allow us to have a truly satisfying and fulfilling life.
Let’s go back to Solomon for a moment. Solomon, early in his life, followed closely after the Lord
He build the first Jewish temple in Jerusalem, he famously asked for wisdom instead of riches when God told him he could have whatever he wanted. His heart was in the right place
But eventually that would change and Solomon would start to go after the things of the world.
He started to accumulate wealth, so much so that he became incredibly rich, amassing tons and tons of gold and silver
He fell into lust and 1 Kings 11 tells us he had 1,000 wives and concubines
He pursued power and military might, amassing a large army and importing chariots from Egypt, the most high tech war machine at the time and something God had explicitly told Hebrew kings not to pursue
He looked for fame and notoriety in his building projects, constructing great works so that people would praise him for his accomplishments
And you know what that got him? Emptiness, that’s what it got him.
Solomon’s pursuit of money, sex, power, and fame ended in emptiness and a lack of meaning.
He wrote an entire book about this pursuit, Ecclesiastes, and that verse that we read earlier is the summation of the book
13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.
At the end of Solomon’s life, after his pursuit of all the things the world today tells us will make us happy, Solomon realized there is nothing in them. Mankind’s life should be to fear God and keep His commandments.
Paul would say the same thing in Philippians 3, that all of his pursuits, his worth that he was trying to find before Jesus, he now counted as loss (rubbish/garbage) for the sake of knowing Christ.
The world can make it so hard though. And our flesh can make it hard too.
We think just a little bit more money will make us better off
Or a different relationship with that person who understands me better because my spouse has some issues and there are struggles there
Or if you could just be noticed a bit more for what you do or the house you own or the car you drive
Whatever it is, it can be so tempting to fall into pursuing those things. And God’s commandments not to be a lover of money, not to commit adultery, to be humble and give the glory to God instead of yourself, they may seem like they’re in the way of what you want.
But just like we tell our high schoolers, and just like the psalmist says here, those who greatly delight in keeping God’s commandments will be blessed.
Those commandments can be a black and white thing God says in scripture (let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth), or, they can also be the leading of the Holy Spirit in your life
You feel that prompt from the Lord - go volunteer to teach Sunday School once a month, join the men’s or women’s studies and go deeper in your walk, or even scarier yet, go talk to Pastor Matt about helping with the Middle School group.
I’ve seen so many in our church lately step out in faith in the callings that the Lord has for them
Kim in stepping up to become our Children’s director, Nicole in becoming our Nursery Leader, Michael in leading the 40 Days for Life, and the list goes on and on of those who hear the Holy Spirit’s prompting and step out and obey
Maybe that’s where you are. Do you have something the Lord has put on your heart? There are blessings for those who greatly rejoice to follow God’s commandments.
Verses 2-3
The psalmist tells us here that another byproduct of fearing the Lord and delighting in His commandments is generational blessings
I want to tell you what this is not before we spend a minute explaining what it is
This is not affirmation for the faith movement that was really popular at one time
The faith movement said that if you had enough faith, God would reward you materialistically or physically with health
Many pastors and church leaders deceived the church in this movement. They’d say “give to our movement and God will reward you 10 fold if you have enough faith”, getting rich off of the sheep while those who gave struggled in their faith every time something bad happened
The Bible, and these verses don’t support that view
What it does say
Your actions will have positive results in your family
6 Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
I believe these are predominantly spiritual blessings and spiritual legacies that we will reap
Yes, the Bible does tell us that God honors those who give (part of the obedience and fear of the Lord)
10 Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.
My wife and I, from the day we were married, committed to give at least a tithe (or tenth) of what we made to the Lord. And He has always provided for us and been faithful to take care of us financially.
We aren’t rich by any means, but God has been very good to us
But there are blessings that we get for choosing to fear the Lord, delight in His commands, and then be faithful to teach them to our children
Verses 4-10
We’re about out of time to unpackage the rest of this Psalm, but we read here more tangible blessings and characteristics of the man or woman of God
They will be full of compassion
They are giving towards others
They won’t be afraid of evil
They’re hearts will be established, trusting in the Lord
Wisdom, understanding, blessings, that is what is promised to us when we choose to fear and submit to the Lord
Be sure you are building that awe and wonder of God on your own. Be in His word daily, don’t just rely on church for it.
Pray, worship, seek God, and you’ll see how He works.
Communion
Being the first Sunday of the month, here at Calvary we take communion as a way to remember what Jesus has done for us in laying down His life for us.
The ultimate sign of His love for you and I was the cross where He willingly gave up His life to save us.
So that when we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, we can be saved!
The wages of our sin, what we have earned, is death, eternal separation from God. But God’s gift was to send His Son to die and take that punishment for us so that He can then offer us forgiveness and eternal life
If you’re here this morning and you’ve never done that, I’m going to pray and give you an opportunity to do that now.
If you have done that, communion is a time to be thankful and remember what He’s done.
It’s cool how the Spirit works and lines things up, in a study where we talk about the fear or awe/wonder of the Lord, we have this moment to be in awe and to revere what He has done for us
Give instructions, pray, and have worship team come up
23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
Pray