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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
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
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
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
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.
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