Psalm 112

Psalm 112:1-9 (10)

1 Praise the Lord! 

Happy are those who fear the Lord, 

who greatly delight in his commandments. 

2 Their descendants will be mighty in the land; 

the generation of the upright will be blessed.

 3 Wealth and riches are in their houses, 

and their righteousness endures forever. 

4 They rise in the darkness as a light for the upright; 

they are gracious, merciful, and righteous. 

5 It is well with those who deal generously and lend, 

who conduct their affairs with justice. 

6 For the righteous will never be moved; 

they will be remembered forever. 

7 They are not afraid of evil tidings; 

their hearts are firm, secure in the Lord. 

8 Their hearts are steady, they will not be afraid; 

in the end they will look in triumph on their foes. 

9 They have distributed freely, they have given to the poor;

their righteousness endures forever; 

their horn is exalted in honor. 

10 The wicked see it and are angry; 

they gnash their teeth and melt away; 

the desire of the wicked comes to nothing.

Psalm 111 and Psalm 112 contain one acrostic psalm, each half verse containing the next letter of the alphabet. Each of the 22 mini sections begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is a literary device that, in context, may be God’s way of saying, “I will look after you as you follow my ways from A to Z.” See the “I am the Alpha and the Omega” (first and last letters of the Greek alphabet) passages of Revelation 1:8; 21:6; 22:13), in which God and the risen Lord Jesus Christ are saying essentially (in passages that contrast those who are with God to those who are away from God), “I am A to Z and everything in between.”

Psalm 111-112 is a hymn of praise to the Lord for the works of the Lord in nature and history. The psalm begins and ends with praise, and the reasons to offer up such praise to the Lord are the content of the psalm. The author composed it for recital at a festival. If the psalm views the blessings of the godly as the Lord bestowing them on the godly, then one may need to consider the connection between worship and wisdom. The psalm is full of optimism about present and future.  It was probably an offering made when everything was OK.  It is not so much a prayer as it is a proclamation.  We should note the repetition of "forever" in v. 3, 5, 8, 9, and 10.  The psalm has a dual emphasis on the nature and the activity of the Lord in human life.  One can discover who the Lord is by examining what the Lord has done, a theme consistent with the wisdom community. The affirmation is there that the observation of the world leads to a misunderstanding of the Lord.  When we look at the two canonical poems as one poem, the psalmist proposes that we praise the Lord (112:1a) by becoming like the Lord we worship, in Righteousness, in Generosity, and in Deliverance.  The parallelism between the two psalms is striking, with the attributes of the Lord in 111 becoming attributes of the godly in 112. 

Psalm 111 Psalm 112

Righteousness stands firm forever Uprightness stands firm forever

Honor Blessings

Yahweh is mercy and tenderness Upright, generous, tender-hearted

The Lord gives food to all All goes well

The Lord delivers the people The upright give to the needy

His praise will continue forever Upright stand firm forever

112:1 Praise the Lord (hallelu-yah)! As Psalm 111 ending with praise of the Lord, Psalm 112 begins with it. What wonderful benefits come to those who revere the Lord enough to take delight in following the ways of the Lord. Such praise involves more than heartfelt honor and worship. Happy (’ashre, “Oh, the happiness (or blessings) of,” occurring 28 times in the Psalms, LXX is makarioV, as used in the beatitudes of Jesus) are those who fear the Lord, beginning the psalm with the fear of the Lord, even as Psalm 111 ends with it. To fear the Lord characteristically means to revere the Lord or to hold the Lord in awe. People are happy who greatly delight in his commandments. Closer parallels to the content of this happiness occur in several psalms. They are happy who do not follow the advice of the wicked (1:1), consider the poor (41:1), observe justice and righteousness (106:3), who walk in the law of the Lord (119:1), and who fears the Lord and walks in the ways of the Lord (128:1-2). In a sizable number of passages, to fear the Lord means to obey God by following his commandments — to live righteously before God and people. Verse 1 places “[those] who greatly delight in his commandments” in poetic synonymous parallelism with “those who fear the Lord.” We find this emphasis in other passages. Fear the Lord and keep the commandments and statutes (Deuteronomy 6:2). Fear the Lord and observe the laws and statutes (17:19). In hearing the Law read, people will fear the Lord and diligently observe its words (31:10-13). Fear and serve the Lord, not rebelling against the commandments (I Samuel 12:14-15). Psalm 119:7-11 places the fear of the Lord in parallel with the Law, decrees, precepts, commandments, and ordinances. This parallelism occurs often in Psalm 119, declaring happiness for those who walk in the law of the Lord, keep the decrees of the Lord, and delight in the statutes of the Lord (1-2, 16). Happiness is for those who fear the Lord and walk in the ways of the Lord (Psalm 128:1). The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10, Sirach 1:14). All of this suggests that following the Torah was part of keeping covenant with the Lord, the devout taking delight in it as the gift of the Lord to the people of God.

Psalm 112: 2-9 describe the benefits/blessings/well-being and enduring nature of those righteous people who are happily following God’s commandments. In verses 2-3, from the experience flow the blessings of life.  These verses do promise material benefits (“wealth and riches”) for both the righteous ones who follow God’s commandments and their descendants. 2 Their descendants will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. 3 Wealth and riches are in their houses, and their righteousness (tsedaqah) endures forever. Those who delight in the Law will prosper in all they do (Psalm 1:1-3). 

Such views as we find in these verses lead some people to want the Bible to support their “prosperity theology.” This viewpoint draws much of its inspiration from an uncritical appeal to such conventional-wisdom passages of the Bible, unbalanced by the also-very-biblical questioning of conventional wisdom in such books as Job and Ecclesiastes, in certain of the Psalms (as parts of Psalm 73) and in the words of Jesus (the quintessential righteous person), who said, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Matthew 8:20). Even so, conventional wisdom (both biblical and experience-based) does make a good point: When a person sets out to honor God and live right before people, things do tend to go much better than when one lives otherwise. Thus, Psalm 37:25-31 can say the Lord does not forsake the righteous, their children do not beg for bread, the Lord will keep the righteous safe, the righteous shall inherit the land, and their step does not slip. Approached from one angle, one can reasonably suggest that life gives to us what we have given to it. What we send out into the world through our words fand deeds will come back. We run into problems, however, if we view this as a law of life, which much of the prosperity gospel suggests. Thus, just because one suffers does not mean one can trace such suffering back to a specific disobedient act. Life does not work that way. Good people still lose jobs, get a disease, have divorces, and raise children who turn their backs on them. Good people are still accidents that injure and kill. Good people are still part of war-torn countries or famines that devastate them and those they love. While it may be true that we reap what we sow in life if we travel the path of making it a law we will inevitably run into intellectual and experiential difficulties. 

Verses 4-9 further describe what life is like for the blessed righteous who follow God’s ways. In verses 4-6, the one blessed by God becomes a blessing to others.  Such a person becomes a testimony to the mercy, grace, and righteousness of the Lord. 4 They, wealth and riches, rise in the darkness, a possible reference to death , as a light for the upright (a synonym for “the righteous”); they are gracious, merciful, and righteous (tsaddiq). 5 It is well with those who deal generously and lend, who conduct their affairs with justice (mishpat). Verses 6-8 focus upon the secure life of the righteous. 6 For the righteous will never be moved (mot, shaken, upended, tottered, also Psalm 15:5, 16:8, 21:7, 55:22, 62:2, 6); they will be remembered forever. The godly will pass through darkness but not be there forever.  People will not soon forget such persons and their accomplishments. The Lord will deliver.  The author applies what the author previously said about God to the upright. Biblical authors often pair justice (verse 5) and righteousness (verse 5). The Lord loves righteousness and justice (Psalm 33:5), happiness is for those who observe justice and do righteousness (Psalm 106:3), justice and righteousness will establish the kingdom (Isaiah 9:7), the Lord urges the people to maintain justice and do what is right (Isaiah 56:1), the Lord acts with justice and righteousness (Jeremiah 9:24), a descendant of David will execute justice and righteousness in the land (Jeremiah 33:15), woe upon those who pervert justice and righteousness (Amos 5:7), and let justice and righteousness flow (Amos 5:24). The righteous become like the Lord and live up to the standards of the morality and ethical behavior, conducting themselves in just ways before others in the community. In verse 7-8, trust in God does not give immunity, but it does give trust and confidence as a gift. 7 They are not afraid of evil tidings; their hearts are firm, secure (batah, to trust, having the connotation of resting confidently and safely) in the Lord. 8 Their hearts are steady, they will not be afraid. Similarly, see the NIV of Isaiah 26:3: “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.” Our hearts are steady, and we need not let our fears overwhelm us. We have no need for fear if the Lord is our light, salvation, and stronghold (Psalm 27:1). In the end they will look in triumph on their foes. Delivering the psalmist from trouble, his eye looks in triumph on my enemies (Psalm 54:7). Your enemies shall come to you and you shall tread on their backs (Deuteronomy 33:29). In verses 9, the author praises generosity. 9 They have distributed freely, they have given to the poor; their righteousness (tsedaqah) endures forever; their horn (strength, power) is exalted in honor. The writer again speaks about the enduring nature of their righteousness. The life of the righteous in verse 9 finds its opposite in the life of the wicked in verse 10. Such contrasts are common in wisdom literature, as in Psalm 1:4-6 and Psalm 10 are good examples of the contrast, but it occurs often in the psalms. An interesting example is Psalm 139:19-24, where the psalmist hates those who hate the Lord, but concludes with a prayer that the Lord search his own heart to see if there is any wickedness. The well-known blessings and curses of Deuteronomy 28 are a further example.

I want to raise the important matter of the role of happiness and desire in the lives of the people of God. I want to do so without the distractions of either the prosperity gospel or the the vindictive separation of what is good for the righteous and bad for the wicked. Frankly, most people have a touch of righteousness and a touch of wickedness in ways that the separation is not as sharp or distinct as some people would like to think. 

Happiness, (’ashre, Μακάριοι) has a close connection to that which we truly desire. In Psalm 112, such happiness is the by-product of a life lived in reverence and awe of the Lord and taking genuine delight in being the kind of person who acts toward others the way the Lord intends as shown in the Torah. For Jesus, such happiness is the result of a life lived in genuine love of God with all that we are and genuine love for the neighbor. We may believe in God, but if our belief is that God is severe and angry, we are keeping God at a distance. We may follow the rules of the commandments of God, but if that is all we are doing, and we do not take genuine delight in being that type of person, we are keeping the neighbor at a distance. Happiness will not flow from this type of life. I see the conclusion of the psalm as reminding us of the importance of our desire. The judgment upon the wicked is that their desire comes to nothing. When human desire evaporates into nothingness, this is clearly not a good thing. The reason such nothingness occurs is that desire is not in line with what God wants, of course. However, it highlights the importance of desire. It raises a matter for the life of prayer so that we may test our desire. Right desire will generally lead to happy life. Of course, this does not mean a law is at work. It simply means that in general, what we sow in life is what we reap. More specifically, it means that we ought not to be afraid of happiness or of our desires. It is okay to figure out the kind of life we need to live to find genuine happiness. It is okay to pay attention to the desire of our hearts. In fact, we must do so, for our desire for sex, money, social acceptance, justice, getting along with others, to feel special, to work hard, to play hard, to keep peace, to have power, to have knowledge, may be in alignment with the will and purpose of God or it may not be. The difference is crucial.

The statistic I am about to share remains true. It does not vary much from decade to decade. When offered a choice between describing their lives as very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy, religious people, defined as those who attended worship regularly, are significantly happier than those who attend occasionally, and even more than those who do not attend at all. The gap is not present because of money. People who are externally identical in other ways will show this difference. 

Something around 70 sermons of John Wesley include references to happiness. He devoted some of these sermons solely to the subject. Psalm 121 clearly links happiness with taking delight in the commandments of the Lord. In a similar way, Wesley linked happiness with holiness. His concern was often with true religion, by which he meant that religion is not something for just outward show or to wear as an unearned military decoration. Such true religion includes gratitude and benevolence, that is, offering love to God with all that you are and loving your neighbor as yourself. Wesley would conclude that righteousness, peace, and joy are present in those who have true religion. In one of his sermons, Wesley maintained that God made us to be happy just as Adam and Eve were happy before they disobeyed God. When they turned away from him and sinned, they lost that happy state. If we do not live holy lives for which God made us, we will also not be able to enjoy a happy life. Happiness is not so much an intentional goal as it is the byproduct of a well-lived human life. Wesley distinguished happiness from merriment. Merriment is pleasure, as we might put it today, whereas happiness is a mood arising out of connecting with the view God has of right living. He granted that Christians will experience heaviness, the weight of difficult circumstances, sorrow, ill health, and similar life experiences that bring life down. Yet, for Wesley, trust in God sustains us through such times, even in the strange experience of rejoicing in sorrow. One may be poor, in mourning, or persecuted for one’s faith, but still be aware of the blessing of God upon one’s life. Life circumstances that induce feelings of heaviness do not threaten genuine happiness. When we properly connect with God and live in the way God intends, our lives will have an underlying balance that has a solid place to stand, even when life itself is rocky.