Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 112:1
Praise ye the LORD. Blessed [is] the man [that] feareth the LORD, [that] delighteth greatly in his commandments.
1. Happy is the man that feareth Jehovah] This Psalm takes up and expands the last verse of the preceding Psalm. The secret and source of all true happiness and prosperity is the fear of Jehovah, which leads to a cheerful and thorough obedience to His commandments.
that delighteth ] A reminiscence of Psa 1:2. Cp. Psa 40:8; Psa 119:35; Psa 119:97. It is the same word as in Psa 111:2.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Praise ye the Lord – Margin, as in Hebrew, Hallelujah. See the notes at Psa 106:1.
Blessed is the man – Hebrew, The blessings of the man. See the notes at Psa 1:1. That is, Blessed, or happy, is such a one.
That feareth the Lord – In Psa 111:10, the psalmist had referred to the fear of the Lord as the beginning of wisdom, and had alluded to the success, prosperity, or happiness which attends the fear of the Lord, or true religion. This psalm is designed more fully to illustrate that thought.
That delighteth greatly in his commandments – See the notes at Psa 1:2. It is a characteristic of true piety to find pleasure in the commands of God; in the commandments themselves, and in obedience to them.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 112:1-10
Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in His commandments.
Genuine piety
I. Its characteristics. A truly good man–
1. Feareth the Lord.
2. Delights greatly in His commandments.
3. Is upright.
4. Is merciful. What a noble character! Heaven multiply such.
II. Its advantages. He is blessed–
1. In his posterity.
2. In his possessions.
3. In his influence.
4. In his calamities.
5. In his steadfastness.
6. In his memory.
7. With fearlessness of soul.
8. With exaltation.
9. To the confusion of the wicked. (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
PSALM CXII
The blessedness of the man that fears the Lord, both as it
regards himself and his family, 1-3;
his conduct to his family, his neighbours, and the poor, 4-9;
the envy of the wicked at his prosperity, 10.
NOTES ON PSALM CXII
This is another of the acrostic or alphabetical Psalms, under the title Hallelujah. It is formed exactly as the preceding in the division of its verses. It has ten verses in the whole: the first eight contain each two hemistichs, beginning with a consecutive letter of the alphabet; the ninth and tenth verses, three each, making twenty-two in the whole. It is understood to have been written after the captivity, and probably by Zechariah and Haggai: to them it is ascribed by the Vulgate.
Verse 1. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord] This seems to be the continuation of the preceding Psalm: there it was asserted that the beginning of wisdom was the fear of the Lord; and here the blessedness of the man who thus fears is stated.
That delighteth greatly] It is not enough to fear God, we must also love him: fear will deter us from evil; love will lead us to obedience. And the more a man fears and loves God, the more obedient will he be; till at last he will delight greatly in the commandments of his Maker.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That delighteth greatly in his commandments; who makes it his chief delight, care, and business to study and obey Gods commandments. He intimates that zeal and fervency in Gods service is essential to true piety.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. True fear produces obedienceand this happiness.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Praise ye the Lord,…. Or, “hallelujah”. This is properly the title of the psalm: Aben Ezra says it is a word of the psalmist; it shows that all that a good man is, has, or does, is from the Lord; and therefore his name is to be praised: and he is not only to be praised for his perfections and works, but for this among others, that there are any good men on earth that fear and serve him, and are useful in their day and generation.
Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord; not men, but the Lord; not his wrath, nor his judgments here or hereafter, but his goodness; not with a servile, but with a godly fear. This every man does not; there are but few that truly fear the Lord, only such who have the grace of God; and these are happy men: they have an interest in the heart of God, in his pity, love, and delight; great discoveries are made unto them; the secret of the Lord is with them; he shows them his covenant; and the sun of righteousness arises upon them: they are guarded and protected by the Lord; his eye of providence, as well as love, is upon them, and his angels encamp about them: they are supplied with all needful good things, temporal and spiritual; and have much goodness laid up for them hereafter. This psalm begins with what the preceding ends, the fear of the Lord; and is a further illustration and enlargement of it; [See comments on Ps 111:10].
That delighteth greatly in his commandments: in the righteousness, purity, and holiness of them: in keeping and doing them: they are not grievous, but pleasant; a good man delights in them, after the inward man; he observes them from a principle of love, and finds peace and pleasure in them; he loves them above gold, yea, above fine gold; and esteems them concerning all things to be right,
Ps 119:97.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
As in the preceding Psalm. Psa 112:1 here also sets forth the theme of that which follows. What is there said in Psa 112:3 concerning the righteousness of God, Psa 112:3 here says of the righteousness of him who fears God: this also standeth fast for ever, it is indeed the copy of the divine, it is the work and gift of God (Psa 24:5), inasmuch as God’s salutary action and behaviour, laid hold of in faith, works a like form of action and behaviour to it in man, which, as Psa 112:9 says, is, according to its nature, love. The promise in Psa 112:4 sounds like Isa 60:2. Hengstenberg renders: “There ariseth in the darkness light to the upright who is gracious and compassionate and just.” But this is impossible as a matter of style. The three adjectives (as in Psa 111:4, pointing back to Exo 34:6, cf. Psa 145:8; Psa 116:5) are a mention of God according to His attributes. and never take the article in Biblical Hebrew, and follows their examples here (cf. on the contrary, Exo 9:27). God Himself is the light which arises in darkness for those who are sincere in their dealings with Him; He is the Sun of righteousness with wings of rays dispensing “grace” and “tender mercies,” Mal 4:2. The fact that He arises for those who are compassionate as He is compassionate, is evident from Psa 112:5. being, as in Isa 3:10; Jer 44:17, intended of well-being, prosperity, is here equivalent to , which is rendered in Targumic phrase. signifies, as in Psa 37:26, Psa 37:21, one who charitably dispenses his gifts around. Psa 112:5 is not an extension of the picture of virtue, but, as in Psa 127:5, a promissory prospect: he will uphold in integrity ( , Psa 72:2, Isa 9:7, and frequently), or rather (= ) in the cause (Psa 143:2, Pro 24:23, and frequently), the things which depend upon him, or with which he has to do; for , sustinere, signifies to sustain, i.e., to nourish, to sustain, i.e., endure, and also to support, maintain, i.e., carry through. This is explanatorily confirmed in Psa 112:6: he stands, as a general thing, imperturbably fast. And when he dies he becomes the object of everlasting remembrance, his name is still blessed (Pro 10:7). Because he has a cheerful conscience, his heart too is not disconcerted by any evil tidings (Jer 49:23): it remains , erect, straight and firm, without suffering itself to bend or warp; , full of confidence (passive, “in the sense of a passive state after a completed action of the person himself,” like , Psa 103:14); , stayed in itself and established. The last two designations are taken from Isa 26:3, where it is the church of the last times that is spoken of. Psa 91:8 gives us information with reference to the meaning of ; , as in Psa 94:13, of the inevitable goal, on this side of which he remains undismayed. 2Co 9:9, where Paul makes use of Psa 112:9 of the Psalm before us as an encouragement to Christian beneficence, shows how little the assertion “his righteousness standeth for ever” is opposed to the New Testament consciousness. of giving away liberally and in manifold ways, as in Pro 11:24. , Psa 112:9, stands in opposition to the egoistical in Psa 75:5 as a vegetative sprouting up (Psa 132:17). The evil-doer must see this, and confounded, vex himself over it; he gnashes his teeth with the rage of envy and chagrin, and melts away, i.e., loses consistency, becomes unhinged, dies off ( , 3d praet. Niph. as in Exo 16:21, pausal form of = ). How often has he desired the ruin of him whom he must now see in honour! The tables are turned; this and his ungodly desire in general come to nought, inasmuch as the opposite is realized. On , with its self-evident object, cf. Mic 7:10. Concerning the pausal form , vid., Psa 93:1. Hupfeld wishes to read after Psa 9:19, Pro 10:28. In defence of the traditional reading, Hitzig rightly points to Pro 10:24 together with Pro 10:28.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Character of the Righteous. | |
1 Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. 2 His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed. 3 Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endureth for ever. 4 Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous. 5 A good man showeth favour, and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with discretion.
The psalmist begins with a call to us to praise God, but immediately applies himself to praise the people of God; for whatever glory is acknowledged to be on them it comes from God, and must return to him; as he is their praise, so they are his. We have reason to praise the Lord that there are a people in the world who fear him and serve him, and that they are a happy people, both which are owing entirely to the grace of God. Now here we have,
I. A description of those who are here pronounced blessed, and to whom these promises are made.
1. They are well-principled with pious and devout affections. Those have the privileges of God’s subjects, not who cry, Lord, Lord, but who are indeed well affected to his government. (1.) They are such as stand in awe of God and have a constant reverence for his majesty and deference to his will. The happy man is he that fears the Lord, v. 1. (2.) They are such as take a pleasure in their duty. He that fears the Lord, as a Father, with the disposition of a child, not of a slave, delights greatly in his commandments, is well pleased with them and with the equity and goodness of them; they are written in his heart; it is his choice to be under them, and he calls them an easy, a pleasant, yoke; it is his delight to be searching into and conversing with God’s commandments, by reading, hearing, and meditation, Ps. i. 2. He delights not only in God’s promises, but in his precepts, and thinks himself happy under God’s government as well as in his favour. It is a pleasure to him to be found in the way of his duty, and he is in his element when he is in the service of God. Herein he delights greatly, more than in any of the employments and enjoyments of this world. And what he does in religion is done from principle, because he sees amiableness in religion and advantage by it.
2. They are honest and sincere in their professions and intentions. They are called the upright (Psa 112:2; Psa 112:4), who are really as good as they seem to be, and deal faithfully both with God and man. There is no true religion without sincerity; that is gospel-perfection.
3. They are both just and kind in all their dealings: He is gracious, full of compassion, and righteous (v. 4), dares not do any wrong to any man, but does to every man all the good he can, and that from a principle of compassion and kindness. It was said of God, in the foregoing psalm (v. 4), He is gracious, and full of compassion; and here it is said of the good man that he is so; for herein we must be followers of God as dear children; be merciful as he is. He is full of compassion, and yet righteous; what he does good with is what he came honestly by. God hates robbery for burnt-offerings, and so does he. One instance is given of his beneficence (v. 5): He shows favour and lends. Sometimes there is as much charity in lending as in giving, as it obliges the borrower both to industry and honesty. He is gracious and lends (Ps. xxxvii. 26); he does it from a right principle, not as the usurer lends for his own advantage, nor merely out of generosity, but out of pure charity; he does it in a right manner, not grudgingly, but pleasantly, and with a cheerful countenance.
II. The blessedness that is here entailed upon those that answer to these characters. Happiness, all happiness, to the man that feareth the Lord. Whatever men think or say of them, God says that they are blessed; and his saying so makes them so.
1. The posterity of good men shall fare the better for his goodness (v. 2): His seed shall be mighty on earth. Perhaps he himself shall not be so great in the world, nor make such a figure, as his seed after him shall for his sake. Religion has been the raising of many a family, if not so as to advance it high, yet so as to fix it firmly. When good men themselves are happy in heaven their seed perhaps are considerable on earth, and will themselves own that it is by virtue of a blessing descending from them. The generation of the upright shall be blessed; if they tread in their steps, they shall be the more blessed for their relation to them, beloved for the Father’s sake (Rom. xi. 28), for so runs the covenant–I will be a God to thee, and to thy seed; while the seed of evil-doers shall never be renowned. Let the children of godly parents value themselves upon it, and take heed of doing any thing to forfeit the blessing entailed upon the generation of the upright.
2. They shall prosper in the world, and especially their souls shall prosper, v. 3. (1.) They shall be blessed with outward prosperity as far as is good for them: Wealth and riches shall be in the upright man’s house, not in his heart (for he is none of those in whom the love of money reigns), perhaps not so much in his hand (for he only begins to raise the estate), but in his house; his family shall grow rich when he is gone. But, (2.) That which is much better is that they shall be blessed with spiritual blessings, which are the true riches. His wealth shall be in his house, for he must leave that to others; but his righteousness he himself shall have the comfort of to himself, it endures for ever. Grace is better than gold, for it will outlast it. He shall have wealth and riches, and yet shall keep up his religion, and in a prosperous condition shall still hold fast his integrity, which many, who kept it in the storm, throw off and let go in the sunshine. Then worldly prosperity is a blessing when it does not make men cool in their piety, but they still persevere in that; and when this endures in the family, and goes along with the wealth and riches, and the heirs of the father’s estate inherit his virtues too, that is a happy family indeed. However, the good man’s righteousness endures for ever in the crown of righteousness which fades not away.
3. They shall have comfort in affliction (v. 4): Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness. It is here implied that good men may be in affliction; the promise does not exempt them from that. They shall have their share in the common calamities of human life; but, when they sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light to them, Mic. vii. 8. They shall be supported and comforted under their troubles; their spirits shall be lightsome when their outward condition is clouded. Sat lucis intus–There is light enough within. During the Egyptian darkness the Israelites had light in their dwellings. They shall be in due time, and perhaps when they least expect it, delivered out of their troubles; when the night is darkest the day dawns; nay, at evening-time, when night was looked for, it shall be light.
4. They shall have wisdom for the management of all their concerns, v. 5. He that does good with his estate shall, through the providence of God, increase it, not by miracle, but by his prudence: He shall guide his affairs with discretion, and his God instructs him to discretion and teaches him, Isa. xxviii. 26. It is part of the character of a good man that he will use his discretion in managing his affairs, in getting and saving, that he may have to give. It may be understood of the affairs of his charity: He shows favour and lends; but then it is with discretion, that his charity may not be misplaced, that he may give to proper objects what is proper to be given and in due time and proportion. And it is part of the promise to him who thus uses discretion that God will give him more. Those who most use their wisdom see most of their need of it, and ask it of God, who has promised to give it liberally, Jam. i. 5. He will guide his words with judgment (so it is in the original); and there is nothing in which we have more occasion for wisdom than in the government of the tongue; blessed is he to whom God gives that wisdom.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Psalms 112
Blessedness of the Righteous
Scripture v. 1-10
Verse 1 calls for the Hallelujah kind of praise to the Lord, adding that the one who (continually) fears the Lord is a blessed or spiritually prosperous person. It adds that such is particularly true of the one who takes great pleasure in obeying His commandments, Psa 128:1; Psa 111:2; Psa 111:10; Jer 32:39; Psa 1:2; Psa 19:7; Psa 19:10.
Verses 2,3 add that “His seed shall be mighty (warrior like) upon earth, Psa 52:1; and “The generation (seed) of the upright shall be blessed,” as pledged Exo 20:5; Psa 25:13; Psa 37:26; Psa 102:28. It is also declared “Wealth and riches shall be in his house, and his righteousness lives on for ever,” as an influence for good, Luk 12:33; Mat 6:33; Psa 111:3; Isa 45:24; Isa 54:17; See Pro 3:16; Pro 15:6; Isa 33:6; 2Co 6:10.
Verse 4 states that to those who live and walk upright (circumspectly) light arises in the darkness. Because the upright one reflects the light of his Lord in righteous, gracious, and compassionate conduct, Psa 97:11; Ezr 8:16; Job 11:17; Job 30:26; La 3:2; See also Mat 5:15-16; Mat 5:45; Mat 5:48; Eph 5:1-2; Eph 5:16-17; Luk 6:36.
Verse 5 relates that “a good (ideal) man shows favor, lendeth, and will guide (direct) his affairs with discretion,” as Joseph did Pharaoh’s affairs; See also Psa 37:26; Luk 6:35; Eph 5:15; Col 4:5; Act 11:24.
Verse 6 adds that surely this man of discreet judgment in his household affairs, lending to the poor, showing hospitable favors to the needy, shall not be moved, forever, as opposed to the temporary prosperity of the unrighteous, Psa 15:5; Psa 37:24; Psa 37:31; 2Pe 1:10.
Verse 7 asserts that this blessed, ideal, lawkeeping one shall not “be afraid (all shook up) of evil tidings.” For his heart is fixed (firmly), trusting in the Lord,” for whatever comes He knows the Lord will overrule it, Psa 2:12; Pro 3:35; Rom 8:28. Let us learn to be bold as Moses at the Red Sea, Joshua at the walls of Jericho, the three Hebrew children before the fiery furnace, and Peter and John before the Sanhedrin, Act 4:19-20; Act 5:29.
Verse 8 adds that “His heart is established (supported by faith), (so that) he shall not be afraid, until he see (realize) his desire upon his enemies,” as expressed Psa 54:7; Psa 59:10; Psa 92:11.
Verse 9 recounts also that this blessed man, who fears the Lord continuously, has dispersed, distributed, doled out to the poor, the food and clothing that he needed, as the Lord does for every man, Pro 11:24; 2Co 9:9; Jas 1:17; Act 17:28. That man’s righteousness (from God) endures for ever; “his horn (of praise) shall be exalted with honor,” because he honors God in his conduct, Psa 75:4; Psa 75:10; Psa 92:10.
Verse 10 concludes that “the wicked shall see it and be grieved,” with conviction of his own guilt of sin, Luk 13:28. It is added that “the desire of the wicked shall perish,” melt away, like an icicle or candle under an August sun; He shall “gnash with his teeth, and melt away,” with spiteful resentment against the righteous, dying in the gaul of his own bitterness, Psa 37:12; Pro 10:28; Job 8:13; Luk 16:25.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1 Blessed is the man that feareth Jehovah Although the prophet begins with an exhortation, he has, as I have already pointed out, something farther in view, than simply the calling upon the faithful to praise God. To practice wickedness, and perpetrate injustice, is, in all quarters, accounted a great happiness; and, although integrity may be occasionally praised, nevertheless, there is scarcely one among a hundred who pursues it, because all imagine that they will be miserable unless, by one means or another, they seize as booty every thing which comes in their way. In opposition to this, the prophet tells us that more advantage is to be expected from God’s paternal regard, than from the inflicting of every species of injury, and the perpetrating of every kind of injustice in our power; and by setting before us the certain hope of reward, he calls us back to the practice of equity and beneficence. The following is the analysis which I give of the verse: Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, and delighteth himself in his commandments; and thus, by the second clause of the verse, the prophet specifies in what the fear of God consists. And that the addition of this explanatory clause is called for, is quite apparent from what we remarked towards the conclusion of the preceding psalm. For, while the law is boldly contemned by mankind, yet nothing is more common than to pretend that they fear God. Such impiety is well refuted by the prophet, when he acknowledges none as belonging to the worshippers of God, but he who endeavors to keep his law. The Hebrew verb חפף, chaphets, is rather emphatical, which is, as it were, to take his pleasure, and I have rendered to delight himself For the prophet makes a distinction between a willing and prompt endeavor to keep the law, and that which consists in mere servile and constrained obedience. We must, therefore, cheerfully embrace the law of God, and that, too, in such a manner, that the love of it, with all its sweetness, may overcome all the allurements of the flesh, otherwise, mere attention to it will be unavailing. Hence a man cannot be regarded as a genuine observer of the law, until he has attained to this — that the delight which he takes in the law of God renders obedience agreeable to him. I now resume the consideration of the passage at large. The prophet, in affirming that the worshippers of God are happy, guards us against the very dangerous deception which the ungodly practice upon themselves, in imagining that they can reap a sort of happiness, I know not what, from doing evil.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
INTRODUCTION
1. An alphabetical and hallelujah Psalms 2. Author unknown; ascribed by Vulg. to Haggai and Zachariah after the exile.
3. A hymn on the excellence and reward of piety.
4. The concluding verse of 111 and the first verse of 112 form the point of union. All human righteousness has its root in the righteousness of God. It is not merely man striving to copy God; it is Gods gift and Gods work. There is a living connection between the righteousness of God and the righteousness of man, and therefore the imperishableness of the one pertains to the other also.Perowne.
THE CHARACTERISTICS AND BLESSEDNESS OF TRUE RELIGION
(Psa. 112:1)
This verse may be taken as a text of which the Psalm is an exposition. True religion consists of
(1) Love of Gods commandments,
(2) Righteousness,
(3) Grace,
(4) Compassion,
(5) Discretion,
(6) Firm Trust in God,
(7) Benevolence. Its blessedness involves
(1) The superiority of the offspring of the religious man; their
(2) happiness,
(3) temporal prosperity,
(4) spiritual establishment,
(5) everlasting remembrance,
(6) confidence. In contrast with all this is the misery, destruction, and disappointment of the wicked. To restrict ourselves to the text, notice
I. The characteristics of true religion.
1. The fear of the Lord. The Old Testament lays great stress on the fear of God. Everywhere it is the cardinal virtue, the corner-stone of the saintly templethe root of grace out of which, if it be fully planted in a mans heart, all the other graces, all the varied fruits of righteousness, will be sure to grow.C. Vince. This sentiment is peculiar to the godly; for the wicked have no fear of God before their eyes. It is not a dread of consequences, but a dread of sin as alien to God and to man made in the image of God.
2. Great delight in Gods commandments. All that fear God are well pleased that there is a Bible a revelation of God, of His will, and of the only way to happiness in Him.M. Henry.
(1.) Those COMMANDMENTS warrant our delight. They are the revelation of His will who is the subject of mans filial reverence, and are the only means whereby the well-being of man may be secured.
(2.) The STUDY of those commandments should be our delight. Their wisdom and suggestiveness expands the intellect; their goodness excites the best feelings; they brace the will by their firm and resolute sanctions, they elevate and give a spiritual tone to all the faculties.
(3.) The PRACTICE of those commandments should be our delight. Their yoke is easy; their duties are pleasures; and in the volume of the book it should be written of the servant as well as of his Lord: I delight to do Thy will, O my God.
3. Divine praise. Praise ye the Lord. Fear and obedience are worthless without this supreme symptom of love.
II. The blessedness of true religion. The word is properly, in the plural form, blessednesses; or may be considered as an exclamation produced by contemplating the state of the man who has taken God for His portion.
1. God made man for happiness.
2. Every man feels a desire to be happy.
3. All human beings abhor misery.
4. Happiness is the grand object of pursuit among all men.
5. But so perverted is the human heart that it seeks happiness where it cannot be found; and in things which are naturally and morally unfit to communicate it.
6. The true way of obtaining it is here laid down.A. Clarke. Learn
(1.) That blessedness is Gods gift.
(2.) That duty it Gods path to blessedness.
(3.) That religion is the truest blessedness, because it involves relationship with God and fulfilment of duty.
THE POSTHUMOUS RESULTS OF RELIGION
(Psa. 112:2)
A conspicuous feature of the Old dispensation was that the blessings of the righteous were also the inheritance of their children. And those promises which were conferred on the posterity of the righteous Jew have not only never been recalled, but are among the express provisions of the Christian covenant. The second command is still unrepealed. Isa. 44:3 never received its fulfilment till Pentecost; cf. also Joe. 2:28-32; Act. 2:17. Notice
I. What our text presupposes.
1. True piety, which, consisting as it does in true wisdom, fearing God, greatly delighting in His commandments, and praising Him,
(1) will, by the cultivation of healthy physical, intellectual, and moral qualities, through the well-known law of heredity, will transmit the same.
(2.) Will strive to predispose the child to the choice and reception of piety. A good parent will carefully attend to the circumstances which surround his child, shielding him from temptation, and facilitating his choice of the good, at home, at school, in the selection of a profession, &c.
(3.) Will train up a child in the way he should go, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; will not neglect things spiritual in favour of things temporal; will strive to implant the fear of God, and the love of Gods commandments, on the plastic character wisely and well; not making religious exercises burdensome but delightful.
2. Firm faith that God will help and crown its efforts with success.
(1.) It leans on the divine power. It will pray, therefore, for the continual exercise of that power.
(2.) It relies on the divine promises, which makes it hopeful of the result.
3. Patience.
(1.) In training. A child has naturally a free and wayward will. To mould that will requires time and perseverance.
(2.) In waiting for results. Seeds do not germinate all at once. The good seed may lie dormant for a considerable time, and the wise parent will not hurry it.
4. The possibility of failure in certain cases. He who would share in the blessings of pious ancestors must follow after their faith.Starke. A child may be proof against all piety and care, in which case the divine promises, which are all conditional, will not be fulfilled.
II. What our text declares.
1. That his seed shall be mighty in the earth.
(1.) He will act upon mighty principles. He will seek first the kingdom of God, &c., and will exercise his fathers prudence, patience, and piety.
(2.) He will overcome mighty difficulties. He has God behind him to help him through all his perplexities, over all his impediments, to guide him by His counsel, and assist him with His arm.
(3.) Undaunted, he will achieve mighty successes. Adopting his fathers principles he will win victories on the field of mind; he will rule his own spirit; and be not slothful in business.
(4.) He will wield a mighty influence. He will excite confidence. His word will be taken, his opinion respected, his patronage courted, his example followed. Knowing the value and responsibility of his principles he will propagate them in his family, society, country; and neglect no opportunity to get the Will of God done on earth as it is done in heaven.
(5.) He will leave behind him a mighty name.
2. They shall be blessed. All the virtues are theirs,Temperance, purity; that diligence which makes fat; that prosperity which is conducive to spiritual good. All moral privileges are theirs,the love of God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the indwelling and communion of the Holy Ghost, the means of grace, the hope of glory, and perhaps an early heaven.
III. What our text implies.
1. That parents have a control over the destiny of their offspring. If parents do not put these revealed laws concerning their children into operation, let them not blame God or fortune for the sad result. The promises still hold good; let parents plead them, and employ the means of securing their fulfilment.
2. That as the result is in the hands of God, and might and blessedness His gifts, let not parents be anxious about the result. If the conditions have been fulfilled, the bread cast upon the waters will return, though after many days. The great Augustine is a case in point. (See Confessions, Book III., par. 1921.)
3. That children incur grave responsibilities for the blessing of pious parents. This is one of Gods choicest privileges. Therefore children should yield their parents
(1) Love and reverence,
(2) Obedience. Honour thy father and thy mother is the first commandment with promise. To despise this gift is to forfeit the title to all the rest.
PROSPERITY AND ITS QUALIFICATIONS
(Psa. 112:3)
It has been said that prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament and adversity of the New. Nothing could be more untrue. The New Testament never elevates poverty into a virtue. Its poverty is that of spirit. With regard to the injunction addressed to the young ruler, notice
(1) Provision for his wants would have been made;
(2) by his poverty many would be enriched. Warnings are uttered against the danger of riches. But there are other ways of avoiding danger than fleeing from it. It is dangerous to embark on the ocean in an open boat. So riches without corresponding protection are dangerous. Both testaments promise this protection. (Mat. 6:33; Tim. Psa. 4:8.)
I. What is prosperity? This demands a large definition. The miser is not prosperous, nor the man who amasses wealth and does not know what to do with it, or uses it for his own harm. To be prosperous is to have that which will promote the well-being of mans whole nature and which has that end secured. Material, moral, and intellectual wealth and its results.
II. What is calculated to produce it? The Psalmist, our Lord, and St. Paul are at one as to the qualification. Righteousness. This also demands a large definition. It is not profession, emotion, or devotional exercises. It is the harmony of a mans whole nature with the will of God.
1. When that is the case, a man is moderate, temperate, observant of natural laws, and (supposing of course no constitutional ailment) therefore healthy. Thus righteousness affords a physical basis for success.
2. He holds in check the feverish desire to succeed, and thus godliness with contentment becomes great gain. Every day affords instances that making haste to be rich is but making haste to pauperise the health, the intellect, or the soul.
3. He holds those passions in check which cloud the understanding and impair the vision. He avoids all excess, either in self-aggrandisement or self-indulgence; the first of which dries up the sources of prosperity, and the second of which throws them away. Righteousness holds the golden mean.
4. He respects the rights of others. Hence, those whose rights you respect, will respect yours. No one cares for him who cares for nobody. While selfishness is everywhere condemned and scouted, those who are generous and helpful will not fail to find the same qualities in others.
5. He will be frugal of his time, his money, &c., in recognition of Gods claims upon both, and, as Gods steward, will put them out to usury, and strive to be prosperous, that he may advance Gods interests in the world.
III. What objections can be urged against all this?
1. That the righteous are not better off than others. But
(1) Do those who are called righteous answer to the law of righteousness in its entirety?
(2) Without controversy it is all true respecting communities. All history proves that they prosper in proportion to their righteousness. Theatres, taverns, houses of ill-fame, never exalted a nation. But that which promotes temperance and industry does, and that is righteousness.
(3) It is so by the common consent of the world. How often do we hear the expression that such an one is worth his weight in gold.
2. That men prosper who violate the laws of righteousness. But
(1) Are these men prosperous?
(2) Supposing them to have all that heart could wish, what shall it profit a man? &c.
(3) Supposing it true of an individual, when was it ever true of a nation? TO CONCLUDEA man who is in possession of his whole manhood, so that every part is developed and harmonised and carried up into a beautiful symmetry, a perfect man in Christ Jesus; such a man is better adapted to develop prosperity than any other man in a lower sphere can be. Manhood as contemplated by the Word of God: the Christian character made up of all elements, largeness of soul, wise judgment, reverence for God and His laws, love to man and kindly sympathy, belief in divine providence, hope of immortality, judgment of earthly values by the golden rod of the sanctuary; all these elements form a sure basis for prosperity in the world.H. W. Beecher.
LIGHT: TO WHOM AND WHEN?
(Psa. 112:4)
Light and darkness, as symbols of moral conditions, are of frequent use in Holy Scripture. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. The process of conversion is from darkness into light. The wicked love darkness, &c. The righteous walk in the light, &c. These figures have peculiar force in the East, where the light of day is splendid, and the darkness of night intense. These illustrations are generally descriptive. There are breaks in the darkness of the most depraved, or their lot would be hopeless. There are clouds resting on the most pious, or their probation would be at an end. Our text
I. Characterises those to whom it applies. Not the perfectly sinless, but the upright. The figure is appropriate. Light descends, and those who stand erect are the most likely to catch its rays. The morally upright are those whose posture is straight, elevated towards God and towards heaven. Their attitude, therefore, is most calculated to catch the beams of the Sun of righteousness.
1. They are upright in heart (Psa. 97:1). Their desires and emotions are pure.
2. They are upright in mind; candid, unprejudiced, welcoming light from all quarters.
3. They are upright in will; inflexible, just.
4. They are upright in life; examples, models, guides.
II. Implies that those whom it characterises have their seasons of darkness.
1. The character of this darkness.
(1) Religious perplexity. Temptation to doubt Gods providence, promises, and word. The mysteries of life, duty, and destiny will sometimes press upon the mind and dim the clearness of its vision.
(2) Domestic trials, bereavements, sicknesses, disaffections, difficulties respecting the education and prospects of children will sometimes cast a gloom upon the heart.
(3) Business anxieties, duties, failures,
(4) the sense of personal sinfulness, and
(5) slander, misrepresentation, and persecution will overcast the soul.
2. The purpose of this darkness. Being abnormal, and yet of divine ordination, there must be some reason for it.
(1.) It is merciful. Night is a necessary adjunct to day. The eye cannot bear the unclouded lustre of the sun.
(2.) It is disciplinary. The repose of the eyelids during night prepares for the strain of daylight.
(3.) It is testing. Darkness is a trial of our faith in God, &c.
III. Declares that, to those it characterises, light ariseth in the darkness.
1. Observe, light ariseth IN the darkness. It was so with our Lord, Luk. 18:43; St. Paul, 2Co. 12:8-10. In neither case was the darkness entirely removed. There was enough light, but not super-abundant.
2. But it is light in the darkness. There is the light of innocence in the darkness of slander; the light of forgiveness in the darkness of sin; the light of divine comfort in the darkness of sorrow, the light of revelation in the darkness of perplexity. They shall be delivered in due time and perhaps when they least expect it; when the night is darkest the day dawns; nay, at evening time, when night was looked for, it shall be light.M. Henry.
IN CONCLUSION. (i.) The upright have all their darkness here and mitigations even of that, but they travel to a land of perfect light. (ii.) The perverse and crooked have darkness too, but enough illumination to lead them to perfect light, neglecting which, it gradually fades into outer darkness.
THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE UPRIGHT
(Psa. 112:4, second clause)
The upright will be able to bend without breaking. Like true steel, pliant enough to accomplish its purpose without injury to its temper.
I. The upright bend,
1. In graciousness. They are not distant, cold, haughty, harsh in their judgments, or critical in their estimates. They are ready to consider all cases of need, and in such a spirit as shall not deprive their benevolence of all value. It will be a bending that does not seem to bend; a stooping of genial familiarity, seeking not its own.
2. In compassion. The proud see no misery. The upright stoop that they may see it, and pity as they see. In that position compassion becomes practical and develops into active mercy and benevolent generosity.
II. Yet the upright maintain their integrity. They love, but it is the love of dignity and righteousness.
Illustration.
1. When the Queen visited the London Hospital, a poor little Irish girl expressed a wish to see her. Her Majesty went and encouraged the child by words, and smiles, and gifts. Did she lose her dignity by so doing? Far from it, majesty there bent in the right direction.
2. When God so loved the world did He drag His justice in the dust? Nay, His justice bent to provide justification for the sinner.
THE GOLDEN MEAN
(Psa. 112:5)
The golden mean is much needed in those matters which concern justice on the one hand and generosity on the other. How to do good with money, time, influence, &c., without inflicting an injustice on self and injury on others is often perplexing. The Psalmist shows that it is possible to show favour and lend, and yet guide ones affairs with discretion. An alternative translation is, Happy is the man that showeth favour and lendeth, he maintaineth his cause in the judgment, showing that the golden mean is the happy medium and the golden rule, and that an upright man will not show such favour, &c., as will bring down upon him the disapprobation of the just. Our text teaches us
I. That such circumstances will arise as to need and justify favour and loans. All are liable to reverses of fortune. The sudden failure of a creditor, the dishonesty of a subordinate, ill health, family bereavement, may put any man in circumstances that require a temporary loan.
II. That that man is happy who so guides his affairs as to be able wisely to afford those favours and loans.
1. Happiness will spring from the possession of those things which makes this possible. It presupposes in the lender comfort and affluence, which have been the result of honesty, diligence, and frugality.
2. Happiness will spring from the disposition to show favour and lend.
Mercy
is twice blessed,
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
III. That that man is happy who can so guide his affairs as to do good and no evil by his favours and loans.
1. It is no small source of misery all round when a man through a benevolence has done harm. He is a loser himself, and his self-denial has been used for unworthy ends; and thus good becomes evil spoken of, and charity brought into disrepute.
2. It is no small cause for satisfaction where beneficence secures good and profitable ends. It will secure
(1) Individual gratitude;
(2) The benediction of heaven;
(3) The approbation of the good. LEARN (i.) That generosity should be the outcome of a careful consideration of means. As God hates robbery for burnt-offering, we may be sure that He is displeased with the charitable use of other peoples money. (ii.) That generosity should be the result of a careful study of the merits of the case. To encourage the professional beggar or the vicious person were sorry work indeed. (iii.) That generosity should be exhibited in a discreet and just way. To entrust money to the needy but improvident or careless, is to waste it. Actual need may be relieved by gifts in kind or the proffer of employment. (iv.) But let no man screen himself behind the dictum, just before generous, so as to be neither. The good man will seek for opportunities. (v.) Woe unto the man who seeth his brother in need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion against him.
THE STABILITY AND MEMORY OF THE RIGHTEOUS
(Psa. 112:6)
Only that which is stable is memorable. Monuments which crumble are soon forgotten. Memorials are built of durable materials. So the good man standing firm on unmovable foundations will be had in everlasting remembrance.
I. The Stability of the righteous.
1. He rests upon immovable foundations. God and His righteousness, love, and power.
2. On that foundation he maintains a steady course. He is not tossed about. He stands foursquare to every wind that blows.
3. From that foundation he hurls with steady aim. He does not sin (), and thus miss the mark of his high calling.
II. The memory of the righteous. They shall be in everlasting remembrance, because
1. They are stable, and therefore endure (Psa. 1:1-3).
2. They are made of enduring materials. Righteousness and goodness, like charity, can never fail.
3. They are worth remembering. The world has no interest in keeping up the memory of bad men, and, as soon as it can be done, hastens to forget them. Wicked men are remembered only when their deeds are enormous, and then their memory is cherished only to admonish and to warn. The world has no interest in keeping up the memory of Benedict Arnold, or Alexander VI., or Csar Borgia, except to warn future generations of the guilt and baseness of treason and profligacy. It has an interest in never suffering the names of Howard, Wilberforce, Henry Martyn to die, for these names excite to noble feelings and to noble efforts wherever they are known.Barnes. They are held in grateful remembrance; in instructive remembrance, examples, &c.; in celestial remembrance, for in heaven they receive a crown of glory that shall never fade away.
But strew his ashes to the wind,
Whose sword or voice has served mankind.
And is he dead, whose glorious mind lifts thine on high?
To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.
FEARLESSNESS, FIXEDNESS, AND FAITH
(Psa. 112:7)
Three great and closely allied qualities, always needed and always the heritage of Gods people. The three stand or fall together. Where there is fear there is no fixity; and where there is no fixity there is no faith. But he who has a strong faith in God, will not fear though mountains be removed, &c. (Psa. 46:1-5).
I. Fearlessness consists
1. In not being afraid of evil tidings before they come. The fearless man has no carking care, or harassing anxieties. He will wait patiently and courageously till evils arrive before he pronounces them fearful (Mat. 6:34).
2. In not being afraid of evil tidings when they come, but a manful determination to make the best of them. The fearless man will face them, examine them, and conquer them.
3. In not being afraid of evil tidings after they have come. The fearless man does not fear consequences, but carves a new career out of misfortune, and educes good out of evil.
II. Fearlessness is impossible without fixedness. Fear is trepidation, wavering, retreat. Fearlessness implies settledness and steadfastness. Fixedness is
1. A steady preparation to meet possible fears; a concentration and consolidation of forces around weak points that may be attacked, a gathering up of solidity and strength. Our faith may be attacked: let us examine its evidences, and purge its weaknesses, and fortify ourselves with irrefutable arguments. Our virtue: let us surround it with impregnable fortifications. Our intelligence: let us brace it by healthful thought and reading. Our property: let us by prudence and diligence prepare.
2. A strong determination to resist the shock of evil when it comes. None of these things move me, said Paul. A man who has not learned to say nowho is not resolved that he will take Gods way in spite of every dog that can bay or bark at him, in spite of every silvery voice that woos him aside, will be a weak and a wretched man till he dies. Whoever lets himself be shaped and guided by anything lower than an inflexible will, fixed in obedience to God, will in the end be shaped into a deformity and guided to wreck and ruin. We need a wholesome obstinacy in the right, that will be neither bribed, nor coaxed, nor bullied. Whom resist steadfast in the faith.Maclaren.
III. No fixedness without faith. There is no stability and settled persistency of righteous purpose possible for us, unless we are made strong, because we lay hold of Gods strength, and stand firm because we are rooted in Him. Without that hold, we shall be swept away by storms of calamity or gusts of passion. Without that there will not be solidity enough in our character. To stand amidst earthquakes and storms we must be built upon the rock, and build rocklike upon it. Build thy strength upon God.Maclaren.
This faith is exercised
(1.) In the divine existence, power, goodness, and promise.
(2.) In our own God-given strength.
(3.) In our ultimate victory (1Jn. 5:4-5).
THE NEED, SUCCOUR, AND TRIUMPH OF THE SOUL
(Psa. 112:8)
I. The soul in need.
1. The soul needs support in times of weakness. It is like the body, debilitated, when out of health. Physical conditions, circumstances, temptations, sometimes engender spiritual weakness, and make the soul cry out for some support.
2. The soul needs help in times of exhaustion. Its strenuous efforts against its many foes frequently exhaust it. Those foes are strong, relentless, vigilant. The soul must be recruited by forces outside itself, or it will fail.
3. The soul needs protection in time of danger. There are some temptations which we must resist; some against which resistance is unavailing. Our only chance in this latter case is a strong refuge, or a powerful auxiliary.
II. The soul succoured. He shall not be afraid. Weakness, helplessness, and danger will engender fear. Courage will be stimulated by timely succour. Such succour is afforded by God.
1. God is the secret of the souls strength. When in weakness and debility, let the soul flee to Him. He has promised to heal our sicknesses. He is the health of our countenance. They that wait upon the Lord, &c. And with strength will come fearlessness.
2. God is the support of the soul in times of exhaustion. My flesh and my heart faileth, &c. Come unto Me, all ye that are weary, &c. God is a very present help in time of trouble. Greater is He that is for you, &c. And, conscious of the upholding of Omnipotence, all fear will flee.
3. God is the refuge of the soul in times of danger. The Lord God is a shield. The name of the Lord is a strong tower, &c.
III. The soul triumphing. Until he see his desire upon his enemies.
1. God has promised not only timely succour, but ultimate victory. He has promised, grace to help, that we shall withstand in the evil day, that we shall overcome all, and to give us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
2. That victory shall be complete. We shall come off more than conquerors, and have an abundant entrance. Difficulties, doubts, sin, Satan, and death shall be beaten down under our feet.
LIBERALITY
(Psa. 112:9)
There is a great deal of pseudoliberality. Reckless almsgiving, needless charity, and benevolences from an unwilling heart, are not genuine liberality. That must have righteousness for its basis, need for its object, and usefulness for its end. The Christian law is based upon this (2Co. 9:6-15).
I. True liberality must have righteousness for its basis, and constant righteousness, i.e., not righteousness and favouritism mixed.
1. It must proceed from a righteous motivenot to secure praise, &c., as the hypocrites.
2. It must be done in the right way, i.e, on a just principle of selection, which implies investigation; by a just methodloans, when loans would be helpful; money, clothes, employment, food, as the case may require.
II. True liberality must have need for its object.
1. Not
(1) Sloth,
(2) Drunkenness,
(3) The misery of vice. But
2. Real poverty.
(1.) The temporarily distressed. These are frequently the most needy and the most worthy, and require the most righteousness to find out and relieve.
(2.) Widows and orphans.
(3.) Charitable institutions.
(4.) Those depending upon us. To neglect them is worse than infidelity.
III. True liberality must have usefulness for its end. He hath dispersed. St. Paul (2Co. 9:6-15) applies it in the sense of seed-sowing. Liberality contemplates a harvest of usefulness.
1. God has made us treasurers of His bounty. He has not given, only entrusted to us for special purposes what we have. A man has made a sovereign honestly; it is his in point of fair service, by what is called right. If he wills it away, or spends it on himself, or keeps it, he violates no law. Yet he says in effect, The money is mine, but I myself am not my own. I have no property in myself. I am Gods agent. I have given society an equivalent for this sovereign; but the strength and skill by which I gained it are the gifts of God. I will hold what I have as Christs. Holding it so, I instantly yield it at His call, saying, Thine is to right.Dr. J. Parker.
2. That purpose is useful dispersion.
(1.) A timely gift to a poor man will enable him to weather the storm and start afresh.
(2.) A seasonable donation to a charitable society will be a means of boundless usefulness.
(3.) Ample provision for those depending upon us will enable them to follow out and multiply our own schemes of usefulness. True liberality will plant roses in the desert, and turn the wilderness into the garden of the Lord. Barren wastes will smile with genial harvests, and solitary places will be made glad.
IV. True liberality will have success and honour as its reward. All experience shows generosity to be the best policy. Both have been tried. The miser is not only not really enriched, but positively impoverished. Horn is the symbol of power and influence.
1. The liberal man will be enriched by the blessing of God. He scatters only to increase. The very act of scattering breaks up the mastery of selfishness, enlarges the circle of kindly interests, shows that there is something in the world beyond our own personal concerns. It were better therefore for man, better as a discipline, better for his heart, better for every quality that is worth having, that a man should throw some of his money into the river than that he should never give anything away. Even if a man should get nothing back he always increases in heart volume, in joy, in love, in peace; his cup of comfort is sweetened, he walks on a greener earth, and looks up to God through a bluer sky. Beneficence is its own compensation. Charity empties the heart of one gift that it may make room for a larger. Give and it shall be given you, good measure, shaken together, and running over. The liberal soul shall be made fat, &c.Dr. J. Parker.
2. His horn shall be exalted in the estimation of mankind. Who is it that the world delights to honour? the Bonapartes and the Rothschilds, or the Pea-bodys and the Wilberforces? Learn
(i.) That selfishness is a bad policy. (ii.) That liberality extends not only to money, but to time, life, influence, and work.
THE WICKED SPIRIT
(Psa. 112:10)
Our text is a most admirable exposition of what is termed the bad or wicked spirit. No tendency meets with more emphatic condemnation than that which sets in the direction of regret and annoyance at the well-being of others. Those who are the subjects of such feelings may well be styled wicked.
I. The character of the wicked. would seem to signify one who lies in wait, a mischievous and injurious person, and an oppressor. Hence the main points in his character are craft and cruelty. Sin and so the sinner, like a ravenous beast, as crafty as it is cruel, is crouching outside the door, only waiting for opportunity to be given to spring in and devour.Samuel Cox. (Psa. 37:12.)
II. The inspection of the wicked. Shall see. , to see critically.
1. The wicked look carefully for everything that is bad. They would if they could be blind to everything that is good. They are keen hunters for slips, discrepancies, and falls.
2. The wicked, however, find everything that is good. They are compelled by their very search for inconsistencies to see the true character of the righteous. When they slander him, plunder him, and do all manner of harm to him, he returns good for evil. These are but so many opportunities for his righteousness, stability, compassion, and trust in God, and so many coals of fire for his enemies heads.
III. The disappointment of the wicked.
1. It is twofold.
(1.) At not finding what they wish to find.
(2.) At finding the exact opposite of what they wish to find. E.g. Balak.
2. It is intense.
(1.) It takes the form of vexation. Their machinations have been frustrated, and instead of working evil their worst attempts have worked together for good.
(2.) It takes the form of furious but ineffectual wrath. Gnash their teeth (Psa. 35:16; Psa. 37:11).
IV. The fate of the wicked. Shall melt away. Instead of calamity falling on the righteous it falls upon them. The figure is very expressive and is often used.
1. In Psa. 58:7, they are described as melting away as waters which run continually, i.e., running to waste in the sand or evaporated by the sun. So the wicked waste away physically, intellectually, morally.
2. In Psa. 58:8, they are like the snail which melteth away. (See Tristrams Natural History, p. 295, for peculiarities of snails in the East.) The heat often dries them up by a long continued drought, or by the suns rays penetrating into their holes. So all the resources of the wicked shall be dried up.
3. In Psa. 68:2, they are likened to melting wax; so they form no real obstacle to the good.
(i.) A word of warning.
(1.) Be vigilant, &c.
(2.) Beware lest you give the enemy an occasion for his spirit. (ii.) A word of comfort. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, &c.
THE DESIRE OF THE WICKED
(Psa. 112:10, last clause)
The Bible is full of statements and illustrations of the instability of sin. The righteous standare held in everlasting remembrance, while the wicked are tossed about, moved from their foundations, and finally melt away. The text points out the perishable character of the desire of the wicked. That desire perishes
I. Because it is selfish. It breeds so to speak in and in, and thus first vitiates and then destroys production. This is illustrated by the fate of innumerable cravings. The lust for gain, drink, &c., literally dies out, and becomes a morbid habit which is never satisfied. So the soul that is greedy of the reputation of the righteous shall not be satisfied notwithstanding all it may get.
II. Because it has nothing to fall back upon in case of disappointment. The righteous, if disappointed in a given end, have always the desire for duty and Gods glory to fall back upon, and thus they have a continual source of satisfaction. On the contrary, the frustration of wicked schemes ends in utter despair.
III. Because it has no resources on which to rely. The desire of the righteous is supported by God, conscience, and humanity. That of the wicked only by feeble and unsubstantial self. Their colleagues only afford assistance up to a given point.
IV. Because set on unsatisfactory objects. Those objects are sinful, and, as James says, Desire, when it has conceived, bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
V. Because the frown of God is upon it. Desire can only live under the smile and with the favour of God. This favour rests upon the desire of the good; but turned away from the wicked their desires perish.
IN CONCLUSION (Isa. 29:8).
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Psalms 112
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE
Alphabetical Psalm in Praise of the Man who Revereth Jehovah.
ANALYSIS
The structure of this Psalm exactly corresponds with that of the foregoing (of which see the Analysis).
(P.R.I.) Praise ye Yah!
1
How happy the man who revereth Jehovah,
In his commandments he delighteth greatly:
2
Mighty in the earth shall be his seed,
The generation of the upright shall be blessed:
3
Comfort and riches are in his house,
And his righteousness standeth fast for aye:
4
He hath arisen in darkness a light to the upright,
Gracious and compassionate[542] and righteous:
[542] Cp. Exo. 34:6 and Psa. 111:4.
5
Well is it with the man who is gracious and lendeth,
He shall maintain his words in the judgment:
6
For to the ages shall he not be shaken,
An age-abiding remembrance shall the righteous man become:
7
Of evil tidings will he not be afraid,
Steadfast is his heart led to trust in Jehovah.
8
Sustained in his heart he is not afraid,
Until that he gazeth on his adversaries:
9
He hath scattered abroad he hath given to the needy,
His righteousness standeth fast for aye:
His horn shall be exalted with honour:
10
A lawless one shall see and be vexed,
His teeth shall he gnash and shall melt away;
The desire[543] of lawless ones shall vanish.[544]
[543] Gt.: The hope. Cp. Psa. 9:18, Pro. 10:28Gn.
[544] Cp. Psa. 1:6.
(Nm)[545]
[545] See 113 (beginning.)
PARAPHRASE
Psalms 112
Praise the Lord! For all who fear God and trust in Him are blessed beyond expression. Yes, happy is the man who delights in doing His commands.
2 His children shall be honored everywhere, for good mens sons have a special heritage.
3 He himself shall be wealthy, and his good deeds will never be forgotten.[546]
[546] Literally, his righteousness endures forever.
4 When darkness overtakes him, light will come bursting in. He is kind and merciful
5 And all goes well for the generous man who conducts his business fairly.
6 Such a man will not be overthrown by evil circumstances. Gods constant care of him will make a deep impression on all who see it.
7 He does not fear bad news, nor live in dread of what may happen. For he is settled in his mind that Jehovah will take care of him.
8 That is why he is not afraid, but can calmly face his foes.
9 He gives generously to those in need. His deeds will never be forgotten.1 He shall have influence and honor.
10 Evil-minded men will be infuriated when they see all this; they will gnash their teeth in anger and slink away, their hopes thwarted.
EXPOSITION
Although the course run by this psalm naturally differs from that of its predecessor, yet the correspondences between the two, both in thought and language, are numerous. Note the identity of line Psa. 112:3 b in the two psalms; also the recurrence of the refrain snatch in Psa. 112:4 b of this psalm as well as that; which, in this second case, is the more remarkable, because it probably applies to MAN that which was originally spoken by Jehovah concerning HIMSELF: as much as to sayI am gracious and compassionate, be ye the same. Then comes the question whether, if line b of this verse is transferred to man, line a also should not be applied in like manner. If so, we reach the rather startling comparison of the Jehovah-revering MAN to a light arising in the darkness enshrouding his afflicted but upright brother. This is a by-no-means incredible result; and the strong current man-ward of this whole psalm appears to warrant our resting in it. The quotation of Psa. 112:9 in 2Co. 9:9 may usefully remind us how strongly the great exponent of justification by faith teaches Christians, that they have been created in Christ Jesus upon a footing of good (and noble) works, which God prepared beforehand, that therein we might walk (Eph. 2:10).
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1.
We can learn much from Psalms 111, 112 by a comparison and contrast. Graham Scroggie gave a very helpful chart on this which we reproduce here:
Psalms 111
Psalms 112
1.
Praise ye the Lord.
1.
Praise ye the Lord.
1.
The upright.
2.
The upright.
10.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
1.
Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord.
2.
Them that delight therein,
1.
Delighteth greatly in His commandments.
3.
His righteousness endureth for ever.
3, 9.
His righteousness endureth for ever.
4.
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion.
4.
He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.
4.
He hath made His wonderful works to be remembered.
6.
The righteous shall be in ever-lasting remembrance.
5.
Them that fear Him.
8.
He shall not be afraid.
7.
His commandments.
1.
His commandments.
8.
Established (stand fast).
8.
Established.
2.
To whom do the words: gracious and compassionate in Psa. 112:4 b refer? This becomes a startling thought. Why?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
1. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord This is the theme of the psalm. On fearing “the Lord,” see on Psa 111:10.
Delighteth greatly Is not only obedient in form, or from sense of duty, but from strong affection, supreme delight. Psa 1:2. This pleasure in God’s commands is what prompts the truly pious soul to their study and observance. Psa 111:2
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psalms 112
Characteristics – Psalms 112 is a complete acrostic of 22 lines. Each line begins with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Psa 112:1-8 contain two lines each. Psa 112:9-10 contain three lines each. Psalms 111 is the same in its acrostic structure.
Theme – While Psalms 111 praises the Lord for His righteous works, this Psalm praises the Lord for the man who works righteousness.
Psa 112:9 He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever; his horn shall be exalted with honour.
Psa 112:9
2Co 9:9, “(As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
A Psalm of the Happiness of the Believers.
v. 1. Praise ye the Lord, v. 2. His seed, v. 3. Wealth and riches, v. 4. Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness, v. 5. A good man showeth favor and lendeth, v. 6. Surely he shall not be moved forever, v. 7. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings, v. 8. His heart is established, v. 9. He hath dispersed, v. 10. The wicked shall see it and be grieved,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
IN this “complementary psalm” the writer sets forth the blessedness of the true worshipper of God. He is blessed in his seed (Psa 112:2), in his possessions (Psa 112:3) in his unchanging goodness (Psa 112:3, Psa 112:9), in the light vouchsafed him (Psa 112:4), in his many virtues (Psa 112:4), in his management of affairs (Psa 112:5), in his great trust and confidence in God (Psa 112:6-8), and in his attainment to honor (Psa 112:9). The ungodly man is consumed with envy at the sight of him (Psa 112:10).
Psa 112:1
Praise ye the Lord. Again a “heading,” or “introduction” (see the comment on Psa 111:1). Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord. Connect this with Psa 111:10. The closing thought of Psa 111:1-10. is taken up and expanded in Psa 112:1-10. That delighteth greatly in his commandments (comp. Psa 1:2; Psa 119:16, Psa 119:17, Psa 119:24, Psa 119:70, Psa 119:77, etc.). “True obedience can only come from pleasure in the commandments of God” (Hengstenberg).
Psa 112:2
His seed shall be mighty upon earth. The phrase used of Nimrod in Gen 10:8, but not necessarily to be taken in exactly the same sense; rather as gibor hail in Rth 2:1 and 1Sa 9:1, “wealthy, prosperous.” The generation of the upright shall be blessed; i.e. shall receive blessing from the Most High, and shall therefore prosper. To be blessed in one’s seed was, under the old covenant, the highest of blessings.
Psa 112:3
Wealth and riches shall be in his house. Bishop Butler has well shown how, in God’s moral government of the world, virtue tends to accumulate to itself the good things of this life, and vice to disperse and dissipate them. And his righteousness endureth forever. Human goodnesshere called “righteousness” is a thing which does not change, since character is formed by habits, and habits are “a second nature.”
Psa 112:4
Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness. God’s Word is “a lantern unto their feet, and a light unto their paths” (Psa 119:105)sufficient under most circumstances to guide their steps aright. When this is not enough, he vouchsafes an inward light to them (Psa 27:1; Psa 36:9; Isa 58:10; Isa 49:6, etc.). He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous. It is a very forced interpretation to understand this as said of Jehovah. The entire subject of the psalm is the righteous, God-like man. In him are reflected shadows of all the Divine qualities.
Psa 112:5
A good man showeth favor, and lendeth; rather, well is it with the man that showeth, etc. The verse is exegetical of the latter clause of Psa 112:4, and shows how the righteous man’s compassion works. It makes him “show favor,” or “kindness,” to men generally, and “lend” to those who are in necessity (comp. Psa 37:26; and for the duty of lending to the needy, see Deu 15:8, Deu 15:11). He will guide his affairs with discretion; rather, perhaps, with equity. Scarcely, as Professor Cheyne suggests, “in courts of justice.”
Psa 112:6
Surely he shall not be moved forever. God’s blessing shall abide with him, and make his happiness sure and stable. (On stability as a necessary element in happiness, see Aristotle, ‘Eth. Nic.,’ 1. 10. 7, 8.) The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance; i.e. everlastingly remembered by God.
Psa 112:7
He shall not be afraid of evil tidings. Confident in God’s goodness to wards him, he will not anticipate misfortunes. They may come, as even the best man is not exempt from them; but he will not meet them half-way. His heart is fixed; i.e. firmly established (see Psa 112:8)settled on a sure basistrusting in the Lordthe one basis that is solid and immovable.
Psa 112:8
His heart is established. Almost a repetition of the phrase in Psa 112:7, “his heart is fixed”seemingly, therefore, superfluous, but really emphasizing the point, which is of great moment (see the comment of Hengstenberg, and compare the “just man” of Horace, ‘Od.,’ 3.3, 2. 1-8). He shall not be afraid. “Perfect love casteth out fear” (1Jn 4:18). He who feels himself always and altogether in the hands of a loving Father cannot be afraid of what is about to befall him. Until he see his desire upon his enemies. He knows that his enemies have no real power to harm him, and that ultimately he will “see his desire upon them;” i.e. will triumph over them (see Psa 54:7; Psa 59:10, etc.).
Psa 112:9
He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor. There is no virtue in mere “dispersing,” since spendthrifts” disperse” even more lavishly than virtuous men. The only laudable “dispersing” is that which has for its object the relief of distress, and which is wisely directed to that object. His righteousness endureth forever (see the comment on Psa 112:3). His horn shall be exalted with honor. The esteem of men, on the whole, follows upon goodness, and the righteous obtain more honor than others.
Psa 112:10
The wicked shall see it, and be grieved. The wicked hate the righteous (Psa 105:25), and are naturally “grieved” to see them prosper. “When shall he die, and his name perish?” is the thought of their heart against the godly man. He shall gnash with his teeth (comp. Job 16:9; Psa 35:16; Psa 37:12; Lam 2:16 : Act 7:54). Civilization represses these emotional displays, but the feeling remains nevertheless. And melt away; or, “consume away””waste away”through envy and hate. The desire of the wicked shall perish (comp. Psa 1:6). “The desire of the wicked”that which they earnestly long for, which is the downfall and destruction of the righteousdoes not come to pass, but falls to the ground, “perishes,” comes to naught.
HOMILETICS
Psa 112:1-10
The promise of piety.
In Bacon’s celebrated saying that “prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament, but adversity of the New,” there is a measure of truth; but it is far from covering all the ground. We may set against it the apostolic declaration that” godliness hath the promise of the life that now is.” And though we may not press the sentences of this psalm to any nice exactitude, yet it is substantially as true of the good man, and as applicable to his life on earth now, as it was at the hour when it was written. Piety, a reverence for God which shows itself in ready obedience to his will, has these solid advantages: it ensures
I. THE BLESSEDNESS OF HOLY SERVICE. (Psa 112:1.) The man who fears God “delights greatly in his commandments.” Others may be tasting the bitter fruits of self-will, may be reaping the sad consequences of disobedience, but his heart is filled with the peace and with the joy of holy service. He finds a pure, elevating, lasting happiness in doing everything unto God his Savior, even in bearing his will. Languor and dissatisfaction are banished from the life of devotion, and in their place are serenity of spirit and gladness of heart. “I delight to do thy will, O my God.” For us to live is Christto be engaged every hour in his blessed service.
II. THE EFFICIENT TRAINING OF THE YOUNG (Psa 112:2), and all which that includes. Not from the home of the holy do there go forth sons and daughters unprincipled, vicious, mischievous, short-lived. Taught God’s truth and trained in Christian principles, young men and women leave the home of the godly prepared for the battle of life. It is they who are most ready for serious duties, for responsible positions, for offices of trust; it is they who are most likely to rise to power and to honor. Exceptions being excepted, it is distinctly true that “the generation of the upright are blessed.” Even from a temporal standpoint, it is a very great advantage for any son or daughter to be trained in a Christian home.
III. WORK THAT WILL LAST FOR LIFE. (Psa 112:3.) If the upright man does not obtain “wealth and riches”though the virtues which are the fruit of piety are the root of much material successhe has the far more precious wealth of moral and spiritual worth, and “his righteousness endureth.” It is not a brief flash that goes oat and is lost; it is a steady light that shines through all his days. He has the favor of God, the esteem of his neighbors, actual intrinsic goodness, for his possession. And of this no accident or misfortune can rob him.
IV. DELIVERANCE IN THE DARK HOUR. (Psa 112:4.) He does not expect to go through life without his share of trial. If he were wise he would not choose such a dubious exemption (see Heb 12:5-11). But he knows he will not. “Many are the afflictions” even “of the righteous,” and they will surely come to his door. He, too, will know something of “the power of darkness.” But to him there will “arise light.”
1. Present deliverance will come. He will patiently and devoutly pursue his course of integrity and of waiting upon God, and God will give him his heart’s desire; his name will be cleared, his health restored, his property regained, his friendship renewed, his work prospered.
2. Divine support will be so abundantly bestowed that his soul will be filled with peace even in the midst of his trouble (see 2Co 12:10).
3. After bearing the burden of earthly trial, and passing through a long night of temporal adversity, there will gleam the bright light of the heavenly home.
V. THE BLESSING OF ENDURING GRATITUDE. (Psa 1:6, 9.) He is gracious, com passionate, generous, full of practical kindness, just to others (guiding his affairs with a due regard to what is owing to other men); the result will be that he will earn the esteem and the thanks of many hearts, and he will live long in their grateful remembrance. The unholy and consequently self-centered man passes through life without awakening any affection or evoking any appreciation,he is disregarded, perhaps denounced; men either forget or disparage him when he is dead; but the holy and unselfish man lives in the love of his fellows, and when he dies leaves a fragrant memory behind him.
VI. DEVOUT CONFIDENCE IN FACE OF THE FUTURE. (Psa 112:8.) Unaccompanied, undefended, by a heavenly Friend, we may well fear as we look before us. Who can tell what the next turn in the road will reveal to us? Who can say what losses and disappointments await us? Who can count on continued health or prosperity? Who can be assured against calamity or sudden death? But the Christian man, who is well assured that all events are in the hand of God, that the life and death of his saints are precious in his sight, that all things work together for good to them that love God, that in the saddest sorrows there may be disguised the truest love and the greatest blessing, that death itself is but the somber gateway of eternal glory,he need not fear. His heart is established; he will not be afraid. All will be well with him; everything will conduce to spiritual good and to a lasting heritage.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY
Psa 112:1-10
The blessed life.
This psalm, like the previous one, begins with “Hallelujah,” and is also an alphabetical psalm. That one gave glad thanks because of what the Lord God himself, in his ways and works, was declared to be. Now this one gives like thanks for what, by the grace of God, his servant is enabled to become. “The one sets forth God, his work and his attributes; the other tells us what are the work and character of those who fear God.” So that the same affirmations are made both of God and of his servant (see Psa 111:3; Psa 112:3; also Psa 111:4 and Psa 112:4). In Psa 111:1-10. God’s faithfulness is celebrated; in this, man’s faithfulness. The whole psalm is a continued reiteration of the blessedness of God’s service. But
I. AFTER THE MANNER OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, THAT BLESSEDNESS IS TOLD OF AS BEING SHOWN IN PRESENT EARTHLY AND TEMPORAL REWARD. The seed of God’s servant is to become both mighty and blessed. Health should be his, and, yet more, righteousness. Mercy shall go forth from God to him, and from him to his fellow men. He encourages those who need a helping hand, showing favor and lending; and his enemies, for he will have enemies, he will overcome in the judgment. He shall be long and lovingly remembered, and his trust in God shall deliver him from all fear. His enemies he shall meet in the might of confident faith, and see his desire upon them. Be is generous to the poor; he maintains his righteousness and rises to great honor. The ungodly see this with rage and vexation, and perish in his sight. Such was the form which God’s recompenses to his faithful people took in the days of old.
II. BUT EVER SINCE THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST HAS BEEN PUBLISHED, THE BLESSED NESS OF GOD‘S SERVICE IS NOT LESS, BUT IT COMES IN A FAR DIFFERENT MANNER. For serving God may mean, and has meant to myriads, the loss, not the gain, of all earthly good (cf. 1Co 15:19). So that if we had no other than earthly good to hope for, we should be miserable indeed. But we have. Take the suggestions of this psalm, referring them to that form of blessing which the servant of God realizes now.
1. His seed shall be mighty and blessed. Is it not so? Are not the most effectual influences which are now bearing on men those which stream forth from the Church of God? Slow, no doubt, is their operation, but ever sure and increasing. And as to being blessedask the faithful themselves.
2. Spiritual wealth is his. The treasure store of Christ is opened to him, and his part therein is seen in the maintenance of holy character and standing before God and man.
3. The consolations of the Lord are his, and they make him a son of consolation likewise (2Co 1:4).
4. He is endued with kindly dispositions, and his fair fame his enemies cannot traduce (cf. Revised Version, Psa 111:5).
5. He abides in the love of God, and when he departs hence his memory is sacred and perpetual.
6. He is kept in perfect peace. (Psa 111:7.) He shall be kept trusting in God, and shall see his soul’s enemies destroyed.
7. Selfishness is not in him, but a generous loving heart, for which all men bless him (Psa 111:9).
8. His life convicts the wicked man of his miserable folly, and robs him of all power to do him harm (Psa 111:10). Is not all this the blessed life?S.C.
Psa 112:4
Light arising in darkness.
I. LIGHT DOES SO ARISE. Morning by morning, if only we were astir to see it, the light arises out of the darkness. There comes the paling of the dark, and then the gradual dawn. And the method of it is full of suggestion as to like times of darkness. The light comes because the earth swings itself round into the light. The earth, unlike the people who dwell upon it, is obedient to the Divine law concerning her; and hence, though she be in darkness, she comes out of it in due time by obeying her Creator’s will, and turning towards the light.
II. THIS IS TRUE OF OTHER FORMS OF DARKNESS.
1. That of mental perplexity and doubt. This is very prevalent. All thoughtful minds seem doomed to pass through it. The getting at the real truth of things, especially in the matter of religious faith, is not easy. And if doubt be the prompting only of a sincere love of truth, then it is right, and it will be dispersed ere long. But then it often is not so prompted, but springs from quite other motives. The liking to be thought intellectual and mentally capable is often the pure origin of so-called doubt. If a man owns himself a believer, he incurs the risk, in many circles, of being regarded as weak, credulous, and more or less foolish and ridiculous. Yet more, the plea of doubt absolves a man from taking a decisive stand for God. He knows he ought to, but he gets out of the obligation, or thinks he does, by pleading his doubts. And doubt condones sin. Hearty belief brings obligation to self-restraint along with it, but doubt is free from such encumbrance, and is therefore welcomed by the sinful heart as a friend. Light will not arise to such, but the darkness will deepen more and more. But to the upright, the sincere seeker for truth, and who is not doubting because of any lurking liking for what is evil and self-pleasing to him, in due time the light will arise.
2. The state of soul-darkness also. How much of this there is! The faith of Christ ought to make men happy, to fill their souls with light and joy. But it very often fails to do this. The gladness of God’s love seems only conspicuous by its absence in the case of all too many Christians. They are not sure that they are forgiven; they are certain they are very far from being holy; their sanctification is anything but complete; they cannot realize the love of God to them; they walk in darkness, and have little, if any, light; and death is still a terror to them. But are they sincere, true-hearted seekers after God? If so, their light shall arise, in spite of temperament, ill health, bad teaching, earthly care and trouble, and any other of the many causes of soul-darkness. Only let them rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.
3. And so, too, when the child of God is in darkness as to the conduct of life. How often we seem unable to make out the right way, to know the right thing to do! It is so in the home, the business, the Church. But again the promise holds good.
III. THIS CONDITION IS EVER THE SAME. AS the earth would ever be in the dark if it did not turn round to the light, so will men be unless they turn to the light. Do this in thought, in prayer, in practical obedience, and ere long the darkness will have passed, and the light will shine.S.C.
Psa 112:7
Not afraid of evil tidings.
I. MOST PEOPLE ARE. The postman’s knock, much more a telegram, will often set their hearts palpitating. They realize how precarious is the tenure by which they hold their good things; they have many times had experience of the instability of that in which they have most trusted; and hence they are afraid, etc.
II. BUT OF THE SERVANT OF GOD IT IS SAID, “HE SHALL NOT BE AFRAID OF EVIL TIDINGS.”
1. As a fact, real religion does ensure this. See Daniel, when he knew the decree was signed (Dan 6:10). See Paul’s letters in his imprisonment. See Nehemiah, etc.
2. It does not mean that evil tidings do not come to them as to others. They do, and often of a disastrous sort, affecting them in body, mind, and estate.
3. Nor does it mean that such tidings have no effect upon them. They do, saddening and distressing them much. Jesus wept.
4. But they are not afraid of them. They do not recognize such things as having power to touch them where their real treasure is, or as having any power in themselves at all; they are but God’s ministers, and the ultimate issue of them cannot but be good. And those foreboding fears which so often precede them, God’s servants are delivered from; for they believe the words, “As thy day so shall thy strength be.”
III. THE SECRET OF THIS BLESSED FEARLESSNESS. It is plainly pointed out in our text.
1. “His heart is fixed;” that is, he has come to a settled conviction as to his relation to God, and as to God’s mind to him. He is as certain of God’s good will and all-sufficient power and grace as a dear child is of his mother’s love. His feet are on a rock; he has come to be fixed in heart as to the Lord’s leading him in the right way. He does not merely think it, he is fully persuaded of it, he knows in whom he has believed (Isa 26:3).
2. This fixedness of heart, which is so blessed, is the result of habitual trust. “Trusting in the Lord.” We can form habits of trust, as of any other act of the mind. It is not a single act of faith, or a spasmodic intermittent trust, which will ensure this fixedness of heart. Built must be perpetually repeated until the habit is formed. We must put our will into it, and we must abandon everything which would render such trust impossible, as all allowed sin will and must.S.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Psa 112:2
Goodness relocated in new generations.
It has been very suggestively said “that God is, from the first, looking for a godly seed; or, what is nowise different, inserting such laws of population that piety itself shall finally over-populate the world. There are two principal modes by which the kingdom of God among men may be, and is to be, extended. One is by the process of conversion, and the other by that of family propagation; one by gaining over to the side of faith and piety, the other by the populating force of faith and piety themselves,” Bushnell coins words in which to express this, and calls it “the out-populating of the Christian stock.” The modern doctrine of heredity is usually seen in its application to bad things: men deal with the laws which preside over the propagation of physical diseases and moral dispositions and bodily characteristics; but Christians are interested in the working of the laws in relation to good things. They equallyperhaps in even a more effective waypreside over the propagation of physical health and vigor, of moral virtues, and of bodily beauty. It may even yet be shown that there is a propagation into new generations of the new and Divine life in Christ; a deeper fullness of meaning than has yet been discovered in the expression, “Instead of the fathers shall come up the children.” Bible language even suggests that heredity works more strongly on behalf of the good than on behalf of the evil, for while judgment on sin continues for three or four generations, reward of virtue keeps on its benedictions unto thousands of generations.
I. PARENTAL GOODNESS GIVES CHILDREN A CHANCE. Think how many children are born into the world over-weighted with disabilities. For extreme cases, take the vicious and criminal classes. But the fact is for us more effectively illustrated by cases of self-indulgence in youth, which involve weakened health and lowered moral tone. Good parents give their children a fair chance in the struggle of life. The children are not burdened with low vitality, self-indulgent appetite, or inability to find pleasure in pure things. Sometimes good people’s children fail, but reasons for the exceptional cases can usually be found.
II. PARENTAL GOODNESS IS RECOGNIZED BY BLESSINGS ON THEIR CHILDREN. And this is the form of reward that parents best appreciate. They live over again in honorable, successful, and pious children. Therefore Easterns desired families. No nobler ambition possesses humanity than the passion to make the coming generation wiser, stronger, and better than the passing one.
III. PARENTAL GOODNESS IS THE ONE GROUND OF HOPE FOR THE RACE. Napoleon was asked what one thing France supremely needed. His reply was almost an inspiration. He said, “Better mothers.”R.T.
Psa 112:3
A man’s righteousness.
“Righteousness” has come to be a sort of exclusively religious word; a theological word, with a connotation fitting to a particular creed, over which learned men long have wrangled. Why cannot we let common sense win it for common, everyday uses? “Righteousness” is rightness. It is being rightright with God, and right with man, and doing right because we are right. How to become right, and how to be right, are the supreme questions for all moral beings. Every great teacher who has arisen in any age or any nation has set himself’ to answer these two questions; and our Lord Jesus Christ, with Divine authority, answered them in his Sermon on the Mount. He did a prophet’s work in recalling men to the spiritual conception of righteousness as heart-rightness inspiring life-right-ness, i.e. rightness of conduct and relations. Possibly, in our text, the main idea of the word is beneficence, kindness to others. But this only presents righteousness on its side of relation to man; it has also a side of relation to God. Both have to be included.
I. A MAN‘S RIGHTEOUSNESS AS MAN CAN ESTIMATE IT. We have a human standard of rightness. It varies in expression; it is really everywhere the same. It is the standard of the best man of our nation or race. The psalmist said his goodness could stand the test of the “saints that are in the earth,” but not the test of God. Man’s idea of rightness includes purity, energy, and charity.
II. A MAN‘S RIGHTEOUSNESS AS THE MAN HIMSELF CAN ESTIMATE IT. There is a consciousness of rightness, a conscious will for the right and love of the right, which are a man’s dignity and strength; which a man has a perfect right to cling to as his chief treasure. Job firmly says, “Till I die I will not remove my integrity from me. My righteousness I hold last, and will not let it go.” David said, “Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me.” And our Divine Lord, as a man, said, “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.” A man’s rightness is no sufficient basis for his acceptance with God, but it is good so far as it goes.
III. A MAN‘S RIGHTEOUSNESS AS GOD ESTIMATES IT. He knows the distinction between its accidental and its essential features. He distinguishes the thing which appears from the foundation on which it rests. Rightness, judged by human standards, may rest on a basis of selfself-pleasing and pride. Some men respect themselves too much to do a wrong thing. But the highest type of rightness is built upon the recognition of God as the standard righteousness, who requires those who would do right to be “all glorious within.” He asks for “truth in the inward parts”R.T.
Psa 112:4
Advantages of the good in times of calamity.
“Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness.” The illustration is taken from the beneficent and charitable man. Everybody is ready to help him when trouble assails him. But a widely operating principle is illustrated in his case. The good man always has the best of it in the dark times of life. Spurgeon says, “He does not lean to injustice in order to ease himself, but, like a pillar, stands erect; and he shall be found so standing when the ungodly, who are as a bowing wall and a tottering fence, shall lie in ruins. He will have his days of darkness; he may be sick and sorry, poor and pining, as well as others; his former riches may take to themselves wings and fly away, while even his righteousness may be cruelly suspected; thus the clouds may lower around him, but his gloom shall not last for ever, the Lord will bring him light in due season, for as surely as a good man’s sun goes down, it shall rise again. If the darkness be caused by depression of spirit, the Holy Ghost will comfort him; if by pecuniary loss or personal bereavement, the presence of Christ shall be his solace; and if by the cruelty and malignity of men, the sympathy of the Lord shall be his support.” The advantages of the good in times of calamity may be thus indicated
I. HE CANNOT BE LEFT ALONE. The self-contained man, who wishes to be left alone in his prosperity, must not wonder if he finds himself alone in his adversity. The dependent man, who leans on God in his success, will surely find that God is there, to be leaned upon, when his time of trouble arises. He who joins himself to God finds himself everywhere with God.
II. HE CANNOT LOSE WHAT HE VALUES MOST. All that human calamity can do is to affect our possessions and our circumstancesthe things that we have; it has no injurious power on the things that we are. Trouble cannot take away our faith in God, our loyalty to God, our joy in God. “The Lord is the Portion of mine inheritance,” and no earthly calamity can take him away. “When heart and flesh fail, the Lord is the Strength of my heart, and my Portion forever.”
III. HE CAN SEE LIGHT AND CHEER WHEN OTHERS CANNOT. Many were distressed about Daniel in the lions’ den, but there was light in the darkness for him. St. Paul and Silas were dark enough in the inner prison at Philippi, but there was light in the darkness, and, in the joy of it, they “prayed and sang praises unto God.” St. Paul sees such a shining forth on the darkness of his life-troubles, that he can speak of “this light affliction, which is but for a moment, and worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”R.T.
Psa 112:6
The Bible use of the word everlasting.
This word is one which is used in common speech. Every one who speaks intensely is apt to speak extravagantly, and figures of speech are always capable of larger usage than the person who first employs them intended. Round the words eternal, for ever, and everlasting, Christian doctrines have gathered; the words have thus gained a precision of meaning; and it is difficult now to recover for them the simpler, colloquial meanings which belong to their common use in all languages. It is necessary to consider how we use the terms, if we would apprehend how the Bible-writers use them. We vow eternal friendship. We say we will never do things. But man has no right to use such terms, save as expressions of intense feeling.
I. “EVERLASTING” IS A FIGURE FOR A PROLONGED PERIOD. “For eternal remembrance,” i.e. for all future time, as long as man can remember anything, “the memory of the just is blessed; but the name of the wicked shall rot.” When a thing goes on and on till we can no longer see it, and can think of no agency that can stop it, we call it “everlasting.” An illustration may be taken from the familiar garden flower which we call “everlasting,” because, in contrast with other flowers, it will last, in our vases, all the winter.
II. “EVERLASTING” IS A FIGURE FOR THE DIVINE. It belongs to the thought of God, because we cannot conceive any causes which brought about his existence, or imagine any forces, or combination of forces, which can make his existence to cease. The word is applied by Moses to God, “The eternal God is thy Refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” Mere continuity cannot be the thought. That can only be the figure in the word. What must he be who was, and is, and is to come?
III. “EVERLASTING” IS A FIGURE FOR THE SPIRITUAL. It is when it is applied to men and to men’s future. Everlasting life is spiritual life, of which one feature is continuity. Eternal death is spiritual death. And this is explained by the associations of the figure. One of our chiefest “notes of value” is the length of time that a thing will last. The gnat that is born and dies in an evening is esteemed of small value; the cedar tree, that outlasts the generations, is esteemed of great value. In order, then, to bring to us the sense of its supreme value, the spiritual life is spoken of as lasting forever. We raise the value of that which lasts for centuries; we reach the highest value in thinking of that which lasts forever.R.T.
Psa 112:7
Trust-triumph over fears.
“He will not be afraid of any evil tidings; for his heart standeth fast, and believeth in the Lord.” The good man of this psalm is evidently also a rich man, and a man in high position, who can exert a wide influence. Such men are more especially exposed to the influence of evil tidings. Illustrate by the case of Job, to whom the messengers of evil came one after another. Or give cases of merchants whose whole fortune is embarked in some ship, and who receive tidings of its loss. Explain how sensitive the Stock Exchange is to the slightest rumor of evil. They who have nothing to lose are not affected by news of calamities, save in the way of sympathy. But the psalmist points out that the godly man is freed from undue fear concerning his earthly possessions, because he has a heavenly treasure which is in every way more precious to him, and concerning the safety of that treasure he need never have a fear.
I. EVIL TIDINGS MAY DISTRESS THE GODLY MAN. Piety never either changes or deadens natural feeling. It would be true to say that it even made natural feeling more keen and sensitive. Loss of money, place, influence, and health do distress pious men; and the triumph they may gain over themselves should never be allowed to deceive us. Their victory is seldom, if ever, an easy one.
II. EVIL TIDINGS CANNOT OVERWHELM THE GODLY MAN. Because he never stakes his all on any venture. Come what may, he has a reserve, and an abundantly satisfactory reserve. “Moth and rust may corrupt, thieves may break through and steal,” but they never yet found the godly man’s “heavenly treasure.” It is not only that, take everything away, and he still has God. It is that, in having God, he potentially has everything; what he has lost is restored, if that is best; but certainly he has the “supply of all his needs.”
III. EVIL TIDINGS DRIVE THE GODLY MAN CLOSER TO GOD. He has learned the lesson of trust; and he is sure to practice it in the time of need. His heart is fixed. Trouble does not make it waver, but binds it closer, fixes it firmer. Just as the little child sits close by father in the train, but presses closer when the train rushes into the dark tunnel. “His heart being fixed in solid reliance upon God, a change in his circumstances but slightly affects him. He can be patient, waiting for the salvation of God.”R.T.
Psa 112:9
Giving as a sign of character.
“He hath dispersed abroad, and given to the poor” (quoted in 2Co 9:9; see Pro 11:24, Pro 11:25). The exact translation of the word suggests, not occasional or impulsive giving, but constant and systematic giving, frequent and customary giving. The temptation of riches is to love them for their own sake, and to hoard them in order to be proud of them and to rejoice in them. The Christian triumph over the temptation of riches is found in regarding them as a trust to be used in Christ’s service. A man goes wrong when he thinksThese riches are mine. A man keeps right so long as he feelsI am one of Christ’s stewards, and it is “required of stewards that they be found faithful.” The good man is “God’s reservoir, and forth from his abundance flow streams of liberality to supply the needy.” “Benevolence of heart, when displayed in the benefaction of the hand, is the surest mark and fairest accomplishment of a moral and religious mind.”
I. GIVING IS A SIGN OF SERVICE TO GOD. It is a way of working for him. The man who gives acknowledges himself to be a servant, an almoner. None of the things he possesses are regarded as his own. Everything is a trust for use.
II. GIVING IS A SIGN OF SYMPATHY WITH MAN. “The poor” (in some sense poor) “we have always with us.” Civilization tends to make very rich and very poor. Calamities bring sorrow; many are born with disabilities. Sentiment concerning the poor is a sigh of poor character, unless it be conjoined with self-denying and wise efforts for their well-being. When the man said he felt for a poor sufferer, the Quaker replied, “I feel half a crown, friend; how much dust thou feel?”
III. GIVING IS A SIGN OF LIMITED HOLD OF THE WORLD. Compare the miser and the generous Christian in their grip of the world. The miser grips the world hard; he can have his treasure only as long as he lives. The Christian is but passing through the world, and wants to do as much good as he can while he passes along.
IV. GIVING IS A SIGN OF A MAN‘S LIKE–MINDEDNESS WITH GOD. “He giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; He so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” (See our Lord’s teaching in his Sermon on the Mount, especially Mat 5:42, Mat 5:45; Mat 6:1-34 :144.)R.T.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT
Psa 112:1-10
The blessedness of the eminently good.
“That delighteth greatly in his commandments.”
I. HIS CHILDREN SHALL BE BLESSED. (Psa 112:2.) “Mighty” in a warlike sense here.
II. SHALL PROSPER IN OUTWARD CIRCUMSTANCES. (Psa 112:3.) “Godliness is profit able unto all things,” etc.
III. SHALL ENJOY THE LIGHT OF GOD‘S PRESENCE, AND OF Ills OWN COMPASSIONATE DEEDS IN TIMES OF ADVERSITY. (Psa 112:4, Psa 112:5.) “Gracious, full of compassion and righteous;” these attributes will irradiate his darkest hours.
IV. BRING RIGHTEOUS, HE IS IMMOVABLY GROUNDED IN GOD. (Verse 61) Fixed in his trust and hope, and in all the principles of his character.
V. HAVING A CLEAR CONSCIENCE, HE IS RAISED ABOVE ALL FEAR. (Psa 112:7, Psa 112:8.) Delivered from the terrors that beset the guilty.
VI. HAVING AN INNER RIGHTEOUSNESS, HE ENJOYS THE HIGHEST HONOR FROM GOD AND MAN. (Psa 112:9.)S.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Psalms 112.
Godliness hath the promises of this life, and of the life to come. The prosperity of the godly shall be an eye-sore to the wicked.
halleluiah. THIS psalm is composed after the same manner as the former, and seems to be a short commentary upon the last verse of it. It sets forth the wisdom of being religious, and the good effects that attend it. Concerning the main subject of it, we refer the reader to the note on Psa 1:4. Fenwick is of opinion, that the psalm speaks of the Messiah, under the character of the man that fears the Lord; declaring that his seed shall be mighty on earth, and that he shall be had in everlasting remembrance, or be the praise of all ages; and that his horn or kingdom shall be exalted with honour, while Satan, the wicked one, beholds and grieves. These things, says he, cannot with truth or propriety be applied to any but Christ; but in Him, and his seed, or faithful servants, they will all in due time be fulfilled.
Psa 112:1. That delighteth greatly in his commandments As He did, whose meat and drink it was to do his Father’s will; and of whom, by this character, we may reasonably presume the whole psalm is speaking. Fenwick.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psalms 112
1Praise ye the Lord.
Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord,
That delighteth greatly in his commandments.
2His seed shall be mighty upon earth:
The generation of the upright shall be blessed.
3Wealth and riches shall be in his house:
And his righteousness endureth forever.
4Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness:
He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.
5A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth:
He will guide his affairs with discretion.
6Surely he shall not be moved forever:
The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.
7He shall not be afraid of evil tidings:
His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.
8His heart is established, he shall not be afraid,
Until he see his desire upon his enemies.
9He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor;
His righteousness endureth forever;
His horn shall be exalted with honor.
10The wicked shall see it, and be grieved;
He shall gnash with his teeth and melt away:
The desire of the wicked shall perish.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition.The servants of God, who are true to His covenant, are praised in this Psalm, as in the preceding, Jehovah was extolled as being true to the covenant. The connection between the two is so close, not merely in the choice and form of the stichs, but also in various expressions (comp. Psa 112:3 b and 9b with Psa 111:3 b and 9b) that the design is unmistakable. From the whole character of the Psalm, however, an imitation (De Wette), is rather to be inferred than a composition by the same poet. The Vulgate has an additional superscription, by which the composition is placed in the time of the return from the exile; but this statement is utterly worthless. [The Vulgate says: Conversio Aggi et Zachari.J. F. M.]
The praise of the pious man as blessed (Psa 112:1) is followed by the promise of blessing to his race (Psa 112:2) and to himself (Psa 112:3), being compared to the rising of light in darkness (Psa 112:4). To this follows the praise of the excellence of the pious man with reference to his kindness to his fellow-men, and its reward (Psa 112:5), which is particularly described from different points of view (Psa 112:6-8), and then the whole summed up (Psa 112:9), with a glance at the opposite fortunes of the ungodly (Psa 112:10). The Psalm immediately suggests to us Psalms 1, 15.
Psa 112:2. A hero upon the earth.[E. V. mighty upon earth]. The expression is based upon Gen 10:8. Its restriction to the sense: mighty, powerful (Sept. and others) and the translation: in the land are arbitrary. Its reference to the whole people and the promise of power to overcome the world, Deu 33:29 (Hengst.), is equally unfounded. For although his seed is parallel to the generation of the upright, yet the latter is not identical with the whole of Israel, (comp. Psa 111:1). [The translation mighty, given in E. V. and favored by most, still appears to me to convey the true sense of the word. If the notion is more restricted than in the translation proposed above, the restriction is imposed by the original and more suitable sense. But the word is a substantive in the Hebrew: a mighty one. The conception of the power of the descendants of the righteous is made more vivid by the concrete form.J. F. M.]
Psa 112:3. The righteousness of the man is not his welfare as the reward of his righteousness (Aben Ezra, Rosenmller), or as consisting in the good condition of his affairs (Kster). Nor is it merely fidelity to the covenant (Olshausen), and certainly not righteousness by faith in Christ (J. H. Mich.), or that presented by God (Hengst.) According to the Old Testament conception it means right conduct, agreeing inwardly and outwardly with the Divine requirements. The allusion to the preceding Psalm is here undeniable, but it is scarcely conceivable that what is there asserted of God is here unskillfully applied to man (De Wette, Hupfeld).
Psa 112:4. The adjectives can be explained grammatically as epithets of the righteous (Kimchi, Ewald, Hengst.) only under extreme necessity, although this would very well agree in meaning with Isa 58:7 ff. It is not probable that a meaningless formula in frequent use was transferred from Psa 111:4 in order to find a place for the letter (Clericus, Kster, Maurer, Hupfeld). There is no reason why these epithets should not be viewed as defining the light (Isaaki, Aben Ezra, Calvin, Hitzig), or, still better, God, as the light, after Isa 10:17; Isa 60:1 ff.; Mal. 3:20 (Sept., Vulg., Calv., J. H. Mich., De Wette, Olshausen, Delitzsch). But we must not, by inserting the prep. , translate: from the gracious, etc. (Luth., Geier, and others). [Perowne, on the other hand, says: The first two epithets, elsewhere applied only to Jehovah, are so applied in Psa 111:3, and the relation of the two Psalms makes it almost certain, therefore, that they are here applied to His servants. See also Mat 5:45-48; Isa 58:7. The change from the plural to the singular is certainly unusually harsh, as the three epithets are loosely strung together without anything to mark their reference; but this may be accounted for, in some measure, by the requirements of the alphabetical arrangement.J. F. M.]
Psa 112:5-7. , according to the context, is not to be understood of moral excellence (the ancients) but of a prosperous life (expositors since Lud. de Dieu), as in Isa 3:10; Jer 44:17. On account of the alphabetical order, we do not have the usual as in Psa 112:1. But it does not follow from the parallelism that the second member of the verse continues to describe the situation of the man, as would be expressed in the translations: who conducts his affairs with justice (Geier, J. H. Mich.), or: feeds, that is, maintains them in a good condition (Hengst.) It is not a participle but a finite verb, and the assertions are justified in the following verses. [The rendering of Dr. Moll accordingly is: (It is) well with the man who is benevolent and lends, he will maintain his cause in judgment. This interpretation is that of Delitzsch, who translates a little more freely. With this Perowne also agrees. Alexander translates: Happy the man showing favor and lending; he shall sustain his affairs by justice. It is universally agreed that the idea discretion, as in E. V., is wrong.
[Psa 112:7. Perowne: The epithets established, trusting, supported, are all strikingly descriptive of the true attitude of faith, as that which leans upon and is upheld by God. The two last are combined also in Isa 26:3.J. F. M.]
Psa 112:10. In the last stich there is no sufficient reason for reading instead of (Hupfeld, Olshausen). The former would give the idea of confidence, as in Psa 9:19; Job 8:13; Pro 10:28, comp. Pro 10:24 (Hitzig).
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The fear and the love of God are inseparably united, and have an internal connection, in the truly pious. The reward of this blessed and holy union is great. Its blessing extends to their descendants, and is powerfully displayed in themselves. Not only earthly prosperity, but a life well-pleasing to God, and the opportunity thereby gained of becoming a power on earth, and of exercising an influence that overcomes the world, form a mind, a position, and a greatness of action that are heroic. They are thus maintained as a blessing from God in pious generations, the light never failing to rise again even in the night of affliction.
2. The love of our neighbor is connected in the closest manner with love to God, and he who has experienced in himself and his family the mercy of the Eternal is both inclined and enabled to show mercy to others, and thereby gains a new support, strengthening his heart in God, widening his active influence among men, securing his happiness for all time; while the wicked are destroyed outwardly and inwardly, and go to ruin with their possessions and fortune, as well as with their efforts and aspirations.
[3. Perowne: All human righteousness has its root in the righteousness of God. It is not merely man striving to copy God; it is Gods gift and Gods work. There is a living connection between the righteousness of God and the righteousness of man, and therefore the imperishableness of the one pertains to the other also.J. F. M.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
How the fear of God not only expels all other fear, but also fills the truly pious with joy, love, and life.The delight, the suffering, the light of the pious.The blessing of God abiding in a pious generation.Even for those who fear God, it is not uninterrupted day upon earth; but a light never fails them.The fear of God begets power and courage.Fear of God and love to our neighbor are closely united when men take delight in Gods commands.The prosperity of the pious increases continually. Whoever is vexed at it reveals the wickedness of his heart, and injures himself more than any other.
Starke: Delight in Gods word is manifested specially in a life regulated in accordance therewith.The fear of God in many a pious fathers heart is rewarded in his children even after his death.He who would share in the blessings of pious ancestors must follow after their faith.All creatures favor those whom God favors: the blessings given to them fall to the lot of the pious.To pursue righteousness and the fear of God is the true way to gain a name that will be truly immortal.A joyful, fearless heart, and a good conscience, are the happy fruits of the true fear of God.Our works of love have two good qualities, if we perform them abundantly and generously, and are not wearied in them. An abundant and eternal reward will follow them both from the divine mercy.A pious man is a sharp thorn in the eyes of the ungodly, and yet they cannot injure him. They only injure themselves; for they shorten their lives by envy and vexation.
Selnecker: Those who trust in God shall receive rich blessings, and shall want nothing, even though in the world it may seem otherwise. Frisch: The true sign of a God-fearing and consequently happy man is the delight, and that a great delight, which he has in Gods commandments.Rieger: A cheerful heart which is sustained by constant application to Gods word, by ever-renewed meditation upon His ways, and by frequent resort to Him, profits more than all other resources.Diedrich: The devil lies to his servants; but God rewards those who risk everything upon His word with perfect faithfulness and eternally.Guenther: The prosperous and blessed life of the righteous is here presented; but its inner nature is exhibited as well as its outward signs.Taube: The final lot decides; the cry sounds forth: live, perish.
[Matt. Henry: Religion has been the raising of many a family; if not so as to advance it high, yet so as to found it firm.Barnes: Surely there is an advantage in our world in being a friend of God.J. F. M.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This is another of the Hallelujah psalms, wherein is described the blessedness of the perfect man, in himself and seed; with all the effects resulting from his righteousness.
Psa 112:1
To whom shall we direct our view for the character here described, but to the ever-blessed Jesus? Of him alone, in strict truth, can the things here spoken of, be said. Jesus did indeed say, and Jesus alone could say it: I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart; that is, as the margin of our old Bibles have it, in the midst of my bowels, folded up in my very nature: indeed the whole nature itself. For that holy thing, as the angel called him before his conception, was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. And all this, remember, Reader, is spoken of Jesus in his human nature; which human nature is united to the uncreated Word; and both form one Christ. Oh! the unspeakable joy for a poor conscious sinner to contemplate his Saviour, his Surety, his Jesus, thus holy; and that this holiness is his, in which he always appears before God, and is thereby always accepted in the Beloved. Reader, pray turn to those blessed scriptures in confirmation: Psa 40:8 ; Luk 1:35 ; Heb 7:26 ; Joh 1:14 ; Eph 1:5-6 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
PSALMS
XI
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS
According to my usual custom, when taking up the study of a book of the Bible I give at the beginning a list of books as helps to the study of that book. The following books I heartily commend on the Psalms:
1. Sampey’s Syllabus for Old Testament Study . This is especially good on the grouping and outlining of some selected psalms. There are also some valuable suggestions on other features of the book.
2. Kirkpatrick’g commentary, in “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges,” is an excellent aid in the study of the Psalter.
3. Perowne’s Book of Psalms is a good, scholarly treatise on the Psalms. A special feature of this commentary is the author’s “New Translation” and his notes are very helpful.
4. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. This is just what the title implies. It is a voluminous, devotional interpretation of the Psalms and helpful to those who have the time for such extensive study of the Psalter.
5. Hengstenburg on the Psalms. This is a fine, scholarly work by one of the greatest of the conservative German scholars.
6. Maclaren on the Psalms, in “The Expositor’s Bible,” is the work of the world’s safest, sanest, and best of all works that have ever been written on the Psalms.
7. Thirtle on the Titles of the Psalms. This is the best on the subject and well worth a careful study.
At this point some definitions are in order. The Hebrew word for psalm means praise. The word in English comes from psalmos , a song of lyrical character, or a song to be sung and accompanied with a lyre. The Psalter is a collection of sacred and inspired songs, composed at different times and by different authors.
The range of time in composition was more than 1,000 years, or from the time of Moses to the time of Ezra. The collection in its present form was arranged probably by Ezra in the fifth century, B.C.
The Jewish classification of Old Testament books was The Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings. The Psalms was given the first place in the last group.
They had several names, or titles, of the Psalms. In Hebrew they are called “The Book of Prayers,” or “The Book of Praises.” The Hebrew word thus used means praises. The title of the first two books is found in Psa 72:20 : “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” The title of the whole collection of Psalms in the Septuagint is Biblos Psalman which means the “Book of Psalms.” The title in the Alexandrian Codex is Psalterion which is the name of a stringed instrument, and means “The Psalter.”
The derivation of our English words, “psalms,” “psalter,” and “psaltery,” respectively, is as follows:
1. “Psalms” comes from the Greek word, psalmoi, which is also from psallein , which means to play upon a stringed instrument. Therefore the Psalms are songs played upon stringed instruments, and the word here is used to apply to the whole collection.
2. “Psalter” is of the same origin and means the Book of Psalms and refers also to the whole collection.
3. “Psaltery” is from the word psalterion, which means “a harp,” an instrument, supposed to be in the shape of a triangle or like the delta of the Greek alphabet. See Psa 33:2 ; Psa 71:22 ; Psa 81:2 ; Psa 144:9 .
In our collection there are 150 psalms. In the Septuagint there is one extra. It is regarded as being outside the sacred collection and not inspired. The subject of this extra psalm is “David’s victory over Goliath.” The following is a copy of it: I was small among my brethren, And youngest in my father’s house, I used to feed my father’s sheep. My hands made a harp, My fingers fashioned a Psaltery. And who will declare unto my Lord? He is Lord, he it is who heareth. He it was who sent his angel And took me from my father’s sheep, And anointed me with the oil of his anointing. My brethren were goodly and tall, But the Lord took no pleasure in them. I went forth to meet the Philistine. And he cursed me by his idols But I drew the sword from beside him; I beheaded him and removed reproach from the children of Israel.
It will be noted that this psalm does not have the earmarks of an inspired production. There is not found in it the modesty so characteristic of David, but there is here an evident spirit of boasting and self-praise which is foreign to the Spirit of inspiration.
There is a difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint. Omitting the extra one in the Septuagint, there is no difference as to the total number. Both have 150 and the same subject matter, but they are not divided alike.
The following scheme shows the division according to our version and also the Septuagint: Psalms 1-8 in the Hebrew equal 1-8 in the Septuagint; 9-10 in the Hebrew combine into 9 in the Septuagint; 11-113 in the Hebrew equal 10-112 in the Septuagint; 114-115 in the Hebrew combine into 113 in the Septuagint; 116 in the Hebrew divides into 114-115 in the Septuagint; 117-146 in the Hebrew equal 116-145 in the Septuagint; 147 in the Hebrew divides into 146-147 in the Septuagint; 148-150 in the Hebrew equal 148-150 in the Septuagint.
The arrangement in the Vulgate is the same as the Septuagint. Also some of the older English versions have this arangement. Another difficulty in numbering perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another, viz: In the Hebrew often the title is verse I, and sometimes the title embraces verses 1-2.
The book divisions of the Psalter are five books, as follows:
Book I, Psalms 1-41 (41 chapters)
Book II, Psalms 42-72 (31 chapters)
Book III, Psalms 73-89 (17 chapters)
Book IV, Psalms 90-106 (17 chapters)
Book V, Psalms 107-150 (44 chapters)
They are marked by an introduction and a doxology. Psalm I forms an introduction to the whole book; Psa 150 is the doxology for the whole book. The introduction and doxology of each book are the first and last psalms of each division, respectively.
There were smaller collections before the final one, as follows:
Books I and II were by David; Book III, by Hezekiah, and Books IV and V, by Ezra.
Certain principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection:
1. David is honored with first place, Book I and II, including Psalms 1-72.
2. They are grouped according to the use of the name of God:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovah psalms;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohim-psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovah psalms.
3. Book IV is introduced by the psalm of Moses, which is the first psalm written.
4. Some are arranged as companion psalms, for instance, sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes more. Examples: Psa 2 and 3; 22, 23, and 24; 113-118.
5. They were arranged for liturgical purposes, which furnished the psalms for special occasions, such as feasts, etc. We may be sure this arrangement was not accidental. An intelligent study of each case is convincing that it was determined upon rational grounds.
All the psalms have titles but thirty-three, as follows:
In Book I, Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 33 , (4 are without titles).
In Book II, Psa 43 ; Psa 71 , (2 are without titles).
In Book IV, Psa 91 ; Psa 93 ; Psa 94 ; Psa 95 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 97 ; Psa 104 ; Psa 105 ; Psa 106 , (9 are without titles).
In Book V, Psa 107 ; III; 112; 113; 114; 115; 116; 117; 118; 119; 135; 136; 137; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150, (18 are without titles).
The Talmud calls these psalms that have no title, “Orphan Psalms.” The later Jews supply these titles by taking the nearest preceding author. The lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; and 10 may be accounted for as follows: Psa 1 is a general introduction to the whole collection and Psa 2 was, perhaps, a part of Psa 1 . Psalms 9-10 were formerly combined into one, therefore Psa 10 has the same title as Psa 9 .
QUESTIONS
1. What books are commended on the Psalms?
2. What is a psalm?
3. What is the Psalter?
4. What is the range of time in composition?
5. When and by whom was the collection in its present form arranged?
6. What the Jewish classification of Old Testament books, and what the position of the Psalter in this classification?
7. What is the Hebrew title of the Psalms?
8. Find the title of the first two books from the books themselves.
9. What is the title of the whole collection of psalms in the Septuagint?
10. What is the title in the Alexandrian Codex?
11. What is the derivation of our English word, “Psalms”, “Psalter”, and “Psaltery,” respectively?
12. How many psalms in our collection?
13. How many psalms in the Septuagint?
14. What about the extra one in the Septuagint?
15. What is the subject of this extra psalm?
16. How does it compare with the Canonical Psalms?
17. What is the difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint?
18. What is the arrangement in the Vulgate?
19. What other difficulty in numbering which perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another?
20. What are the book divisions of the Psalter and how are these divisions marked?
21. Were there smaller collections before the final one? If so, what were they?
22. What principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection?
23. In what conclusion may we rest concerning this arrangement?
24. How many of the psalms have no titles?
25. What does the Talmud call these psalms that have no titles?
26. How do later Jews supply these titles?
27. How do you account for the lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ?
XII
AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS (CONTINUED)
The following is a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms:
1. The author: “A Psalm of David” (Psa 37 ).
2. The occasion: “When he fled from Absalom, his son” (Psa 3 ).
3. The nature, or character, of the poem:
(1) Maschil, meaning “instruction,” a didactic poem (Psa 42 ).
(2) Michtam, meaning “gold,” “A Golden Psalm”; this means excellence or mystery (Psa 16 ; 56-60).
4. The occasion of its use: “A Psalm of David for the dedication of the house” (Psa 30 ).
5. Its purpose: “A Psalm of David to bring remembrance” (Psa 38 ; Psa 70 ).
6. Direction for its use: “A Psalm of David for the chief musician” (Psa 4 ).
7. The kind of musical instrument:
(1) Neginoth, meaning to strike a chord, as on stringed instruments (Psa 4 ; Psa 61 ).
(2) Nehiloth, meaning to perforate, as a pipe or flute (Psa 5 ).
(3) Shoshannim, Lilies, which refers probably to cymbals (Psa 45 ; Psa 69 ).
8. A special choir:
(1) Sheminith, the “eighth,” or octave below, as a male choir (Psa 6 ; Psa 12 ).
(2) Alamoth, female choir (Psa 46 ).
(3) Muth-labben, music with virgin voice, to be sung by a choir of boys in the treble (Psa 9 ).
9. The keynote, or tune:
(1) Aijeleth-sharar, “Hind of the morning,” a song to the melody of which this is sung (Psa 22 ).
(2) Al-tashheth, “Destroy thou not,” the beginning of a song the tune of which is sung (Psa 57 ; Psa 58 ; Psa 59 ; Psa 75 ).
(3) Gittith, set to the tune of Gath, perhaps a tune which David brought from Gath (Psa 8 ; Psa 81 ; Psa 84 ).
(4) Jonath-elim-rehokim, “The dove of the distant terebinths,” the commencement of an ode to the air of which this song was to be sung (Psa 56 ).
(5) Leannoth, the name of a tune (Psa 88 ).
(6) Mahalath, an instrument (Psa 53 ); Leonnoth-Mahaloth, to chant to a tune called Mahaloth.
(7) Shiggaion, a song or a hymn.
(8) Shushan-Eduth, “Lily of testimony,” a tune (Psa 60 ). Note some examples: (1) “America,” “Shiloh,” “Auld Lang Syne.” These are the names of songs such as we are familiar with; (2) “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” are examples of sacred hymns.
10. The liturgical use, those noted for the feasts, e.g., the Hallels and Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 146-150).
11. The destination, as “Song of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134)
12. The direction for the music, such as Selah, which means “Singers, pause”; Higgaion-Selah, to strike a symphony with selah, which means an instrumental interlude (Psa 9:16 ).
The longest and fullest title to any of the psalms is the title to Psa 60 . The items of information from this title are as follows: (1) the author; (2) the chief musician; (3) the historical occasion; (4) the use, or design; (5) the style of poetry; (6) the instrument or style of music.
The parts of these superscriptions which most concern us now are those indicating author, occasion, and date. As to the historic value or trustworthiness of these titles most modern scholars deny that they are a part of the Hebrew text, but the oldest Hebrew text of which we know anything had all of them. This is the text from which the Septuagint was translated. It is much more probable that the author affixed them than later writers. There is no internal evidence in any of the psalms that disproves the correctness of them, but much to confirm. The critics disagree among themselves altogether as to these titles. Hence their testimony cannot consistently be received. Nor can it ever be received until they have at least agreed upon a common ground of opposition.
David is the author of more than half the entire collection, the arrangement of which is as follows:
1. Seventy-three are ascribed to him in the superscriptions.
2. Some of these are but continuations of the preceding ones of a pair, trio, or larger group.
3. Some of the Korahite Psalms are manifestly Davidic.
4. Some not ascribed to him in the titles are attributed to him expressly by New Testament writers.
5. It is not possible to account for some parts of the Psalter without David. The history of his early life as found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1and 2 Chronicles, not only shows his remarkable genius for patriotic and sacred songs and music, but also shows his cultivation of that gift in the schools of the prophets. Some of these psalms of the history appear in the Psalter itself. It is plain to all who read these that they are founded on experience, and the experience of no other Hebrew fits the case. These experiences are found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
As to the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition, I have this to say:
1. This theory has no historical support whatever, and therefore is not to be accepted at all.
2. It has no support in tradition, which weakens the contention of the critics greatly.
3. It has no support from finding any one with the necessary experience for their basis.
4. They can give no reasonable account as to how the titles ever got there.
5. It is psychologically impossible for anyone to have written these 150 psalms in the Maccabean times.
6. Their position is expressly contrary to the testimony of Christ and the apostles. Some of the psalms which they ascribe to the Maccabean Age are attributed to David by Christ himself, who said that David wrote them in the Spirit.
The obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result if it be Just, is a positive denial of the inspiration of both Testaments.
Other authors are named in the titles, as follows: (1) Asaph, to whom twelve psalms have been assigned: (2) Mosee, Psa 90 ; (3) Solomon, Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ; (4) Heman, Psa 80 ; (5) Ethem, Psa 89 ; (6) A number of the psalms are ascribed to the sons of Korah.
Not all the psalms ascribed to Asaph were composed by one person. History indicates that Asaph’s family presided over the song service for several generations. Some of them were composed by his descendants by the game name. The five general outlines of the whole collection are as follows:
I. By books
1. Psalms 1-41 (41)
2. Psalms 42-72 (31)
3. Psalms 73-89 (17)
4. Psalms 90-106 (17)
5. Psalms 107-150 (44)
II. According to date and authorship
1. The psalm of Moses (Psa 90 )
2. Psalms of David:
(1) The shepherd boy (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 ).
(2) David when persecuted by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ).
(3) David the King (Psa 101 ; Psa 18 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 110 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 21 ; Psa 60 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 3:4 ; Psa 64 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 ).
3. The Asaph Psalms (Psa 50 ; Psa 73 ; Psa 83 ).
4. The Korahite Psalms (Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 84 ).
5. The psalms of Solomon (Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ).
6. The psalms of the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah (Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 )
7. The psalms of the Exile (Psa 74 ; Psa 79 ; Psa 137 ; Psa 102 )
8. The psalms of the Restoration (Psa 85 ; Psa 126 ; Psa 118 ; 146-150)
III. By groups
1. The Jehovistic and Elohistic Psalms:
(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovistic;
(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohistic Psalms;
(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovistic.
2. The Penitential Psalms (Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 )
3. The Pilgrim Psalms (Psalms 120-134)
4. The Alphabetical Psalms (Psa 9 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 37 ; 111:112; Psa 119 ; Psa 145 )
5. The Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 11-113; 115-117; 146-150; to which may be added Psa 135 ) Psalms 113-118 are called “the Egyptian Hallel”
IV. Doctrines of the Psalms
1. The throne of grace and how to approach it by sacrifice, prayer, and praise.
2. The covenant, the basis of worship.
3. The paradoxical assertions of both innocence & guilt.
4. The pardon of sin and justification.
5. The Messiah.
6. The future life, pro and con.
7. The imprecations.
8. Other doctrines.
V. The New Testament use of the Psalms
1. Direct references and quotations in the New Testament.
2. The allusions to the psalms in the New Testament. Certain experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart, such as: (1) his peaceful early life; (2) his persecution by Saul; (3) his being crowned king of the people; (4) the bringing up of the ark; (5) his first great sin; (6) Absalom’s rebellion; (7) his second great sin; (8) the great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 ; (9) the feelings of his old age.
We may classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time, thus:
1. His peaceful early life (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 )
2. His persecution by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 7 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 120 ; Psa 140 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ; Psa 17 ; Psa 18 )
3. Making David King (Psa 27 ; Psa 133 ; Psa 101 )
4. Bringing up the ark (Psa 68 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 15 ; Psa 78 ; Psa 96 )
5. His first great sin (Psa 51 ; Psa 32 )
6. Absalom’s rebellion (Psa 41 ; Psa 6 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 109 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 39 ; Psa 3 ; Psa 4 ; Psa 63 ; Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 5 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 )
7. His second great sin (Psa 69 ; Psa 71 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 103 )
8. The great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 (Psa 2 )
9. Feelings of old age (Psa 37 )
The great doctrines of the psalms may be noted as follows: (1) the being and attributes of God; (3) sin, both original and individual; (3) both covenants; (4) the doctrine of justification; (5) concerning the Messiah.
There is a striking analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms. The Pentateuch contains five books of law; the Psalms contain five books of heart responses to the law.
It is interesting to note the historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms. These were controversies about singing uninspired songs, in the Middle Ages. The church would not allow anything to be used but psalms.
The history in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah is very valuable toward a proper interpretation of the psalms. These books furnish the historical setting for a great many of the psalms which is very indispensable to their proper interpretation.
Professor James Robertson, in the Poetry and Religion of the Psalms constructs a broad and strong argument in favor of the Davidic Psalms, as follows:
1. The age of David furnished promising soil for the growth of poetry.
2. David’s qualifications for composing the psalms make it highly probable that David is the author of the psalms ascribed to him.
3. The arguments against the possibility of ascribing to David any of the hymns in the Hebrew Psalter rests upon assumptions that are thoroughly antibiblical.
The New Testament makes large use of the psalms and we learn much as to their importance in teaching. There are seventy direct quotations in the New Testament from this book, from which we learn that the Scriptures were used extensively in accord with 2Ti 3:16-17 . There are also eleven references to the psalms in the New Testament from which we learn that the New Testament writers were thoroughly imbued with the spirit and teaching of the psalms. Then there are eight allusions ‘to this book in the New Testament from which we gather that the Psalms was one of the divisions of the Old Testament and that they were used in the early church.
QUESTIONS
1. Give a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms.
2. What is the longest title to any of the psalms and what the items of this title?
3. What parts of these superscriptions most concern us now?
4. What is the historic value, or trustworthiness of these titles?
5. State the argument showing David’s relation to the psalms.
6. What have you to say of the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition?
7. What the obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result, if it be just?
8. What other authors are named in the titles?
9. Were all the psalms ascribed to Asaph composed by one person?
10. Give the five general outlines of the whole collection, as follows: I. The outline by books II. The outline according to date and authorship III. The outline by groups IV. The outline of doctrines V. The outline by New Testament quotations or allusions.
11. What experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart?
12. Classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time.
13. What the great doctrines of the psalms?
14. What analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms?
15. What historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms?
16. Of what value is the history in Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah toward a proper interpretation of the psalms?
17. Give Professor James Robertson’s argument in favor of the Davidic authorship of the psalms.
18. What can you say of the New Testament use of the psalms and what do we learn as to their importance in teaching?
19. What can you say of the New Testament references to the psalms, and from the New Testament references what the impression on the New Testament writers?
20. What can you say of the allusions to the psalms in the New Testament?
XVII
THE MESSIAH IN THE PSALMS
A fine text for this chapter is as follows: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Psalms concerning me,” Luk 24:44 . I know of no better way to close my brief treatise on the Psalms than to discuss the subject of the Messiah as revealed in this book.
Attention has been called to the threefold division of the Old Testament cited by our Lord, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luk 24:44 ), in all of which were the prophecies relating to himself that “must be fulfilled.” It has been shown just what Old Testament books belong to each of these several divisions. The division called the Psalms included many books, styled Holy Writings, and because the Psalms proper was the first book of the division it gave the name to the whole division.
The object of this discussion is to sketch the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah, or rather, to show how nearly a complete picture of our Lord is foredrawn in this one book. Let us understand however with Paul, that all prophecy is but in part (1Co 13:9 ), and that when we fill in on one canvas all the prophecies concerning the Messiah of all the Old Testament divisions, we are far from having a perfect portrait of our Lord. The present purpose is limited to three things:
1. What the book of the Psalms teaches concerning the Messiah.
2. That the New Testament shall authoritatively specify and expound this teaching.
3. That the many messianic predictions scattered over the book and the specifications thereof over the New Testament may be grouped into an orderly analysis, so that by the adjustment of the scattered parts we may have before us a picture of our Lord as foreseen by the psalmists.
In allowing the New Testament to authoritatively specify and expound the predictive features of the book, I am not unmindful of what the so-called “higher critics” urge against the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament and the use made of them. In this discussion, however, these objections are not considered, for sufficient reasons. There is not space for it. Even at the risk of being misjudged I must just now summarily pass all these objections, dismissing them with a single statement upon which the reader may place his own estimate of value. That statement is that in the days of my own infidelity, before this old method of criticism had its new name, I was quite familiar with the most and certainly the strongest of the objections now classified as higher criticism, and have since patiently re-examined them in their widely conflicting restatements under their modern name, and find my faith in the New Testament method of dealing with the Old Testament in no way shattered, but in every way confirmed. God is his own interpreter. The Old Testament as we now have it was in the hands of our Lord. I understand his apostle to declare, substantially, that “every one of these sacred scriptures is God-inspired and is profitable for teaching us what is right to believe and to do, for convincing us what is wrong in faith or practice, for rectifying the wrong when done, that we may be ready at every point, furnished completely, to do every good work, at the right time, in the right manner, and from the proper motive” (2Ti 3:16-17 ).
This New Testament declares that David was a prophet (Act 2:30 ), that he spake by the Holy Spirit (Act 1:16 ), that when the book speaks the Holy Spirit speaks (Heb 3:7 ), and that all its predictive utterances, as sacred Scripture, “must be fulfilled” (Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:16 ). It is not claimed that David wrote all the psalms, but that all are inspired, and that as he was the chief author, the book goes by his name.
It would be a fine thing to make out two lists, as follows:
1. All of the 150 psalms in order from which the New Testament quotes with messianic application.
2. The New Testament quotations, book by book, i.e., Matthew so many, and then the other books in their order.
We would find in neither of these any order as to time, that is, Psa 1 which forecasts an incident in the coming Messiah’s life does not forecast the first incident of his life. And even the New Testament citations are not in exact order as to time and incident of his life. To get the messianic picture before us, therefore, we must put the scattered parts together in their due relation and order, and so construct our own analysis. That is the prime object of this discussion. It is not claimed that the analysis now presented is perfect. It is too much the result of hasty, offhand work by an exceedingly busy man. It will serve, however, as a temporary working model, which any one may subsequently improve. We come at once to the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah.
1. The necessity for a Saviour. This foreseen necessity is a background of the psalmists’ portrait of the Messiah. The necessity consists in (1) man’s sinfulness; (2) his sin; (3) his inability of wisdom and power to recover himself; (4) the insufficiency of legal, typical sacrifices in securing atonement.
The predicate of Paul’s great argument on justification by faith is the universal depravity and guilt of man. He is everywhere corrupt in nature; everywhere an actual transgressor; everywhere under condemnation. But the scriptural proofs of this depravity and sin the apostle draws mainly from the book of the Psalms. In one paragraph of the letter to the Romans (Rom 3:4-18 ), he cites and groups six passages from six divisions of the Psalms (Psa 5:9 ; Psa 10:7 ; Psa 14:1-3 ; Psa 36:1 ; Psa 51:4-6 ; Psa 140:3 ). These passages abundantly prove man’s sinfulness, or natural depravity, and his universal practice of sin.
The predicate also of the same apostle’s great argument for revelation and salvation by a Redeemer is man’s inability of wisdom and power to re-establish communion with God. In one of his letters to the Corinthians he thus commences his argument: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? -For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach-ing to save them that believe.” He closes this discussion with the broad proposition: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,” and proves it by a citation from Psa 94:11 : “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”
In like manner our Lord himself pours scorn on human wisdom and strength by twice citing Psa 8 : “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Mat 11:25-26 ). “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Mat 21:15-16 ).
But the necessity for a Saviour as foreseen by the psalmist did not stop at man’s depravity, sin, and helplessness. The Jews were trusting in the sacrifices of their law offered on the smoking altar. The inherent weakness of these offerings, their lack of intrinsic merit, their ultimate abolition, their complete fulfilment and supercession by a glorious antitype were foreseen and foreshown in this wonderful prophetic book: I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goat out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all of the birds of the mountains; And the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Psa 50:8-13 .
Yet again it speaks in that more striking passage cited in the letter to the Hebrews: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers, once purged should have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) To do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (the which are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:1-9 ).
This keen foresight of the temporary character and intrinsic worthlessness of animal sacrifices anticipated similar utterances by the later prophets (Isa 1:10-17 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ; Mic 6:6-8 ). Indeed, I may as well state in passing that when the apostle declares, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins,” he lays down a broad principle, just as applicable to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With reverence I state the principle: Not even God himself by mere appointment can vest in any ordinance, itself lacking intrinsic merit, the power to take away sin. There can be, therefore, in the nature of the case, no sacramental salvation. This would destroy the justice of God in order to exalt his mercy. Clearly the psalmist foresaw that “truth and mercy must meet together” before “righteousness and peace could kiss each other” (Psa 85:10 ). Thus we find as the dark background of the psalmists’ luminous portrait of the Messiah, the necessity for a Saviour.
2. The nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah. In no other prophetic book are the nature, fullness, and blessedness of salvation so clearly seen and so vividly portrayed. Besides others not now enumerated, certainly the psalmists clearly forecast four great elements of salvation:
(1) An atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit offered once for all (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:4-10 ).
(2) Regeneration itself consisting of cleansing, renewal, and justification. We hear his impassioned statement of the necessity of regeneration: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” followed by his earnest prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” and his equally fervent petition: “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa 51 ). And we hear him again as Paul describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin Psa 32:1 ; Rom 4:6-8 .
(3) Introduction into the heavenly rest (Psa 95:7-11 ; Heb 3:7-19 ; Heb 4:1-11 ). Here is the antitypical Joshua leading spiritual Israel across the Jordan of death into the heavenly Canaan, the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God. Here we find creation’s original sabbath eclipsed by redemption’s greater sabbath when the Redeemer “entered his rest, ceasing from his own works as God did from his.”
(4) The recovery of all the universal dominion lost by the first Adam and the securement of all possible dominion which the first Adam never attained (Psa 8:5-6 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 ; 1Co 15:24-28 ).
What vast extent then and what blessedness in the salvation foreseen by the psalmists, and to be wrought by the Messiah. Atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; heavenly rest as an eternal inheritance; and universal dominion shared with Christ!
3. The wondrous person of the Messiah in his dual nature, divine and human.
(1) His divinity,
(a) as God: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Psa 45:6 and Heb 1:8 ) ;
(b) as creator of the heavens and earth, immutable and eternal: Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end Psa 102:25-27 quoted with slight changes in Heb 1:10-12 .
(c) As owner of the earth: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein, Psa 24:1 quoted in 1Co 10:26 .
(d) As the Son of God: “Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee” Psa 2:7 ; Heb 1:5 .
(e) As David’s Lord: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool, Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:41-46 .
(f) As the object of angelic worship: “And let all the angels of God worship him” Psa 97:7 ; Heb 1:6 .
(g) As the Bread of life: And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven Psa 78:24 ; interpreted in Joh 6:31-58 . These are but samples which ascribe deity to the Messiah of the psalmists.
(2) His humanity, (a) As the Son of man, or Son of Adam: Psa 8:4-6 , cited in 1Co 15:24-28 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Compare Luke’s genealogy, Luk 3:23-38 . This is the ideal man, or Second Adam, who regains Paradise Lost, who recovers race dominion, in whose image all his spiritual lineage is begotten. 1Co 15:45-49 . (b) As the Son of David: Psa 18:50 ; Psa 89:4 ; Psa 89:29 ; Psa 89:36 ; Psa 132:11 , cited in Luk 1:32 ; Act 13:22-23 ; Rom 1:3 ; 2Ti 2:8 . Perhaps a better statement of the psalmists’ vision of the wonderful person of the Messiah would be: He saw the uncreated Son, the second person of the trinity, in counsel and compact with the Father, arranging in eternity for the salvation of men: Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 . Then he saw this Holy One stoop to be the Son of man: Psa 8:4-6 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Then he was the son of David, and then he saw him rise again to be the Son of God: Psa 2:7 ; Rom 1:3-4 .
4. His offices.
(1) As the one atoning sacrifice (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 ).
(2) As the great Prophet, or Preacher (Psa 40:9-10 ; Psa 22:22 ; Heb 2:12 ). Even the method of his teaching by parable was foreseen (Psa 78:2 ; Mat 13:35 ). Equally also the grace, wisdom, and power of his teaching. When the psalmist declares that “Grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2 ), we need not be startled when we read that all the doctors in the Temple who heard him when only a boy “were astonished at his understanding and answers” (Luk 2:47 ); nor that his home people at Nazareth “all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luk 4:22 ); nor that those of his own country were astonished, and said, “Whence hath this man this wisdom?” (Mat 13:54 ); nor that the Jews in the Temple marveled, saying, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Joh 7:15 ) ; nor that the stern officers of the law found their justification in failure to arrest him in the declaration, “Never man spake like this man” (Joh 7:46 ).
(3) As the king (Psa 2:6 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 45:1-17 ; Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:42-46 ; Act 2:33-36 ; 1Co 15:25 ; Eph 1:20 ; Heb 1:13 ).
(4) As the priest (Psa 110:4 ; Heb 5:5-10 ; Heb 7:1-21 ; Heb 10:12-14 ).
(5) As the final judge. The very sentence of expulsion pronounced upon the finally impenitent by the great judge (Mat 25:41 ) is borrowed from the psalmist’s prophetic words (Psa 6:8 ).
5. Incidents of life. The psalmists not only foresaw the necessity for a Saviour; the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation; the wonderful human-divine person of the Saviour; the offices to be filled by him in the work of salvation, but also many thrilling details of his work in life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. It is not assumed to cite all these details, but some of the most important are enumerated in order, thus:
(1) The visit, adoration, and gifts of the Magi recorded in Mat 2 are but partial fulfilment of Psa 72:9-10 .
(2) The scripture employed by Satan in the temptation of our Lord (Luk 4:10-11 ) was cited from Psa 91:11-12 and its pertinency not denied.
(3) In accounting for his intense earnestness and the apparently extreme measures adopted by our Lord in his first purification of the Temple (Joh 2:17 ), he cites the messianic zeal predicted in Psa 69:9 .
(4) Alienation from his own family was one of the saddest trials of our Lord’s earthly life. They are slow to understand his mission and to enter into sympathy with him. His self-abnegation and exhaustive toil were regarded by them as evidences of mental aberration, and it seems at one time they were ready to resort to forcible restraint of his freedom) virtually what in our time would be called arrest under a writ of lunacy. While at the last his half-brothers became distinguished preachers of his gospel, for a long while they do not believe on him. And the evidence forces us to the conclusion that his own mother shared with her other sons, in kind though not in degree, the misunderstanding of the supremacy of his mission over family relations. The New Testament record speaks for itself:
Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them. How is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them Luk 2:48-51 (R.V.).
And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Joh 2:3-5 (R.V.).
And there come his mother and his brethren; and standing without; they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him. Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren) For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother Mar 3:31-35 (R.V.).
Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; because my time is not fulfilled. Joh 7:2-9 (R.V.).
These citations from the Revised Version tell their own story. But all that sad story is foreshown in the prophetic psalms. For example: I am become a stranger unto my brethren, And an alien unto my mother’s children. Psa 69:8 .
(5) The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was welcomed by a joyous people shouting a benediction from Psa 118:26 : “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mat 21:9 ); and the Lord’s lamentation over Jerusalem predicts continued desolation and banishment from his sight until the Jews are ready to repeat that benediction (Mat 23:39 ).
(6) The children’s hosanna in the Temple after its second purgation is declared by our Lord to be a fulfilment of that perfect praise forecast in Psa 8:2 .
(7) The final rejection of our Lord by his own people was also clear in the psalmist’s vision (Psa 118:22 ; Mat 21:42-44 ).
(8) Gethsemane’s baptism of suffering, with its strong crying and tears and prayers was as clear to the psalmist’s prophetic vision as to the evangelist and apostle after it became history (Psa 69:1-4 ; Psa 69:13-20 ; and Mat 26:36-44 ; Heb 5:7 ).
(9) In life-size also before the psalmist was the betrayer of Christ and his doom (Psa 41:9 ; Psa 69:25 ; Psa 109:6-8 ; Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:20 ).
(10) The rage of the people, Jew and Gentile, and the conspiracy of Pilate and Herod are clearly outlined (Psa 2:1-3 ; Act 4:25-27 ).
(11) All the farce of his trial the false accusation, his own marvelous silence; and the inhuman maltreatment to which he was subjected, is foreshown in the prophecy as dramatically as in the history (Mat 26:57-68 ; Mat 27:26-31 ; Psa 27:12 ; Psa 35:15-16 ; Psa 38:3 ; Psa 69:19 ).
The circumstances of his death, many and clear, are distinctly foreseen. He died in the prime of life (Psa 89:45 ; Psa 102:23-24 ). He died by crucifixion (Psa 22:14-17 ; Luk 23 ; 33; Joh 19:23-37 ; Joh 20:27 ). But yet not a bone of his body was broken (Psa 34:20 ; Joh 19:36 ).
The persecution, hatred without a cause, the mockery and insults, are all vividly and dramatically foretold (Psa 22:6-13 ; Psa 35:7 ; Psa 35:12 ; Psa 35:15 ; Psa 35:21 ; Psa 109:25 ).
The parting of his garments and the gambling for his vesture (Psa 22:18 ; Mat 27:35 ).
His intense thirst and the gall and vinegar offered for his drink (Psa 69:21 ; Mat 27:34 ).
In the psalms, too, we hear his prayers for his enemies so remarkably fulfilled in fact (Psa 109:4 ; Luk 23:34 ).
His spiritual death was also before the eye of the psalmist, and the very words which expressed it the psalmist heard. Separation from the Father is spiritual death. The sinner’s substitute must die the sinner’s death, death physical, i.e., separation of soul from body; death spiritual, i.e., separation of the soul from God. The latter is the real death and must precede the former. This death the substitute died when he cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Psa 22:1 ; Mat 27:46 ).
Emerging from the darkness of that death, which was the hour of the prince of darkness, the psalmist heard him commend his spirit to the Father (Psa_31:35; Luk 23:46 ) showing that while he died the spiritual death, his soul was not permanently abandoned unto hell (Psa 16:8-10 ; Act 2:25 ) so that while he “tasted death” for every man it was not permanent death (Heb 2:9 ).
With equal clearness the psalmist foresaw his resurrection, his triumph over death and hell, his glorious ascension into heaven, and his exaltation at the right hand of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, as a high Driest forever, as invested with universal sovereignty (Psa 16:8-11 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 68:18 ; Psa 2:6 ; Psa 111:1-4 ; Psa 8:4-6 ; Act 2:25-36 ; Eph 1:19-23 ; Eph 4:8-10 ).
We see, therefore, brethren, when the scattered parts are put together and adjusted, how nearly complete a portrait of our Lord is put upon the prophetic canvas by this inspired limner, the sweet singer of Israel.
QUESTIONS
1. What is a good text for this chapter?
2. What is the threefold division of the Old Testament as cited by our Lord?
3. What is the last division called and why?
4. What is the object of the discussion in this chapter?
5. To what three things is the purpose limited?
6. What especially qualifies the author to meet the objections of the higher critics to allowing the New Testament usage of the Old Testament to determine its meaning and application?
7. What is the author’s conviction relative to the Scriptures?
8. What is the New Testament testimony on the question of inspiration?
9. What is the author’s suggested plan of approach to the study of the Messiah in the Psalms?
10. What the background of the Psalmist’s portrait of the Messiah and of what does it consist?
11. Give the substance of Paul’s discussion of man’s sinfulness.
12. What is the teaching of Jesus on this point?
13. What is the teaching relative to sacrifices?
14. What the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah and what the four great elements of it as forecast by the psalmist?
15. What is the teaching of the psalms relative to the wondrous person of the Messiah? Discuss.
16. What are the offices of the Messiah according to psalms? Discuss each.
17. Cite the more important events of the Messiah’s life according to the vision of the psalmist.
18. What the circumstances of the Messiah’s death and resurrection as foreseen by the psalmist?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
XVI
THE MESSIANIC PSALMS AND OTHERS
We commence this chapter by giving a classified list of the Messianic Psalms, as follows:
The Royal Psalms are:
Psa 110 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 72 ; Psa 45 ; Psa 89 ;
The Passion Psalms are:
Psa 22 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 69 ;
The Psalms of the Ideal Man are Psa 8 ; Psa 16 ; Psa 40 ;
The Missionary Psalms are:
Psa 47 ; Psa 65 ; Psa 68 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 100 ; Psa 117 .
The predictions before David of the coming Messiah are, (1) the seed of the woman; (2) the seed of Abraham; (3) the seed of Judah; (4) the seed of David.
The prophecies of history concerning the Messiah are, (1) a prophet like unto Moses; (2) a priest after the order of Melchizedek; (3) a sacrifice which embraces all the sacrificial offerings of the Old Testament; (4) direct references to him as King, as in 2Sa 7:8 ff.
The messianic offices as taught in the psalms are four, viz: (1) The Messiah is presented as Prophet, or Teacher (Psa 40:8 ); (2) as Sacrifice, or an Offering for sin (Psa 40:6 ff.; Heb 10:5 ff.) ; (3) he is presented as Priest (Psa 110:4 ); (4) he is presented as King (Psa 45 ).
The psalms most clearly presenting the Messiah in his various phases and functions are as follows: (1) as the ideal man, or Second Adam (8); (2) as Prophet (Psa 40 ); (3) as Sacrifice (Psa 22 ) ; (4) as King (Psa 45 ) ; (5) as Priest (Psa 110 ) ; (6) in his universal reign (Psa 72 ).
It will be noted that other psalms teach these facts also, but these most clearly set forth the offices as they relate to the Messiah.
The Messiah as a sacrifice is presented in general in Psa 40:6 . His sufferings as such are given in a specific and general way in Psa 22 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 69 . The events of his sufferings in particular are described, beginning with the betrayal of Judas, as follows:
1. Judas betrayed him (Mat 26:14 ) in fulfilment of Psa 41:9 .
2. At the Supper (Mat 26:24 ) Christ said, “The Son of man goeth as it is written of him,” referring to Psa 22 .
3. They sang after the Supper in fulfilment of Psa 22:22 .
4. Piercing his hands and feet, Psa 22:16 .
5. They cast lots for his vesture in fulfilment of Psa 22:18 .
6. Just before the ninth hour the chief priests reviled him (Mat 27:43 ) in fulfilment of Psa 22:8 .
7. At the ninth hour (Mat 27:46 ) he quoted Psa 22:1 .
8. Near his death (Joh 19:28 ) he said, in fulfilment of Psa 69:21 , “I thirst.”
9. At that time they gave him vinegar (Mat 27:48 ) in fulfilment of Psa 69:21 .
10. When he was found dead they did not break his bones (Joh 19:36 ) in fulfilment of Psa 34:20 .
11. He is represented as dead, buried, and raised in Psa 16:10 .
12. His suffering as a substitute is described in Psa 69:9 .
13. The result of his crucifixion to them who crucified him is given in Psa 69:22-23 . Compare Rom 11:9-10 .
The Penitential Psalms are Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 . The occasion of Psa 6 was the grief and penitence of David over Absalom; of Psa 32 was the blessedness of forgiveness after his sin with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah; Psa 38 , David’s reference to his sin with Bathsheba; Psa 51 , David’s penitence and prayer for forgiveness for this sin; Psa 102 , the penitence of the children of Israel on the eve of their return from captivity; Psalm 130, a general penitential psalm; Psa 143 , David’s penitence and prayer when pursued by Absalom.
The Pilgrim Psalms are Psalms 120-134. This section of the psalter is called the “Little Psalter.” These Psalms were collected in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, in troublous times. The author of the central psalm of this collection is Solomon, and he wrote it when he built his Temple. The Davidic Psalms in this collection are Psa 120 ; Psa 122 ; Psa 124 ; Psa 131 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 133 . The others were written during the building of the second Temple. They are called in the Septuagint “Songs of the Steps.”
There are four theories as to the meaning of the titles, “Songs of the Steps,” “Songs of Degrees,” or “Songs of Ascents,” viz:
1. The first theory is that the “Songs of the Steps” means the songs of the fifteen steps from the court of the women to the court of Israel, there being a song for each step.
2. The second theory is that advanced by Luther, which says that they were songs of a higher choir, elevated above, or in an elevated voice.
3. The third theory is that the thought in these psalms advances by degrees.
4. The fourth theory is that they are Pilgrim Psalms, or the songs that they sang while going up to the great feasts.
Certain scriptures give the true idea of these titles, viz: Exo 23:14-17 ; Exo 34:23-24 ; 1Sa 1:3 ; 1Ki 12:27-28 : Psa 122:1-4 ; and the proof of their singing as they went is found in Psa_42:4; 100; and Isa 30:29 . They went, singing these psalms, to the Feasts of the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Psa 121 was sung when just in sight of Jerusalem and Psa 122 was sung at the gate. Psa 128 is the description of a good man’s home and a parallel to this psalm in modern literature is Burns’s “Cotter’s Saturday Night.” The pious home makes the nation great.
Psa 133 is a psalm of fellowship. It is one of the finest expressions of the blessings that issue when God’s people dwell together in unity. The reference here is to the anointing of Aaron as high priest and the fragrance of the anointing oil which was used in these anointings. The dew of Hermon represents the blessing of God upon his people when they dwell together in such unity.
Now let us look at the Alphabetical Psalms. An alphabetical psalm is one in which the letters of the Hebrew alphabet are used alphabetically to commence each division. In Psalms 111-112, each clause so begins; in Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 145 ; each verse so begins; in Psa 37 each stanza of two verses so begins; in 119 each stanza of eight verses so begins, and each of the eight lines begins with the same letter. In Psa 25 ; 34 37 the order is not so strict; in Psa 9 and Psa 10 there are some traces of this alphabetical order.
David originated these alphabetical psalms and the most complete specimen is Psa 119 , which is an expansion of the latter part of Psa 19 .
A certain group of psalms is called the Hallelujah Psalms. They are so called because the word “Hallelujah” is used at the beginning, or at the ending, and sometimes at both the beginning and the ending. The Hallelujah Psalms are Psalm 111-113; 115-117; 146-150. Psa 117 is a doxology; and Psalms 146-150 were used as anthems. Psa 148 calls on all creation to praise God. Francis of Assisi wrote a hymn based on this psalm in which he called the sun his honorable brother and the cricket his sister. Psa 150 calls for all varieties of instruments. Psalms 113-118 are called the Egyptian Hallel. They were used at the Passover (Psalm 113-114), before the Supper and Psalm 115-118 were sung after the Supper. According to this, Jesus and his disciples sang Psalms 115-118 at the last Passover Supper. These psalms were sung also at the Feasts of Pentecost, Tabernacles, Dedication, and New Moon.
The name of God is delayed long in Psa 114 . Addison said, “That the surprise might be complete.” Then there are some special characteristics of Psa 115 , viz: (1) It was written against idols. Cf. Isa 44:9-20 ; (2) It is antiphonal, the congregation singing Psa 115:1-8 , the choir Psa 115:9-12 , the priests Psa 115:13-15 and the congregation again Psa 115:16-18 . The theme of Psa 116 is love, based on gratitude for a great deliverance, expressed in service. It is appropriate to read at the celebration of the Lord’s Supper and Psa 116:15 is especially appropriate for funeral services.
On some special historical occasions certain psalms were sung. Psa 46 was sung by the army of Gustavus Adolphus before the decisive battle of Leipzig, on September 17, 1631.Psa 68 was sung by Cromwell’s army on the occasion of the battle of Dunbar in Scotland.
Certain passages in the Psalms show that the psalm writers approved the offering of Mosaic animal sacrifices. For instance, Psa 118:27 ; Psa 141:2 seem to teach very clearly that they approved the Mosaic sacrifice. But other passages show that these inspired writers estimated spiritual sacrifices as more important and foresaw the abolition of the animal sacrifices. Such passages are Psa 50:7-15 ; Psa 4:5 ; Psa 27:6 ; Psa 40:6 ; Psa 51:16-17 . These scriptures show conclusively that the writers estimated spiritual sacrifices as more important than the Mosaic sacrifices.
QUESTIONS
1. What are the Royal Psalms?
2. What are the Passion Psalms?
3. What are the Psalms of the Ideal Man?
4. What are the Missionary Psalms?
5. What are the predictions before David of the coming Messiah?
6. What are the prophecies of history concerning the Messiah?
7. Give a regular order of thought concerning the messianic offices as taught in the psalms.
8. Which psalms most clearly present the Messiah as (1) the ideal man, or Second Adam, (2) which as Prophet, or Teacher, (3) which as the Sacrifice, (4) which as King, (5) which as Priest, (6) which his universal reign?
9. Concerning the suffering Messiah, or the Messiah as a sacrifice, state the words or facts, verified in the New Testament as fulfilment of prophecy in the psalms. Let the order of the citations follow the order of facts in Christ’s life.
10. Name the Penitential Psalms and show their occasion.
11. What are the Pilgrim Psalms?
12. What is this section of the Psalter called?
13. When and under what conditions were these psalms collected?
14. Who is the author of the central psalm of this collection?
15. What Davidic Psalms are in this collection?
16. When were the others written?
17. What are they called in the Septuagint?
18. What four theories as to the meaning of the titles, “Songs of the Steps,” “Songs of Degrees,” or “Songs of Ascents”?
19. What scriptures give the true idea of these titles?
20. Give proof of their singing as they went.
21. To what feasts did they go singing these Psalms?
22. What was the special use made of Psa 121 and Psa 122 ?
23. Which of these psalms is the description of a good man’s home and what parallel in modern literature?
24. Expound Psa 133 .
25. What is an alphabetical psalm, and what are the several kinds?
26. Who originated these Alphabetical Psalms?
27. What are the most complete specimen?
28. Of what is it an expansion?
29. Why is a certain group of psalms called the Hallelujah Psalms?
30. What are the Hallelujah Psalms?
31. Which of the Hallelujah Psalms was a doxology?
32. Which of these were used as anthems?
33. Which psalm calls on all creation to praise God?
34. Who wrote a hymn based on Psa 148 in which he called the sun his honorable brother and the cricket his sister?
35. Which of these psalms calls for all varieties of instruments?
36. What is the Egyptian Hallel?
37. What is their special use and how were they sung?
38. Then what hymns did Jesus and his disciples sing?
39. At what other feasts was this sung?
40. Why was the name of God delayed so long in Psa 114 ?
41. What are the characteristics of Psa 115 ?
42. What is the theme and special use of Psa 116 ?
43. State some special historical occasions on which certain psalms were sung. Give the psalm for each occasion.
44. Cite passages in the psalms showing that the psalm writers approved the offering of Mosaic animal sacrifices.
45. Cite other passages showing that these inspired writers estimated spiritual sacrifices as more important than the Mosaic sacrifices.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Psa 112:1 Praise ye the LORD. Blessed [is] the man [that] feareth the LORD, [that] delighteth greatly in his commandments.
Ver. 1. Praise ye the Lord ] See Psa 111:1 .
Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord
That delighteth greatly in his commandments “Praise ye Jah.” Next to the intervention of Jehovah comes the character, as well as the blessing under His government, of the man that fears Him. It is not the Christian even now blessed in heavenly places, enjoying full favour, yet suffering on earth, and waiting for Him who will have us with Himself in the Father’s house; but the anticipative sketch of the righteous Israelite in the kingdom.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 112:1-6
1Praise the Lord!
How blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
Who greatly delights in His commandments.
2His descendants will be mighty on earth;
The generation of the upright will be blessed.
3Wealth and riches are in his house,
And his righteousness endures forever.
4Light arises in the darkness for the upright;
He is gracious and compassionate and righteous.
5It is well with the man who is gracious and lends;
He will maintain his cause in judgment.
6For he will never be shaken;
The righteous will be remembered forever.
Psa 112:1 Praise the Lord See note at Psa 111:1.
How blessed is the man. . . This is Wisdom vocabulary.
1. blessed (TEV, happy), Psa 112:1 – BDB 80 (cf. Psa 1:1; Psa 119:1-2)
2. blessed, Psa 112:2 – BDB 138
3. well (TEV, happy), Psa 112:5 – BDB 373 II
fears the Lord See note at Psa 111:10. See Special Topic: Fear .
Who greatly delights in His commandments The verb (BDB 342, KB 339, Qal perfect) denotes a person’s attitude toward YHWH’s revelation (cf. Psa 19:10; Psa 111:2; Psa 119:35). The faithful follower obeys them (cf. Deu 4:1-2; Deu 4:14; Deu 4:40; Deu 16:12; Deu 30:8; Deu 30:16; Deu 30:19-20).
For commandments see the Special Topic: Terms For God’s Revelation .
Psa 112:2 From the Ten Commandments we learn that evil moves through generations (cf. Exo 20:5; Deu 5:9-10) but, praise God, so does faith (cf. Exo 20:6; Deu 5:10; Deu 7:9; Exo 34:7).
Psa 112:3 a Remember, this is an OT text, the two ways of the Mosaic covenant (cf. Deu 30:15-20; Psalms 1; Pro 4:10-19; Jer 21:8; Mat 7:13-14). This did not work because of mankind’s fallen nature (cf. Genesis 3; Romans 1-3; Galatians 3; Hebrews). Be careful of proof-texting these verses on prosperity as if they were NT promises!
Psa 112:4 a This phrase implies that the faithful follower will have understanding amidst the problems of this fallen age because
1. he fears YHWH, Psa 112:1 b,7b
2. he delights in His revelation, Psa 112:1 c
3. he lives out his faith, Psa 112:4-5
4. he will not be shaken, Psa 112:6 a
5. he does not fear, Psa 112:8 a
The subject of the verb rises (BDB 280, KB 281, Qal perfect) is unspecified. It could refer to the faithful follower. The UBS Handbook (p. 960) suggests He is like a light in darkness, that shines for the honorable (i.e., upright, masculine plural) men.
Psa 112:4 b These same attributes are said of YHWH in Psa 111:3 b,4b (cf. Exo 34:6-7). This line of poetry has no subject or verb but three masculine adjectives.
1. gracious – BDB 337
2. merciful – BDB 933
3. righteous – BDB 843
It could refer to YHWH (AB, p. 128). NIDOTTE, vol. 2, p. 204, says that gracious is used thirteen times and always refers to YHWH, except in Psa 112:4. This implies that Psa 112:4 might not refer to YHWH.
Psa 112:5 In the OT, covenant brothers were to lend to the poor without interest (cf. Exo 22:25; Lev 25:35-38; Deu 15:7-8). To help the poor was a way to show one’s devotion to YHWH, who cared for the poor (cf. Psa 37:26; Pro 19:17; Mat 5:42; Luk 6:35). The way one treats others clearly reveals his relationship with God (cf. Psa 112:4).
Psa 112:6 b Because of this line and Psa 112:3 b and 9b, an afterlife of some kind, not just the memory of God, is implied! Heaven is not just God’s memory but His people in fellowship with Him (cf. Mat 22:31-32).
The second of three Hallelujah Psalms, and of the pair (111, 112). See note above. Also an Acrostic Psalm. See App-63.
THE LORD. Hebrew Jah. App-4.
Blessed = Happy. See App-63.
man. Hebrew. ‘Ish. App-14.
the LORD. Hebrew eth Jehovah: i.e. Jehovah Himself. App-4.
Psa 112:1-10
Again, it begins with the Hebrew, Hallelujah.
Blessed is the man that reverences Jehovah ( Psa 112:1 ).
Again, the man who reverences God. Not the man who reverences a guy standing in front, or a guy with a black robe, or whatever. But a guy who reverences God, that’s the blessed man, that’s the happy man.
that delights greatly in his commandments ( Psa 112:1 ).
David said, “Whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth he meditate both day and night.” David said, “O blessed or O happy is the man who delights in the law of the Lord, and in His law meditates day and night. For he’ll be like a tree” ( Psa 1:1-3 ). All right, now here again, “Happy is the man who delights greatly in His commandments.” This man,
His children will be mighty upon the earth: the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in his house ( Psa 112:2-3 ):
And I do not believe that that necessarily refers to physical, monetary wealth, but really, the really rich and wealthy people are those people, the really rich home and wealthy home is that home where God is honored. They are the people who have the true riches. The riches of the kingdom. Riches that don’t corrupt. Riches that don’t fade away. Riches that can’t be ripped off. Those glorious true riches of God’s kingdom. “Wealth and riches shall be in his house.”
and his righteousness endureth for ever. Unto the upright he rises as a light in the darkness ( Psa 112:3-4 ):
Would be a better translation.
for he is gracious, he’s full of compassion, and righteous ( Psa 112:4 ).
That is, our righteousness in Christ.
A good man shows favor, and he lends: he will guide his affairs with discretion. Surely he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD ( Psa 112:5-7 ).
We’re living in days of evil tidings. At any day, you can pick up the newspaper and read of all the evil that is going on in the world. And there are some people who live in constant fear of the evil tidings that might come. But the man who has put his trust in the Lord will not fear in the day of evil tidings, because his heart is fixed.
There are some people whose hearts aren’t really fixed. It isn’t a true commitment. It isn’t a full commitment. They’ve made a partial commitment of their lives to God. Part of them serves the Lord; part of them serves the flesh. They love the Lord partly. And because of that, they are very unstable in their walk and they’re fearful. But the man who has fixed his heart, trusting in the Lord, I know that come what may, the Lord is with me. I know that come what may, the Lord is going to protect me.
I know that the Lord is watching out over me. I know the Lord loves me. I may not understand what’s happening in the circumstances surrounding my life. But I know that God loves me and I know that God’s going to see me through. I know that God has allowed it for a purpose. I know that it would not have happened unless God had allowed it to happen. And because He allowed it to happen, He has a purpose in its happening, and thus He’s going to bring good out of it. Though I may not see it now. And because I’ve fixed my heart and commitment to God, come what may, you don’t fear for calamity that may fall tomorrow. You don’t fear for what may come, because you know that whatever comes is brought to you by the hand of God.
I belong to Him. Satan cannot get to me except he come through the Lord. And therefore, trusting in the Lord, my heart is fixed on Him. I have great confidence in life.
His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, he shall see his desire upon his enemies. He hath dispersed, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever; his horn shall be exalted with honor ( Psa 112:8-9 ).
Now in contrast to this righteous man,
The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; the wicked will gnash with his teeth, and melt away ( Psa 112:10 ):
See, the righteous will endure forever. But the wicked will gnash and melt away.
the desire of the wicked [rather than being granted] will perish ( Psa 112:10 ).
So you have a psalm that deals with God’s blessed man and then the final verse being a contrast to it with the wicked man. Psa 1:1-6 has the same contrast. “O how happy is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But whose delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law does he meditate day and night. He’ll be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, bringing forth his fruit in its season; his leaf also shall not wither; whatsoever he does shall prosper” ( Psa 1:1-3 ). Now the wicked are not so. There’s a contrast. “The wicked are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away” ( Psa 1:4 ). Again, you have much said about the righteous but then the contrast with the wicked. And this is poetry in the mind of the Hebrew. The poetry comes in the contrasting of the thought.
Now in our minds, we’re geared for poetry coming in rhyme and in rhythm. So you get a rhythm going and it rhymes. And I particularly like the Robert Service type of poetry where you rhyme two lines and every third line is in the rhyme. And there are others, the first line, the first and third, no, the first and fourth lines rhyme and the two in between rhyme.
Longfellow’s Ode to Life,
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
‘Life is but an empty dream!’
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
things are not what they seem.
No, it’s every other one in his.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not thy goal;
‘Dust thou art, to dust returneth,’
Was not spoken of thy soul.
But then Robert Service,
There are strange things done ‘neath the midnight sun
By the men who toil for gold;
The arctic trails, all their secret tales
That make your blood run cold.
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was the night in the marge of the Lake Lebarge
When I cremated Sam McGee.
So that constitutes poetry to us. There’s the rhythm. There’s the rhyme. But to the Hebrew, the poetry was in the thought. And it was either in a compounding of a thought or the contrasting of a thought. So you take a thought and you begin to compound it.
“The ways of the Lord are perfect. The ways of the Lord are to be sought out. The ways of the Lord.” And you are compounding on the thought. Or, you take contrasting thought, “The way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked. The way of the godly, but the way of the ungodly.” And so the contrasting of thought to the Hebrew mind is poetry. There’s no rhyme, there’s no rhythm. And so we wouldn’t call it poetry ourselves. But to them, that is what constitutes poetry. Not the rhyming of a sentence or not the rhythm, but the thought itself. They find the beauty of poetry in the thought itself.
So after all of these things about the blessed man, then you get the contrast in the final verse, “But the wicked shall see it.” And in contrast to the righteous, “he will be grieved. He’ll gnash with his teeth; he’ll melt away. He’ll perish.” “
Psa 112:1-3
Psalms 112
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SERVANT OF GOD
See introduction to the preceding chapter for discussion of this psalm as “a twin” of that one. The theme of Psalms 111 was “The Character of God,” and the theme here is “The Characteristics of God’s Servant.” This is another of the Hallelujah Psalms. It is also an acrostic.
The theme of the psalm was stated by Leupold, “This psalm emphasizes the praise that God deserves because of what he does for those who truly fear him.
Psa 112:1-3
“Praise ye Jehovah.
Blessed is the man that feareth Jehovah,
That delighteth greatly in his commandments.
His seed shall be mighty upon the earth:
The generation of the upright shall be blessed.
Wealth and riches are in his house;
And his righteousness endureth forever.”
“Praise ye Jehovah” (Psa 112:1). This stands apart from the acrostic pattern, serving somewhat as a title for the psalm. These words translate the Hebrew text, which is “Hallelujah.”
“Blessed is the man that feareth Jehovah, etc.” (Psa 112:1). This thought is repeated a hundred times in the Psalter, beginning with the very first verse in it.
“His seed shall be mighty upon earth, etc.” (Psa 112:2). The two clauses of this verse are parallel, both of them promising that success and prosperity shall come to the righteous man’s posterity. Families that are reared in the knowledge and fear of God by their parents continue to exhibit the truth of what is written here. Jamieson noted that exceptions to this general rule may be cited, “But such exceptions occur only as they are seen by God to be inconsistent with those spiritual blessings which are better.
“Wealth and riches are in his house, etc.” (Psa 112:3). It is surely true of any society where righteousness generally prevails that wealth tends to be accumulated in the hands of good men. “A land needs its mighty men, and is fortunate if they are of such stock as this and if wealth is in such hands.” It is always a disaster for any community where the wealth and power of the people are concentrated in the hands of evil men.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 112:1. Praise ye the Lord is abbreviated to the simple word “Hallelujah” in the margins of some Bibles and the religious dictionaries agree with it. A number of the Psalms begin with it and probably it was not an integral part of the text originally, but was a sort of heading or introduction to the chapter. The man who fears or respects the Lord will be blessed or happy. Such a man will logically take delight in the commandments of the Lord, and such a life can result only in happiness.
Psa 112:2. His seed refers to the posterity of the man described in the foregoing verse. It is here termed also the generation of the upright.
Psa 112:3. There is no practical difference between wealth and riches; they are used for emphasis. God does not offer material gain as an inducement for men to live right, but a righteous man has the prospect of such blessings as a result of right living. This lesson was taught by Jesus in Mat 6:33. The righteousness practiced by a man who fears God will be lasting because it is based on the truth.
This song follows immediately upon the last as to meaning. While that has set forth the praises of Jehovah as great and gracious, this declares the blessedness of the man who lives in true relation with Jehovah. The connection is clearly seen in the relation of the closing verse of the former to the opening verse of this. The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom. Blessed is the man that feareth Jehovah. The remarkable thing about this psalm is the way in which, in describing the blessed condition of the man who fears Jehovah, it makes use of words which the previous psalm made use of in describing Jehovah. Of Jehovah the psalmist said,
His righteousness endureth for ever. Jehovah is declared to be Gracious and full of compassion. So also is the upright man.
The relation of these psalms sets forth truth which is of perpetual application. A man becomes like his God. When a mans God is blessed, the man is blessed also. To have a great God is to become a great man. True wisdom consist in the maintenance of right relationships with the one God. True happiness consists in becoming like Him Who is at once great and gracious.
Prosperity in Serving the Lord
Psa 112:1-10
Here are the two conditions of the blessed life: first, to fear the Lord; second, to delight greatly in His commandments. And then the blessed results: a mighty seed; a blessed generation; wealth and riches; enduring influence; light amid darkness; and many suchlike things. The psalm is replete with the beatitudes that alight on the heart of the man who lives for God alone.
Around us may be the encircling gloom, in which evil men and tidings lurk as savages in the shadow of the forest, but within there is the blessed sense of the presence of God, like the circle of fire within which the traveler is secure. The voice of God assures him that he shall never be moved, and the heart is so established that it cannot yield to fear. It is good to have that quiet, unperturbed confidence in God. Moses had it at the Red Sea, Exo 14:13; Asa, before the overwhelming hosts that threatened to submerge his little army, 2Ch 14:9-12; Jehoshaphat, when confronted by the hordes of Ammon, 2Ch 20:12; and Hezekiah, when the Assyrian threatened to invade Judah, 2Ch 32:6-8. Such a life is full of the Hallelujah Chorus, in accord with the opening note of the psalm.
Psa 112:4
The principle of the text, being a general and universal truth, ought to be applicable to matters of faith, to matters of experience, and to matters of practice.
I. Matters of faith. By matters of faith are meant those revealed truths which are to be apprehended by us, and accepted, and held fast, and turned to perpetual use for guidance, health, salvation. We all begin in darkness. And we get into the light, not in an easy, natural, irresistible manner, but by hints and suggestions at first, by help of broken gleams, and through falling shadows, through doubts, and uncertainties, and frequent misconception, by gropings, and hesitations, and discoveries, held often in the restriction of our own narrowness, circumscribed always by necessary limits, liable always to mistakes, and at no time holding the complete and perfect truth. “Unto the upright light ariseth.” “He that doeth the will of God shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God.” Inward loyalty to truth, the fine, pure temper of sincerity, the habit of obedience-these are wonderful revealers.
II. Matters of experience. There are many who, at least to their own consciousness, seem to have before them, and quite clearly, truth enough to do all they long for: to rule their lives sweetly and bring their hearts in childlike trust to God. And yet the constant trouble is that these and the like things are not done. They have darkness of the heart and no light arising. Yes, but it will arise. Unto the upright it ariseth, everywhere, in everything, and therefore assuredly in things of the heart. Only be sure you seek heart-light “lawfully.” It is fruit, and not root. It is consequence, not cause. Seek first the righteousness of the inward kingdom, and the light will come out of that.
III. The text is true in matters of practice. We must go along the line that seems the line of duty. “Light is sown for the righteous;” but, like all living seed, it takes a while to spring. The days of sowing are sometimes chill and dark. The bright harvest days will make amends for all.
A. Raleigh, The Little Sanctuary, p. 232.
References: Psa 112:4.-E. Bersier, Sermons, 2nd series, pp. 273, 286. Psa 112:6.-A. P. Stanley, Good Words, 1877, p. 548. Psa 112:7.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi., No. 647; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 259. Psa 113:7, Psa 113:8.-Ibid., Sermons, vol. xi., No. 658. Psa 113:8.-Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 209.
Psalm 112
Hallelujah! The Righteous are Blessed
The second Hallelujah Psalm tells of blessedness of the righteous in the day the Lord is enthroned. It is preeminently Israel. His seed will be mighty upon the earth–wealth and riches will be in their house. And the righteous character, their righteous acts are given. He hath dispersed, He hath given to the poor. While this is done by the Jews even today in their unbelief, what will it be in the day they know Him and worship the King? See Pauls answer in Rom 11:12-15. The desire of the wicked is then perished. Righteousness reigns.
feareth
(See Scofield “Psa 19:9”).
Praise ye the Lord: Heb. Hallelujah, Psa 111:1, Psa 147:1, Psa 148:11-14, Psa 150:1, This is another of the alphabetical Psalms, being formed exactly as the preceding in the division of its verses; and, like it, was probably composed for the use of the Jews, after their return from captivity.
Blessed: Psa 111:10, Psa 115:7-13, Psa 128:1, Psa 145:19, Isa 50:10, Luk 1:50
delighteth: Psa 1:1, Psa 1:2, Psa 40:8, Psa 119:16, Psa 119:35, Psa 119:47, Psa 119:48, Psa 119:70-72, Psa 119:97, Psa 119:143, Rom 7:22, Rom 8:6
Reciprocal: Gen 9:1 – blessed Gen 13:2 – General Gen 13:15 – General Gen 22:12 – now Gen 24:1 – blessed Gen 26:5 – General 2Ki 4:1 – thy servant did fear Ezr 9:12 – and leave it Neh 5:15 – because Psa 5:12 – bless Psa 19:9 – enduring Psa 36:1 – no Psa 113:1 – Praise ye the Lord Psa 115:13 – He will bless Psa 135:1 – Praise ye the Lord Pro 1:7 – fear Pro 3:17 – ways of Pro 11:21 – the seed Pro 14:2 – that walketh Pro 14:26 – fear Pro 21:15 – joy Pro 22:4 – By Pro 23:17 – be thou Pro 28:14 – Happy Ecc 8:12 – surely Ecc 12:13 – Fear Isa 33:6 – fear Isa 56:2 – Blessed Isa 64:5 – rejoiceth Jer 32:39 – they may Hag 1:12 – fear Mal 3:16 – that feared Mat 5:3 – Blessed Luk 11:28 – General Rom 4:6 – blessedness 1Ti 4:8 – having Rev 22:14 – Blessed
WHO IS BLESSED?
Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord.
Psa 112:1
I. The fear and the love of God are inseparably united, and have an internal connection, in the truly pious.The reward of this blessed and holy union is great. Its blessing extends to their descendants, and is powerfully displayed in themselves. Not only earthly prosperity, but a life well-pleasing to God, and the opportunity thereby gained of becoming a power on earth, and of exercising an influence that overcomes the world, form a mind, a position, and a greatness of action that are heroic. They are thus maintained as a blessing from God in pious generations, the light never failing to rise again even in the night of affliction.
II. The love of our neighbour is connected in the closest manner with love to God, and he who has experienced in himself and his family the mercy of the Eternal is both inclined and enabled to show mercy to others, and thereby gains a new support, strengthening his heart in God, widening his active influence among men, securing his happiness for all time; while the wicked are destroyed outwardly and inwardly, and go to ruin with their possessions and fortune, as well as with their efforts and aspirations.
III. All human righteousness has its root in the righteousness of God.It is not merely man striving to copy God; it is Gods gift and Gods work. There is a living connection between the righteousness of God and the righteousness of man, and therefore the imperishableness of the one pertains to the other also.
Illustrations
(1) An alphabetical psalm like the last. This psalm is immediately connected with the last verse of the preceding one, and may be considered as a commentary on it.
(2) The subjectthe blessedness of the righteous manbears the same relation to the preceding which the moon does to the sun; for whilst the first declares the glory of God, the second speaks of the reflection of Divine brightness in men born from above.
(3) The 111th psalm contains the character of God; the 112th of the holya gentle, steadfast, generous nature.
Praise for the security of those that fear Him.
In the last verse the key-note of the present psalm is struck, in which we have in fact the praise of such wisdom. It is a psalm of praise for the security and blessing of those who fear Jehovah; and the alphabetic structure may remind us of the similar one in the twenty-fifth, but here (as not there) perfect. As soon as the soul is turned to God, things begin to get the impress of divine order; and while from the side of human experience (as in the twenty-fifth) this is yet imperfect, from the divine side (as here) it is not so: the structure is the exact reflection of the truth contained.
In the character of the blessing the psalm is Jewish, of course; and we have to make large allowance for this in any Christian application.
1. We have first the description of the man that fears Jehovah. His fear is a fruitful fear and not a slavish one: he has great delight in the commandments in which he walks. “His seed shall be mighty in the earth,” -the sphere of blessing in the Old Testament, -“the generation of the upright is blessed.”
2. Next, as in the last psalm the two-fold character of light and love is seen in Jehovah, so here this is seen in the one who walks in His way. “Wealth and riches shall be in his house; and his righteousness endureth for ever.” Amid a dark world light arises for the upright; and the only upright one is he that is “gracious and merciful” as well as “righteous.” Indeed our Lord has fully shown us in the parable of the thankless servant (Mat 19:1-30) that for those who are debtors to mercy not to show it is not even righteous.
3. We now see how he is fenced about and cared for: “Well is it with the man that is gracious and lendeth: he shall sustain his affairs by judgment” -not in the judgment which is coming at the hands of God, (as some interpret,) but by the judgment which he himself practises. “For he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance” -remembered by God Himself, and so kept unmoved.
4. Yet he is in a world where things do not show stability; but “he shall not be afraid of an evil report” -of bad news; because he has found stability in God: “his heart is firm, trusting in Jehovah,” the Unchangeable. This very trust too is sustained of God, until he see what he looks for as to his adversaries.
5. The principles of divine government, both as to the righteous and the wicked, are seen in the closing verses.
Psa 112:1. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord With the disposition of a dutiful child toward a kind and gracious father, not with that of a refractory slave toward a tyrannical and severe master, that reverences and fears to offend him. As the fear of God is mans only wisdom, Psa 111:10, so it is his only way to true happiness. That delighteth greatly in his commandments Who makes it his chief care, business, and delight, to meditate on, understand, and obey Gods commandments. It is here intimated, that zeal and fervency in Gods service are essential to true piety.
This, like the preseding, is an alphabetical psalm. From the Latin title, it would seem to have been a favourite ode with the prophets Haggai and Zechariah.
Psa 112:1. Delighteth greatly. The Chaldaic, Is expert in his commandments.
Psa 112:8. See his desire upon his enemies. The Chaldaic, Till he see redemption or deliverance from his enemies. Expressions of like import may be found in Psa 118:7.
Psa 112:9. His righteousness endureth for ever, as in Psa 112:3. His alms, and a multitude of good offices, the fruits of the divine righteousness actuating his breast: yea, the righteousness of God shall exalt his horn with honour. Job 15:15.
REFLECTIONS.
We have here the patriarchs portion: he has enough of earth, and much of heaven. He delights greatly in the Lord, and the Lord greatly delights in him.
The promises made to the father, are made with equal force to the children. His seed shall be mighty in the earth; they shall inherit all their fathers blessings, provided they inherit all his virtues. Wealth and riches shall be in their house, as the covenant stipulates, unto thousands of generations.
God will save them in the day of trouble. Unto the upright there ariseth light in darkness. God also will make darkness, or afflictions, light before them. He will counsel and support them in affliction, and turn adversity to advantage.
God being liberal to him, his heart is expanded with liberality to the poor and indigent. He will lend to his needy neighbour without interest, and often excite a cheerful countenance among the deserving poor.
This man, guiding his affairs with discretion, and having God to exalt his horn with honour, is not afraid of evil tidings. He lives to the Lord, and has no secret thing to make him afraid or ashamed. Neither the beam of his house, nor the brick in his wall, has anything to cry out against him: he has therefore a noble and an open countenance. Of afflictions, though he reveres the rod, yet he is not afraid, for he knows they shall work for good. Against calumny and the envenomed tongue, a conscious rectitude gives him confidence. He rises with the lustre of innocence in the cloud; envy retires to bite her chains, and serves merely as the dark shades in a painting to distinguish the good mans worth. Thus the wicked shall see his prosperity and be grieved. He shall see his own substance lavished by pride, his health blasted by intemperance, while a continued tide of prosperity pours affluence on the children of the just. How then will they bear to see the righteous sitting on thrones, while the angry Judge shall bid them depart from his presence. And though this psalm speaks of the patriarch rather than the poor, God will not forget the man in humble life. He will give him the riches of grace, and repay in the world to come, with interest, the temporal portion of good which was wisely withheld in the present life.
Pss. CXI. and CXII. These are sister Pss. as is shown by their structure. Each contains nine verses. Each verse has two lines, each line beginning with a letter of the alphabet in due succession. We have thus eighteen lines, so that we get eighteen letters of the acrostic in all. To get twenty-one lines in each, corresponding to the number of letters in the alphabet, the author or authors added at the end of each Ps. a verse with three lines, which is precisely the number wanted. The Hallelujah at the beginning of each is a later liturgical addition which destroys the acrostic. Psalms 111 is chiefly occupied with the greatness and goodness of Yahweh. Psalms 112 finds its theme chiefly in the corresponding truth, viz. the happiness of the godly.
CXI. Psa 111:2. Sought out: to be sought out would be better.
Psa 111:4. to be remembered: i.e. in the ceremonial worship.
Psa 111:5. prey (mg.) instead of meat is due to the difficulty of the acrostic.
Psa 111:9. Yahweh gave His people deliverance from Egypt and the covenant or Law.
Psa 111:10. not the beginning, but the best.
Psa 112:9. righteousness: the salvation which man receives (cf. Psa 24:5). In Psa 111:3 righteousness is that which God does.
PSALM 112
The Lord praised for the blessings bestowed upon the man that fears God.
The blessing contemplated in the psalm is of an earthly and Jewish order, rather than the heavenly blessing of the Christian. However, whether for the earthly or heavenly saint, the practical enjoyment of either blessing springs from a life lived in the fear of God.
(v. 1) The last psalm closed with the assertion that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This psalm opens with praise to the Lord because of His blessings bestowed on the man who fears the Lord. This is not a legal fear that dreads the Judge, but the reverent fear of a man who delights to do the will of the One he fears.
(vv. 2-3) The blessings are then described. The God-fearing man is blessed upon earth: his seed are mighty: he is enriched with material wealth.
(vv. 4-5) The character of the one thus blessed is then delineated. He is gracious, full of compassion, and righteous. In conduct he shows favour and acts with wisdom.
(vv. 6-9) Moreover we are told the way in which the God-fearing man is cared for and protected. The one who cares for others will not be moved, for he is in the everlasting remembrance of God. He shall not be afraid either of evil tidings, or of his enemies, for his heart is fixed, and sustained, trusting in the Lord. As to his neighbours, he disperses to the poor, and is held in honour.
(v. 10) The government of God which brings blessing to the God-fearing man, brings judgment upon the wicked.
112:1 Praise ye the LORD. Blessed [is] the man [that] {a} feareth the LORD, [that] delighteth greatly in his commandments.
(a) He means that reverent fear which is in the children of God, which causes them to delight only in the word of God.
Psalms 112
This wisdom psalm is also an acrostic. It focuses attention on the blessings those who fear God enjoy, especially their final exaltation.
"However, the psalm gives a realistic portrayal of wisdom as it brings out, not only the blessings of honor, children, and riches, but also the reality of adversities (’darkness,’ Psa 112:4; ’bad news,’ Psa 112:7; ’foes,’ Psa 112:8)." [Note: VanGemeren, p. 706.]
1. The blessed condition of those who fear Yahweh 112:1
This anonymous psalm begins with "Hallelujah," as do the ones immediately preceding and following it. They are all "Hallel" psalms. Then the writer stated the main idea he wanted to communicate.
Psa 112:1-10
“BE ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect,” might be inscribed on this picture of a godly man, which, in structure and substance, reflects the contemplation of Gods character and works contained in the preceding psalm. The idea that the godly man is, in some real sense, an image of God runs through the whole, and comes out strongly, at several points, in the repetition of the same expressions in reference to both. The portrait of the ideal good man, outlined in this psalm, may be compared with those in Psa 15:1-5; Psa 24:1-10. Its most characteristic feature is the prominence given to beneficence, which is regarded as eminently a reflection of Gods. The foundation of righteousness is laid in Psa 112:1 in devout awe and inward delight in the commandments. But the bulk of the psalm describes the blessed consequences, rather than the essential characteristics, of godliness.
The basis of righteousness and beneficence to men must be laid in reverence and conformity of will towards God. Therefore the psalm begins with proclaiming that, apart from all external consequences, these dispositions carry blessedness in themselves. The close of the preceding psalm had somewhat overpassed its limits, when it declared that “the fear of Jehovah” was the beginning of wisdom and that to do His commandments was sound discretion.
This psalm echoes these sayings, and so links itself to the former one. It deepens them by pointing out that the fear of Jehovah is a fountain of joy as well as of wisdom, and that inward delight in the Law must precede outward doing of it. The familiar blessing attached in the Old Testament to godliness, namely, prosperous posterity, is the first of the consequences of righteousness which the psalm holds out. That promise belongs to another order of things from that of the New Testament; but the essence of it is true still, namely, that the only secure foundation for permanent prosperity is in the fear of Jehovah. “The generation of the upright” (Psa 112:2) does not merely mean the natural descendants of a good man-“It is a moral rather than a genealogical term” (Hupfeld)-as is usually the case with the word “generation.” Another result of righteousness is declared to be “wealth and riches” (Psa 112:3), which again, must be taken as applying more fully to the Old Testament system of Providence than to that of the New.
A parallelism of the most striking character between God and the godly emerges in Psa 112:3 b, where the same words are applied to the latter as were used of the former, in the corresponding verse of Psa 111:1-10. It would be giving too great evangelical definiteness to the psalmists words, to read into them the Christian teaching that mans righteousness is Gods gift through Christ, but it unwarrantably eviscerates them of their meaning, if we go to the other extreme, and, with Hupfeld, suppose that the psalmist put in the clause under stress of the exigencies of the acrostic structure, and regard it as a “makeshift” and “stop gap.” The psalmist has a very definite and noble thought. Mans righteousness is the reflection of Gods; and has in it some kindred with its original, which guarantees stability not all unlike the eternity of that source. Since Psa 112:3 b thus brings into prominence the ruling thought of the two psalms, possibly we may venture to see a fainter utterance of that thought, in the first clause of the verse, in which the “wealth and riches” in the righteous mans house may correspond to the “honour and majesty” attendant on Gods works (Psa 111:3 a).
Psa 112:4 blends consequences of righteousness and characterisation of it, in a remarkable way. The construction is doubtful. In a, “upright” is in the plural, and the adjectives in b are in the singular number. They are appended abruptly to the preceding clause; and the loose structure has occasioned difficulty to expositors, which has been increased by the scruples of some, who have not given due weight to the leading thought of correspondence between the human and Divine, and have hesitated to regard Psa 112:4 b, as referring to the righteous man, seeing that in Psa 111:4 b refers to God. Hence efforts have been made to find other renderings. Delitzsch would refer the clause to God, whom he takes to be meant by “light” in the previous clause, while Hitzig, followed by Baethgen, would translate, “As a light, he (the righteous) rises in darkness for the upright,” and would then consider “gracious,” etc., as in apposition with “light,” and descriptive of the righteous mans character as such. But the very fact that the words are applied to God in the corresponding verse of the previous psalm suggests their application here to the godly man, and the sudden change of number is not so harsh as to require the ordinary translation to be abandoned. However dark may be a good mans road, the very midnight blackness is a prophecy of sunrise; or, to use another figure,
“If winter comes, can spring be far behind?”
{Compare Psa 97:11} The fountain of pity in human hearts must be fed from the great source of compassion in Gods, if it is to gush out unremittingly and bless the deserts of sorrow and misery. He who has received “grace” will surely exercise grace. “Be ye merciful, even as your Father is merciful”. {Luk 6:36}
Psa 112:5 blends characteristics and consequences of goodness in reverse order from that in Psa 112:4. The compassionate man of Psa 112:4 b does not let pity evaporate, but is moved by it to act and to lend (primarily money, but secondarily) any needful help or solace. Benevolence which is not translated into beneficence is a poor affair. There is no blessing in it or for it; but it is well with the man who turns emotions into deeds. Lazy compassion hurts him who indulges in it, but that which “lends” gets joy in the act of bestowing aid. The result of such active compassion is stated in Psa 112:5 b as being that such a one will “maintain his causes in judgment,” by which seems to be meant the judgment of earthly tribunals. If compassion and charity guide a life, it will have few disputes, and will contain nothing for which a judge can condemn. He who obeys the higher law will not break the lower.
Psa 112:6-8 dwell mainly on one consequence of righteousness, namely, the stability which it imparts. While such a man lives, he shall be unmoved by shocks, and after he dies, his memory will live, like a summer evenings glow which lingers in the west till a new morning dawns. In Psa 112:7 the resemblance of the godly to God comes very beautifully to the surface. Psa 111:7 deals with Gods commandments as “trustworthy.” The human parallel is an established heart. He who has learned to lean upon Jehovah! (for such is the literal force of “trusting” here), and has proved the commandments utterly reliable as basis for his life, will have his heart steadfast. The same idea is repeated in Psa 112:8 with direct quotation of the corresponding verse of Psa 111:1-10. In both the word for “established” is the same. The heart that delights in Gods established commandments is established by them, and, sooner or later, will look in calm security on the fading away of all evil things and men, while it rests indeed, because it rests in God. He who builds his transient life on and into the Rock of Ages wins rocklike steadfastness, and some share in the perpetuity of his Refuge. Lives rooted in God are never uprooted.
The two final verses are elongated, like the corresponding ones in Psa 111:1-10. Again, beneficence is put in the forefront, as a kind of shorthand summing up of all virtues. And, again, in Psa 112:9 the analogy is drawn out between God and the godly. “He has sent redemption to His people”; and they, in their degree, are to be communicative of the gifts of which they have been made recipient. Little can they give, compared with what they have received; but what they have they hold in trust for those who need it, and the sure test of having obtained “redemption” is a “heart open as day to melting charity.” In the former psalm, Psa 112:9 b declared that God has “ordained His covenant forever” and here the corresponding clause reaffirms that the good mans righteousness endures forever. The final clauses of both verses also correspond, in so far as, in the former psalm, Gods Name is represented as “holy and dread”-i.e., the total impression made by His deeds exalts Him-and in the latter, the righteous mans “horn” is represented as “exalted in glory” or honour-i.e., the total impression made by his deeds exalts him. Paul quotes the two former clauses of Psa 112:9 in 2Co 9:9 as involving the truth that Christian giving does not impoverish. The exercise of a disposition strengthens it; and God takes care that the means of beneficence shall not be wanting to him who has the spirit of it. The later Jewish use of “righteousness” as a synonym for alms giving has probably been influenced by this psalm, in which beneficence is the principal trait in the righteous mans character, but there is no reason for supposing that the psalmist uses the word in that restricted sense.
Psa 112:10 is not parallel with the last verse of Psa 111:1-10, which stands, as we have seen, somewhat beyond the scope of the rest of that psalm. It gives one brief glimpse of the fate of the evildoer, in opposition to the loving picture of the blessedness of the righteous. Thus it too is rather beyond the immediate object of the psalm of which it forms part. The wicked sees, in contrast with the righteous mans seeing in Psa 112:8. The one looks with peace on the short duration of antagonistic power, and rejoices that there is a God of recompenses; the other grinds his teeth in envious rage, as he beholds the perpetuity of the righteous. He “shall melt away,” i.e., in jealousy or despair. Opposition to goodness, since it is enmity towards God, is self-condemned to impotence and final failure. Desires turned for satisfaction elsewhere than to God are sure to perish. The sharp contrast between the righteousness of the good man, which endures forever, in his steadfast because trustful heart, and the crumbling schemes and disappointed hopes which gnaw the life of a man whose aims go athwart Gods will, solemnly proclaims an eternal truth. This Psalm, like Psa 1:1-6, touches the two poles of possible human experience, in its first and last words, beginning with “happy the man” and ending with “shall perish.”
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary