Praise Yah! Blessed is the man who fears Yahweh, who delights greatly in his commandments.
His offspring will be mighty in the land. The generation of the upright will be blessed.
Wealth and riches are in his house. His righteousness endures forever.
Light dawns in the darkness for the upright, gracious, merciful, and righteous.
It is well with the man who deals graciously and lends. He will maintain his cause in judgment.
For he will never be shaken. The righteous will be remembered forever.
He will not be afraid of evil news. His heart is steadfast, trusting in Yahweh.
His heart is established. He will not be afraid in the end when he sees his adversaries.
He has dispersed, he has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn will be exalted with honor.
The wicked will see it, and be grieved. He shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away. The desire of the wicked will perish.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 1 Blessed is the man that feareth Jehovah Although…
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.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10 He meaneth that reverent fear, which is in the…
He meaneth that reverent fear, which is in the children of God, which causeth them to delight only in the word of God.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–10 Psa 112:1 Praise ye the LORD. Blessed [is] the…
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.
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Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord] That obediently feareth him as said before, Psa 111:10; that feareth the Lord, as Abraham did, Gen 22:12, who is the blessed man here described, say the Jewish doctors (Midrash Tillin in Psa 112:1-10), because he kept the whole law from Aleph to Tau (this psalm also is alphabetical, as the former) with his whole heart, delighting in God’s commandments, and hastening to fulfil them; as when he left his country, circumcised his family, sacrificed his son.
That delighteth greatly in his commandments] And thereby showeth that his fear of God is filial and amicable, not base and servile, which ever carrieth torment along with it; and he that so feareth is not made perfect in love, 1Jn 4:18; cannot but hate him whom he so feareth, for Quem metuunt oderunt.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–10 That delighteth greatly in his commandments; who makes it…
That delighteth greatly in his commandments; who makes it his chief delight, care, and business to study and obey God’s commandments. He intimates that zeal and fervency in God’s service is essential to true piety.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 6 The psalmist begins with a call to us to…
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.
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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, Psa 112:1. (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, Psa 1:2. 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 (Psa 112:4), 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 (Psa 112:4), 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 (Psa 112:5): 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 (Psa 37:26); 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 (Psa 112:2): 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 11:28), 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, Psa 112:3. (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 (Psa 112:4): 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 7:8. 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, Psa 112:5. 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 28:26. 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 1:5. 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.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–10 Praise ye the Lord,.... Or, "hallelujah". This is properly…
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 Gill on Psa 111:10.
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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, Psa 119:97.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 This also is an alphabetical psalm. We have here…
This also is an alphabetical psalm. We have here the character and blessedness of the righteous, ver. 1-9. The iniquity of the wicked, ver. 10.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10 The blessedness of the man that fears the Lord,…
PSALM CXII
The blessedness of the man that fears the Lord, both as it
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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.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 10 Psa 112:1. Blessed is the man that feareth the…
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 man’s 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 God’s commandments. It is here intimated, that zeal and fervency in God’s service are essential to true piety.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–10 Praise ye the Lord - Margin, as in Hebrew,…
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.
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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.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 112
Psalms 112
1 Praise ye the Lord.
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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 forever.
4 Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness:
He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.
5 A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth:
He will guide his affairs with discretion.
6 Surely he shall not be moved forever:
The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.
7 He shall not be afraid of evil tidings:
His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.
8 His heart is established, he shall not be afraid,
Until he see his desire upon his enemies.
9 He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor;
His righteousness endureth forever;
His horn shall be exalted with honor.
10 The 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 Aggæi et Zachariæ.”—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, Rosenmüller), or as consisting in the good condition of his affairs (Köster). 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 ח (Clericus, Köster, 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. מִן, 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. טוֹב, 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 אַשְׁרֵי 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 תִּקְוַת instead of תַּעֲוַת(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 God’s gift and God’s 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 God’s 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 God’s word is manifested specially in a life regulated in accordance therewith.—The fear of God in many a pious father’s 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 God’s commandments.—Rieger: A cheerful heart which is sustained by constant application to God’s 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.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–10 1. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord—This…
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
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–10 1. Happy is the man that feareth Jehovah] This…
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.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv2–10 (2) Mighty.—In the sense of wealthy, as in Rth_2:1.
(2) Mighty.—In the sense of wealthy, as in Rth_2:1.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–10 IN this "complementary psalm" the writer sets forth the…
IN this "complementary psalm" the writer sets forth the blessedness of the true worshipper of God. He is blessed in his seed (ver. 2), in his possessions (ver. 3) in his unchanging goodness (vers. 3, 9), in the light vouchsafed him (ver. 4), in his many virtues (ver. 4), in his management of affairs (ver. 5), in his great trust and confidence in God (vers. 6-8), and in his attainment to honor (ver. 9). The ungodly man is consumed with envy at the sight of him (ver. 10).
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 Ps 111 is taken up and expanded in Ps 112. 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).
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Vers. 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. (Ver. 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 Christ to be engaged every hour in his blessed service.
II THE EFFICIENT TRAINING OF THE YOUNG (Ver. 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. (Ver. 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 success he 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. (Ver. 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. (Vers. 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. (Ver. 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 Vers. 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 Ps 111 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 blessed ask 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, ver. 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. (Ver. 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 (ver. 9).
8. His life convicts the wicked man of his miserable folly, and robs him of all power to do him harm (ver. 10). Is not all this the blessed life? S.C.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Vers. 1-10. The blessedness of the eminently good.
"That delighteth greatly in his commandments.
I HIS CHILDREN SHALL BE BLESSED. (Ver. 2) "Mighty" in a warlike sense here.
II SHALL PROSPER IN OUTWARD CIRCUMSTANCES. (Ver. 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. (Vers. 4, 5) "Gracious, full of compassion and righteous;" these attributes will irradiate his darkest hours.
IV BRING RIGHTEOUS, HE IS IMMOVABLY GROUNDED IN GOD. (Ver. 6) 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. (Vers. 7, 8) Delivered from the terrors that beset the guilty.
VI HAVING AN INNER RIGHTEOUSNESS, HE ENJOYS THE HIGHEST HONOR FROM GOD AND MAN. (Ver. 9) S.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv1–10 There is no title to this psalm, but it…
There is no title to this psalm, but it is evidently a companion to the hundred and eleventh, and, like it, it is an alphabetical psalm. Even in the number of verses, and clauses of each verse, it coincides with its predecessor, as also in many of its words and phrases. The reader should carefully compare the two psalms line by line. The subject of the poem before us isthe blessedness of the righteous man, and so it bears the same relation to the preceding which the moon does to the sun; for, while the first declares the glory of God, the second speaks of the reflection of the divine brightness in men born from above. God is here praised for the manifestation of his glory which is seen in his people, just as in the preceding psalm he was magnified for his own personal acts. The hundred and eleventh speaks of the great Father, and this describes his children renewed after his image. The psalm cannot be viewed as the extolling of man, for it commences with "Praise ye the Lord; "and it is intended to give to God all the honour of his grace which is manifested in the sons of God.
. The subject is stated in the first verse, and enlarged upon under several heads from 2 to 9. The blessedness of the righteousness is set forth by contrast with the fate of the ungodly in verse 10.
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Ver. 1. Praise ye the LORD. This exhortation is never given too often; the Lord always deserves praise, we ought always to render it, we are frequently forgetful of it, and it is always well to be stirred up to it. The exhortation is addressed to all thoughtful persons who observe the way and manner of life of men that fear the Lord. If there be any virtue, if there be any praise, the Lord should have all the glory of it, for we are his workmanship.
Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord. According to the last verse of Psalm 111, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; this man, therefore, has begun to be wise, and wisdom has brought him present happiness, and secured him eternal felicity. Jehovah is so great that he is to be feared and had in reverence of all them that are round about him, and he is at the same time so infinitely good that the fear is sweetened into filial love, and becomes a delightful emotion, by no means engendering bondage. There is a slavish fear which is accursed; but that godly fear which leads to delight in the service of God is infinitely blessed. Jehovah is to be praised both for inspiring men with godly fear and for the blessedness which they enjoy in consequence thereof. We ought to bless God for blessing any man, and especially for setting the seal of his approbation upon the godly. His favour towards the God fearing displays his character and encourages gracious feelings in others, therefore let him be praised.
That delighteth greatly in his commandments. The man not only studies the divine precepts and endeavours to observe them, but rejoices to do so: holiness is his happiness, devotion is his delight, truth is his treasure. He rejoices in the precepts of godliness, yea, and delights greatly in them. We have known hypocrites rejoice in the doctrines, but never in the commandments. Ungodly men may in some measure obey the commandments out of fear, but only a gracious man will observe them with delight. Cheerful obedience is the only acceptable obedience; he who obeys reluctantly is disobedient at heart, but he who takes pleasure in the command is truly loyal. If through divine grace we find ourselves described in these two sentences, let us give all the praise to God, for he hath wrought all our works in us, and the dispositions out of which they spring. Let self righteous men praise themselves, but he who has been made righteous by grace renders all the praise to the Lord.
Whole Psalm. The hundred and eleventh and the hundred and twelfth psalms, two very short poems, dating apparently from the latest age of inspired psalmody, present such features of resemblance as to leave no doubt that they came from the same pen. In structure they are identical; and this superficial resemblance is designed to call attention to something deeper and more important. The subject of the one is the exact counterpart of the subject of the other. The first celebrates the character and works of God; the second, the character and felicity of the godly man. William Binnie.
Whole Psalm. Here are rehearsed the blessings which God is wont to bestow on the godly. And as in the previous Psalm the praises of God were directly celebrated, so in this Psalm they are indirectly declared by those gifts which are conspicuous in those who fear him. Solomon Gesner.
Whole Psalm. This psalm is a banquet of heavenly wisdom; and as Basil speaketh of another part of Scripture, likening it to an apothecary's shop; so may this book of the psalms fitly be compared; in which are so many sundry sorts of medicines, that every man may have that which is convenient for his disease. T. S., 1621.
Whole Psalm. The righteousness of the Mediator, I make no doubt, is celebrated in this psalm; for surely that alone is worthy to be extolled in songs of praise: especially since we are taught by the Holy Ghost to say, "I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only." I conclude, therefore, that in this alphabetical psalm, for such is its construction, Christ is "the Alpha and the Omega." John Fry.
Ver. 1. This psalm is a praising of God for blessing the believer, and the whole Psalm doth prove that the believer is blessed: which proposition is set down in verse 1, and confirmed with as many reasons as there are verses following. Whence learn,
1. Albeit, in singing of certain psalms, or parts thereof, there be nothing directly spoken of the Lord, or to the Lord, yet he is praised when his truth is our song, or when his works and doctrine are our song; as here it is said, Praise ye the Lord, and then in the following verses the blessedness of the believer taketh up all the psalm.
2. It is the Lord's praise that his servants are the only blessed people in the world. Praise ye the Lord. Why? because Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord.
3. He is not the blessed man who is most observant to catch opportunities to have pleasure, profit, and worldly preferment, and careth not how he cometh by them: but he is the blessed man who is most observant of God's will, and careful to follow it. David Dickson.
Ver. 1. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord. It is not said simply, "Blessed is the man who fears": for there is a fear which of itself produces misery and wretchedness rather than happiness. It has to do, therefore, chiefly with what is feared. To fear when it is not becoming, and not to fear when fear is proper, these are not blessedness for a man, but misery and wretchedness. The prophet, therefore, says rightly, "Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord":and in the 7th and 8th verses he says of this blessed one that he shall not be afraid of evil tidings. Therefore, he who fears God and, according to the exhortation of Christ, does not fear those who can kill the body, he truly may be numbered among the blessed. Wolfgang Musculus.
Ver. 1. Feareth the Lord. Filial fear is here intended. Whereby we are both restrained from evil, Pr 3:7; and incited unto well doing, Ec 12:13; and whereof God alone is the author, Jer 32:39-40; A duty required of every one, Ps 33:8; Early, 1Ki 18:12; Only, Lu 12:5; Continually, Pr 23:17; With confidence, Ps 115:11; With joyfulness, Ps 119:74; With thankfulness, Re 19:5. Thomas Wilson, in "A Complete Christian Dictionary, "1661.
Ver. 1. That delighteth greatly in his commandments. The Hebrew word Upx, chaphets, is rather emphatic, which is, as it were, to take his pleasure, and I have rendered it to delight himself. For the prophet makes a distinction between a willing and prompt endeavour to keep the law, and that which consists in mere servile and constrained obedience. John Calvin.
Ver. 1. That delighteth greatly in his commandments defining what constitutes the true "fear of the Lord, "which was termed "the beginning of wisdom, "Ps 111:10. He who hath this true "fear" delights (Ps 111:2) not merely in the theory, but in the practice of all "the Lord's commandments." Such fear, so far from being a "hard" service, is the only "blessed" one (Jer 32:39). Compare the Gospel commandments, 1Jo 3:23-24 Ps 112:3. True obedience is not task work, as formalists regard religion, but a "delight" (Ps 1:2). Worldly delights, which made piety irksome, are supplanted by the newborn delight in and taste for the will and ways of God (Ps 19:7-10). A. R. Fausset.
Ver. 1. In his commandments. When we cheerfully practice all that the Lord requireth of us, love sweetens all things, and it becomes our meat and drink to do his will. The thing commanded is excellent, but it is sweeter because commanded by him "his commandments." A man is never thoroughly converted till he delighteth in God and his service, and his heart is overpowered by the sweetness of divine love. A slavish kind of religiousness, when we had rather not do than do our work, is no fruit of grace, and cannot evidence a sincere love. Thomas Manton.
Ver. 1. "Praise ye the LORD."
1. Who should be praised? Not man, self, wealth, etc., but God only.
2. Who should praise him? All men, but specially his people, the blessed ones described in this psalm.
3. Why should they do it? For all the reasons mentioned in succeeding verses.
4. How should they do it? Chiefly by leading such a life as is here described.
Ver. 1 (second clause).
1. Fear of the Lord; what it is.
2. Its connection with the delight mentioned.
3. The qualities in the commandments which excite delight in God fearing minds.
Psalms 112:2*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9 Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that…
Psa_112:1-10
Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in His commandments.
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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.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 112
Psalms 112
"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 Psalms 15 and 24. 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.
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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 Psalms 111. 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 Psalms 111. 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 Psalms 111. 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 Psalms 111, 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 Psalms 1, touches the two poles of possible human experience, in its first and last words, beginning with "happy the man" and ending with "shall perish."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 1. An alphabetical and hallelujah Psalms 2. Author unknown;…
INTRODUCTION
1. An alphabetical and hallelujah Psalms 2. Author unknown; ascribed by Vulg. to Haggai and Zachariah after the exile.
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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 God’s gift and God’s 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 God’s 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 temple—the root of grace out of which, if it be fully planted in a man’s 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 God’s 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 man’s 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 אַשְׂרֵי 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 God’s gift.
(2.) That duty it God’s 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 God’s 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 father’s 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 father’s 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. 19–21.)
3. That children incur grave responsibilities for the blessing of pious parents. This is one of God’s 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 man’s 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 man’s 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 God’s claims upon both, and, as God’s steward, will put them out to usury, and strive to be prosperous, that he may advance God’s 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 CONCLUDE—“A 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 God’s 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 one’s 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 people’s 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 (αμάρτια), 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 Cæsar 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 God’s 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 ‘no’—who is not resolved that he will take God’s 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 God’s 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 soul’s 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 motive—not 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 method—loans, 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 God’s 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 Christ’s. 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. רָשָׁע 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.” רָאָה, 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 Tristram’s 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 sun’s 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 stand—are 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 God’s 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).
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 The principle of the text, being a general and…
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.
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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.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 Praise for the security of those that fear Him.
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.
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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.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v3 Psa 111:3; Psa 112:3.
Psalms
GOD AND THE GODLY
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Psa 111:3; Psa 112:3.
These two psalms are obviously intended as a pair. They are identical in number of verses and in structure, both being acrostic, that is to say, the first clause of each commences with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the second clause with the second, and so on. The general idea that runs through them is the likeness of the godly man to God. That resemblance comes very markedly to the surface at several points in the psalms, and pervades them traceably even where it is less conspicuous. The two corresponding clauses which I have read as my text are the first salient instances of it. But I propose to deal not only with them, but with a couple of others which occur in the course of the psalms, and will appear as I proceed.
The general underlying thought is a noteworthy one. The worshipper is to be like his God. So it is in idolatry; so it should be with us. Worship is, or should be, adoration of and yearning after the highest conceivable good. Such an attitude must necessarily lead to imitation, and be crowned by resemblance. Love makes like, and they who worship God are bound to, and certainly will, in proportion to the ardour and sincerity of their devotion, grow like Him whom they adore. So I desire to look with you at the instances of this resemblance or parallelism which the Psalmist emphasises.
I. The first of them is that in the clauses which I have read as our starting-point, viz. God and the godly are alike in enduring righteousness.
That seems a bold thing to say, especially when we remember how lofty and transcendent were the Old Testament conceptions of the righteousness of God. But, lofty as these were, this Psalmist lifts an unpresumptuous eye to the heavens, and having said of Him who dwells there, ‘His righteousness endureth for ever,’ is not afraid to turn to the humble worshipper on this low earth, and declare the same thing of him. Our finite, frail, feeble lives may be really conformed to the image of the heavenly. The dewdrop with its little rainbow has a miniature of the great arch that spans the earth and rises into the high heavens. And so, though there are differences, deep and impassable, between anything that can be called creatural righteousness, and that which bears the same name in the heavens, the fact that it does bear the same name is a guarantee to us that there is an essential resemblance between the righteousness of God in its lustrous perfectness, and the righteousness of His child in its imperfect effort.
But how can we venture to run any kind of parallelism between the eternity of the one and that of the other? God’s righteousness we can understand as enduring for ever, because it is inseparable from His very being; because it is manifested unbrokenly in all the works that for ever pour out from that central Source, and because it and its doings stand fast and unshaken amidst the passage of ages, and the ‘wreck of matter and the crash of worlds.’ But may there not be, if not an eternity, yet a perpetuity, in our reflection of the divine righteousness which shall serve to vindicate the application of the same mighty word to both? Is it not possible that, unbroken amidst the stress of temptation, and running on without interruptions, there may be in our hearts and in our lives conformity to the divine will? And is it not possible that the transiencies of our earthly doings may be sublimed into perpetuity if there is in them the preserving salt of righteousness?
‘The actions of the just
Smell sweet, and blossom in the dust.’
And may it not be, too, that though this Psalmist may have had no clear articulate doctrine of eternal life beyond, he may have felt, and rightly felt, that there were things that were too fair to die, and that it was inconceivable that a soul which had been, in some measure, tinged with the righteousness of God could ever be altogether a prey to the law of transiency and decay which seizes upon things material and corporeal? That which is righteous is eternal, be it manifested in the acts of the unchanging God or in the acts of a dying man, and when all else has passed away, and the elements have melted with fervent heat, ‘he that doeth the will of God,’ and the deeds which did it, ‘shall abide for ever.’ ‘His righteousness endureth for ever.’
Now, brethren! there are two ways in which we may look at this parallelism of our text: the one is as containing a stringent requirement; the other as holding forth a mighty hope. It contains a stringent requirement. Our religion does not consist in assenting to any creed. Our religion is not wholly to consist of devout emotions and loving and joyous acts of communion and friendship with God. There must be more than these; these things there must be. For if a man is to be guided mainly by reason, there must, first of all, be creed; then there must be corresponding emotions. But creed and emotions are both meant to be forces which shall drive the wheels of life, and conduct is, after all, the crown of religion and the test of godliness. They that hold communion with God are bound to mould their lives into the likeness of His. ‘Little children, let no man deceive you,’ and let not your own hearts deceive you. You are not a Christian because you believe the truths of the Gospel. You are not such a Christian as you ought to be, if your religion is more manifest in loving trust than in practical obedience which comes from trust. ‘He that doeth righteousness is righteous,’ and he is to be righteous ‘even as He is righteous.’ If you are God’s, you will be like God. Apply the touchstone to your lives, and test your Christianity by this simple and most stringent test.
But again, we may look at the thought as holding forth a great hope. I do not wish to force upon Old Testament writers New Testament truth. It would be an anachronism and an absurdity to make this Psalmist responsible for anything like a clear evangelistic statement of the way by which a man may be made righteous. That waited for coming days, and eminently for Jesus Christ. But it would be quite as great a mistake to eviscerate the words of their plain implications. And when they put side by side the light and the reflection, God and the godly, it seems to me to be doing violence to their meaning for the sake of trying to make them mean less than they do, if we refuse to recognise that they have at any rate an inkling of the thought that the Original and Pattern of human righteousness was likewise the Source of it. This at least is plain, that the Psalmist thought that ‘the fear of the Lord’ was not only, as he calls it at the close of the former of the two psalms, ‘the beginning of wisdom,’ but also the basis of goodness, for he begins his description of the godly with it.
I believe that he felt, what is assuredly true, that no man, by his own unaided effort, can ever work out for himself a righteousness which will satisfy his own conscience, and that he must, first of all, be in touch with God, in order to receive from Him that which he cannot create. Ah, brethren! the ‘fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of saints,’ is woven in no earthly looms; and the lustrous light with which it glistens is such as ‘no fuller on earth can white’ men’s characters into. Another Psalmist has sung of the man who can stand in the holy place, ‘He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, even righteousness from the God of his salvation,’ and our psalms hint, if they do not articulately declare, how that reception is possible for us, when they set forth waiting upon God as the condition of being made like Him. We translate the Psalmist’s feeling after the higher truth which we know, when we desire ‘that we may be found in Him, not having our own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is of God by faith.’ So much, then, for the first point of correspondence in these two psalms.
II. God and the godly are alike in gracious compassion.
If you will turn to the two psalms for a moment, and look at the last clauses of the two fourth verses, you will see how that thought is brought out. In the former psalm we read, ‘The Lord is gracious and full of compassion’: in the latter we find, ‘he’ {the upright man} ‘is gracious and full of compassion, and righteous.’
I need not trouble you with any remarks about certain difficulties that lie in the rendering of that latter verse. Suffice it to say that they are such as to make more emphatic the intentional resemblance between the godly as there described, and God as described in the previous one. Of both it is said ‘gracious and full of compassion.’
Now that great truth of which I have been speaking, the divine righteousness, is like white Alpine snow, sublime, but cold, awful and repellent, when taken by itself. Our hearts need something more than a righteous God if we are ever to worship and draw near. Just as the white snow on the high peak needs to be flushed with the roseate hue of the morning before it can become tender, and create longings, so the righteousness of the great white Throne has to be tinged with the ruddy heart-hue of gracious compassion if men are to be moved to adore and to love. Each enhances the other. ‘What God hath joined together,’ in Himself, ‘let not man put asunder’; nor talk about the stern Deity of the Old Testament, and pit Him against the compassionate Father of the New. He is righteous, but the proclaimers of His righteousness in old days never forgot to blend with the righteousness the mercy; and the combination heightens the lustre of both attributes.
The same combination is absolutely needful in the copy, as is emphatically set forth in our text by the addition of ‘and righteous,’ in the case of the man. For whilst with God the tyro attributes do lie, side by side, in perfect harmony, in us men there is always danger that the one shall trench upon the territory of the other, and that he who has cultivated the habit of looking upon sorrows and sins with compassion and tenderness shall somewhat lose the power of looking at them with righteousness. So our text, in regard to man, proclaims more emphatically than it needs to do in regard to the perfect God, that ever his highest beauty of compassion must be wedded to righteousness, and ever his truest strength of righteousness must be softened with compassion.
But beyond that, note how, wherever there is the loving and childlike contemplation of God, there will be an analogy in our compassion, to His perfectness. We are transformed by beholding. The sun strikes a poor little pane of glass in a cottage miles away, and it flashes with some likeness of the sun and casts a light across the plain. The man whose face is turned Godwards will have beauty pass into his face, and all that look upon him will see ‘as it had been the countenance of an angel.’
If we have, in any real and deep measure, received mercy we shall reflect mercy. Remember the parable of the unmerciful debtor. The servant that cast himself at his lord’s feet, and got the acquittal of his debt, and went out and gripped his fellow-servant by the throat, leaving the marks of his fingernails on his windpipe, with his ‘Pay me that thou owest!’ had all the pardon cancelled, and all the debt laid upon his shoulders again. If we owe all our hope and peace to a forgiving God, how can we make anything else the law of our lives than that, having received mercy, we should show mercy? The test of your being a forgiven man is your forgivingness. There is no getting away from that plain principle, which modifies the declaration of the freedom of God’s full pardon.
But I would have you notice, further, as a very remarkable illustration of this correspondence between the gracious and compassionate Lord and His servant, that in the verses which follow respectively the two about which I am now speaking, the same idea is wrought out in another shape. In the psalm dealing with the divine character and works we read, immediately after the declaration that He is ‘gracious and full of compassion,’ this-’He hath given meat to them that fear Him’; and the corresponding clause in the second of our psalms is followed by this-to translate accurately-’It is well with the man who showeth favour and lendeth.’ So man’s open-handedness in regard to money is put down side by side with God’s open-handedness in regard to giving meat unto them that fear Him. And again, in the ninth verse of each psalm, we have the same thought set forth in another fashion. ‘He sent redemption unto His people,’ says the one; ‘He hath dispersed, He hath given to the poor,’ says the other. That is to say, our paltry giving may be paralleled with the unspeakable gifts which God has bestowed, if they come from a love which is like His. It does not matter though they are so small and His are so great; there is a resemblance. The tiniest crystal may be like the hugest. God gives to us the possession of things in order that we may enjoy the luxury, which is one of the elements in the blessedness of the blessed God, who is blessed because He is the giving God, the luxury of giving. Poor though our bestowments must be, they are not unlike His. The little burn amongst the heather carves its tiny bed, and impels its baby ripples by the same laws which roll the waters of the Amazon, and every fall that it makes over a shelf of rock a foot high is a miniature Niagara.
III. So, lastly, we have still another point, not so much of resemblance as of correspondence, in the firmness of God’s utterances and of the godly heart.
In the first of our two psalms we read, in the seventh verse, ‘All His commandments are sure.’ In the second we read, in the corresponding verse, ‘his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.’ The former psalm goes on, ‘His commandments stand fast for ever and ever; and the next psalm, in the corresponding verse, says ‘his heart is established,’ the original employing the same word in both cases, which in our version is rendered, in the one place, ‘stand fast,’ and in the other ‘established.’ So that the Psalmist is thinking of a correspondence between the stability of God’s utterances and the stability of the heart that clasps them in faith.
His commandments are not only precepts which enjoin duty. All which God says is law, whether it be directly in the nature of guiding precept, or whether it be in the nature of revealing truth, or whether it be in the nature of promise. It is sure, reliable, utterly trustworthy. We may be certain that it will direct us aright, that it will reveal to us absolute truth, that it will hold forth no flattering and false promises. And it is ‘established.’ The one fixed point amidst the whirl of things is the uttered will of God.
Therefore, the heart that builds there builds safely. And there should be a correspondence, whether there is or no, between the faithfulness of the Speaker and the faith of the hearer. A man who is doubtful about the solidity of the parapet which keeps him from toppling over into the abyss will lean gingerly upon it, until he has found out that it is firm. The man that knows how strong is the stay on which he rests ought to lean hard upon it. Lean hard upon God, put all your weight upon Him. You cannot put too much, you cannot lean too hard. The harder the better; the better He is pleased, and the more He breathes support and strength into us. And, brethren! if thus we build an established faith on that sure foundation, and match the unchangeableness of God in Christ with the constancy of our faith in Him, then, ‘He that believeth shall never make haste,’ and as my psalm says, ‘He shall not be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.’
The upshot of the whole matter is-we cannot work out for ourselves a righteousness that will satisfy our own consciences, nor secure for ourselves a strength that will give peace to our hearts, and stability to our lives, by any other means than by cleaving fast to God revealed in Jesus Christ.
We have borne the image of the earthly long enough; let us open our hearts to God in Christ. Let us yield ourselves to Him; let us gaze upon Him with fixed eyes of love, and labour to make our own what He bestows upon us. Thus living near Him, we shall be bathed in His light, and show forth something of His beauty. Godliness is God-likeness. It is of no use to say that we are God’s children if we have none of the family likeness. ‘If ye were Abraham’s sons ye would do the works of Abraham,’ said Christ to the Jews. If we are God’s sons we shall do the works of God. ‘Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect;’ be ye merciful as your Father is merciful. And if thus we here, dwelling with Christ, are being conformed to the image of His Son, we shall one day ‘be satisfied’ when we ‘awake in His likeness.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 See on Psalms 111. This also is an alphabetical…
See on Psalms 111. This also is an alphabetical Ps., every half-verse beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The subject is specially the blessedness of the truly religious man.
5. A good man] RV 'Well is it with the man that.' He will guide his affairs with discretion] RV 'he shall maintain his cause in judgment,' i.e. in court of law.
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9. His horn] symbol of strength and power.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv1, 7 (See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
feareth
(See Scofield "Psa 19:9").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Psalm 112
Psalm 112
Hallelujah! The Righteous are Blessed
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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 Paul’s answer in Rom 11:12-15. The desire of the wicked is then perished. Righteousness reigns.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 A Psalm of the Happiness of the Believers.
A Psalm of the Happiness of the Believers.
v. 1. Praise ye the Lord, another hallelujah psalm, properly regarded as an exposition and application of the last verse of the preceding psalm, the object being to present the inner happiness of those who fear and obey God, as contrasted with the fate of the unbelievers. Blessed, living in true happiness, is the man that feareth the Lord, in the awe and reverence flowing from true faith, that delighteth greatly in His commandments, taking great pleasure, finding the highest happiness, in proper obedience to them.
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v. 2. His seed, his children or posterity, shall be mighty upon earth, literally, "a hero or champion," having authority and influence even in the temporal affairs of the state; the generation of the upright, his family, in so far as its members follow him in his godliness, shall be blessed, just as the Lord states in the summary of the Ten Commandments.
v. 3. Wealth and riches, everything needed for a long and happy life, shall be in his house, even if the filthy lucre is not stacked up in heaps; and his righteousness endureth forever, his entire conduct is always in agreement with the divine requirements, because he has, by faith, accepted the righteousness imputed to him by virtue of the Messiah’s work.
v. 4. Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness, in the very midst of the valley of the shadow of death the sun of God’s mercy shines upon them and guides them in the right way; he is gracious and full of compassion and righteous, every believer reflecting, in this respect, the virtues of His heavenly Father.
v. 5. A good man showeth favor and lendeth, that is, happy is the man, it is well with him, who is benevolent and generous; he will guide his affairs with discretion, literally, "he will maintain his cause in judgment," his character will be so well established in the community that he will be safe against the schemes of enemies seeking to discredit him.
v. 6. Surely he shall not be moved forever, his position being such that evil designs cannot harm him; the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance, remembered with approval by all who were acquainted with him.
v. 7. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings, not dread reports which threaten misfortune to himself and his house; his heart is fixed, set in firm confidence, trusting in the Lord, who will not permit any real evil to strike him.
v. 8. His heart is established, firm in faith and trust, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his enemies, his oppressors laid low by the punishment of God.
v. 9. He hath dispersed, showed proper generosity, he hath given to the poor, those really in need; his righteousness endureth forever, his righteous conduct, as grounded in, and flowing from, his faith in Jehovah; his horn, emblem of authority and might, shall be exalted with honor, lifted up high before all the world, with open appreciation of his moral worth.
v. 10. The wicked shall see it and be grieved, on account of being disappointed in his evil designs; he shall gnash with his teeth, in impotent rage, and melt away, his final portion being everlasting destruction. The desire of the wicked shall perish, all his wicked scheming against the righteous will come to naught, be of no avail to him. This serves to cheer and encourage all believers in the midst of the world’s hatred.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 6, 8, 10 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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greatly delights
"takes great pleasure"
the descendants of the godly man will be blessed
This can be stated in active form. AT: "Yahweh will bless the descendants of the godly man" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
praise
Yahweh
bless
obey
command
descend
power
godly
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10 Ps 112 This psalm reiterates the themes of wisdom…
Ps 112 This psalm reiterates the themes of wisdom and the fear of the Lord (Ps 111). The wise have reason to be happy (112:1-5) and vigorous (112:6-10).
112:1-5 The fear of the Lord leads to a life of wisdom that honors God and blesses the family and community. The godly joyfully imitate God; their obedience is not slavish.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.