So as I was studying Psalms 111 & 112, and reading a commentary on those two Chapters, the Lord just spoke to me to share from the commentary and my studying.  So here is a breakdown of the two chapters.  My prayer is that the Lord will speak to you through it as He did me.

Psalms 111 may have been written by a Levite after the Jewish remnant returned to Jerusalem from captivity in Babylon.  Times then weren’t easy and the Jewish people still weren’t always putting God first.  Psalm 111 reminds them to put Him first and trust Him for every need.  The writer of 111 gives four instructions to follow if we would enjoy the help and blessings of the Lord in the difficult situations of Life.

 

  1. In Verse 1 it begins with Worship & Praise-

We may not always be able to rejoice in our circumstances but we can always rejoice in the Lord according to Philippians 4:4, “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.”

 

A lot of times when times are tough, we just want to be by ourselves but what we really need to do is get around our brothers and sisters in Christ like the Psalmist did in verse 1, to Praise & Worship the Lord.  He may not take all our problems away, but they will sure seem a lot smaller when we begin to Praise & Worship Him.  He’s still the fourth man in the fire!!

 

2)Remember God’s Great Works-

Now, the Psalmist is talking to the Children of Israel and telling them to remember what God has done for His people. In Leviticus 23 there is a command to celebrate special days & weeks, and this is the way the Lord helped His people remember His great deeds done on their behalf.  His works though, reveal His attributes, Glorious, majestic & righteous, wonderful, gracious and compassionate, powerful, faithful, just and trustworthy, and Holy and awesome.

 

The Psalmist reminded them of some of those works, the food He provided for His people, the covenant He gave at Sinai, how he helped them conquer the nations in Canaan and how he delivered them from the bondage in Babylon.  Israel is a memorial to the Power and grace of God.  Abraham left behind altars and wells as a memorial to God that had brought him that way.  The Jewish nation left “memorial stones” after they entered Canaan in Joshua Chapter 4.  Jewish parents were commanded to tell their Children and pass down the meaning of special days and the special memorial stones.  

 

Satan wants to tell us and remind us of what we used to be, but he is the father of all lies.  It is ok to look back and see what God has brought us from and through though.  There is no “Special Place” that God dwells in some unique way, but there are special places that God can bring edifying memories to mind that will help us remember how great He is.

 

3)Verses 7-9 remind us to “Rely on God’s Word”

 

The Word of the Lord brought all things together and keeps all things together.  Read Psalms 33:6-11. Going back to Verse 3 in Psalm 111, it tells us His Righteousness is forever, but so are His Covenants in Verses 5 & 9 as well as His precepts in Verse 8.  God’s word is trustworthy and we can rely on it.

 

2 Corinthians 1:20 says:

For as many as the promises of God are, in Him they are yes, therefore through Him also is our amen to the glory of God through us.

 

His promises are all yes and amen!

 

If we obey his Word, he will bless us, if we disobey, He will chasten us.  As the people of God, we bear His name and we should want to glorify His name in all that we say and do.  In Verse 9, in the KJV, it says, “Holy and reverend is His name.” The NKJV as well as the NASB use awesome in place of reverend. This means, His name should be revered and honored.  The Jewish people felt God’s name was so awesome that they would not speak the name Jehovah, but substituted Adonai so that they wouldn’t even accidentally blaspheme his name.

 

Do we have such reverence for the name of the Lord today?

 

4)In Verse 10, it is to “obey His will.”

 

The awesomeness of God’s name leads to the importance of fearing the Lord and obeying His will.

 

I’m not talking of the fear of being afraid, God ain’t sitting on His throne with a big hammer trying to play “whack a mole”, like that game they have at Chuck E Cheese.  This is a loving and reverential fear of a child for his or her parents.

 

Proverbs 9:10-12

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.  For by me your days will be multiplied, and years of life will be added to you.  If you are wise, you are wise for yourself, and if you scoff, you alone will suffer from it.

 

Fearing the Lord leads to obeying the Lord and obedience is important to spiritual understanding.

How all of 111 is worked out in our practical daily lives is explained in Psalms 112.

 

In Psalm 112 you will notice that in Verse 4 the Psalmist had times of darkness, received bad news according to verse 7, had enemies according to verses 8 & 10, and had to consider the justice of his decisions in verse 5.

 

If you remember, I mentioned that the Psalmist in 111 was reminding them to put God first and trust Him for their every need.  We as NT believers, also have every spiritual blessing that we will ever need according to Ephesians 1:3 & 2 Peter 1:3-4.  According to Philippians 4:19 we also have the promise that God will meet our every need.

 

The attributes of God given in 111 become character qualities of the Godly believer in 112, for becoming more and more like Jesus Christ is the greatest reward of a faithful life of obedience in Romans 8:29 & 2 Corinthians 3:18.

 

We should want more than the blessing, we should want to become like the ONE who gives the blessing.

 

The Psalmist describes the faithful believer in various relationships of life in 112:

 

1)Our relationship to the Lord in Verse 1

 

This Psalm picks up where Psalm 111 ended.  If we fear God, we need fear nothing else.

 

Verse 1 tells us “blessed is the person that fears the Lord.”  This doesn’t mean we won’t have troubles in life.  Job feared the Lord.  What it means is that through our trials we can glorify God and grow in grace.  

 

To overcome our fears in this life, we need to cultivate a relationship with the Lord, fear Him, learn His will from His Word and obey what He Commands.  This isn’t burdensome either because when we fear Him and understand how awesome He is, we will delight in His Word and want more and more of it.

 

If your burdened and weary by or regarding things in this life, come to Him.  Matthew 11:28-30 tells us he will give us rest, His burden is light and His yoke is easy, or comfortable(NASB).

 

2)Verse 3-5 & 9 speak of “Our relationship to Material Wealth

 

Under the Old Covenant material wealth was one of the evidences of the Lord’s blessing on His people as they moved into the Promise Land.  This would also explain why the disciples were shocked when Jesus said that it was difficult for rich people to enter God’s Kingdom.  To Job’s three friends, the fact that Job had last everything was proof to them that God was punishing him for sins.

 

If you read verses 3, 4, 6 & 9 in Psalms 112, you will see that the person spoken of was righteous before the Lord and did not acquire his wealth unlawfully.  He was very generous with what the Lord gave him, helping the poor, lending it freely without interest and he was obedient to the Lord’s admonition to care for the poor and needy.  In fact in 2 Corinthians 9:9 Paul use this person as an example for us to follow today.

 

Because of this mans generosity and obedience, the Lord allowed him to be lifted up in the eyes of his peers.  As you see this man’s faith in the Lord and love for those in need, it reminds us of the promise in Matthew 6:33, “seek first His kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be provided to you.”

 

3)Our relationship to Circumstances in Verses 6-8

 

A believing heart is a steadfast heart, one that is not easily shaken by bad news or difficult circumstances.  The person described here was confident the Lord could handle any problem that came His way. 

I’m reminded of, two of my favorite verses, Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” & Ephesians 3:20, “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.”

 

 When we cultivate a relationship with the Lord and we are walking in a manner worthy of the calling which we’ve been called, being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, according to Ephesians 4:14, we are to no longer be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of people, by craftiness in deceitful scheming, but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is, Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.  

 

Which leads me to Verse 10 in Psalms 112,

 

4)Our relationship to the wicked

 

God rewards the delight of the righteous but ignores the desires of the wicked.  When we walk in the calling that God has on our lives, when we are Christians, we are going to be hated and disliked.  Matthew 10:22 says, “and you will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who endured to the end who will be saved.”

 

 Ephesians Chapter 4 that I spoke about above, talks about the Body of Christ being in Unity, we are to have Unity of The Spirit, there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.  He has a calling upon each one of our lives, sure there is going to be rough times, if there weren’t, people would come to Christ for all the wrong reasons.  However, he has given each of us a calling, to fit us all together as a body.  We all know what happens when a part of our body is hurt, it hurts the rest of our body.  

 

We can not, as a body of Christ, when we’re hurt and facing hard times, sit out on an island and be loners.  If you have hurt part of your body, it takes the rest of your body to help heal that one part, it’s the same way in the Family of God.  If your heart and facing hard times, get together with your brothers and sisters in Christ and begin to Worship and Praise, just like the Psalmist did in Chapter 111 Verse 1.  

 

You can go and read James 5:13-20, it is “Exhortations for Christians to care for one another.”  We need each other as the body of Christ to work together, in one mind and one accord(I’m not talking about a Honda Accord either).  Just like on the day of Pentecost when the 120 were in the upper room, all in one mind and one accord, that is when the Spirit came upon them.

 

 

I will leave you with John 1:1-5 today:

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  he was in the beginning with God.  All things came to being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.  In Him was life, and the life was the Light of mankind and the Light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not grasp it.

 

Lord I thank you for your awesomeness, your goodness and mercy that follow us all the days of our lives.  I pray that we all know that you are are Shepherd and that we don’t have anything to want for, cause you supply all our needs as long as we keep our eyes focused on you.  As the serpent was lifted up in the desert so we lift up the Son of Man in our lives, so that He may be glorified and so that those around us can taste and see that He is good.  

 

Amen & Amen.