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Lyrics
1 Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that
delighteth greatly in his commandments.
2 His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the
upright shall be blessed.
3 Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his
righteousness endureth for ever.
4 Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: he is
gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.
5 A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth: he will guide his
affairs with discretion.
6 Surely he shall not be moved for ever: 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 for ever; his horn shall be exalted with
honour.
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.1
Bible Commentary
This Psalm may be regarded as an
exposition of
Ps 111:10, presenting the happiness of those who fear and obey
God, and contrasting the fate of the ungodly.3
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. 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.4
That delighteth greatly in his commandments. 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.4
In his commandments. 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.4
2. His seed. If any one
should desire to leave behind him a flourishing posterity, let him
not think to accomplish it by accumulating heaps of gold and silver,
and leaving them behind him; but by rightly recognising God and
serving Him; and commending his children to the guardianship and
protection of God.4
Mighty upon earth. It is probable that Lot thought of
enriching his family when he chose the fertile plains of wicked
Sodom, yet the event was very different; but Abraham "feared the
Lord, and delighted greatly in his commandments, "and his
descendants were "mighty upon earth." And thus it will
generally be, in every age, with the posterity of those who imitate
the father of the faithful; and their disinterested and liberal
conduct shall prove, in the event, a far preferable inheritance laid
up for their children, than gold and silver, houses and lands, would
have been.4
3. Wealth and riches shall be in his house. In the lower
sense, we may read these words literally of abundant wealth bestowed
on the righteous by God. But the higher meaning bids us see here
those true spiritual riches which are stored up for the poor in
spirit, often most needy in the prosperity of the world.4
His righteousness endureth for ever. We are justified before
God by faith only: Rom. 3:4: but they are righteous before men, who
live honestly, piously, humbly, as the law of God requires.
Concerning this righteousness the Psalmist says that it endureth for
ever, while the feigned and simulated uprightness of hypocrites is
abominable before God, and with men speedily passes away.4
4. Light in the darkness. The Lord is the light that arises in the darkness unto them that are sincere toward Him: He is "the Sun of righteousness" (Mal. 4:2). He is gracious and full of compassion. The adjectives here used are in the singular number, whereas the word for "upright" is in the plural. It seems clear, however, from the general tenor of the psalm that the godly man is being described. The righteous man shares the divine attributes. He becomes a partaker of the divine nature (see 2 Peter 1:4).5
5. A good man sheweth favour.
Remember that it is God
who giveth wealth, and that he expects some answerable return of it.
Think frequently and warmly of the love of God and Jesus to you. You
will not deny your crumbs to the miserable, when you thankfully call
to mind that Christ gave for you his very flesh and blood.4
Lendeth. A good man will accommodate another--a
neighbour--with money, or with articles to be used temporarily and
returned again. A man who always borrows is not a desirable
neighbour; but a man who never lends--who never is willing to
accommodate--is a neighbour that no one would wish to live near--a
crooked, perverse, bad man. True religion will always dispose a man
to do acts of kindness in any and every way possible.4
He will guide his affairs with discretion. Just as a steward,
servant, or agent in any secular concern has to feel that his mind
is his master's, as well as his hands, and that his attention,
thought, tact, and talent, should be vigorously and faithfully given
to the interests of his employer; so the Christian stewardship of
money, demands on the part of God's servant, in respect to every
form of its use and disposal, the exercise of reflection; a
reference to conscience; the recollection of responsibility to God;
attention to the appeals of humanity as addressed to the ear of
justice and love.4
Verse 6. Surely he shall not be moved for ever. God has
rooted and established him so that neither men nor devils shall
sweep him from his place. His prosperity shall be permanent, and not
like that of the gambler and the cheat, whose gains are evanescent:
his reputation shall be bright and lustrous from year to year, for
it is not a mere pretence; his home shall be permanent, and he shall
not need to wander from place to place as a bird that wanders from
her nest; and even his memory shall be abiding, for a good man is
not soon forgotten, and the righteous shall be in everlasting
remembrance.4
Verse 7. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings. He shall
have no dread that evil tidings will come, and he shall not be
alarmed when they do come. Rumours and reports he despises;
prophecies of evil, vented by fanatical mouths, he ridicules; actual
and verified information of loss and distress he bears with
equanimity, resigning everything into the hands of God.4
His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. He is neither
fickle nor cowardly; when he is undecided as to his course he is
still fixed in heart: he may change his plan, but not the purpose of
his soul. His heart being fixed in solid reliance upon God, a change
in his circumstances but slightly affects him; faith has made him
firm and steadfast, and therefore if the worst should come to the
worst, he would remain quiet and patient, waiting for the salvation
of God.4
Verse 8. His heart is established. His love to God is deep
and true, his confidence in God is firm and unmoved; his courage has
a firm foundation, and is supported by Omnipotence. He has become
settled by experience, and confirmed by years. He is not a rolling
stone, but a pillar in the house of the Lord.4
He shall not be afraid. He is ready to face any adversary--a
holy heart gives a brave face.4
Until he see his desire upon his enemies. All through the
conflict, even till he seizes the victory, he is devoid of fear.
When the battle wavers, and the result seems doubtful, he
nevertheless believes in God, and is a stranger to dismay. Grace
makes him desire his enemies' good: though nature leads him to wish
to see justice done to his cause, he does not desire for those who
injure him anything by way of private revenge.4
Verse 9. He hath dispersed, he hath given, to the poor. What
he received, he distributed; and distributed to those who most
needed it. He was God's reservoir, and forth from his abundance
flowed streams of liberality to supply the needy. If this be one of
the marks of a man who feareth the Lord, there are some who are
strangely destitute of it. They are great at gathering, but very
slow at dispersing; they enjoy the blessedness of receiving, but
seldom taste the greater joy of giving. "It is more blessed to give
than to receive" --perhaps they think that the blessing of receiving
is enough for them.4
His righteousness endureth for ever. His liberality has
salted his righteousness, proved its reality, and secured its
perpetuity. This is the second time that we have this remarkable
sentence applied to the godly man, and it must be understood as
resulting from the enduring mercy of the Lord. The character of a
righteous man is not spasmodic, he is not generous by fits and
starts, nor upright in a few points only; his life is the result of
principle, his actions flow from settled, sure, and fixed
convictions, and therefore his integrity is maintained when others
fail. He is not turned about by companions, nor affected by the
customs of society; he is resolute, determined, and immovable.4
His horn shall be exalted with honour. God shall honour him,
the universe of holy beings shall honour him, and even the wicked
shall feel an unconscious reverence of him.4
Verse 10. The tenth and last verse sets forth very forcibly
the contrast between the righteous and the ungodly, thus making the
blessedness of the godly appear all the more remarkable.4
The wicked shall see it, and be grieved. The ungodly shall
first see the example of the saints to their own condemnation, and
shall at last behold the happiness of the godly and to the increase
of their eternal misery. The child of wrath shall be obliged to
witness the blessedness of the righteous, though the sight shall
make him gnaw his own heart. He shall fret and fume, lament and wax
angry, but he shall not be able to prevent it, for God's blessing is
sure and effectual.4
He shall gnash with his teeth. Being very wrathful, and
exceedingly envious, he would fain grind the righteous between his
teeth; but as he cannot do that, he grinds his teeth against each
other.4
And melt away. The heat of his passion shall melt him like
wax, and the sun of God's providence shall dissolve him like snow,
and at the last the fire of divine vengeance shall consume him as
the fat of rams.4
The desire of the wicked shall perish. He shall not achieve
his purpose, he shall die a disappointed man. By wickedness he hoped
to accomplish his purpose--that very wickedness shall be his defeat.
While the righteous shall endure for ever, and their memory shall be
always green; the ungodly man and his name shall rot from off the
face of the earth. He desired to be the founder of a family, and to
be remembered as some great one: he shall pass away and his name
shall die with him. How wide is the gulf which separates the
righteous from the wicked, and how different are the portions which
the Lord deals out to them.4
References and notes
1. King James Authorized Version
2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Bible - http://eword.gospelcom.net/comments/psalm/gill/psalm112.htm
3. Jamieson, Faussett, and Brown -
http://eword.gospelcom.net/comments/psalm/jfb/psalm112.htm
4.
Spurgeon' Treasury of
David - http://eword.gospelcom.net/comments/psalm/spurgeon/psalm112.htm
5. Seventh-day
Adventist Bible Commentary - Vol.3 pg 882, 883
6. Matthew Henry Bible
Commentary - http://eword.gospelcom.net/comments/psalm/mh/psalm112.htm
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About Psalm 112 |
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Bible
Author |
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This psalm, also, very
probably, was written by David, and is composed as the
former, in an alphabetical order. The inscription of it
in the Syriac version is, "When David in it commanded
Solomon his son, saying, Keep the commandments of, the
Lord, and worship him: likewise the calling of the
Gentiles and the righteousness of Christ." The subject
matter of the psalm are the character, conduct,
usefulness, and happiness of a good man.2 |
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Music
Composed |
The
music was composed in
2006
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Music for
Psalm 112 |
 An
audio clip for Psalm 112 is currently unavailable however we
do provide a
record for you service. This song
may be recorded in a future
Psalms album. Click on image to listen to other
songs from the
Bible in Song collection. |
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Title and
Subject |
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 is--the
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.4
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Structure of
Psalm 112 |
We have here,
I. The character of the righteous (v. 1).
II. The blessedness of the righteous.
1. There is a blessing entailed upon their posterity (v. 2).
2. There is a blessing conferred upon themselves.
(1.) Prosperity outward and inward (v. 3).
(2.) Comfort (v. 4).
(3.) Wisdom (v. 5).
(4.) Stability (v. 6-8).
(5.) Honour (v. 6, 9).
III. The misery of the wicked (v. 10). So that good and evil
are set before us, the blessing and the curse.6
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Singing this
Psalm |
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In
singing this psalm we must not only teach and admonish
ourselves and one another to answer to the characters here
given of the happy, but comfort and encourage ourselves and
one another with the privileges and comforts here secured to
the holy.6
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