Psalm 112

Psalm 112

Praise the Lord. 

Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in his commands. Their children will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in their houses, and their righteousness endures forever. Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous. Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice.

Surely the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered forever. They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord. Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear; in the end they will look in triumph on their foes. They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor, their righteousness endures forever; their horn will be lifted high in honor. 

The wicked will see and be vexed, they will gnash their teeth and waste away; the longings of the wicked will come to nothing.

Number of years ago, I spoke at a Chapel at the Christian Elementary School in the city that I was living in. I was speaking about the image of God in us all. To help these young kids see the point that I was trying to make, I put up a couple pictures of myself when I was two or three years old. And I said, “This is me when I was really young. When I was younger than most of you are.” One of the pictures was me sitting on the kitchen floor in my footie pajamas with my legs crossed. After that I put up one more picture and I said, “Who do you think this is?” Now all the kids looked at the picture and they looked at me and they looked back at the picture and most of them shouted, “That's you. That's another picture of you!” But it wasn't. It was a picture of my son Who was just two at the time. It was a picture of him in his footie jammies sitting on the floor of the kitchen.

Now their confusion was understandable, because it is remarkable exactly how much we looked alike. If not for the style of pajama, you would be forgiven for assuming they were photos of the same person. The point I went on to make for those children was that my son bears my image. Because he looked like me, it would be easy for people to look at him and think of me. 

The same is true in our understanding of the image of God. Except that when we say that we bear God's image, we do not mean that we look the same; that God somehow looks like us, except maybe with a long white beard. What we mean is the creating that we do is a reflection of God as Creator; the love that we share is a reflection of the fact that God is love (1 John 4:8); that humanity was created to live in community as a reflection of the fact that God himself exists in the triune community of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

There is a relationship between who God is and what godliness looks like in the life of those who believe in him and who follow him. Since humanity is created in his image, life lived according to his design and intent and purposes will be a reflection of the character of God.

Psalm 112 is a psalm that expresses what godliness looks like based on its parallel to the person of God, and the attributes of God, expressed in Psalm 111. Psalm 111 and 112 are both acrostics with each clause beginning with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Because of this and the fact that they share a lot of similar or the same words; and because of the thematic connection along with their union in the makeup of the psalter, most scholars agree that these psalms were written by one author and intended to be read together. One book I read says, “Psalms 111-112 are like peanut butter and jelly… best enjoyed together.”[1] In Psalm 111 we see “God at work”, in Psalm 112 we see “godliness at work” (each are titles used by Kidner and Allen in their commentaries on the psalms.

In my writing on Psalm 111 I said that part of the purpose of Psalm 111 is to captivate the hearer with the beatific vision of God. The person and character of God is on display to incite a worship full response from the listener. This response is summarized in verse one of Psalm 112, “Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in his commands.” Fear of the Lord in the Psalter is language of worship. The disciple of God takes great delight in who he is and in his revelation to us.

And so, we let the character of God define for us what godliness in the world looks like. “Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever.” (111:3) And so, for the godly person, “Wealth and riches are in their houses, and their righteousness endures forever.” (vs. 3) The godly person, by virtue of their reflecting as the image of God, reveals the attributes of God. “The Lord is gracious and compassionate.” (111:4) And so the godly person is “gracious and compassionate.” (vs. 4) “God remembers his covenant forever.” (111:5) And so the godly person “conducts their affairs with justice.” (vs. 5) Because “the Word of the Lord is established for ever and ever.” (111:8) the godly person has a secure heart and will have no fear (vs. 8). God has “provided redemption for his people” (111:9) so his people “freely scattered their gifts to the poor.” (vs. 9)

Lastly, it seems clear that those who reject godliness also somehow reject or mitigate the image of God in themselves. Psalm 111 ends by saying that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (111:10) But Psalm 112 ends by saying “the wicked will see and be vexed.” (vs. 10) – that is, they won't have wisdom. Apart from godliness, and without God, the deepest longings we experience will come to nothing (vs. 10).

Humanity in pursuit of godliness is a reflection of who created us. We can see this most archetypally in the person of Jesus Christ: God who took on flesh. He is the image of the invisible God; he is the firstborn over all creation; in him God chose to have his fullness dwell (cf. Col 1). Jesus also reveals for us the value that God puts on those created in his image. God himself chose to die to reclaim us as his own. “You are not your own; you were bought at a price.” (1 Cor. 6:19-20)

“To him belongs eternal praise.” (111:10) And so, the godly person says, “Praise the Lord!” (vs. 1)

Prayer
Lord God, Creator, thank you for making me in your image. Help me to see that my joy is fulfilled in godliness because that is how I most completely image you. Lord Jesus, thank you for showing me more fully who God is and what it means to be fully human fully alive. In Jesus’ name, Amen!

 
[1] Akin, Hunt, Merida, Exalting Jesus in Psalms 101-150, 115.