Psalms 112

The psalm opens with the same shout that opened its twin, Psalm 111 - Praise ye the LORD, the single Hebrew word the older translations sometimes leave as Hallelujah - and then states its whole subject in one line: Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. Everything that follows in the next nine verses is the unfolding of that sentence. Notice first where the blessedness is grounded. It is not in the man's circumstances, his luck, or his achievements; it is in his posture toward God - he feareth the LORD. The fear of the LORD in Scripture is not cringing dread but reverent awe, the settled recognition that God is God and we are not, the kind of seeing that puts everything else in its right size. And notice the second half, because it keeps the first from being misheard. This man does not merely obey God's commandments; he delighteth greatly in them. The reverence has gone all the way down into desire. What God commands has become, for him, not a weight to be carried but a joy to be wanted. That is the seedbed out of which the whole flourishing life of this psalm grows: not duty endured, but God revered and His ways loved.¹

The next two lines trace how that one rooted life spreads outward in widening circles. First to the family: His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed (v. 2). A life lived in the fear of God is not a private possession that dies with the man; it casts a long shadow forward, shaping children and a line beyond them. Then to the household: Wealth and riches shall be in his house (v. 3). Here the psalm must be read with care, and read whole. It is describing the general truth that a life of integrity, diligence, and generosity tends, in the ordinary run of things, toward flourishing - the same wisdom the book of Proverbs sings. It is not a mechanical promise that every faithful person will be materially rich, nor a measure of God's favour by the size of a bank account; Scripture elsewhere is full of righteous sufferers and faithful poor. The clue that the psalm itself knows this is the line that immediately follows, and quietly outranks the wealth: and his righteousness endureth for ever. Wealth and riches sit in his house - that is, for now, under this roof, in this life. His righteousness endures for ever. The psalm names the lesser blessing and then, in the same breath, points past it to the one that lasts.

Here is the line that turns Psalm 112 from a good poem about the good life into something quietly astonishing. Of the upright man it says: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous (v. 4). Read that beside the companion psalm and feel the shock. Psalm 111, describing not a man but the LORD, had said in almost the same breath: the LORD is gracious and full of compassion (Ps. 111:4) - words that themselves go back to the day God spoke His own name and character to Moses on the mountain, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious (Exod. 34:6). The psalmist has deliberately taken the language Scripture reserves for the character of God and applied it, word for word, to the person who fears God. This is no accident and no overreach; it is the whole theology of the psalm in a single sentence. To stand in awe of the LORD, over a lifetime, is to be slowly conformed to His likeness - to become gracious because He is gracious, compassionate because He is compassionate, righteous because He is righteous. The God-fearing man does not generate these qualities out of himself; he catches them, the way a face turned toward the sun catches its light. He reflects the One he reveres.

The character described in verse 4 becomes concrete in verse 5: A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with discretion. Three plain, daily things. He sheweth favour - he is generous, gracious in his dealings, inclined to give rather than to grasp. He lendeth - in a world without modern banking, to lend was to put your own resources at the disposal of a neighbour in need, often without interest, as the Law commanded among God's people; it is open-handedness made practical. And he will guide his affairs with discretion - the older word here is literally with judgment; his generosity is not careless or chaotic but wise, ordered, sustainable. This is worth holding onto, because it guards against a false picture. The blessed man is not naïve. His compassion does not make him a poor manager; his open hand is governed by a clear head. He gives generously and orders his life prudently, and the psalm sees no contradiction between the two. Grace and discretion live together in him - the warmth of a giver and the steadiness of one who handles what he has been given with care. And the result, verse 6, is permanence: Surely he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. The man who lives this way puts down roots that no storm uproots, and leaves behind a memory that does not fade.

Now the psalm reaches its steadiest, most quoted lines, and they are about nerve under bad news: He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD. His heart is established, he shall not be afraid (vv. 7-8). Read it carefully, because it does not say what we sometimes wish it said. It does not promise that no evil tidings will come. Bad news arrives at every door; the God-fearing man is not exempt from the dreaded message, the hard report, the call no one wants. What it promises is that when the news comes, it will not topple him - he shall not be afraid. And the reason is given twice, in two words that belong together. His heart is fixed, and his heart is established. Both point to something settled in advance: an anchor already down, a foundation already poured, a trust already decided before the crisis arrives. The crucial phrase is the cause of it all: trusting in the LORD. His steadiness is not a strong personality or a sunny temperament; it is the fruit of a heart that has, over long obedience, leaned its whole weight on God until that leaning became its fixed posture. You cannot manufacture this in the moment the bad news lands. It is built quietly beforehand - which is why the psalm spends eleven lines describing the daily, ordinary fear of God before it ever mentions the crisis. The fixed heart is the long reward of a life turned, day by day, toward the LORD.

Verse 9 gathers the psalm's threads into one luminous line: He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever; his horn shall be exalted with honour. The first verb is vivid - he hath dispersed, the picture of a sower flinging seed wide, scattering with an open hand. Here it is wealth, not seed, that he scatters: he hath given to the poor. The blessed man of this psalm is not a hoarder of the wealth and riches verse 3 said were in his house; he is a distributor of them, sowing his resources into the lives of the needy. And the psalm makes a quiet, profound claim about what happens to wealth given away: it does not vanish - it transmutes into the one thing that lasts. His righteousness endureth for ever. The riches that sat in his house were temporary; the moment he gave them to the poor, they became part of a righteousness that is permanent. Generosity is how the perishable is exchanged for the imperishable. And the result is honour that is not self-grasped but God-given: his horn - the ancient image of strength and dignity - shall be exalted with honour. The man who lowered himself to give to the poor is the man God lifts up.

The psalm ends with a deliberate contrast, holding the wicked man up beside the blessed one to show, by opposition, what the God-fearing life truly is. The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: the desire of the wicked shall perish (v. 10). Look closely at what the wicked man does - he shall see it. He sees the steadiness of the upright, the light that rose in his darkness, the honour God gave him, the righteousness that endures - and the sight is unbearable to him. He gnashes with his teeth, the gesture of impotent rage, and then he melts away - the same verb used of wax before fire, of snow in the sun. Set the two lives side by side and the difference could not be sharper. The blessed man shall not be moved for ever (v. 6); the wicked man melts away. The blessed man's righteousness endureth for ever (vv. 3, 9); the wicked man's desire shall perish. One is fixed, founded, permanent; the other dissolves and is gone. The psalm is not gloating; it is clarifying. It places the two destinies in plain view so that we can see what is actually at stake in the simple, daily choice of whether or not to fear the LORD - a life that stands for ever, or a longing that melts into nothing.