Three Descriptions of the Blessed Man - Psalm 112 (Psalms 112)

0:44So Psalm 112, our text tonight, is sort of a brother psalm to Psalm 111, the preceding psalm, which is relevant because we get this parallel of content between the two. I won't be reading through all of Psalm 111, but hopefully you have a Bible that has them kind of right next to each other so you can reference it as we go along. They're both acrostic psalms, which is where each line begins with the successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. So in English, that would be maybe the first line begins with A and then the next line with B. It's like this in Hebrew, so you don't really see it, but it really communicates that the content is in parallel. And we get some good insights from the Previous Psalm, which is really, Psalm 111 is all about the glory of God, His faithfulness, His covenant faithfulness, His majesty, His glory. That's really beginning to end what it's about. But then we get a transition in the final verse for the theme of our text today. So, see, right before Psalm 112, the end of Psalm 111, verse 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. All those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever. Please pray with me.

2:10Father, I thank you for this evening. I thank you for this text that is just such a joy to read for those who know you are in relationship with you and the beautiful description that we have of your faithfulness, of your goodness to the one who fears you and delights in your word. Father, I echo John's prayer that I would preach with clarity, that your word would be made clear, that I would decrease and that you would increase. So, Father, I pray that you bless this time and that this would be fruitful for all those who are listening over the live stream and here today, and that I would faithfully preach your word. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

2:59So, we can. See that these psalms are in parallel because of the structure, but then also the beginning of them. They both begin with what your English Bible probably says is, praise the Lord, sort of line zero, if you will. But really, that is, hallelujah. So whenever you're singing a song and it says, hallelujah, you are saying, praise the Lord, which is very appropriate in these. Praise the Lord, what a Savior. So they both begin in this way. And as I just read at the end of Psalm 111, we get the theme: the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So from this text, we'll look at three descriptions of the man who fears the Lord and delights in his commandments, so that you will fear the Lord. So three descriptions of this man who fears the Lord. First, in verses 1 through the first half of verse 4, his blessedness. And then in the second half of verse 4 through verse 5, his character. And then in verses 6 through 8, his stability. His blessedness, his character, and his stability. Verse 9 really gives us a summary of all of these descriptions. And then verse 10, we get a really interesting kind of epilogue of what I'll be calling the wicked witness. So let's dive into the text. Psalm 112, verse 1. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Blessed is. Is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights 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, and his righteousness endures forever. Light dawns in the darkness for the upright, he is gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with the man who deals generously and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice. For the righteous will never be moved, he will be remembered forever. He is not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady, he will not be afraid, until he looks in triumph on his adversaries. He is distributed freely, he is given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn is exalted in honor. The wicked man sees it and is angry. He gnashes his teeth and melts away. The desire of the wicked will perish.

5:30So we'll dive right into the first of these descriptions of the blessedness of this man. See in verse 1, blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments. So we get a concise description of who this man is. Why is he blessed? Why is he the way that he is, walking in uprightness and all the blessings that he has? Well, he fears the Lord and delights in his commandments. It's very plain.

6:00And I think just before moving on too far, I just want to reiterate the way this psalm begins with hallelujah, praise the Lord, just as the prior psalm began. This whole psalm is about this man, but really it is still about God and the glory of God, the goodness of God, as he pours out these blessings and displays such faithfulness toward this man. Is he blessed? Hallelujah, praise the Lord. Is he given material wealth and blessing? Is he given offspring? Does he act righteously? All of it should prompt us to say, hallelujah, praise the Lord. He truly is good.

6:45So the tone is really set as we go in. So the first of the two, the fear of the Lord, this is a consistent theme throughout the Old Testament, especially in the wisdom books, such as in Proverbs 1:7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, exactly the same statement as in Psalm 111. And then the second, he greatly delights in the Lord's commandments. And these are clearly meant to be in parallel, sort of rhyming statements. They're naturally paired. He's not just obedient, he loves God's law in the same way that the author of Psalm 119 loves the precepts, the rules. The ordinances, the statutes of the Lord. Not an unwilling obedience, just kind of going through the motion, well, God told me to do it, I guess I'll do it. He loves the commands of the Lord. Much like in Psalm 1, verses 1 and 2, there's no need to turn there, I'll just read it quick. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. It's intuitive, at least to me, that God would bless those who obey him and love his commandments. We derive so much wisdom from those commandments. We learn how to live in a wise way, in a way that is honoring to God. We learn how we relate to God, how we should pray to Him. So many things, but it's not listed first. And it's not what we ended on in Psalm 111. There, it's the fear of the Lord.

8:37I've wondered about this many times. I'm sure many of you have too. Why is this such an emphasis of Scripture? Why not love of the Lord or faithfulness toward the Lord or faith in the Lord? All undoubtedly great things that we are commanded to do. But why is fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom? There's much more to Say about this than I can possibly address in this short sermon. But I do think that we get at least the root of the answer in verse 9 of Psalm 111. So look back at 111, verse 9. He sent redemption to his people. He has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name. Awesome, inspiring awe.

9:31If you know the true and living God, he is someone who inspires awe, someone who should inspire fear. The truth is that you would be foolish not to fear him, but not fear him in the way you might fear an unhinged tyrant or an abusive parent or something, someone who's just lashing out. This is the first of two applications that we'll have from the text. So we have these descriptions of the man, but two very simple, straightforward applications. And the first is, I'm sure you can guess it, is fear the Lord. Fear the Lord. And you do not really know him if you don't fear him.

10:16If the God that you have a relationship with is not one to be feared, is harmless, or, I don't know, something the same way that we like a little dog that we have or something, he's very nice. Fido is very nice. Nice, but I'm not really afraid of Fido, and he can't really do much good for me. There's not a lot he can do. God is the God of the universe. I think C.S. Lewis in the Chronicles of Narnia captured this well. I'm sure many of you remember this when Lucy Pevency, she's just entered into Narnia through the wardrobe, this new world that she's learning about. And she's at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. And Mrs. Beaver is telling Lucy about this lion, Aslan. And soon they're going to meet this lion. They will see him. And Lucy is concerned if it is safe to meet this lion. I would probably feel the same way. I like lions at the zoo with the nice thick glass between me and him. I don't really want to, don't want to pet him. Not real interested in that. Well, Mr. Beaver tells her, safe? Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn't safe, but he's good. He's the king, I tell you. And later on, it's also put that he's not a tame lion.

11:46So I would just like to put emphasis on that we don't serve a harmless God. We don't serve a god who we are buddy-buddy with, but one that should be feared, who is awe-inspiring. But is good, and he is the king. So we see the picture of who this man is. Introduction: he fears the Lord and delights in his commandments. In verse 2, we start getting into the specifics of how he's blessed. His offspring, I should read it again, verse 2, his offspring will be mighty in the land, the generation of the upright will be blessed. So his offspring will be mighty. It's not even stated, you will have many descendants. The implied descendants that he has, which is a blessing in itself, will be mighty, not only mighty, but upright, like the man is upright.

12:44And it really struck me that the first blessing that's listed about this man isn't even directly about him. It's about his descendants who come after him. And it really convicted me about how much my relationship with the Lord, my fear of the Lord, my delighting in his commandments, it doesn't stop with me. It has implications for my children and my children's children. And I hope that many of you in the room are like me of being blessed by parents who did instruct me to walk in the way of the Lord, to love him and to love his commandments. The primary means, I'd say, that God instructs people in his ways is through. Parents and the blessing that they are for their children. So it's just amazing. This is still an enormous blessing for him, but it's a blessing through being passed on to his children. And then in verse 3, we have material blessing as well. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. This is consistent with what we see throughout the Proverbs and the Psalms: that the general pattern, the normative pattern in the world, is that wise living, prudent living, results in material well-being, in goodness of circumstances. This is the standard pattern of the world, and that God blesses people for being obedient to him. And sometimes it's easy to balk at this because of the way that Jesus so harshly condemned greed, as he should have. He spoke of money more than almost anything else, and the way we are corrupted, our sin grabs hold of it, and our greed just provides a mean of all kinds of sin. But nonetheless, and we'll see with the way this man uses his wealth, that it is still a blessing from God. All the things we'll see listed in this text: God is not giving bad things, he is giving good things. This is still about God.

14:59Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Everything here is to the praise of God. But we do all know that there are people who don't have this material blessing, which is something that we have to wrestle with. That this is not a promise that this is not prosperity gospel. This is not, if you fear the Lord, then you will have lots of money. If you fear the Lord, you will have a big house. There is nothing of that sort. This is still about God and His goodness. The way I've been thinking about this text, I think it might be the same way that we think about certain figures in the past who we or present who we admire. We admire a certain characteristic about them, and so we want to pattern our living after them because we want those characteristics. We want what they are able to do. So I had to go straight to one of my favorite figures in history. The war was imminent in 1775 as the Second Continental Congress met, and a vital decision had to be made who's going to lead this military revolt against a world power.

16:20Well, who had the leadership qualifications, who had the military qualifications? I'm sure you know where I'm going with this. There were many, there were multiple options. But really, there was only one option, and that was George Washington of Virginia. And I was just struck reading what a biographer had to say about George Washington's character, his leadership characteristics, in contrast to everyone else around who might be chosen. So this is a good paragraph, so bear with me here. When comparing George Washington with other rivals for the top position, one sees that he had a superior presence, infinitely better judgment, more political cunning, and unmatched gravitas. With nothing arrogant or bombastic in his nature, he had the perfect temperament for leadership. Endowed with an enormous sense of responsibility, he inspired trust and confidence. A man of the happy medium, conciliatory by nature, he lent a reassuring conservatism to the revolution. Smoothly methodical and solidly reliable, he seemed not to make mistakes. He is a complete gentleman, Thomas Cushing, a Massachusetts delegate, said about Washington. He is sensible, amiable, virtuous, modest, and brave. End quote. Wow. If you're looking for a leader, look no further. Pick that guy. If you want to be a good leader, it might be a good idea to look at some of the things that he does. What's his secret sauce? Does he have a certain warning? Morning routine? Are there books he read? Thankfully, for all of you, I am not giving a seminar on leadership. But we do have Psalm 112. And Psalm 112 tells us one main thing about the two main things about this man who is so blessed, who has this character, is that he fears the Lord and greatly delights in his commandments.

18:28Nothing super elaborate. It is straightforward. That this is the starting point. If you want to live the kind of life that this man lives in honor to God, glorifying God, do what he does. Fear the Lord and delight in His commandments. So I just hope that that's a motivation for everybody here: that when you come to this Psalm, not that it's promissory, but if you want to be like this guy, do this. Fear the Lord and delight in His commandments.

19:00Then in the second half of verse 3, we're moving more toward what He's like, though it still seems to be a blessing, and His righteousness endures forever. His enduring righteousness is placed in parallel with wealth and riches in His house, and is not the place that we started. It seems that His enduring righteousness, His righteous continuing on, not being transient and fading away, is because He fears the Lord, and it is a gift of God. And amazingly, we see a similar statement. We're starting to see a parallel of character between the man and God himself. If you see the second half of verse 3 in Psalm 111, I'll start at the beginning of the verse. Full of splendor and majesty is his work. So clearly we're talking about God. And his righteousness endures forever.

20:03This is the start of a pattern that we're seeing where because of this man's commitment to the Lord first, his fear of the Lord and loving his law, he's becoming godly. He's becoming like God Himself. He is reflecting God's glory in that He has enduring righteousness. And then the first half of verse 4 seems to kind of end the section on blessings and is telling us about the persistence of God's blessings and presence. So in verse 4 of Psalm 112, light dawns in the darkness for the upright.

20:46This seems to be a reference to God and His blessings, the light, and hard times, difficult circumstances, the darkness. It seems similar to a statement in Psalm 18, verse 28, for it is you who light my lamp, the Lord, my God, lightens my darkness. So this man is not going to be left in darkness, groping around, not sure what to do. There is always dawn in the darkness for him. And it seems to be the Lord Himself providing the light. You might even rephrase this as, it's never totally dark for the upright. God is always present and providing what he needs to avoid temptation, to get out from temptation. We have so much on the faithfulness of God, and this is just such a concise, beautiful, concise statement about it. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.

21:53So we've looked at the blessedness of this man. Now we're moving on to his character. What is he like if you saw this man? How does he interact with the world around him? So starting in the second half of verse 4, he is gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with the man who deals generously and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice. Here again, we get a parallel with a description of God himself in Psalm 111.

22:26In verse 4, he has caused his wonders. Works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and merciful. In Psalm 112, verse 4, we get gracious, merciful, and righteous. Or your translation may have gracious and compassionate. You see this theme of the goodness that he displays toward those around him generously, not expecting anything in return. Where do we get a more full picture of this sort of godliness on display than our Lord Jesus Christ? It's such a blessing that we can look back on this text that was so edifying for the Old Testament saint, and now it's as if we can see it fulfilled in a man who lived a perfect life. In Colossians 1.15, Paul describes our Lord as the image of the invisible God. So we can see the character of the invisible God, and that in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. It's in Colossians 2.9. And 1 John 2.1 calls him Jesus Christ the righteous in his faithful forgiveness of our sins. Christ came to be the perfect, spotless Lamb, the atonement for our sins, the covering for our sins. Romans 10. 9-10 summarizes the gospel call. If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. So by belief, one is justified, declared righteous before God.

24:23But our walk doesn't stop there, does it? Our sin is resolved. We are perfect and spotless before God, in good standing before God. But God has more in mind for our lives than that: sanctification, edification. And later on in Romans chapter 13, after an instruction on combating sin, Paul commands his audience to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Be godly. Imitate the One who gave Himself for you and took away your sin. And we just see such a beautiful, perfect, will never be topped example of godliness in our Lord Jesus Christ and displaying grace, mercy, and righteousness.

25:24At the beginning of verse 5, we then get a reiteration of the blessedness of this man. Again, I just think of the perspective of someone who sees him. Verse 5: It is well with the man who deals generously and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice. You're not going to look at this man and wonder if things are well for him. Maybe he's good on the inside, but kind of has a grumpy face. It is well with this man who fears the Lord and delights in his commandments, and who deals generously and lends.

25:57So we're seeing an application of the graciousness and mercy that he has in giving. He is generous and lends, which can sound a little out of place to modern ears, but it's very consistent with the lending practices of Old Testament law. If you'll recall, the lending that you are supposed to do to your fellow Israelites, it's not a money-making venture. It's supposed to be something that really is good in helping them out, and you're not supposed to take interest. Such as in Exodus 22, 25, if you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him. So it's exactly in line with the generosity that it's paired with. This lending, it is not for self-gain. This isn't a money-making-making venture. He really is giving of what the Lord has provided him. And Applying the delight in the Lord's commandments that he has.

27:06We also have Jesus affirming this in Luke 6:34. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount. Jesus' expectation in your generosity is: don't be giving people things just to expect something more back. Give without expectation of it coming back. And that's the kind of character that this man has. He's generous with all that God has given him. And then the second half of verse 5, I'll start at the beginning of verse 5. It is well with the man who deals generously and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice. Very short statement: that nothing that he does, there's no area of his life that gets away from being lawful, the delight, the love that he has for God's Word. And he is just.

28:10He just shows such a balanced walk of this generosity and mercy and grace and love for law and upholding God's goodness and fearing the Lord. Just such a well-rounded man that we get to see here. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. I hope this is motivated. As we go along, it makes me excited reading this, just the way that God works in this sort of life. So we've looked at his blessedness and his character. Now we'll look at his stability in verses 6 through 8.

28:48For the righteous will never be moved. He will be remembered forever. He's not afraid of bad news. His heart is steady, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady. He will not be afraid until he looks in triumph on his adversaries. He's stable, immovable, steadfast. What might be moving this man that he needs to be stable and steadfast? Perhaps the sinful slanders of those around him. We'll see one of those kind of people in verse 10.

29:25Maybe just the general hardship of life or sinful temptation. Whatever would move him from obedience and delighting in the commandments of the Lord. But the one who really fears the Lord, who worships him as he is, isn't knocked around by these things. He has an enduring stability, not just a transient faithfulness and then falling away, which is again one of these contrasts that we see throughout Proverbs and the Psalms, the endurance. The steadiness of the one who is obedient and committed to the Lord, and the fading away of the wicked.

30:14Our Lord makes our feet firm if we truly trust in Him. And then in verse 7, we get: this is just an amazing statement to me, verse 7: He is not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady. He will not be afraid until he looks in triumph on his adversaries. I don't think this is describing courage, at least as how we might describe a soldier or someone like that who would really be somewhat foolish to think that bullets aren't going to hurt him. He's afraid of those bullets, but he has a mission to carry out, and he has courage. He overcomes that fear to carry out the mission, to do what's expected to him, to do his responsibility. But this is a description of a man who isn't even afraid. He's not afraid of bad news in verse 7.

31:14And then just a plain, he's not afraid. He will not be afraid in verse 8. Where in the world can you get this lack of fear? And is this even rational? Should there be Not be things that we should be afraid of? We should not be afraid because we fear the Lord. Is there anyone or anything that we should fear more than the Lord Himself? And this takes us to the second application of the Psalm. The first, it's a very simple two-part application. The first, fear the Lord. The second, trust the Lord. Trust Him. This is the natural outflow of the one who, the natural application of the one who fears the Lord.

32:11And I'm preaching to myself as much as anyone else here. Of course, I've been afraid of bad news. I've been afraid of things that are maybe a little more silly. That folded exam that I don't think went so well that I have to go get from the professor and I think I'll go hide in my seat and take a peek and see how poorly that went. I've been afraid of that. Or things that might dominate our thoughts, fear of losing my job, fear of what others might think of me, what they might say when I'm not around, or maybe I'll hear what they do say, and that will crush me too. There are all kinds of things that we fear, and we should not fear any of them. Romans 8. 31 just sums up this so well. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

33:11If you truly fear the Lord, and thus trust in him, worship him for who he is, there is nothing else to fear. If you want to be like this man, fear the Lord. And there's an emphasis on his heart. It's mentioned twice here. His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady. He will not be afraid. The seat of his emotions, the place that drives him to act, is firm. He trusts God. So those are the two applications: fear the Lord and trust the Lord. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.

34:01So that finishes up the three descriptions of this man. Verse 9 will give us a summary of these things. He is distributed freely. He is given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn is exalted in honor. So we get sort of a reverse order here. He's distributed freely, given to the poor. Another specific application of his generosity. What is he doing with this wealth that the Lord has given him? He's giving it to the poor. And then a restatement that his righteousness endures forever. He's not transient. If you focus on the beginning of wisdom, the beginning of understanding, then your righteousness will endure this gift of God.

34:57Oh, how we'd fall away if it weren't for his holding us and keeping our feet firm. And then his horn is exalted in honor. This is like an animal horn. It's a symbol of strength and honor. So again, unlike the wicked who passes away, the one who hates God's law, the one who delights in his law, is exalted in honor. And then in verse 10, we get the wicked witness, sort of an epilogue to our psalm. Verse 10, the wicked man sees it and is angry. He gnashes his teeth and melts away. The desire of the wicked will perish.

35:42So if I were the psalmist and I had a few Hebrew letters left to round out my psalm, I would not have finished it this way. This would not have been the first place that I would have gone. The end of verse 9 seems like a great place to end, but thankfully we have the wisdom of the psalmist and Ultimately, the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. They were given this amazing witness. It's not just the righteous people who can recognize God's goodness and how He is blessing those who fear Him and delight in His commandments, but the wicked.

36:16And how does He react? Does He repent? Does He rejoice for the goodness that's being shown for this man and His enduring righteousness and just how steadfast He is? He's so unafraid in all these scenarios. He despises Him. He gnashes His teeth and melts away. We see a vindication of God and His goodness. We know that He will be victorious. This goes along well with the earlier verse. In verse 8, His heart is steady, He will not be afraid until He looks in triumph on His adversaries. His adversaries will surely be defeated. They will fade away from memory, just completely fade away, because who is there to fear when we serve the God of the universe? Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.

37:27So, in conclusion, we've looked at The blessings on this man, his character, his stability, and then what the wicked see when they see this man. And I'd like to read from Ephesians chapter 1, verses 3 through 6, if you'd like to turn there. Ephesians 1, 3 through 6. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love, He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has blessed us with in the Beloved.

38:20Just like in Psalm 112, this passage that we've been spending all of our time in, the response to the wonderful blessings that God pours out is not, Wow, what a man! His righteousness, it endures so well, He's doing great. It's what an amazing God. What an awe-inspiring God. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. It's why our songs are filled with it. It all goes back to this. So the two applications from this are: again, fear the Lord. It's the beginning of wisdom, the beginning of understanding who God is. Is if you approach God as he is with fear and humility, you will delight in his commandments.

39:10And he is a good king who gives good gifts. And he's not a tame lion. Second, the second application was trust the Lord. Scripture repeatedly calls for us to trust God. Whenever you see the call to have faith in God or a reference to the faith in God or to believe in God, these are all referring to the same root, belief, faith, you faith in God, which speaks to this abiding trust, this firm trust in him.

39:45And there's no other way to come into relationship with God than through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. John 3.16 says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. To believe in Christ is to have a deep and abiding trust in him and no one else and nothing else. If you don't believe in him today, I pray that you will repent. Turn from your sin and to the living God, the only one to be feared, and the one who washes away our fear of everything else.

40:30Cast your sins on Christ. And don't stop there. Cast your fears, your anxieties, make God supreme, and fear Him over all else. The God of the universe who can deliver you from any trial. We serve an awesome God who deserves our praise. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Please pray with me. Father, I thank you again for this evening. I thank you for this congregation. Those I can look out at who are so faithful to you, who love you, and wish to be edified by your word. I pray that it was communicated with clarity and represented faithfully.

41:22I pray that each and every one of us, especially myself, would worship you for who you are, fear you, but fear you as the good sovereign God of the universe. I thank you for this time, and I thank you for this text. Amen.