Psalm 112: Blessed!

Today’s reading is Psalm 112.

The Blessed Life

The Psalms are particularly concerned with the blessed life. The entire book begins by describing the blessed life (see Psalm 1:1). The Psalms talk about those who are blessed, using the same word we find in Psalm 1:1 and Psalm 112:1, twenty-three times in nineteen different psalms.

Admittedly, one of the statements may refer to God (see Psalm 41:1). Another has a pretty unique place as an imprecation which doesn’t generally apply to the blessed among God’s people (see Psalm 137:8-9). That, however, leaves seventeen psalms taking up the theme of the blessed life.

More than 10% of the psalms address the blessed life. That is, the good life, the God-favored life, the flourishing life, the enriched life, the abundant life. If we want the blessed life, the Psalms sounds like a book to study.

Who is Blessed?

In Psalm 112, the blessed life belongs to the one who fears the Lord. Recall how our previous psalm ended:

Holy and awesome is [the LORD’s] name!
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;
all those who practice it have a good understanding.
His praise endures forever!
Psalm 111:9c-10 (ESV)

The one who finds wisdom is blessed (Proverbs 3:13). Further, those who keep the ways of wisdom and who listen to wisdom are blessed (Proverbs 8:32, 34), finding life and obtaining favor from the Lord. If fearing the Lord begins wisdom and wisdom provides blessing, clearly, fearing the Lord leads to the Blessed life.

But recall what we learned last week. This fear of the Lord does not mean running away in terror. It means standing in awe before the awesome God. It means bowing in reverence before the majestic creator. It means basking in the splendor of the Lord. It means declaring the grandeur and magnificence that is God. In a word, it means worship.

When Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well God is looking for those who would worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24), He was not saying God is looking for people to browbeat into submission. He was not saying God is looking for people to play to His pride and ego. Rather, He was saying God is looking for people to bless.

God does not need His ego stroked. God doesn’t need us, our fear, our awe, or our worship. He is fearsome whether or not we fear Him. He is awesome whether or not we stand in awe of Him. He is worthy whether or not we worship Him. Rather, the blessed life comes from dwelling in this cosmos according to reality. When we ignore the reality around which our universe is built, we will constantly bang our heads against the brick wall of reality. Because God is awesome, we need to stand in awe. Because God is fearsome, we need to fear. Because God is worthy, we need to worship. Otherwise, our lives simply do not conform to the reality in which we live. We can’t be blessed while living in a fantasy world. We will only be blessed by conforming to the reality of God’s existence, standing in awe and bowing in reverence before the fearsome God.

Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 112.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does Psalm 112 prompt or improve your praise of God?

Psalm 100: We are His

Today’s reading is Psalm 100.

Know that the LORD, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Psalm 100:3 (ESV)

This may seem a little off topic, but I have a question for you. Do you know what was wrong with Cain’s sacrifice in Genesis 4? Read through the chapter again sometime and see where it says what was wrong. The chapter doesn’t actually tell us. Hebrews 11:4 gives the key. Abel offered a better sacrifice by faith. Of course, we know faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the word of God (Romans 10:17). In other words, Abel listened to God. Maybe the specific issue was about blood sacrifice vs. vegetable sacrifice. Maybe the specific issue was about offering the best vs. just offering whatever was at hand. Whatever the specific issue, Abel humbled himself before God, realizing God gets to define the reality of true, acceptable worship. Cain arrogantly demanded he be allowed to establish the terms of worship. He didn’t listen to God.

This is a real problem in today’s world. Our society and culture are plagued with a Cain-like arrogance. The mantra that everyone should live his or her own truth is the same sin as Cain’s. We want to believe we get to create, define, determine reality. But it doesn’t work that way.

As Psalm 100 explains, we are God’s creation. We are His. We are not our own. God created reality. He knows how it works. God created us. We belong to Him. He gets to create, define, and determine reality. Our duty is to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. How arrogant it is to jump off a 100-story building and demand we not crash into the ground. How arrogant to run headlong and full-tilt into a brick wall and demand we feel no pain. Of course, we know in these situations we can demand all day long, but reality will dominate. In the same way, demanding how I feel about things means more than their created and embodied reality is equally arrogant and full of pride. And despite the joy our world takes in pride, pride is not a good thing.

We are His. He has the right, the authority, the power to explain reality to us. He has the right, the authority, the power to instruct us, direct us, guide us. Praise God, He also loves us. His direction is good for us. When we, in our own pride, demand to get to go our own way, we aren’t simply going against God’s authority, we are going against the good God has planned for us. Let us not be so foolish. We are the sheep of His pasture and He is the good shepherd. Let us follow His lead. Let us listen to His voice. Let us grow faith in Him.

Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 100.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

PATHS:
Discuss Today’s Meditation with Your Family

How does Psalm 100 prompt or improve your trust in God?