Psalm 112:1 (NKJV) 1 Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, Who delights greatly in His commandments.
As we continue looking at Psalm 112 and the picture of an established life, I want to begin to examine how this man has developed what we see in this Psalm. We have found that the key is that he was established in trusting the Lord. Nothing, from bad news to difficult times, could shake him because he was fixed on that one reality. Everything that happened or could happen was subject to that truth. This man trusted in the Lord and nothing else mattered.
Next, we looked at the list of benefits in his life. They range from the fact that the blessing of an established life goes beyond one generation to extend to his children and grandchildren, to wealth and riches in his own life. He will have wisdom, freedom from fear and honor from those around him. All of this comes because of the simple truth that he is established in his trust in God’s care over his life.
How did he get to this point? I have served God for most of my life. I think I have a good handle on trusting in God, but I can do better. I am not at Psalm 112 level quite yet. Are you? I want to see what he did to cultivate this kind of stability in his life and do the same. In places where I have, I can do better. I also need to know if I have missed something. We live in the most unstable era in my lifetime. I need to show the world that there is a stability of life that is not dependent on what is happening around us. I need to show people that trusting in the Lord is the real solution to the things we face.
As we look at this Psalm, the first thing that we see are two simple truths. He fears the Lord and he delights greatly in his commandments. This is an interesting statement. This first verse of Psalm 112 almost seems contradictory. First, he says he fears the Lord. Next, he uses the word “delights” but what he delights in are the commandments of God. It would seem that fear and commandments would not go together with delight, yet this is the first step to living an established life. How can that be?
I have spent a good deal of time recently talking about the fear of the Lord, particularly in our study of the unshakable Kingdom. Let me just say once again that the fear of the Lord is not being afraid to come into his presence. It is not being afraid that he is looking for any misstep so he can bring punishment into our lives. Hebrews 11:6 makes it clear that God is a rewarder not a punisher. To fear the Lord is to have a healthy respect and understanding of who it is we have as a Father. He is the creator of the universe. He is all powerful, all knowing, everywhere present and unchanging. He is holy, righteous and just. Above all he is love. He never deviates from any of these characteristics. That understanding is key to everything in this psalm.
This man’s fear of the lord manifests in his delight for his commandments. The Hebrew word translated delight has an interesting shade of meaning. The figurative meaning is to take pleasure in something. However, the literal meaning is to incline toward something. The picture is that this man takes pleasure in knowing what God wants from him. He inclines himself toward God’s commandments. He learns about what God has required. He wants to understand what God is telling him to do and the more he does, the more he sees that the commandments of the Lord are good and not harsh nor arbitrary.
He finds that the commandments of the Lord are there to reveal God’s ways to him and to set standards for his actions and decisions that will produce the stability he needs to prosper. He comes to understand that God’s commandments do not flow from some need to control man, but from his love for man. They are a manifestation of God’s infinite knowledge and understanding of the past, the present and the future. If he does what God requires, life will be better in every way. Understanding the motivation and nature of God’s commandments allows him to trust the Lord at the level we see in Psalm 112.
One of the foundational teachings of the New Testament is grace. Grace is God’s undeserved favor. Grace is what paid the price for our salvation and when we receive this grace by faith, we are born again to live forever in God’s presence. We cannot earn grace, nor can we earn salvation. We must understand this or nothing else will make sense. I cannot, nor do I need to, earn God’s love much less his free gift of salvation. Why, then, should I need to understand and love God’s commandments? Does not grace make them irrelevant? Not at all. Grace unlocks their true meaning and purpose.
I am saved by grace. I cannot earn salvation. That is a settled fact for all eternity because I received Jesus as my Lord and my savior. I cannot do anything to make God love me more than he already does. He loved me enough to send Jesus to die for me. That is all I need to know. Jesus himself makes a statement that is almost hard for us to understand.
John 17:23 (NKJV) 23 I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
This is part of a long statement that can get a little complicated, but I want to draw your attention to one phrase. “You sent me, and (you) have loved them as you have loved me.” Who is them? Not just the 12 disciples. Verse 20 tells us Jesus is praying for them and all who will believe on Jesus by their words. In a very real way, all of us who believe have done so because of their words. Therefore, Jesus is talking about me and about you if you are born again.
What is so important here. God loves me just as much as he loves Jesus. Jesus was perfect. I am not. Jesus always obeyed God. I do not. With all my flaws and imperfections, God the Father Loves me just as much and in the same way that he loved Jesus. That is very hard to believe if we truly see how far we are from the perfection of Jesus. Nevertheless, it is true. Not just for me but for you.
It was true even before we were saved. God so loved the world that he sent his son to die for it. He loved me before I was saved. He saved me because he loved me, and he loves me now even though I remain imperfect. His commandments were not given to save me or make me love him. They were given because he loved me enough to save me and continues to love me enough to give me a way to live in stability and blessing while I am on the earth.
Why should I delight in his commandments? What place do the ten commandments have in the life of a New Testament believer? They are not statements of crime and punishment. They never were. They are a guidebook to living in the blessing of God. Just as a natural father knows things that his children do not, our heavenly Father knows things we do not. Just as our natural father teaches us and even warns us concerning how to live life, our heavenly Father does the same. The “don’ts” of God’s commandments are not meant to hinder us but to free us.
To delight in his commandments is to find out what he says to do and not to do. When we understand those things, we can make choices that lead to the list of blessings we looked at last time. We will be established knowing what God says to do and what he will do for us. The enemy will not be able to deceive us into bad choices. He will not cause us to fall into traps that will steal from us, kill us or destroy our testimony (John 10:10.) We will be established, trusting in the Lord. Our hearts will be fixed on his will and his ways, and nothing will shake us. Then we can show the stability people need to see in this unstable world.
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