Psalm 111 Commentary

Psalm 111 was written by somebody who pulled out every stop on the praise organ and then let it rip!  In the span of just 10 verses, God is praised up and down, forward and back.  God is extolled for the works of God’s hands, for keeping covenant with God’s people, for providing food for God’s faithful ones, for redeeming God’s people, for causing wonders to be performed and to be remembered, for giving out God’s precepts so people could live according to God’s holy ways.  It is remarkable that in so few words the psalmist seems to leave nothing out when it comes to finding reasons to praise the God of Israel.

This God is described as great, glorious, majestic, faithful, upright, holy, awesome, and righteous.  The works and precepts of this God are described as good, faithful, just, and great.  To the psalmist all of this is so obvious that the only mystery he could see is why everyone in the world is not already joining him in this song.  “Praise the Lord” is, as has often been noted in sermon commentaries here on CEP, an imperative, a command, a direct order.  But if only everyone could see God and God’s works clearly, there would be no more need to order people to start singing than you would have to order a 5-year-old to eat the bowl of ice cream with chocolate sauce that just got set down in front of her.

As is the case with the many other praise psalms in the Hebrew Psalter, so Psalm 111 reflects the conviction that given who God is and what God has done and continues to do, praise is the only fitting response we can render and offer up.  To not see God and what God has done is a shame but in a fallen world that is the case for too many people.  To quote a line from the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty”: “Though the eye made blind by sin thy glory may not see.”  But if you can see that glory, you simply must burst forth in song and wonder and adoration and praise in imitation of this poet.

Honestly, there is not a lot more to comment on for Psalm 111.  But we can take note of the concluding verse.  It does not repeat the “Praise the Lord” of verse 1 as many psalms do.  Instead it makes a nod to the Wisdom Literature in the Old Testament by pointing to that verse that sums up the Book of Proverbs: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”  “Fear” in this case is not fright or terror but reverential awe (though there may be tinges of other kinds of fear in that).  But how does such reverence lead to wisdom per se?

Well, it might help to recall a good working definition of wisdom.  Wisdom in Scripture is generally differentiated from knowledge.  Knowledge is the kind of knowing that you can gain in a classroom.  You can come to know the periodic table of elements, arithmetic, the facts of human history, the biology of cells and reproduction, etc.  Knowledge is book learning.  Wisdom is more the kind of knowing you pick up as you bump along in life.  It’s street smarts in some ways.  The wise person notices what works and what doesn’t work and then arranges their life to fit in and to go with the creation’s natural flow.  That is why the Book of Proverbs is filled with common sense observations about not spitting into the wind or in essence sawing off the branch upon which are you sitting.  Wisdom discerns when it is prudent to rebuke a fool for their folly and when it is prudent to walk away quietly and leave the fool alone.  The wise person knows that you could better have a supper of simple bread and soup in the presence of someone you love than attend a lavish banquet where the people around the table express nothing but contempt for one another.

So what does all of that have to do with the explosions of praise that fill up Psalm 111?  How is worship like having wisdom?  Frankly, we don’t often ponder wisdom when we are at a church service singing hymns and songs.  Yet this psalmist is yoking everything in verses 1-9 with a fear of the Lord that leads to wisdom.  But the psalmist does this because knowing both that there is a holy and good God and what this God does is the bedrock foundation of everything.  If you know the things Psalm 111 celebrates and therefore celebrate them on and on in your own life, then you know this is a God who can be trusted.  This is a God who set up the world in very particular ways such that some things are good and prudent to do and other things are foolish and impudent to do in ways that usually result in harm to oneself, to others, or to both.

The one who praises God for all God’s worth recognizes that this is God’s world and not our own and so fits their life into the patterns God has established.  That is why verse 10 also notes that when you follow God’s precepts, you have “good understanding.”  This ending to Psalm 111 may feel a little bit like a kind of heavy letdown after 9 verses of riotous joy and praise.  Wouldn’t it have been better to imitate most other psalms of praise and just repeat the “Praise the Lord” of verse 1?  Possibly.  And yet ending with wisdom and understanding fits this psalm well since everything that had been celebrated earlier leads to a life of due repose and equipoise.  It leads to shalom.

And that’s not a bad way to end any psalm!

Illustration Idea

At the start of this Psalm 111 sermon commentary, I likened the psalmist to an organist who pulled out every stop and then went off on a musical tear and then some.  When I think of that kind of organ music, I immediately remember all the times I have heard live and in person the Toccata from Widor’s Fifth Organ Symphony.  Even a quick glance at the sheet music tells you immediately that this is one riotous and exuberant burst of music.

But you have to hear it to understand why I would associate this with the explosion of praise such as we find in Psalm 111.   You can listen (and watch) this here.