Psalm 111, 112 – “Mary Has Chosen the Better Part”

These two psalms begin and end with:

 “I will extol the Lord with all  my heart … To Him belongs eternal praise”

      and

 “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord … the desires of the wicked will perish.”

 As I have studied these two psalms, there is no question in my mind they were intended to be read together. As I (and a host of others) have noted, 111 is all about the Lord and who He is, while 112 is about the people who know Him (and, in v10, those who don’t). As the two stand together, I am reminded of JI Packer’s book Knowing God and particularly one of the chapter titles, “The People Who Know Their God.”

I think one of the profound blessings of my life was that, not long after the Lord saved me, He put that book in my hands. I devoured it. But not quickly. I remember literally reading it a paragraph at a time. Knowing God – and “The People Who Know Their God.” Jesus said, “For this is eternal life, that they might know Thee …” (John 17:3). It struck me back then, that, in fact, as Jesus is clearly saying, eternal life itself is all about knowing God. It’s not just about Heaven forever and salvation and deliverance and love and all those things. They are all important, but … and this is my point (then and now) … all those blessings issue from a relationship with God.

And that is precisely why “Mary has chosen the better part.” Martha was filling her day with good things – serving the Lord – but Mary chose the better part. Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and drank of who He was and what He said. Martha would serve the Lord, Mary would know Him. And what did Jesus think of it all? “Mary has chosen the better part … and it will not be taken from her.”

Once again, my point is to observe that these two psalms belong together. You can read again the blessings of the second, Psalm 112, and there are many people today who, like Martha, would work very hard to see those blessings come about in their own lives and the lives of those around them; but it simply will not happen without Psalm 111, without “sitting at His feet.” To “sit at His feet,” treasuring Him and knowing Him and loving Him (111) is what will produce the blessings of 112.

In Hebrew, there is a great deal of repetition between the two psalms. Both are acrostics and the number and organization of the lines of each are identical. Also, there is much repetition of words and phrases. One example is obvious even in English, the statement, “His righteousness stands forever.” It is stated of God in 111:3, then of the godly man twice in 112, in verses 3 and 9. In addition, there are many words and phrases repeated between the two. As I noted earlier, there is a definite chiasm in 112:7,8 and I suspect there is a great deal of order between the two psalms. I have looked at various people’s efforts to find chiastic structure in the entire psalms, but so far I haven’t found anything I thought convincing. I guess it is enough for me now to see that, grammatically, there is no question the two psalms are related, and then to note that connection is also theologically profound.

I guess I think our generation is seriously missing this point. I fear almost the entire focus of “church” today is simply to make people busy, to “do” things, to “serve the Lord,” without realizing the point of it all, the dynamo that fuels it all, is simply to know Him. That is true for us and it is also true for the very people we want to “reach.” We have reason to fear lest Jesus’ words be true of us, “They travel over land and sea to make one disciple, and when they do, they make him two times more the son of hell than they are.” Is the goal to make more Marys or more Marthas? I fear it is a cosmic “bait and switch.” The devil would have us ignore God entirely; but, if he can’t accomplish that and someone is bound determined to be a Christian, then he gets them busy being a Martha and robs them of the very thing that drives the Psalm 112 life -- the God of Psalm 111.

Mary has chosen the better part. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (II Cor 3:18). We see from this verse, it is in “beholding the Lord” that we “are being transformed.” “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (II Cor 4:6).

My heart is literally dumbfounded to sit here and ponder all of this. I spent way too many years “trying to grow,” trying to “serve the Lord,” only to discover what I knew from the beginning, the title of Packer’s book, it’s all about knowing Him. The more I know the God of Psalm 111, the more I become the man of Psalm 112. And not so much because I’m “trying;” as He said in II Cor 3:18, it is in beholding the Lord that I am changed into His image. Knowing His love for me, I am changed forever. I want to love others. Knowing His kindness, I want to be kind. Seeing His faithfulness, I want to be dependable. Hmmmmm, maybe that’s why it’s all called, the Fruit of the Spirit?

Well, I am still a mess. He’s been working all these years to “fix” me and make me who He intends me to be, but I’m keenly aware He is far from done. But I am very thankful for this simple truth of Psalms 111 and 112. Mary has chosen the better part. God help me to choose Mary’s part. You deserve it.

I am going to go on ahead and study Psalm 113 as well. It begins with the same “Praise the Lord,” and looks like it too was intended to be read together with Psalms 111 and 112. Whether it is or isn’t, I’m sure it will be instructive.

All praise to Him who reigns above.