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.