111 1 Praise the Lord!
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart,
in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
2 Great are the works of the Lord,
studied by all who delight in them.
3 Full of splendor and majesty is his work,
and his righteousness endures forever.
4 He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered;
the Lord is gracious and merciful.
5 He provides food for those who fear him;
he remembers his covenant forever.
6 He has shown his people the power of his works,
in giving them the inheritance of the nations.
7 The works of his hands are faithful and just;
all his precepts are trustworthy;
8 they are established forever and ever,
to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.
9 He sent redemption to his people;
he has commanded his covenant forever.
Holy and awesome is his name!
10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
all those who practice it have a good understanding.
His praise endures forever!
Section Overview
Psalm 111 is a hymn of praise, celebrating the great works the Lord has done for his people in calling them to be his, caring for them, and protecting them. These great works express God’s unstinting goodness toward his people. The purpose of singing the psalm is to remind the people of these deeds and to encourage them to embrace the privileges God’s call has bestowed by a heartfelt “fear of the Lord” (v. 10).
The psalm focuses on the deeds God has done for his people as a body. The “covenant” (v. 5) established Israel as God’s people, and the “works” sustain and protect Israel as a whole. The “redemption” described here (v. 9) is for the sake of calling and protecting the whole people and fostering the conditions under which true piety may thrive (cf. comments on 25:22; 77:10–20 [at v. 15]).684
A number of factors show that Psalms 111–112 go together.685 Both begin with “Praise the Lord” (Hb. hallu yah, or hallelujah), and both follow the same acrostic pattern, with twenty-two lines, each beginning with the successive Hebrew letters. The acrostic pattern of Psalms 111–112 separates them from Psalm 113, which likewise opens with hallelujah. And the particular acrostic pattern sets these apart from the other acrostics in the Psalter.686 Psalm 111:10 brings its praise to a close with a reference to the fear of the Lord—a “wisdom” idea, coupled with “understanding”—while 112:1 leads off its wisdom meditation with “the man who fears the Lord,” a tail-to-head linkage. Further, in Psalm 111 it is the Lord whose “righteousness endures forever” (111:3), who is “gracious and merciful” (111:4, echoing Ex. 34:6), and whose works are “just” (Ps. 111:7), while in Psalm 112 it is the godly person whose “righteousness endures forever” (112:3, 9), who is “gracious [and] merciful” (112:4), and “who conducts his affairs with justice” (112:5). This tight unity of the two psalms leads to the conclusion that, though each is a recognizable psalm in its own right, they were meant to be used together (perhaps as sequential parts of the same liturgy). Our discussion of how the psalms were to work (for ancient Israel and for modern Christians) must account for the implication of this, that the person who fears the Lord and attends to his commandments has the Lord’s own moral traits reflected in his character (cf. Response section on Psalm 112).
For both psalms the flow of thought is governed by the acrostic structure. Thus the discussion will go verse by verse rather than imposing an outline on the two psalms.
Response
Cf. Response section on Psalm 112.Psalm 111
Psalm 112