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Psalms

Psalm 111

10 verses · BSBPsalms book hub →

Speaks with:Luke 1×3Psalms 145×2Psalms 19×2Psalms 138×1Psalms 149×1Psalms 109×1

Summary

Chapter summary

An acrostic of praise: 'I will give thanks unto Jehovah with my whole heart, in the council of the upright, and in the congregation.' The works of Jehovah are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein; his work is honor and majesty. He hath given food unto them that fear him; 'he will ever be mindful of his covenant.' The works of his hands are truth and justice; all his precepts are sure. 'He hath sent redemption unto his people; he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name. The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom.'

Context

Poetry · David, Asaph, Sons of Korah, others — Psalms overview

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

The beginning of wisdom

Pattern

The wisdom books answer their own question in the same words. Job's poem on wisdom ends where Psalms and Proverbs begin: the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Ecclesiastes gathers the chain into its last sentence, Fear God, and keep his commandments.

Four books written across centuries land on one sentence. Wisdom in Scripture does not start with information but with reverence, and the chain shows the canon teaching a single lesson in a single vocabulary.

  1. Job 28:28

    The wisdom poem's last line

    Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.

  2. Psalms 111:10 you are here

    The beginning of wisdom

  3. Proverbs 1:7

    The motto of Proverbs

    The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.

  4. Proverbs 9:10

    Restated at the seam of the first collection

  5. Ecclesiastes 12:13

    The conclusion of the whole matter

    Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

The world behind this chapter

Psalms 111
When
Israel's temple worship after the return · Author unnamed; its form and setting fit the worship of the second temple, after 516 BC
Where
The gathered congregation at the sanctuary, giving thanks in a set form
Who first heard it
Israelites learning their faith by singing it in an order they could remember

The history

This psalm is an alphabet poem. It has twenty-two short lines, and each one begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order. That did two things: it made the song easy to memorize in a world where most people owned no scrolls, and it quietly claimed to cover the subject from beginning to end.

It names its setting: the council of the upright and the assembly. Worship in Israel was public. A man gave thanks with his neighbors watching, and the Levitical singers led the congregation in responses.

Its list of God's works runs through the exodus story in shorthand — food given to those who fear him, the covenant remembered, the land of the nations handed over as an inheritance. Every phrase is a doorway into a story the hearers already knew by heart.

The redemption it mentions carried a household meaning. To redeem was to buy a relative out of slavery or buy back the family field, a duty that fell on the nearest kinsman. Applied to God, it says he acted as the family member who pays.

What it meant to them

For people rebuilding a small nation in the shadow of empires, this song insisted the works of God were worth studying, not just admiring — sought out by all who delight in them.

Its last line is the seam that joins it to the next psalm: the fear of the LORD is where wisdom starts. Praise ends by pointing at how to live.

Sources cited

  • Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament , Psalms
  • Walton, Matthews and Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on Psalms 111. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

This page draws on Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

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