Psalm 112

Psalms 112:1

Like Psalm 111 this is an alphabetic acrostic in the Hebrew, twenty-two lines by the letter, and the two psalms are read as a pair: 111 praises what the Lord is, and 112 describes the man who fears him, God's own attributes mirrored in a human life. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord picks up the Psalter's own opening word, blessed, which frames the whole book from Psalm 1:1 onward, and delighteth greatly in his commandments echoes the blessed man's delight in the law at Psalm 1:2.

Psalms 112:2-3

His seed shall be mighty upon earth and the generation of the upright shall be blessed extend the blessing across time the way the covenant promises did, one man's fear of the Lord becoming a family's inheritance. Wealth and riches shall be in his house, and his righteousness endureth for ever repeats the exact words used of God's own righteousness at 111:3, the pairing's whole point made in a single borrowed line: the righteous man's character outlasts him because it reflects God's own.

Psalms 112:4-6

He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous applies to the godly man the very words 111:4 used of the Lord, which is this psalm's method throughout: the fear of God reproduces God's own character in the one who fears him. A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth, and guides his affairs with discretion pairs generosity with prudence, open-handed giving that is not careless. Surely he shall not be moved for ever promises a stability the wicked man in the psalm's last verse will not share.

Psalms 112:7-9

His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord explains the fearlessness of evil tidings, a settled trust rather than a naturally bold temperament, and until he see his desire upon his enemies looks past present trouble to eventual vindication rather than promising the trouble's absence. He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever is quoted by Paul at 2 Corinthians 9:9 to commend generous giving, the New Testament reading this man's open hand as the pattern for the church's own. His horn shall be exalted with honour closes the section with the psalm's one image of strength, a horn granted rather than seized.

Psalms 112:10

The wicked shall see it, and be grieved closes the twin acrostics by turning the mirror around: the righteous man's stability, generosity and honour, all drawn from the Lord's own character in Psalm 111, are what the wicked man watches and cannot bear. He shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away pictures impotent rage rather than active harm, a man consumed from within by what he cannot undo. The desire of the wicked shall perish answers verse 8's until he see his desire upon his enemies with a deliberate reversal, one man's longing satisfied and the other's extinguished, the two acrostics ending on that contrast.