The Man Who Fears God
Psalms 112
July 11, 2021
Last Sunday night we looked at Psalms 111
Which is the other half of this matched set.
These two Psalms work together.
They are yoked together like two oxen pulling the same load.
• Psalms 111 focused on the God who is to be feared.
• Psalms 112 focuses on the man who fears God.
If you set the two Psalms side by side (which we will do some tonight)
You will notice the striking similarity between the two.
THEY ARE BOTH ACROSTICS.
• They both follow the Hebrew alphabet which was a tool used for easier
memorization.
BUT WHAT ALSO BECOMES CLEAR when you set the two side by side
Is that Psalms 112 is an obvious reflection of Psalms 111.
Spurgeon put it like this.
“The subject of the poem before us is – the blessedness of the righteous man, and so it bears the same relation to the preceding which the moon does to the sun; for, while the first declares the glory of God, the second speaks of the reflection of the divine brightness in men born from above.”
(Spurgeon, C.H. [The Treasury of David, Volume 3, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, MA] pg. 15)
That is to say that just as the moon reflects the glory of the sun,
So the man who fears God reflects the glory of God
And so Psalms 112 reflects the glory of Psalms 111.
The two Psalms have such similar terminology
That it becomes evident that the man who fears God
Is being conformed into the image of the God he fears.
Romans 8:29 “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;”
You clearly see that taking place here.
God is at work to mold this man into Himself.
And yet you also see in this Psalm that this is also a man who is striving to be like the God he fears.
Ephesians 5:1-2 “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.”
And that is also evident.
We could take both of those realities and tie them up in what Paul wrote to the Philippians:
Philippians 2:12-13 “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
You see that here.
Of the utmost importance in studying this Psalm, is the first 3 words.
“Praise the LORD”
If you skip those 3 words or read over them lightly
Then you will miss the entire point of the Psalm.
You might be tempted to read this Psalm about the man who fears God
And then pat him on the back for all that he has done.
But if you walk away bragging on the man
Then you miss the whole point which David makes clear from the outset.
Man is not to be praised, God is to be praised.
• God is the catalyst here.
• God is the cause.
• Everything that takes place here is God’s doing, and He is being praised.
So when we talk about this man who fears God, we do well to begin by asking the question: WHY DOES THIS MAN FEAR GOD?
You could say, “Well he’s read Psalms 111 about all the great works of God and it led him to fear.”
• Well certainly that should be the result of reading Psalms 111,
• And yet we have seen far too often sinful man suppress the truth of God’s creation just as Romans 1 says.
I mean we’ve all read:
Romans 3:18 “THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”
And that isn’t just a few people, that’s all people.
Ephesians 2:1-3 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”
It is a universal problem of every man born in Adam
• That we are born at enmity with God
• And we are enemies of God
• And there is no fear of God before our eyes.
• And man is prone to suppress the truth of His creator and give glory to the creature instead.
But here we have a man who “fears the LORD”
WHY?
It is only because God has so worked as to cause this man to fear him.
Don’t we sing it?
“Twas grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved.”
God taught this man to fear Him.
God instilled this fear in Him.
It’s called REGENERATION
• It’s the process by which God, through His grace, awakens a man to the truth about himself and to the truth about God.
• And it is through this process that God also grants to this sinful man, not only the discernment to begin to fear God but also the faith to trust God.
THAT IS THE WORK OF GOD.
And that can never be overlooked.
And that is why when we read a Psalm about a God-fearing man
We still say: “Praise the LORD!”
Psalms 112 is not so that we can applaud the men who fear God.
Psalms 112 is so that we can applaud the God
Who took sinful rebels and turned them into God fearers.
WE SHOULD ALSO POINT OUT
That this Psalm also gives us added insight into WHAT IT MEANS by “fears the LORD”.
We actually read one last week.
Proverbs 8:13 “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverted mouth, I hate.”
Here we find another attribute of what it means to fear the LORD.
“How blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in His commandments.”
On one hand a man who fears the LORD hates evil,
And on the other hand he “greatly delights in His commandments.”
You see THE LINK there to Psalms 111.
Psalms 111:2 “Great are the works of the LORD; They are studied by all who delight in them.”
• Men who fear God study His works.
• Men who fear God delight in His commandments.
Paul said:
Romans 12:9 “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.”
And so you see opposite sides of the same coin.
• You cannot claim to fear God if you love what is evil.
• You cannot claim to fear God if you hate His commandments.
A man who fears God
Hates what is evil and loves God’s righteous commands.
And he only does that because God has done a regenerating work in his heart to cause him to do that.
So we say, “Praise the LORD!”
And that is one reason why we call this man “blessed” and not “worthy”
AND IF THAT WAS NOT ENOUGH,
We praise God even more for after He transforms rebels into God-fearers He THEN POURS BLESSING into their life because they feared Him.
For David makes a statement, “How blessed is the man who fears the LORD,”
We would do well to repeat it in the form of a question
And ask: “How blessed is the man who fears the LORD?”
And that is what this Psalm reveals.
As we saw with the previous Psalms
• These Psalms are an acrostic so seeking some form of outline is a bit foolish.
• These are individual statements which work to show an overall theme and it’s best to look at them like that.
• And we actually see 9 statements here.
God has greatly blessed the man who fears Him
And THIS IS HOW GOD HAS BLESSED HIM.
#1 WITH MIGHTY DESCENDANTS
Psalms 112:2
“His descendants will be mighty on earth; The generation of the upright will be blessed.”
It harkens back to the promise of God to Moses:
Exodus 20:5 “…I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,”
It was spoken by David earlier in the Psalms.
Psalms 103:17 “But the lovingkindness of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children’s children,”
And this is still the same point here.
That when a man fears God it is fear that trickles down.
Men who fear God teach their children to fear God.
And God makes his “descendants” “mighty”.
“mighty” translates GIBORE
It was a word used to describe the Nephilim which were giants on the earth.
Genesis 6:4 “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.”
It was a word used to describe Nimrod
Genesis 10:9 “He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the LORD.”
It could almost be used to say “notorious”.
Not every descendant of the man who fears God will be famous,
But they will be those who leave their mark
And whose influence long outlasts them.
• They will be men who make a difference.
• They will be men who matter.
It is one of the blessings that rests upon the man who fears God.
He’ll raise mighty children.
#2 WITH ABUNDANT PROVIDENCE
Psalms 112:3a
“Wealth and riches are in his house…”
This sounds like the type of a verse that
THE PROSPERITY GOSPEL people would absolutely love.
If you just fear God then you are promised “wealth and riches”.
• Now certainly we read this through the lens of the New Testament where we even see that in a monetary since Jesus was poor.
• We certainly could apply this to spiritual riches and note that in a spiritual sense it is true since in Christ we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing.
But even those sound a little like COPOUTS.
Where the prosperity folks actually miss this verse
Is in the fact that they fail to understand the word “house”.
We have a tendency to be very individualistic in our interpretation of Scripture, whereas the writers of the Old Testament in Israel were not.
“house” there DOES NOT necessarily mean that every single man who fears God will be a wealthy man in worldly wealth.
It does mean that his “house” or “his lineage” or “his family line”
Will be one which is blessed with “wealth”.
There will be abundant provision for the family of the man who fears God.
And there is a reason for this.
Throughout this Psalm we also notice a definite correlation to this man’s fear and his generosity.
• In verse 4 we read “He is gracious and compassionate and righteous”
• In verse 5 we read He is “the man who is gracious and lends”
• In verse 9 we read “He has given freely to the poor”
And even the New Testament
Speaks of the monetary blessing of God on a man like that.
Luke 6:38 “Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”
Philippians 4:15-20 “You yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone; for even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs. Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account. But I have received everything in full and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”
2 Corinthians 9:8-12 “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed; as it is written, “HE SCATTERED ABROAD, HE GAVE TO THE POOR, HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS ENDURES FOREVER.” Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness; you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God.”
That is actually a quote of Psalms 112:9 there.
But the point is that men who fear God
And as a result are generous and meet the needs of the saints,
Can in fact expect that God will continue to provide seed
So that they can continue to sow.
God blesses the man who fears Him with mighty descendants
God blesses the man who fears Him with abundant providence
#3 WITH ENDURING RIGHTEOUSNESS
Psalms 112:3b
Here we get a direct parallel to Psalms 111
Psalms 111:3 “Splendid and majestic is His work, And His righteousness endures forever.”
God’s righteousness endures forever
And now we find that the man who fears Him shares that same attribute.
It is nothing less than God conforming this man into His own image.
And so he is blessed with enduring righteousness.
“And his righteousness endures forever.”
This speaks of his commitment.
• He never wains.
• He never leaves.
Matthew 10:22 “You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.”
The man who fears God endures; he perseveres.
Even if he gains the wealth God speaks of in verse 2
It does not turn his heart toward corrupt things.
When the man who fears God obtains wealth
He uses it for the kingdom, not for sin.
He is no apostate, he is no weedy soil.
He stands and he remains.
Men who truly fear God always fear God.
God has blessed them with such endurance.
He has also blessed them…
#4 WITH COMPASSIONATE CHARACTER
Psalms 112:4
Again we notice that this is first an attribute of God,
And God is now reproducing it in the life of the man who fears Him.
We saw it in also in
Psalms 111:4 “He has made His wonders to be remembered; The LORD is gracious and compassionate.”
And here we read:
“Light arises in the darkness for the upright; He is gracious and compassionate and righteous.”
That is granted a bit of a misleading translation.
• It still makes it sound as though the focus is on God being the gracious and compassionate one,
• When the focus of the Psalm is clearly that the man who fears God is the one who is in view.
Darek Kidner translated the verse as follows:
“He rises in the darkness, a light to the upright; he is gracious and merciful and righteous.”
(Kidner, Derek [Kidner Classic Commentaries; Psalms 73-150; IVP Academic, Downers Grove IL, 2008] pg. 4340
And that certainly fits the context of the Psalm.
Here is a man who is being conformed into the image of the God he fears.
• “God is light and in Him there is no darkness” at all.
• Conversely the child of God is also called “the light of the world”
God is gracious and compassionate and righteous
And so the man who fears God is transformed into a man
Who is also “gracious and compassionate and righteous.”
The point is that God blesses the man who fears Him
By giving that man His character.
This was the point of Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 5:16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
Matthew 5:43-45 “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
We are commanded to shine light like God does.
We are commanded to love like God does.
And yet we are aware that as far as man is concerned this is impossible.
BUT WHEN A MAN FEARS GOD,
God blesses him with the very compassionate character He demands.
That is to say that God gives the man who fears Him
The very attributes that He demands from that man.
That is truly a blessing.
And that directly corelates to the next thing God blesses the man who fears Him with.
#5 WITH CONFIDENCE IN JUDGMENT
Psalms 112:5
Again we see a link to the previous Psalm.
Psalms 111:5 “He has given food to those who fear Him; He will remember His covenant forever.”
And here we read:
(5) “It is well with the man who is gracious and lends; He will maintain his cause in judgment.”
• God is generous and the man who fears Him is generous.
• God keeps his covenant of salvation and so the man who fears Him is confident in judgment.
The simple point is that God has done a righteous work in this man.
• God demanded generosity and compassion or else God promises judgment.
• And yet here we find a man whom God has caused to be gracious so that he will skip judgment.
It is again God graciously granting
The very attributes and attitudes that He demands.
AND SO THE MAN WHO FEARS IS GRANTED CONFIDENCE
THAT GOD HAS SUPPLIED ALL THAT HE HAS DEMANDED.
This is the blessing on those who fear Him.
And it is a blessing that is reiterated in the New Testament.
Listen to John.
1 John 3:16-20 “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things.”
Did you catch John there?
• We may have moments where our own heart will condemn us. (You’ve probably had that)
• But John says the evidence that we look to in that moment to assure our heart that we are in fact redeemed is the love of the brethren.
That grace and compassion that we show
Is NOT there of our own accord.
I can easily remind you again of humanity.
Romans 3:12-17 “ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.” “THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,” “THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS”; “WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS”; “THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD, DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN.”
Genuine love of the brethren is not natural to the human heart.
And yet it is required by God or else God promises judgment.
But when a man fears God,
God regenerates his heart and places in him
The same love and compassion that He has
And thus man is assured that he has been saved from judgment.
And that is a blessing.
#6 WITH REMEMBERED RIGHTEOUSNESS
Psalms 1112:6
“For he will never be shaken; The righteous will be remembered forever.”
Earlier we spoke of the man’s enduring righteousness, indicating that he will not defect from God.
But here we are talking about this man’s imputed righteousness.
This is the alien righteousness that is not his own
That has been credited to him.
Here we are NOT talking about the work that he has done,
But rather the work that God has done for them.
See again the companion passage in Psalms 111.
Psalms 111:6 “He has made known to His people the power of His works, In giving them the heritage of the nations.”
It is the power of God’s works that brought them safely home,
Not their own works.
And so it is in the gospel.
It is not our works which God accepts,
But rather it is the works of Christ that God accepts.
We are like that rabble army going up against giants in the Promised Land.
It is Christ who demonstrated His mighty power by conquering our foe and giving us the land.
• His works dispossessed the nations.
• His works slayed the giants.
• His works fulfilled the Law.
• His works satisfied the wrath of God.
He is the righteous who is “remembered forever” before God.
And because the man who fears God is wrapped in those works,
“he will never be shaken”
God will remember and justify that man.
#7 WITH STEADFASTNESS IN EVIL
Psalms 112:7
It is not just the fear of eternal judgment where this man is safe,
But also even in the midst of the temporal evil that rages.
“He will not fear evil tidings; His heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.”
Psalms 23:4 “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”
God protects during evil.
Jude reminded:
Jude 24 “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy,”
Paul said:
2 Timothy 4:18 “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”
And this is the promise for the man who fears God.
No evil will overtake him.
That DOES NOT MEAN he will never suffer or be persecuted or have hardship as you well know.
• But no evil will conquer him.
• No evil will turn him away.
• No evil will cause him to defect.
Paul also wrote:
Romans 8:35-39 “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The man who fears God need not fear anything else.
That is a blessing on the man who fears God.
#8 WITH PROMISED VICTORY
Psalms 112:8
“His heart is upheld, he will not fear, until he looks with satisfaction on his adversaries.”
And it reminds us again of Psalms 111.
Psalms 111:8 “They are upheld forever and ever; They are performed in truth and uprightness.”
• God upholds His works (as we saw last week)
• God upholds His words
And here we find that He also upholds those who fear Him.
“His heart is upheld”
And the promise is that
He “looks with satisfaction on his adversaries.”
The victory is his.
Paul said it earlier in the passage we read: “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer…”
David said:
Psalms 23:5-6 “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”
The man who fears God can be certain
That victory is coming for him over his foes.
Vengeance belongs to God and one day God will have it.
• One day Satan will be crushed.
• One day sin will be gone.
• One day we will stand in total victory.
1 Corinthians 15:54-57 “But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. “O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
This is for the man who fears God.
And finally:
#9 WITH AN HONORABLE LIFE
Psalms 112:9
“He has given freely to the poor, His righteousness endures forever; His horn will be exalted in honor.”
Now the promise of remembered righteousness
Pertains to his legacy and his memory.
Most of the time men who fear God feel as though they are TOTALLY OVERLOOKED AND DISREGARDED in this evil world.
• We see them arrested, murdered, abused.
• Paul earlier said they were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
• Very few reach any level of fame or worldly importance.
• They are those who have forsaken the frills of this world that they might obtain the kingdom of heaven.
But God has promised that when they are gone
Their absence will suck a vacuum into this world
And they will be honored and remembered well.
• Peggy and I still do it from time to time drinking coffee.
• Names like: Eldon Buchannon, Ruth Caplinger, Betty Marquis,
• Or even recently Gloria Lee or Mac Driggers will come up.
Certainly not famous in life,
But honored in death with the promise of a lasting legacy.
God does this for those who fear Him.
These are simply the blessings on the man who fears God.
• Mighty Descendants
• Abundant Providence
• Enduring Righteousness
• Compassionate Character
• Confidence in Judgment
• Remembered Righteousness
• Steadfastness in Evil
• Promised Victory
• Honorable Life
And all of those blessings are because
God takes the man who fears Him and conforms him into His own image.
God makes that man like Him
And then blesses that man because of it.
And it drives home the point of the importance of fearing God.
“How blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in His commandments.”
How blessed?
Very blessed.
And if that is not enough, all you have to do is look at the alternative.
(10) “The wicked will see it and be vexed, He will gnash his teeth and melt away; The desire of the wicked will perish.”
That is to say that
Those who chose not to fear God and live for themselves
• Will be TOTALLY FRUSTRATED when they see all of those BLESSINGS on
the man who fears God when they were unable to obtain any of them.
Those who do not fear God CANNOT get:
• Mighty descendants or abundant providence or enduring righteousness or
compassionate character or confidence in judgment or imputed
righteousness or steadfastness in evil or promised victory or honor in life.
Those things allude them and “the wicked will see it and be vexed.”
Furthermore “He will gnash his teeth and melt away”
• Over and over God speaks of the man who fears Him as enduring, but not the wicked.
• They will suffer where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth and then be taken away into judgment.
Ultimately “the desire of the wicked will perish.”
• Their life will end in disarray, frustration, judgment, and no satisfaction.
WHY?
Because he did not fear God
So God did not perform such a work in his heart.
So tonight we learn two great truths.
1) The absolute benefit of fearing God
2) That God deserves all glory for causing us to fear Him.
• God deserves to be feared (Psalms 111)
• And God both causes men to fear and blesses them for it (Psalms 112)
So: DO YOU FEAR GOD?
• IF YOU DO, thank Him.
• IF YOU DO NOT, ask Him to impart that fear to you.
