Psalms 111

Section 3. (Psalms 111:1-10; Psalms 112:1-10; Psalms 113:1-9.)Hallelujah! The next and closing section is composed of three psalms, each marked at the beginning, and the final one at the end also, with a Hallelujah. Accordingly they are, throughout, filled with Jehovah’s praise: the first, celebrating Him as known in His works and ways; the second, the blessing of those that fear Him; the third, the glory of His Name as filling heaven and earth. From their largeness these psalms are difficult to summarize, as may be imagined: who can tell out His praise? The first two have a difficulty also of another nature in their alphabetic structure,which is most regular. and in both perfectly alike, the whole twenty-two letters being contained within the compass of ten verses. Of the numerous divisions resulting from this, I have only been able to characterize as far as the verses. Indeed I have doubted if the letters are to he taken as real divisions here, or had another meaning.

This I must leave for any who may follow me in this direction to decide; but as I have said elsewhere (p. 42) “it is surely natural to see in the alphabetic arrangement a symbol of order impressed by a governing mind. A numerical structure by itself expresses this; and an alphabetic one, making use of all the elements of human speech, seems as if it were indeed intended to make that order vocal.” Here the perfect regularity and exact correspondence in the two psalms emphasize this thought, which is in thorough harmony with their being devoted entirely to Jehovah’s praise. This is indeed the only harmony that is really that: all else is discord; and the coming day will bring forth from human history as well as nature this secret harmony, which it is a joy to think that man’s lips shall make vocal. This may be a sufficient meaning for the alphabetic structure here.

Psalms 111:1-10

Jehovah!

1. The one hundred and eleventh psalm, then; celebrates Jehovah, as seen in His works and ways; the whole heart united in thanksgiving, and this poured out in the secret converse of the upright where hearts are freest, and in the public assembly. The theme is a large -aye, an unending one: for “great are Jehovah’s works, and sought out by all that delight in them;” or perhaps, as Delitzsch takes it, -“worthy of being sought out in all their aims,” or “purposes.”
2. Now we find His character as told out in these: essentially righteousness and tender mercy; or light and love, as the New Testament unites with the Old to declare Him. “His work is honorable and with majesty;” and this is the reason of it, that in it all there is enduring, everlasting righteousness: “His righteousness standeth for aye.” This is the one side; but there is another: for He has provided for the remembrance of His wonderful works; and in this His tender care for His creatures has shone out, that they might have the joy and fruitful consequences of such knowledge: “gracious and merciful is Jehovah.”
3. But Israel is in the front, the Old Testament example in which these characters of His have been displayed, a people His by a covenant which He never forgets. “The prey has He given to them that fear Him: He remembereth His covenant for ever. The living power of His doings He declareth to His people, in giving them the inheritance of the nations.” Here it is plain why it is, not “meat” but “the prey” in the first line; for Israel’s inheritance has to be gained by conquest, as the last psalm has again reminded us; and spite of the long time in which the nations have had possession of the covenanted land, the word of God which has secured it to them; shows the “living power” or “vitality” of His doings through those years in which so long it has lain dormant. Now they are put in possession; and thus, as tested by the event, they can say: —
4. “The works of His hands are truth and judgment: all His appointments are sure. Maintained for aye -for ever, as done in truth and uprightness.”
5. Now all has come out fully, -His faithfulness to His covenant; the manifestation of His Name. His covenant will be seen at last as only grace, in which alone can any stable relationship between God and man be found. While on man’s part God is recognized in a holy fear which is the “beginning of wisdom,” the secret of that “good understanding” which the “knowledge of the holy” is. The praise of it will indeed be eternal.