Psalms 107, 108, 111 - 113

Psalms — Steve Gregg

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Psalms 114 - 117

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Psalms 107, 108, 111 - 113

PsalmsSteve Gregg

In this talk, Steve Gregg discusses Psalms 107, 108, 111, and 112. He notes that these Psalms contain similarities in their themes and references to biblical stories. Gregg highlights the importance of asking God to move through his works among us, and the promise of eternal life through righteousness being imputed to us. He also notes a possible connection between Psalm 112 and the story of the tower of Babel, as well as the significance of the church being born as a fruit of the formerly barren Gentiles.

Transcript

Alright, we'll turn to Psalm 107 now. In this psalm, we begin the fifth and final and longest book of psalms. There are five collections of psalms, five books.

Sometimes called the poetic Pentateuch. Five books. And this is the first of the last collection.

And there are some real interesting subgroups in this collection. For instance, a lot of the psalms in this collection are written by David. Well, I shouldn't say a whole lot, because it's really the minority of them.

Only about 11 of them are really written by David. Psalms 108 through 110 are written by David. And Psalms 138 through 145 are written by David.

So there's two different short groups of psalms that are Davidic. We also have a group of psalms, Psalm 120 to 134, that are songs of degrees. Fifteen psalms that go together, which we'll talk about when we get to them.

And we have five psalms that are called Hallel psalms. They're the last five psalms in the book of psalms. They're called Hallel psalms because they begin with the word Hallelujah, or praise the Lord.

Hallel means praise. There is also another group of psalms that's from Psalm 113 through 118. That's actually, what, six psalms.

And they're sometimes called the Egyptian Hallel. Why they're called the Egyptian Hallel, I'm not real sure about, although several of them do begin with the word Hallelujah. Psalm 113, for instance, and 117 do.

But they were sung as a group of songs, that is, Psalm 113 through 118, were sung as a group by the Jews traditionally at Passover season. And in the New Testament, we're told that Jesus at the last Passover sang a hymn with his disciples, and it was probably this Egyptian Hallel that the Jews sang. And when we get to those psalms, 113 through 118, and consider that Jesus sang those songs, probably, on the night that he was betrayed, with his disciples, some of the lines in them take on really significant shades of meaning.

In Psalm 107, however, we have a declaration of God's wonderful works. In fact, four times in this psalm, the writer wishes, longs, for men to praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. This is a recurring refrain four times in verse 8, in verse 15, in verse 21, and in verse 31.

Four times we have the refrain, O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Now, those four statements, those four refrains punctuate the psalm and each of them close a section of verses which reports different kinds of problems that people get into, which God gets them out of. There are four word pictures, we might say, of the kinds of predicaments that people might find themselves in, but from which God has historically been known to deliver people.

And one of them, the fourth of them, actually could be seen as prophetic, as well as just being a statement of principle, because there's a striking incident in the life of Jesus that seems to literally fulfill word for word the wording of the fourth of these pictures. The psalm begins, O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. That's basically the same as Psalm 106 began.

There's that statement, for he is good and his mercy endureth forever. And it says, let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy. Now we go into our first word picture.

It says, and he gathered them out of the lands from the east and from the west and from the north and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way. They found no city to dwell in, hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.

Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men.

Now here it's talking about people who are wandering and scattered without a homeland. And yet God gathers them to a homeland. This could be a reference to the Jews wandering in the wilderness.

Or it could be a reference to the Jews in their Babylonian captivity. In both cases, the people were scattered somewhat and homeless. And God led them into a homeland, into their own city, their own habitation, as verse 7 refers to.

But it's possible that he's not referring to specific instances in the history of the Jews, so much as just principles. That when people are scattered, God is the one to look to to bring them into a habitation. Apart from the Jews, we can't think of many people that this would apply to, of course.

But it doesn't state necessarily that this is any particular incident in Jewish history. Though it would apply partly, at least a couple of different times. Then in verse 9 we have the second.

He satisfieth the longing soul, he filleth the hungry soul with goodness. Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron, because they rebelled against the words of God and condemned, or contemned, meaning despised the counsel of the Most High. Therefore he brought down their heart with labor, they fell down, and there was none to help.

Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of the darkness and out of the shadow of death, and break their bands and sunder. Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men.

Here we see people in bondage. Perhaps a whole people gone into captivity, like the Jews in Babylon, or when they were in Egypt. Either case could be referred to here.

Or it might even refer to individuals who were in dungeons and put away in prison. But they call unto the Lord and he delivers them. This was true of Hezekiah.

I'm sorry, not Hezekiah, but Hezekiah's son Manasseh, who was a wicked king and God brought judgment upon him, causing him to be carried away by his enemies. But he cried unto the Lord and repented, and God delivered him. So we could see this as related to nations, as the Jews, or to individuals, like the case of Manasseh.

At any rate, it's just stating that God, mercifully and in his goodness, shows his works in delivering his people when they cry to him. The next picture comes in verse 16. For he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder.

Fools, because of their transgression and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat. They draw near to the gates of death.

Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. He sent his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction. Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, for his wonderful works to the children of men.

Now, this seems to be a reference to sickness, although it starts out by talking about breaking the gates of brass and so forth. But basically, it says that even though these people have been delivered out of captivity, they still often transgress. They're fools to do so, it says in verse 17.

But because of their transgression, affliction comes upon them. And this affliction, mentioned in verse 17, probably is physical sickness, because it describes it as losing their appetite, in verse 18, and drawing near to the gates of death. That would mean, of course, coming almost to the point of death, probably through some great sickness.

And when he sent out his word, in verse 20, it healed them. That is, by a spoken word, he had the power to heal. We know of cases in the Old Testament where people were healed by obedience to his word.

For instance, the Jews, when they were bit by serpents, God told them to look upon the brazen serpent, and they'd be healed, and they did so, and were. Naaman the Syrian had leprosy, and God, through the prophet, told him to go dip himself seven times in the River Jordan. He did so, and he was healed, and so forth.

We have cases such as this, where God sent his word, and obedience to his word caused them to be healed from their destruction. So we see that reference to sicknesses. Now, that the sickness was caused as a result of sin is mentioned in verse 17.

And that makes the mercy of God all the greater. If they had fallen into sickness despite their goodness, that God would come and heal them might be understandable. But that they were made sick because of their sins, that this is a judgment from God, it makes the grace of God the more striking, that he would respond to their cry and heal them, which shows how good he is, and that men would praise him for his goodness and his wonderful works to the children of men.

Now, this last word picture, this fourth one, which really begins in verse 23, though we have to read verse 22 yet, has to do with people who are in a storm at sea. Now, when we read it, you'll see the parallel exactly with the story of Jesus asleep in the boat when the storm came, and his disciples were afraid, and they woke him up, and they cried unto him, and he stilled the storm. And it says in the Gospels that after he stilled the storm, they were immediately at their haven, at their desired haven.

So, you'll find as we read this, it almost seems like the psalmist read the Gospels, because the wording is so exact, we might understand it to actually be a prophecy that was fulfilled in the life of Jesus. If it is, then it is probably the most detailed prophecy in the Bible concerning Jesus, because we have other prophecies that give detail of his crucifixion, like Psalm 22, which is one of the more detailed prophecies also of Jesus' life. And there are a few other places where some specific detail is given, in a verse or two usually, or sometimes of one of the more significant things in his life, like his death.

But this would seem to be about a relatively minor incident in his life. Not that anyone who could still the sea would be concerned. I mean, we shouldn't consider that a minor thing.

But compared to so many other great things he did, this doesn't stand out as especially significant, but that there would be such a specific description of it beforehand would be just a remarkable thing. It would just show that the prophet, maybe he didn't know it. Maybe he was just talking about the general tendency of people to call out to God when they're at sea and in a storm, and him coming to save them.

But the wording, as I said, looks as though he's actually read the Gospels. We'll read verse 22 through 31. And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare his works with rejoicing.

They that go down to the sea in ships and that do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord. The disciples of Jesus, by the way, were men who did business in the great waters. They were fishermen.

It says, they see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep for he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven. They go down again to the depths.

Their soul is melted because of trouble as they lose their courage. They reel to and fro and stagger like drunken men and are at their wits' end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble and he bringeth them out of their distresses.

He maketh the storm a calm so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet so he bringeth them into their desired haven. All that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men.

So it talks about how those who go out to sea and God commands a storm to blow up. The waves are so high it pitches the boat high and low. The people are seasick.

They're staggering like drunken men. They're at their wits' end but they cry unto the Lord and he stills the storm. Then they're at their desired destination which has so many parallels with the story of Jesus.

The disciples cried unto Jesus when they were at their wits' end in the storm. The boat was like to be sunk. Jesus got up and he stilled the storm and then they were immediately at their destination.

If this is not intended as a prophecy then it is probable that the gospel writers in writing the story while they were writing a true story it's clear enough but that they actually wrote it in terms that sort of reflected on this psalm. About them saying they were immediately at their desired haven and so forth. It would seem like the writers of the gospel being familiar with this psalm in telling a true story about this incident would couch it in language that is reminiscent of this statement.

Then it says in verse 32 Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people and praise him in the assembly of the elders. He turneth rivers into a wilderness and the water springs into dry ground a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. He turneth the wilderness into a standing water and dry ground into water springs and there he maketh the hungry to dwell and that they may prepare a city for habitation and sow the fields and plant vineyards which may yield fruits of increase.

He blesseth them also so that they are multiplied greatly he suffereth not their cattle to decrease. Again they are minished or diminished and brought low through oppression, affliction and sorrow. He poureth contempt upon princes and causeth them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way.

Yet setteth he the poor on high from affliction and maketh him families like a flock. The righteous shall see it and rejoice and all iniquity shall stop her mouth. It says, Whoso is wise and will observe these things even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord.

Now after his final, Oh that men would praise the Lord and his final description of calamities that God delivers people from which that whole section ends in verse 31. We then have him calling people to exalt God in the congregation of the people and praise Him in the assembly of the elders. Why? Because of his great sovereign moves throughout human history.

He causes droughts is what's implied in verse 33. Then he actually causes the opposite to happen. He causes deserts and wilderness to spring forth into water springs and to make it a fruitful field again for vineyards.

It says also he does the same thing for people. He'll bring them into a land and give them blessings but then he'll also bring oppression on them. Basically it's saying that God is in control of all circumstances.

He can curse people if it's in his heart to do so because of their sins or he can deliver them. Therefore, if a person is wise he'll observe these things. That is, he'll consider the sovereignty of the Lord and basically try to sort through these things and see what God's doing.

They'll understand if they do this they'll understand the loving kindness of the Lord. That is, if you begin to... When you look at the circumstances of history apart from seeing God's hand in it then it won't necessarily give you any special understanding of the plan of God or of his nature at all. But when you begin to see what it is he's doing in the rise and fall of nations and in the sending of droughts and in the bringing of plenty of water to a famine-stricken area or any of the things he does showing his sovereignty over history when you begin to consider his purposes that are accomplished and observe these things then you'll begin to understand more about the nature of God and his loving kindness.

The next three psalms have already been covered as parts of different groups. Psalm 109, for instance, was one of the imprecatory psalms. Psalm 108 was just parts of two other psalms.

The first five verses are borrowed from the end of Psalm 2 and the rest of the psalm is borrowed from Psalm 60. So there's nothing in Psalm 108 that is not found elsewhere and we talked about that when we talked about those other psalms. Psalm 110 was one of the notable messianic psalms about the kingly glory of the Messiah and him being a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek and we talked about that some time ago when we were talking about messianic psalms.

And so that brings us to Psalm 11 and 12. Psalms 11 and 12 are both acrostic psalms. They're both the same length.

In the Hebrew Bible they are broken down into 22 lines, not 10. We have 10 verses in each of them in our Bible but in the Hebrew there are actually 22 lines in them and of course each line begins with the successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet so that it goes through the whole Hebrew alphabet in each of these psalms. Now, there are some interesting similarities between them.

They both start with the expression, Praise ye the Lord. And so that shows them some similarity but also the first one, Psalm 111, is in praise of the works of God and Psalm 112 is in praise of the man of God. Now, God's men are his works, really.

He created us, it's he that made us and not we ourselves. Furthermore, we are his workmanship. Ephesians 2.10 tells us that we are his workmanship.

He is at work in our lives. So that what we are is an example of his works. He's made us what we are.

In Psalm 111 it just talks about his works in general and whether it means his actions or his creation is not clear because the term works could mean either one. When we talk about God's works, we could talk about his actions, the things he does. On the other hand, when we talk about his works, we might be talking about the creation, the heavens are the works of his hands, so to speak.

In either case, of course, the power of God and the wisdom of God demonstrated in what he has done, whether it's in the thing he created or in the thing that he's doing is reflected on. So we'll find again and again in just about every verse in Psalm 111 a reference to the works of the Lord. Just as Psalm 119, almost every verse talks about the word of the Lord.

So here we have the works of the Lord and then in chapter 112, the man of God. So the works of God and the men of God are described and praised in these two psalms. In Psalm 111 it says, Praise ye the Lord.

I will praise the Lord with my whole heart. In the assembly of the upright and in the congregation, the works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is honorable and glorious, and his righteousness endureth forever.

He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered, and the Lord is gracious and full of compassion. He hath given meat unto them that did fear him, and he will ever be mindful of his covenant. He hath showed his people the power of his works, that he may give them the heritage of the heathen.

The works of his hands are verity and judgment, and all his commandments are sure. They, meaning his works, stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness. He sent redemption unto his people.

He hath commanded his covenant forever. Holy and reverend is his name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

A good understanding have all they that do his commandments. His praise endureth forever. So, basically it starts out as so many of them do, calling upon the reader to praise the Lord, and it's clear that they're to praise the Lord for his great works.

As it says in verse 2, his works are great, and all who have pleasure in them will seek them out. There are those who have pleasure in seeing God act, and they will seek to see God act. I believe that we need to be asking God to move and to do his works among us, and those who have pleasure in his works will seek for them.

They will seek them out. It says his work is honorable and glorious, and his righteousness endureth forever. It's interesting because it says, concerning the man of God, in verse 9 of the next psalm, his righteousness endureth forever.

Not speaking of God's righteousness, but in Psalm 112, verse 9, it says that the man of God, concerning him his righteousness endureth forever, as we'll see when we read that. But we see that God's righteousness and that of his people endureth forever. When we consider that our righteousness is imputed to us by faith, that God has imputed the righteousness of Christ to us, then eternal righteousness has been given to us.

It's that righteousness of God that endures forever that is now ours, so that our righteousness endures forever also. It says he has made his wonderful works to be remembered, partly through the writing of psalms like this. It causes them to be remembered.

They remind us of the works. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, mentioning that he has given food to those who fear him, probably referring to the feeding of the Jews in the wilderness because there's so much of that time period referred to in this psalm as in with the others. It says he has showed his people the power of his works, that he may give them the heritage of the heathen, a reference to him showing them victories in their battles through Joshua in the land of Canaan and taking over the heritage of the heathen.

The works over his hands are verity and judgment. Verity means certainty or truth. So his works are truth.

In fact, it says concerning them in verse 8, they are done in truth and uprightness. In Psalm 33, there is a verse that said essentially the same thing, which said all his works are done in truth. That's Psalm 133 and verse 4. So the word of the Lord is right and all his works are done in truth.

That is, God is not a deceiver. Everything he does is faithful to what he has said he will do. His works are done in faithfulness or truth or honesty.

They're noble works. They're honorable works according to verse 3. It says in verse 9, he sent redemption to his people, meaning, of course, delivering them out of Egypt. He redeemed them out of the hand of the Egyptians.

And if this was written after Babylonian captivity, it could refer to a second time where he redeemed them out of the hand of the enemy also, out of the Babylonian captivity. He has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and reverend is his name.

Now, the conclusion of this is that since God's works are noble and powerful, honorable, loving, merciful, done in truth, therefore, the wise thing is to just fear the Lord. His works are great and you can never oppose him. You might as well come into line with him.

You might as well submit to his works and become consonant and in harmony with his works rather than to resist his works and his ways. Therefore, the wise man will fear the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

You don't even have any wisdom at all if you haven't begun by fearing God. A good understanding have all they that do his commandments. Those who don't do his commandments, according to Proverbs, have no understanding at all because they don't consider the remote consequences of their actions.

If you are considering your latter end, you will obviously keep his commandments. That's why those who do so show that they have a good understanding. It says, his praise endureth forever.

Now, this next Psalm, Psalm 112, as I said, talks not about the works of God but the man of God. And it's a lengthy description of the man of God, which is actually quoted by Paul in 2 Corinthians to refer to the generosity of the man of God and to exhort the Corinthian church to be generous and thus to show themselves to be this kind of person. It says, Praise ye the Lord.

Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. His siege shall be mighty on the earth. That is, the man who delights greatly in God's commandments, his seed, his children, shall be mighty upon the earth.

The generation of the upright shall be blessed. That is, the children or the family of the upright man. Wealth and riches shall be in his house, and his righteousness endureth forever.

Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness. He is gracious and full of compassion and righteous. A good man showeth favor and lendeth.

He will guide his affairs with discretion. Surely he shall not be moved forever. The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.

He shall not be afraid of evil tidings. His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. His heart is established.

He shall not be afraid until he see his desire upon his enemies. He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor. His righteousness endureth forever.

His horn shall be exalted with honor. The wicked shall see it and be grieved. He shall gnash with his teeth and melt away, and the desire of the wicked shall perish.

So, the first nine verses talk about the man of God, and the last verse contrasts that with what will happen to the wicked man. He won't have all these blessings. Now, concerning the righteous man, it says several things.

First of all, he is defined, the description of the man that's being discussed is in verse one. He is one who fears God and takes delight in God's commandments. He finds obedience to God a pleasant thing.

He's delighted to do it. He doesn't do it grudgingly, because in the fear of the Lord, he finds that it's wise and profitable and fulfilling to keep God's commandments. Now, that man has many advantages that are mentioned.

First of all, it has to do with his children. His children will be mighty on the earth, and the children of the upright will be blessed. There's an interesting fact that someone was telling me once.

They'd read a study that was done of the famous people of modern history, using the book Who's Who, which, of course, is a secular book that tells who's who in the world, and who's accomplished great things, and have made some name for themselves in making some kind of contribution to society and culture. And it was found in this study that... Actually, what was looked into was the parentage of the people who made it into who's who. What kind of families did they come from? What were their parents like? And I can't give the statistics, because they were large numbers, and it's been a long time since I've heard it, but I can give you the gist of the study.

The study showed that among doctors and lawyers and professional people of this kind, very few, relatively few of the people who were in who's who came from families like that. It was something like one... The way they put it was that it takes something like 5,000 doctors to produce one child that would go into who's who. In other words, one child out of 5,000 people from that kind of family really get into who's who.

It shows, of course, that people from those kinds of families don't always make such a great contribution to the world. And there were a lot of different categories of different kinds of people, but the striking thing was that when you got down to people who were ministers, and it even broke down into denominations, Presbyterian ministers, Methodist ministers, that it was something like it only took ten families, or it only took ten Methodist ministers or something to produce one person who made it into who's who. It's one in ten of the people who were raised by Methodist ministers.

That may not be the actual figure, but it's something very low like that. I think, as I recall, the largest or the best figure was for children of missionaries, that it was something like it took only five missionary families or something like that, it might have been ten, to produce one child who ended up in who's who. But although it's always weak not to be able to quote the actual figures, the study was interesting because it illustrated that those who feared the Lord, their seed were mighty in the earth.

That is, they became significant people. The people who were raised by godly parents, a higher percentage of those people who were raised by missionaries and ministers actually made some notable contribution to culture and society and actually are remembered because of it in who's who. Now, of course, that's just to receive earthly honors, to be in that book.

It's no indication that those people pleased God. But the point is, the promise here is that the godly man has the promise that his seed will be mighty in the earth. And that study that I just mentioned seems to support that contention.

It says, wealth and riches shall be in his house, which I was listening to this on tape, this psalm, yesterday. I was thinking, well, I wonder if that means I'm not very godly. I don't have very much wealth and riches.

If a godly man is supposed to have wealth and riches, I guess I'm not very godly. But then I felt like the Lord reminded me that we have wealth in heavenly places, that our treasures are not laid up on earth, but in heaven. It's true in the Old Testament.

Many times, earthly wealth was seen as the blessing of God and probably was upon righteous men. But in our case, we have spiritual blessings in heavenly places. It's not that we fill our houses with wealth.

Jesus typically told us not to do that. He said, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, but lay up treasures in heaven. We have another kind of wealth.

We have eternal life, which is a treasure that Jesus said is like a treasure found in a field or like a pearl of great price, which people would sell all they had to get it. And so just the very fact that we are in the kingdom of God means that we possess great treasure, spiritual treasure, not physical necessarily. And those of us who have children who are believers, we can see that we really are wealthy people when you consider how many people are grieved by their children and their children become shamed to them.

But those of us who have children who haven't brought shame to us but seem to be going in the ways of God can really consider ourselves really wealthy to really have treasures in a sense in our homes, in our house. There's different kinds of treasures besides money. And the rich or the godly man will be blessed in one way or another with some kind of treasure that is of great value in God's eyes.

Notice it says at the end of verse 3, His righteousness endures forever as it also says in verse 9, His righteousness endures forever. Speaking of the righteousness of the godly man, as I said, our righteousness is imputed to us by faith in Christ. Just like Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness.

So when we trust in Christ, His righteousness becomes our garment. His righteousness becomes our standing before God. And since His righteousness is everlasting, so is ours because ours is His.

It says, as you've heard me quote before, 2 Corinthians 5, 21, which says that he who knew no sin became sin for us so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Not the righteousness of a righteous man, but the righteousness of God is what we have become because it is imputed to us, His righteousness. So it can be said that just as it said of God in the previous psalm, verse 3, His righteousness endures forever, so twice in this psalm it says the same thing about the godly man.

Verse 4 says, Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness. That is, when the world is in darkness, yet the righteous man has light. And light often in the Old Testament had different meanings.

Sometimes illumination. Sometimes it just meant blessing, cause the light of your countenance to shine upon us. It meant, in other words, bless us, show favor upon us.

Also, it often referred to the glory of God. And perhaps that's what's mentioned here because this verse resembles Isaiah 60 where it says, Arise, shine, for thy light has come, and the glory of the Lord is arisen upon thee. For darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people, but the Lord shall arise upon thee.

That is to say, God's glory will arise upon his people even though the earth is in darkness. And that's what this psalm seems to be saying in verse 3. Unto the upright there ariseth a light in the darkness. That is, while the world around them are in darkness, the glory of the Lord is seen by them and seen upon them.

It says, The man, describing the godly man, he is gracious and full of compassion and righteous. A good man showeth favor and lendeth. Notice he's merciful and he lends his money out.

And that would mean without interest according to Psalm 15. He will guide his affairs with discretion. He'll wisely run his business, in other words, and his family and business affairs.

Surely he shall not be moved forever. The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. So because he's righteous, he'll be remembered.

Sadly, a lot of times good people aren't remembered until they're gone. But it's true that we do remember righteous people when we hear about them because they just strike us as something worth imitating. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings.

His heart is fixed, trusting the Lord. That is, because he is determined to trust God. His heart is fixed means that that is the learned inclination, the chosen inclination of his heart.

He has inclined his heart and will not change. It's fixed, like set in cement, that it's not going to change. It's fixed.

He's going to trust the Lord. Therefore, he's not afraid. Even when evil tidings come, he's not afraid.

Because if you're trusting the Lord, you can't be worried. If you're worrying, you're not trusting God. If you're trusting God, you're not worrying.

And so it says even though he hears evil tidings, the kinds of things that might cause fear or worry among people, he just won't worry. Now this is not stated only as a reference to how good he is, but as one of the blessings that he experiences. Because he trusts the Lord, he has the blessing of being free from worry.

After all, it's not a virtue to be free from worry. It's a blessing to be free from worry. Although it is a virtue to trust God, I suppose, and therefore if a man is not worried, it may be that he's virtuous.

But the fact is it's a blessing because worrying is a curse. When people are worried, it eats them up. It causes their life to be a grief, and it causes their life to be a torment to them.

There's hardly anything worse than worry to eat you up and to cause you to age prematurely and even bring premature death upon you. So this man is free from such curse. He's got the blessing of being free from fear and worry because he's set his heart to trust the Lord, which, of course, precludes and eradicates worry.

His heart is established. He shall not be afraid until he see his desire upon his enemies. He is dispersed.

He has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn shall be exalted with honor.

This first part of the verse is quoted by Paul in 2 Corinthians 9.9. In that place, Paul is trying to persuade the Corinthian church to be generous. Because the Jerusalem church had fallen into poverty because of problems. And the Corinthian church had the means to help to help send relief, to send money to the church in Jerusalem.

And Paul urged them to do so. And then he quotes this. He says, as it is written, He hath dispersed abroad, or hath given to the poor, His righteousness endureth forever.

That's in 2 Corinthians 9.9. And he's pointing out from that that it's an expression of our righteousness as Christians to be the kind of righteous person described in this psalm. And that means that we give to the poor when we are aware of their being there. And since the Corinthian church was aware of the poverty of the Jerusalem church, he implied that if they were to live up to the conditions and characteristics of the godly man in this psalm, that they should help out.

And then I said verse 10 simply turns around and shows that the opposite is true of wicked men. The righteous man is blessed and virtuous, whereas the wicked man, they'll get to see it, but they'll only be grieved. That is to say, they will live to see God honoring the righteous, but they'll be grieved.

That is, they'll be jealous. They'll be envious. They won't be experiencing that blessing themselves.

They'll only get to watch us be blessed. In Psalm 91, it was talking about the destruction that comes on the wicked. It says, it won't hit you.

You'll only live to see it. You'll get to see what happens to the wicked, and they'll get to see what happens to you. And they'll be grieved with envy and jealousy when they see what happens to us.

They shall gnash with their teeth and melt away, and the desire of the wicked shall perish. Which this psalm is obviously a strong incentive for us to be the godly man or godly woman that is therein described. Now, the next psalms, I mentioned already, Psalms 113-118 are usually called the Egyptian Halal.

These are the psalms that were sung at the Passover feast. And there are six of them. The first two, being Psalm 113 and 114, were usually sung before the meal, before the Passover meal.

Then the remainder of them, Psalm 115, 116, 117, 118, four of them, were sung after the meal. Now, in Mark chapter 14, where it tells of the Last Supper, where Jesus took the Passover meal with his disciples in their traditional Jewish manner, it says in Mark 14, 26, that afterward they sang a hymn. And it's likely that the hymn that they sang was this traditional Passover psalm that they sang.

I'm going, for the sake of our study in it, I'm going to assume that that was the case. It is likely that that is what they sang. And if we assume that Jesus sang these psalms, then when we read them, we not only can get sentimentally blessed when we realize that we're reading something that Jesus himself sang, but actually we can see in them meanings that must have arisen in his own mind as he stood there with his disciples singing these psalms the very night that he was to be betrayed and arrested, and the very next morning he'd be crucified as he well knew.

And there are references to that in these psalms. And there are some pretty mighty... There are some verses in these psalms that would not impress us particularly if we just read them apart from any context. But when we put them in the context of Jesus singing them just before his death, they begin to have some real powerful meaning.

Let's read, for instance, Psalm 113. Praise ye the Lord. Praise, O ye servants of the Lord.

Praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord, from this time forth and forevermore. From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, the Lord's name is to be praised.

The Lord is high above all nations, his glory above the heavens. Who is like unto the Lord our God who dwelleth on high? Who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in the heaven and in the earth? He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill, that he may set him with the princes, even the princes of his people. He maketh the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children.

Praise ye the Lord. These are mostly short psalms. And this one, though short, has many things in it that probably would have had special significance to Jesus.

The first five verses, basically, are merely praising God for his uniqueness, for his highness, he is high above all nations, his glory is above the heavens, there is no one like unto him who dwells on high. And therefore praise him, O ye servants of the Lord. Blessed is the name of the Lord, from this time forth and forevermore.

Those kind of expressions need no comment. But when you get down to verse 6, we have this interesting expression, which is found also elsewhere in the Scripture. It says, He humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in earth.

Now, to the psalmist, this probably referred to things like the book of Genesis, chapter 11, where the people were building the Tower of Babel. Remember the story of the Tower of Babel. The people were, in rebellion to God, building a tower to reach into the heaven.

Now, it was not that God had ever forbidden people to build a tower to reach into heaven. It was that he had told them to disperse and scatter and fill the earth, but they said, let's build a tower to keep us from dispersing. It was going to be a center of religious worship to keep people from moving away and to keep people sort of bound to a central place, because King Nimrod, who was the king at the time, didn't want people to get out from under his control.

He was the king, and therefore he wanted all nations unified under him. He wanted a one-world government, in other words, and he built the Tower of Babel to be sort of a religious focus for all people. This is a couple generations after the flood.

And though God had told the people to scatter and to fill the earth, Nimrod was opposing that, and the Tower of Babel was his effort to keep that from happening. And it was a tower that was supposed to be very lofty, one of the loftiest achievements of man. God said concerning it, if he allowed this to happen, that nothing could be restrained from men, and that they were really going to reach up into heaven with this tower, they thought.

But in the story, in Genesis 11, it says that God said, let us go down and see this thing. Now, we see God probably speaking in terms of the Trinity, let us go down and see. Now, the funny thing about it, the ironic thing is that men were building a tower they thought was reaching into heaven.

They had no idea how far from heaven they really were. God couldn't even see it well, unless he came down to see it. He had to lower himself, he had to humble himself to come down and behold the works of men.

So, the expression, he humbled himself to behold the things that are in heaven and upon the earth, is basically saying that God is so high, which is what verses 4 and 5 are telling us. God is so high up that even to behold the things that are done on earth or even the things in the heaven, he has to lower himself. He has to humble himself, so to speak.

Just even behold them. Now, with Jesus singing this, think of what this could have meant to him. We're told concerning Jesus in Philippians chapter 2 and verses 5 and following, Philippians 2, 5 and following, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, though he existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be clung to or grasped.

And it says, he humbled himself and took on himself the form of a servant. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself further to the death of the cross. Now, the reference to Jesus humbling himself, he exists in the form of God, but he humbled himself to become a man.

And how meaningful this verse would be in light of Jesus, although his disciples didn't understand this mystery of the incarnation at this point. They later came to understand it. Jesus understood it, certainly.

And when he describes God humbling himself to behold the affairs of men on earth, it would be very close to home with him to make reference to that, because he was in fact the embodiment of God, who had humbled himself to come down and dwell among men in human form. Then in verses 7 and 8, where it says that God raises up the poor out of the dust, that he may set them up among princes and give them a place of authority. This, of course, would be also illustrated about Jesus in Philippians chapter 2, the same chapter and the same conversation later.

It says, therefore, God hath highly exalted him and given him a name above every name. Because Jesus humbled himself and came down among the poor. It says in 2 Corinthians chapter, I think it's chapter 9 in verse 8, it says, For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that though he were rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be made rich.

Let me give you that verse number because of its significance in this particular psalm. It's not 9-8, it's 8-9, 2 Corinthians 8-9. It says that though Jesus was rich, meaning in heaven, he, for your sakes, became poor.

Now, here in this psalm it says that God raises up the poor out of the dust. Now, the dust in the psalms usually refers to death, the grave. Going to the dust.

Shall the dust praise thee? Shall they that are in the graves glorify you, they say in the psalms. Well, here it says God raises up the poor out of the dust. Now, what this meant to the psalmist, we can't be certain, but what it would mean to Jesus is almost certain.

That he would see himself. He who had been rich had made himself poor. But now that he had made himself poor and humbled himself, God would raise him up from the dust.

That is, resurrect him from the dead. And set him on high among princes. Actually, we're told above all princes, above all names that are named, he's now king of kings and lord of lords.

So the principle of God exalting the poor into a lofty place had its fulfillment in Jesus to the maximum. That is, he came down to the lower parts of the earth, according to Ephesians, became poor, lived along the lower echelons of human society, actually submitted himself to death, went to the dust, but God raised him up from the dust and set him on high among princes. That is, in leadership, in a sovereign place of authority.

And then, in verse 9 it says, he makes the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children. Keeping house means that he gives her a family so that she has something to keep house for. The woman who is barren, he gives her children.

Now there was a prophecy in Isaiah 54 which Paul quotes about the church. The opening verses of Isaiah 54 says, Rejoice thou barren that bearest not. And it actually speaks to a woman, I can't quote it obviously so I think instead of faking it I'll just read it to you because it's Isaiah 54 It says, Sing, O barren, that didst not bear.

Break forth into singing and cry aloud, Thou that didst not travail with child. For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wives, saith the Lord. Now, the way Paul interpreted this in Galatians chapter 4 where he quotes it was that Israel was like a married wife to God.

The Gentiles had never borne fruit for God. They were like a barren woman. They'd never had children for God.

But it says, You who are barren rejoice, because you're going to have more children than the married wife. And Paul quotes that in Galatians 4 to show that there are more Gentiles bearing fruit for God today than Jews. The married wife was Israel.

The Gentiles were the barren woman. But God gave seed and fruit to the barren woman, the Gentiles. That is, the church was the fruit of the barren, formerly barren woman of the Gentiles.

Now, when Jesus sang this psalm, He was in the upper room with His disciples. And shortly after singing this psalm, or possibly before it, according to the Gospel of John, Jesus said to His disciples, A woman is in travail when she is about to give birth, but after the child is born she forgets all the pain for the joy that a man is born into the world. This statement was a reference to the travail Jesus Himself was going through in the cross in order to give birth to the church.

So, the idea of a barren woman bringing forth children, if you want that verse number, it's John 16, 21. John 16, 21. Jesus said, A woman when she is in travail has sorrow, because her hour has come.

But as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembers no more the anguish for the joy that a man is born into the world. He's talking about how He and His disciples had sorrow at that moment because He was about to be taken from them. But it was like a woman giving birth to a child going through labor pains.

He was going to go through travail. So were His disciples. But what was going to come of this would be something they could rejoice in.

And ultimately the sorrow and the travail would be forgotten for the joy that the church was born. And so, the barren woman, the Gentiles were going to give birth to a man-child, to the body of Christ, to the church, to fruit for God. And that's what this verse 9 would mean, really.

He maketh the barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children. This would also possibly, to Jesus, have a secondary meaning, referring to His own mother, Mary, who was not barren in the sense of incapable of having children, but because she was a virgin, she was incapable of having children. Virgins can't have children.

They have to have sexual intercourse to have children. But she had a child without having had sexual intercourse. In her barrenness of virginity, she nonetheless had a child and kept house.

And so there's a lot of meaning that I feel must have gone through Jesus' mind when He's saying this. It seems inconceivable. I mean, if these thoughts come immediately to us just from the knowledge of the Scriptures that we have, it would seem inconceivable that they would not have gone through Jesus' mind, especially when He is facing His crucifixion only a few hours away and the travail and the bringing forth of the Church and all.

It seems like so much of this psalm would have specific meaning to Him regarding His death. Now, because of our time here, we're going to stop here. We're going to take the rest of these psalms of the Egyptian Hillel in our afternoon class, and we'll find that certain of them, especially Psalm 118, but others as well, have special significance with reference to what Jesus was about to go through.

And while the Jews sang these psalms year after year at their Passover, probably giving, eventually giving very little heed to even what was being said. It just became sort of like singing the old hymns that likely as not were sung by rote without giving a lot of thought to the words. Yet, when Jesus sang them, they must have been full of meaning and full of pathos.

And if His disciples had known what was about to happen, those words would have really meant something more to them also. As we read these psalms, knowing what did happen after that night and that Jesus knew that would happen when He sang these psalms, I believe that they will take on depths of meaning that they would not otherwise have for us.