A Study in Psalms - Psalm 112

All right tonight's psalm is 112, but if you'd actually turn to psalm 111, I Don't know if you remember last year if you were zooming with us but I actually taught psalm 111 last year through the zoom and I regret now not doing psalm 111 and psalm 112 together because you'll see why they go together tonight so psalm 111 we looked at last year and And psalm 112 that we will look at tonight are twin psalms.

They're twins. They're not identical twins. They're fraternal twins Psalms 111 is about the works of God and we studied that last year and Tonight psalm 112 is about the works of a godly man. So they go hand in hand You notice that each of them have ten verses the same amount of verses and each of them is an acrostic Now, I don't know if we talked about acrostics psalm 119 has 22 sections each section begins with a Consecutive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

So psalm 111 and psalm 112 if you take away the first line the praise the Lord sign There are 22 lines 22 lines and each one begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet Okay, so what that tells you right there is probably every Jewish boy and girl would have these two memorized so they were acrostics Psalms 111 psalms 112 and psalms 113 are often called the hallelujah psalms Because they begin with praise the Lord or in Hebrew.

Hallelujah So I want to read psalms 111 because you'll see the same words the same attributes in psalm 111 that you see in psalm 112 so let's begin with psalm 111 Praise the Lord. I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart in the company of the upright and in the congregation Great are the works of the Lord studied by all who delight in them Full of splendor and majesty is his work and his righteousness endures forever He has caused his wonders works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and merciful He provides food for those who fear him.

He remembers his covenant forever He has shown his people the power of his works in giving them the inheritance of the nations The works of his hands are faithful and just all his precepts are trustworthy They are established forever and ever to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness He sent redemption to his people He has commanded his covenant forever Holy and awesome is his name the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom all who practice it have good understanding his praise Endures forever notice in Psalm 111.

We talked about this last year But just to review quickly notice verse 2 it says it's all about God's works It says great are the works of the Lord go to verse 3 full of splendor and majesty Is his works verse 3 he has caused his wondrous works to be remembered verse 6 He has shown his people the power of his works verse 7 the works of his hands are faithful and just five times in ten verses he talks about God's works and You have attribute after attribute after attribute we talked about two among Sunday in Psalm 139 But here in verse 1 he says that God is in the company of the upright of the congregation That's the same as we talked about Sunday the omnipresence of God God is with us everywhere So that would be the first attribute the second attribute would be verse 2 It says great are the works of the Lord you can't even comprehend so I would put that under the incomprehensibility of God His works are so great.

We can't even comprehend them number three. It says full of splendor and majesty is his work I would put that as God's wisdom his wisdom to every all his creation Verse 3 simply mentions his righteousness endures forever. So that's an attribute of God is righteousness. That's the fourth one and Then verse 4 mentions God's grace and mercy. So that's attribute 5 and 6 the Lord is gracious and merciful Then attribute number 7 it says he provides food for those who fear him that's the goodness of God God's even good to the wicked.

He gives them rain to grow the crops, but he gives a special food for those who fear him The eighth attribute is God's sovereignty in verse 5. It says he remembers his covenant forever So that covenant is a promise covenant and God controls the affairs of the world Verse 6 says he has shown them the power of his works. So that's attribute number 9 the omnipotence of God or the power of God and then attributes 10 and 11 are in verse 7 his hands are faithful and Just the faithfulness of God and the justice of God Attributes 10 and 11 and then verse 8 says they are established forever and ever That teaches us that God was in the beginning and he'll be in the end He's eternal eternality of God.

God always was is and will be Then the 13th attribute is in verse 9 He sent redemption to his people that speaks of the love of God. God's love is attribute number 13 and Then number 14. It says in verse 9 holy and Awesome is his name that speaks of the holiness of God and maybe you could find some more in there. It mentions majesty I didn't really talk about that one, but at least 14 attributes of God in Psalms 111. So why is that important? Why did I read Psalm 111? Well when we talk about the attributes of God, I talked about it Sunday We listed to him on Sunday.

We'll talk about more on this Sunday. There are two types of attributes of God. There's incommunicable attributes and communicable attributes What are those? Well incommunicable attributes are the attributes that we don't have we can't have that show that God is vastly different in us So Sunday, we talked about the omniscience of God and the omnipresence of God his eternality The omnipotence things like that man cannot share in those attributes. Okay, so those are called incommunicable attributes But then there are communicable attributes such as love grace mercy Goodness holiness righteousness and we can share in those doesn't mean we're perfect like God, but God is love, right?

So when you come to Jesus Christ, you're expected to love sinners to love people So when God made man in his own image man lost the moral qualities when Adam sinned, but God God has brought redemption So as we come to Christ and we grow in Christ, we can learn these attributes We can grow in them and that's what Psalm 112 is about The works of a godly man and you will see that some of those attributes in Psalm 111 about the works of God We can have in Psalm 112 the works of a godly man. So I read that's why I read Psalm 111 now Let's read Psalm 112 Praise the Lord Blessed is the man who fears the Lord who greatly delights in his commandments His offspring will be mighty in the land The generation of the upright will be blessed wealth and riches are in his house and his righteousness endures forever Light dawns in the darkness for the upright.

He is gracious merciful and righteous It is well with the man who deals generously and lens who conducts his affairs with justice For the righteous will never be moved. He will be remembered forever He is not afraid of bad news his heart is firm Trusting in the Lord his heart is steady. He will not be afraid until he looks in triumph on his adversaries He has distributed freely. He has given to the poor his righteousness endures forever His horn is exalted with honor the wicked man sees it and is angry He gnashes his teeth and melts away the desire of the wicked will perish.

Let's pray father in heaven We thank you for another chance to open up the perfect Word of God and especially the poetry book of Psalms So open our eyes that we can see wonderful things that are your law May we leave here tonight knowing more of you God and your attributes and the ones that we can share that would transform and change our lives in Jesus name Amen So this is a wisdom psalm. It's a wisdom psalm. Okay, and Most commentators would say there are eight wisdom psalms psalm 36 37 49 73 112 here 127 128 and 133 now I would also throw psalm 1 in there and psalm 119 But most commentators would say those are the main eight wisdom psalms.

What is the wisdom psalm? It just gives merits of wisdom for living a godly life. That's all this psalm is about Notice there is no superscription.

Do you see that? This is the first one of 11 that we covered that did not have a superscription. So these are often called orphan psalms There's 36 of them 114 of the 150 psalms have superscriptions. This one does not so what's that mean? We don't know who wrote it We don't know who wrote it. So it's an orphan psalm And we don't know any title or any history about it Most commentators believe this is a post exilic psalm written after the Babylonian captivity came back But you really can't prove that we have an outline I hope you have a outline in the back three points the character of a God-centered life verse one the Consequences or you could say the characteristics of a God-centered life verses two to nine and the contrast with the God-centered life Verse ten.

So let's look at point one the character of the God-centered life There is a lot packed in in one verse right there.

Okay one verse and he has three points there He praises the Lord he fears the Lord and he delights in his commandments So the first characteristic of a God-centered life is a person who practices praising the Lord We've talked a lot about this in our series in Psalms The psalmist begins with a call to the congregation by saying praise the Lord or hallelujah Most commentators would say that at the end of each of the 22 lines with that They would read in Hebrew the congregation would shout out hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Okay, so they begins here with saying hallelujah in Hebrew or praise the Lord the psalmist wants the children of Israel and Wants us today to praise the Lord. What does praise the Lord mean? It means ascribing to God For who he is by nature is it's a person who's satisfied with the Lord So he gives praise to the Lord people who are not happy in the Lord people are not satisfied in the Lord They don't come to church. They don't come with joy entering his gates with Thanksgiving his courts with praise They don't give thanks, but we're to enter his gates with Thanksgiving and praise the Lord There are actually ten Psalms out of the 150 that begin with the Hebrew word.

Hallelujah Psalms 106 Psalms 111 which we read Psalms 112 which we read the next one Psalm 113 So Psalm 111 12 and 13 are called the hallelujah Psalms and then there's Psalm 135 and in the last five Psalm 146 47 48 49 and Psalm 150 Those are called the halal Psalms and someone may ask what about Psalm 117 that begins with praise the Lord that actually uses a different Hebrew word, okay It's also interesting that Psalms 115 16 and 117 end with praise the Lord Okay, so in the New Testament the equivalent word for praise the Lord is alleluia And it's only found in Revelation 19 where it's listed four times Okay, so the psalmist begins with a shout praise the Lord or alleluia Before the psalmist will list the great things of God and the characteristics that we can have number two He says blessed is the man who fears the Lord the second characteristic of a God-centered person as a God-centered life is A person who fears the Lord if you remember our study in Psalms 32 We went through the 25 beatitudes.

Okay, and this is one of them blessed is the man who fears the Lord Psalms 128 also has this beatitude Psalms 128 which we'll read in a little bit says blessed is Everyone who fears the Lord here. It says blessed is the man who fears the Lord, but notice how Psalm 111 ended Everybody look back at Psalm 111 verse 10 What's it say the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom?

All who practice it have good understanding his praise endures forever so notice that the psalmist ends verse 111 with fearing the Lord and then he begins Psalm 112 with Fearing the Lord and I believe and I said this last year when someone sends you a prayer request on a text Do you guys do PTL?

everybody put the Acronym PTL someone's calls you and says so-and-so got healed or so-and-so's out of the hospital you text back PTL, right? Praise the Lord. Do you do that? well, I think PTL and FTL go together Because the person that praises the Lord will be a person that fears the Lord So a lot of us praise the Lord, you know a lot of people praise the Lord But you see a lot of people going to church a lot of charismatic or Pentecostal churches I see this overseas and they can jump shout and dance down the aisle and praise the Lord But do they fear the Lord do they live holy lives they go together God deserves our praise because of what he does for those who fear him and the Psalms teaches that they go together They're inseparable.

The fear of the Lord is a foundational principle for biblical wisdom If you want to get a book on it pastor Lance has a book on it. It's a little booklet. It's five dollars You can buy it in the tape library if you want to study all about the fear of the Lord Unbelievers don't have the fear of the Lord They can't have this wisdom But believers begin their walk with God in reverential fear and submissive fear of the Lord in the five poetry books Job Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon only Song of Solomon doesn't have verses about the fear of the Lord Job 28 28 says behold the fear of the Lord that is wisdom and To turn away from evil is understanding Psalms 110 There are 19 verses in Psalms about fear of the Lord by the way Psalms 110 10 says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom Proverbs has 19 verses about fearing the Lord Proverbs 1 7 is the key verse of the whole book of Proverbs The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge fools despise wisdom and instruction and of course you probably know the book of Ecclesiastes finishes with this verse 13 and 14 the end of the matter all has been heard fear God and Keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man Charles Spurgeon said the fear of God is the soul of godliness The godly man praises the Lord the godly man fears the Lord and number three the last part of verse 1 Who greatly delights in his commandment if you praise the Lord you fear the Lord you're gonna delight in the Word of God You're gonna delight in obeying the Word of God because they all go together So the third characteristic of a God-centered life is a person who delights in God's commandments Remember this is a wisdom psalm so a godly man Pursues wisdom by being in the Word of God by reading it by studying it by memorizing it by meditating upon it You know it says Greatly delights in his commandments.

It just doesn't say he delights in his commandments You know Psalms 1 verse 2 we always go back to the first Psalm right because that's a wisdom Psalm Psalm 1 verse 2 says but his delight is in the law of the Lord and on his law He meditates day and night So Psalms 1 2 says his delight is in the law of the Lord Psalms 1 12 1 says greatly He delights in the law of the commandments the New Testament echoes this first John 5 3 says For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not Burdensome let me illustrate just how powerful the Word of God is we think it's our words that save somebody right?

When I went to India I worked for an Indian pastor Reverend Peter Kishong for about six years and so when he went there, you know, I didn't work for a missionary board I didn't work for a white missionary. I worked for an Indian missionary And if you know anything about Indians, they have a lot of people at their house they have nephews and aunts and nieces they have an extended family and That so they're always having people come to their house in Siliguri because originally they're from Manipur or Nagaland and we're in West Bengal So one day this nephew shows up of the Reverend Kishong.

I think he was about 20. His name was Chuba and He's been through drugs. He's been through rebellion he's been through trouble so much so that his parents decided to send him to Siliguri and Hand him off to Reverend Kishong hoping he could straight him out Well, it didn't go too well, so they got tired of him. So they came up with the great idea Send him to Bruce the white missionary so he comes to our house and He's not a happy camper, so what am I gonna tell I'm gonna preach at him I'm gonna rebuke at him and yell at him gonna counsel him.

He doesn't want to be there So I asked him you don't want to be here. Do you and he flat-out said no So I broke the ice and of course everybody in India likes football soccer Manchester United Chelsea So we started talking football and of course you give people tea and a biscuit in India So we broke the ice and just tried to make friends and talk to him But before he left I asked him will you do me one favor and promise me one thing and I gave him a New English Bible, and I said I want you to read chapter 1 of John tomorrow on Tuesday Chapter 2 on Wednesday chapter 3 I want you to read the next 7 chapters in the next 7 days And then you come back here next Monday at 4 o'clock is our appointed time to meet.

That's all I'm asking He said fine and left. I didn't know if he would do it I didn't know what he would do because they were ready to just kick him out well He got saved within a couple weeks I don't remember how exactly it was it was the first week or the second week But it wasn't my words that saved him it was the book of John it was John 3 John 5 John 10 John 14 John 21 And I had the joy of baptizing him and even today.

He still is doing ministry as an evangelist in a church That's the power of God's Word now I know you know we have Gideon Bibles in hotels, and we like to pass out Bibles And I know you have unsaved relatives You know it's just it's heartbreaking because if you could give them the Word of God, and they would read it It might break that stone-cold heart right now.

They don't want to read it most often, but that was one success story He delighted in God's Word. He read God's Word and the Holy Spirit broke that stone-cold heart through the Word of God So the godly man or the godly woman is going to praise the Lord They're gonna fear the Lord and they're gonna delight in God's Word. Let's look at point to the consequences of A God-centered life, and we here have verses 2 to 9 and you could list I have 6 consequences here I could have made it 7 8 or 9, but I'm gonna go with 6 okay, so number 1 There's a generational effect verse 2 we talk a lot about this at Christ Community Church It's a great verse.

It says his offspring will be mighty in the land The generation of the upright will be blessed There's a blessing for fearing the Lord for being in God's Word for obeying God's Word And this is the first generational first effect the first consequence and maybe the most important that The godly man or godly woman is going to leave an effect through their family I think it was what three months ago John Aker was here, right?

And remember what he talked about that he was preaching about leaving a powerful legacy through our children, right? So the influence of a godly man is felt for generation after generation after generation if it's passed down When it says his offspring will be mighty. It literally means they will be outstanding. They'll be outstanding Lord they will be heroes in the Lord and Psalms 112 is a wisdom psalm now turn to Psalm 128. That's another wisdom psalm And I almost did this psalm this year, but I held off but we may do it next year Psalms 128 It says Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord who walks in his ways You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands You shall be blessed and it shall be well with you verse 3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house.

Your children will be like olive shoots around your table Behold thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord the Lord bless you from Zion May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life May you see your children's children. Peace be upon Israel. So the blessed family there two times It talks about fearing the Lord, right? Okay generation after generation You know, I love to study the kings of Israel in the Old Testament So, you know you had Saul a bad king Then you had David a good king then you had Solomon who started good and then Solomon's son Began a series of kings 20 of them 20 Kings started with Robo right and that those 20 Kings lasted about 345 years 20 Kings from the southern kingdom.

I'm only talking about the southern kingdom all the kings in the northern kingdom were bad So there were 20 kings in the southern kingdom. How many of them? Do you think left a godly son? How many of them were godly who actually left a godly son any idea out of 20? How many how many? Four there were actually six kings that were good now They may not have finished quite good like a may has but there were six kings who were good, but only four of them Left a son who was godly when you look at the chart Not even Hezekiah not even Joash who were great kings who led great revivals Left a godly son.

In fact Hezekiah had the worst son Manasseh 55 years he ruled now. He got saved in the end. It looks like it when you read Chronicles, but only four kings out of 20 left a godly son. So that's what 20% So I remember reading a book by Vodie Bachman. Everybody know Vodie Bachman. He's just written a new book on the critical CRT But he wrote a book about the family many years ago And I think we studied here in the men's ministry here at Christ coming Church And he mentioned that I believe it was 79% of the high school students When they get to college they stop following the Lord.

They walk away from the faith So that's about the same as the kings of Israel 80% give or take a percent. So that's not very good. Is it so it just shows you how much time how much effort? Families parents mother fathers have to put with our kid kids so that they can be mighty in the land And that they can be upright so they can be blessed. So the kings of Israel and our teenagers today It's sad that so many of them are not following the Lord But there's a generational effect for those who fear the Lord who praise the Lord who delight in the commandments in the Word of God Number two, I call this the gladness effect or the happy effect verse 3a says wealth and riches are in his house Now we're not teaching prosperity theology tonight.

I'm not Benny Hinn here, okay But we know there are some rich people in the Bible Abraham Job Solomon were wealthy But most of that Jews were agricultural farmers who would live on maybe one denarius a day Most of the Jews were simple Farmers and they relied on the rain if it didn't rain and there was a famine they could starve They're not most of them were not rich. So this is not speaking guaranteeing riches Remember, these are principles not promises principles If you fear the Lord if you praise the Lord if you delight in God's Word The principle is that you are going to have a blessed life.

And one of those blessings is that you'll be favored by God Materially and spiritually I think most Americans could say that right so financial riches Spirit rich spiritual riches are in view here the Lord the Lord delights to bless those who bless him It's a I mentioned it's it's not a promise, but a principle of abundance contentment fulfillment Satisfaction with what God has blessed you in the life that you have when you follow the godly path I think of the example in 2nd Corinthians chapter 8 The Corinthians Paul says this about them We want you to know brothers about the grace of God that has been given among the churches in Macedonia But in a severe test of affliction in their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty Have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part So it's a poor church the Corinthian Church Paul says you are a poor church yet.

They raised up a great offering for Paul Okay, so there's a glad effect there let's move on to number three there's a godly effect It simply says and his righteousness endures forever didn't say that in Psalms 111 verse 3 and It says of God and his righteousness endures forever talking about God and here in verse 3 of Psalms 112 It says and his righteousness endures forever.

It's talking about the godly man the godly woman The word righteousness is in verse 3 in verse 9 and the word righteous is in verse 4 and verse 6 So at least four times in this 10 verses you have the word righteous or righteousness So these there is a spiritual blessing upon a godly man when he receives Jesus Christ. We call that justification I think I've been through this before but I'll do it again Justification sanctification glorification every Christian needs to know those three terms. Okay So when you come to Jesus Christ, you are justified by Jesus Christ and you can stand before God You're here.

God's here and you can stand before God The reason you can stand for God because Jesus Christ has covered you with his righteousness with his blood And so that means that when you're justified you are free from the penalty of sin You no longer will go to hell. You will not longer be under the penalty of sin Then begins a life of sanctification a lifelong life of sanctification You begin to practice righteousness you learn righteousness and you grow in righteousness and you sin less and less as you grow in knowledge of Jesus Christ and obedience that is called You're free from the power of sin So when you're sanctified you sin less sin does not control you God controls you the old is gone the new has come and Some great and glorious day.

Hopefully tonight Hopefully for the Christians in Afghanistan tonight Jesus Christ will come and we will go home and we will be glorified and we will be fully completely righteous We'll see him as he is So God is righteous and his righteousness endures forever To the person who praises the Lord fears the Lord delights in the Word of God The New Testament equivalent and I mentioned this in other Psalms my favorite verse in the New Testament is 2nd Corinthians 5 21 It says for our sake he that's God Made him that's Jesus to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we we that's us Might become the righteousness of God.

So that's one of the great attributes that we have God is righteous and holy But we can be righteous in the sight of God free from the penalty of sin because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross Let's go to number four the gracious effect It says in verse 4 light dawns in the darkness for the upright. He is gracious merciful and righteous verse 4 is the most difficult verse to Interpret commentators argue about this first some say it's about God some say it's about the godly man But I believe it just simply means that the godly man will be a light In a dark world in a rising world.

He's that kind of person. Okay, you will know that man He has characteristics of you know, first Timothy 3 Titus 2 Second first Thessalonians 2 he's gonna be a gracious and kind person I mentioned that Psalm 11 listed 14 attributes of God and this verse right here has three of them That man can have or has when you have Jesus Christ But remember back in Exodus 34 God's talking and God passed by Moses and he said the Lord the Lord a God merciful and gracious Slow to anger abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness that verse Exodus 34 6 actually mentions four or five Attributes of God, but here we have three we have grace.

What's grace, you know God's riches that Christ's expense is the acronym but the grace the man that gets God's grace He gives grace. He's full of compassion. He's full of grace The second one is mercy.

Okay, I'm driving to church today And I've got cabe right on and Lance is preaching on a.m. 740 and what's he preaching about? Mercy and his points were that you have to experience mercy So if you have Jesus Christ in your heart you've experienced mercy and then the second point was then you extend Mercy as a Christian and number three you exemplify Mercy in your life and the last ones you explain mercy.

So Experience extend exemplify explain mercy was Lance's point on mercy in today's message on cabe, right? It reminds me of the the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18 I won't read it, but I'll just simplify you remember the guy he owes a debt of 10,000 talents how much is that? Impossible to pay back right? So the master comes out of pity forgives him, right? But that guy goes and finds a man who owes him like a hundred bucks on her denier II maybe two months salary maybe three months salary, so Uncertain animal debt just a little bit and he doesn't forgive the guy of a hundred remember that story Well, if you have Jesus Christ in your heart, you gotta forgive you gotta forgive and I met people who've been now in their 50s 60s 70s still holding bitterness still holding grudges.

You have to be full of grace and mercy You have to forgive number three is righteous. We talked about this in the in the godly effect The righteous person lives a holy life. It's the life of sanctification You grow in Christ in an ever-increasing likeness of Jesus you try to be perfect It doesn't mean you are perfect. You will fail but you've said you will ask God to forgive your sins So here's three characteristics that you can mull over that you can meditate upon grace Mercy and righteousness. Do I exemplify these characteristics?

Do I have these characteristics if there's a problem you need to meditate upon that you need to go to God ask forgiveness and try To try to live this life Let's move on to number five the generous effect and I have two verses here verse five Says it is well with the man who deals generously and lens who conducts his affairs with justice in verse nine Kind of the same theme he has distributed freely He has given to the poor his righteousness endures forever His horn is exalted in honor the godly man is unselfish.

He's willing to help others with his money He doesn't give God the leftovers. He tries to give God the firstfruits Proverbs 3 verse 9 and 10 He uses his money for God's kingdom in God's glory He's concerned about the welfare of others people that are poor people that are sick And you know when you go through the Bible, there are more verses about money over tooth. I have a I have a PDF file There's like over two thousand five hundred verses in the Bible about money Half the parables of Jesus deal with money So there are more verses in the Bible about money than almost any other topic and you could sum them all up in one verse It is more blessed to give than to receive and that's what the godly man does So here the idea is if you're wealthy you're gonna you know, the Jew would need to lend without interest now We don't really do that today But for us it would be your business affairs are honest.

They're ethical and you love to help people who need help this verse here verse verse 9 Psalms 112 verse 9 is quoted by the Apostle Paul in 2nd Corinthians 9 verse 9 Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 9 verse 9 as it is written. Where's it written Psalm 112 9 He has distributed freely. He has given to the poor his righteousness endures forever So you got Psalms 112 9 2nd Corinthians 9 9 Old Testament New Testament That if we have ample money God has blessed us. We should distribute freely We should help the poor and that hell a righteousness if a righteous man who lives right with God Will do that as long as he's here on earth Notice though in 2nd Corinthians 9 9 Paul does not quote the last sentence in Psalms 112 verse 9 his horn is exalted in honor.

What does that mean his horn? It just means that there should be prosperity. There should be victory for the godly man. Okay again It's not a promise that you'll be rich But it should be a promise Matthew 6 that God will provide food clothing and shelter for the godly man Let's look at the last and the sixth characteristic the grounded effect verse 6 7 & 8 It says for the righteous will never be moved.

He will be remembered forever He is not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady. He will not be afraid Until he looks in triumph on his adversaries So it talks twice about the heart twice enough about not being afraid turn with me to Psalms 115 We've actually read three Psalms tonight and we'll read a fourth can't cover them all in detail but Psalms 15 Is called the Ten Commandments psalm Not the Ten Commandments of Exodus 20, but there are ten commandments in Psalms 15.

Okay I think Tom Mason preached this last year, but let's read Psalms Psalms 15 it says Oh Lord Who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell in your holy hill? he whose walk is blameless and Does what is right and speaks the truth in his heart who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor Nor takes up a reproach against his friends in whose eyes a vile person is despised But who honors those who fear the Lord who swears to his own hurt and does not change Who does not put out money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent?

I'll stop there. So commandment one is in verse two. His walk is blameless or he's sincere Number two, it says that he does what is right.

He's righteous. That's that's the second one number three. He speaks the truth He's an honest man. So he's sincere. He's righteous and he's honest number four. He doesn't speak slander. That's in verse three Number five. He does his neighbor. No wrong. He Doesn't he doesn't do wrong and number six. He is without reproach I'm sorry, that's in verse three. Yeah, and then it says In verse four In whose eyes is a vile person is despised but who honors those who fear the Lord he can distinguish between good and evil That's the sixth commandment number That was a seventh, I'm sorry number eight he Keeps his oath number eight.

He keeps his Ophie who swears to his own hurt does not change Who does not put out money at interest? He doesn't charge interest when he loans That's number nine and number ten. He doesn't take bribes So there's like ten commandments in Psalms 15 but look at the last verse because this is what ties into Psalm 112 After those ten commandments it says he who does these things what?

Shall never be moved and what is Psalm 112 verse 6 a for the righteous will never be Moved he's firm. He's steady He doesn't worry about disaster and trouble and things that are going on so so Psalms 15 ends with he who does these things will not be moved and Here it it says that the godly man will not be moved You know when you go through the Psalms that we've studied We study Psalms 3, right? Psalms 3 verse 1 to 3 says that You O Lord are a shield about me my glory and lifter of my head. So there's a theme about God protects us We don't need to be afraid We looked at Psalm 16 verse 8 says I have set the Lord always before me because he has my right hand I will not be shaken so it talks about you know, bad things come but the godly man is not gonna be shaken We looked at Psalms 20 verse 7 says some trust in chariots some in horses But we trust in the name of the Lord our God so you trust in God even though bad things come Psalms 29 says verse 11.

May the Lord give strength to his people. May the Lord bless you with peace So it's God who gives us a strength to stand strong stand firm Psalms 32 says you are a hiding place for me. He protects us It says you preserve me from trouble you surround me with shouts of deliverance We looked at Psalms 40 be pleased O Lord to deliver me it's God who delivers us Oh Lord make haste to help me I could go on and on and on and on But what I wanted just to remind you is why I want you to read Psalms I want you to read one Psalm a day.

Okay. Now when you get to Psalms 119 Maybe read eight verses and you'll take 22 days to get through Psalms 119 because that's under 76 verses But if you will read you're gonna see this theme again about don't be shaken be firm Be strong now David has many Psalms maybe 40 50 about his troubles So it doesn't mean you're gonna have a perfect life. You're not you're gonna have trials. You're gonna have tribulations You're gonna have heartache. You're gonna have cancers. You're gonna have trouble but the godly man is firm.

The godly man is strong Okay Psalms 27 says the Lord is my light and my salvation whom shall I fear? The Lord is a stronghold of my life of whom shall I be afraid so that Psalm asked two rhetorical questions And the answer is no one I should not fear anyone Job Job is our example. Remember Job. I won't you know run out of time, but Job had four catastrophes, right? Bam, bam, bam. Bam. Everything's gone including his children his camels his donkeys everything and what does he do? Verse 20 and 22 says Job arose tore his robe shaved his head fell on the ground and what he do Worship, and he said naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away Blessed be the name of the Lord in all this Job do not sin or charge God with wrong now Job had a little trouble Job down the preceding chapters wanted a trial with God But Joe what an example he is.

So the godly man is not gonna be shaken So just want to throw out please continue to pray for the Afghan Christians Okay, they may be strong now Okay, they need to be strong now because probably soon if not already the Taliban will go to village after village and they will round up the village and A lot of these people apparently have identity cards which say they're Christians But what they will do is they will tell those Christians if you convert to Islam fine And a lot of them will but those that refuse will probably be killed Okay, so let's pray for our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan.

They need to be steady. They need to be firm not compromise Let's go to the last verse Last verse verse 10, and this is interesting, isn't it? We don't know who wrote this psalm, but we know it's not by David because if David wrote this psalm He went in it with a praise right David always has a problem David always ends with a praise about God. There's no praise here. It ends talking about the wicked man quite interesting So you have a contrast here about the wicked man and it says three things about this wicked man so You have eight verses about the characteristics or consequences of a godly man and the blessings that godly man receives So whoever wrote this psalm wants to contrast the godly man versus two to nine with the wicked man in verse 10 Okay, the godly man is blessed the wicked man's gonna end in misery first He says the wicked man sees it and is angry.

What does the wicked man see? He sees the godly man He sees a Christian who has love joy peace patience kindness goodness Gentlest faithless and self-control and he can't stand that person. I don't know if you've been on social media. No, they're not not a great place to be but but if you're a Christian on there and try to talk to somebody about Christ or God or Anything moral or or rebuke somebody for sin? They will just pour out hate like you've never seen it That's because they don't have the the fruits of the Spirit they have the fruits of sin and in Galatians 520 it says the wicked man is full of anger and strife and Jealousy, so the wicked man sees the godly man, you know, they see churches They see godly people any book any sports athlete any politician who even quotes Christ or says anything about God They will be hated they'll be vented upon The second thing he says is the wicked man gnashes his teeth and melts away Melts away means he literally wastes away.

He wastes away he's the the wicked man expresses anger and this remember the religious leaders when Stephen is is Preaching out them in Acts 7. It's like 60-something verses and at the end of it It says that the the people were weeping and gnashing their teeth and they actually killed Stephen, right? Matthew 8 12 Jesus tells us there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth where in hell Because when they're when they're evil now and they go to hell they don't change You know if they're a horrible person now, they're a horrible person in hell.

You don't change. There's no repentance in hell so the the the wicked characteristics they have they'll keep and they're gonna be weeping and gnashing in teeth God says So, you know, they're they're Psalms like we mentioned Psalms 37 Psalm 73 I taught last year lots of verses about how come the wicked prosper?

How come they have the great life Job would get in this complaint in Job. They have riches I know I'm the one with the cancers. I'm the one with the loss of job. They have it. They have it Well, it looks that way but literally they they are angry They're gonna be gnashing their teeth and they've wasted their life They could have had a blessed life, but they have a cursed life. And that's the third thing It says the desire the last word the last sentence of Psalm 112 the desire of the wicked will perish so Notice there the word perish.

There's another Psalm that ends with parish and we know what Psalm that is Psalms 1 the very first one Psalms 1 the first word in Psalms 1 is what blessed That's the path of the godly man and the last word in Psalms 1 verse 6 Perish so Psalms 1 the wicked man perishes.

It's reiterated here Psalms 112 the wicked will perish his plans may they come to nothing. Maybe he had a Maserati and riches and the great life you see these Hollywood actors and actresses, right? They're so pretty yet. You find out later just how miserable They are the the alcohol the drug abuse the they're just they're not happy They're just putting on a front but they will perish and Jesus says in Matthew 25 41 Then he will say to those on his left apart from me you cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels So it's interesting that Psalms 1 and Psalms 112 in with the word perish that's the wicked man not the godly man I trust everybody today here has Jesus Christ in their heart.

You've not seen me afterwards or see Tom Mason So what do we learn tonight? Well, the psalm begs the reader to have wisdom. What's the center of my life? Am I a kind of person that praises the Lord? We talked a lot about this this this summer Am I a person that fears the Lord? Am I a person that delights in the Word of God? We talked about meditation a little bit on Sunday. We talked a lot about meditation last week You know people don't meditate on God's Word because they don't memorize God's Word They don't memorize God words because they don't study God's Word.

They don't study God's Word because they don't read God's Word They usually just come to Sunday and get a little bit on Sunday But we need to be doing all five of those and delighting in God's Word. Do I desire to study and live by the scriptures? You know, do I have a high view of God? So if I have a high view of God Psalms 111 Then I it's going to be manifested in a godly life the characteristics in Psalm 112 It kind of ties here with Sunday's message Sunday's message I said knowing God and being known by God if we truly know God and we realize that God knows everything about us We would strive to be like him.

Jesus said in Matthew 5 48 You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect And Paul said we covered this verse last week in 2nd Corinthians 3 8 this is the goal for the Christian 2nd Corinthians 3 18 and We with unveiled faces beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed. We are being transformed We're being sanctified and what's it say into the same image from one degree of glory to another For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit so do you delight in the Word of God?

It should cause you to praise the Lord should cause you to feed the Lord So I just want to end tonight in case I don't get it next week try to read one Psalm a day There are 150 Psalms. So that's the longest book in the Bible. Of course There are two thousand four hundred sixty one verses So almost eight percent of your entire Bible is the book of Psalms. The middle chapter of the Bible is Psalms 117 the shortest chapter in the Bible is Psalms 117, and of course, you know, the longest chapter in the Bible is Psalms 119 and People say well, they're too long.

Well, there's only 13 13 of the 150 Psalms are over 30 verses So how long does it take to read a Psalm of 30 verses just a couple minutes, right? And there are only four Psalms that are over 50 verses. So most of the Psalms are not long In fact, there are 55 Psalms like Psalms 111 and 112 that have 10 verses or less If you read one Psalm a day in two years, you will have read it five times And you will learn so much and what will you learn? Well, you'll learn to praise the Lord you'll learn to fear the Lord and you'll learn to the light in the Word of God and Then Lord willing you will manifest these six characteristics of Psalm 112