Day Twenty Four

Psalm 111:1-10

1.) Praise the LORD! I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation. 

2.) Great are the works of the LORD, studied by all who delight in them. 

3.) Full of splendor and majesty is His work, and His righteousness endures forever. 

4.) He has caused His wondrous works to be remembered; the LORD is gracious and merciful. 

5.) He provides food for those who fear Him; He remembers His covenant forever. 

6.) He has shown His people the power of His works, in giving them the inheritance of the nations. 

7.) The works of His hands are faithful and just; all His precepts are trustworthy; 

8.) they are established forever and ever, to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness. 

9.) He sent redemption to His people; He has commanded His covenant forever. Holy and awesome is His name! 

10.) The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!

         Interesting passage of Scripture. The Psalmist talks about things being forever. He refers to His people, meaning the people of the Lord-the Jews. The Psalmist talks about His faithfulness to His people. But what if the people are not faithful to Him? What if they fall away? What if they follow the lure and temptation of Satan? What is left for them?

         We see what happened in Scripture. Time and again the Lord brought punishment. He didn’t change. He was still faithful. He was still awesome in every way. Finally, God sent His Son, and He was rejected. A new covenant was instituted. Now the responsibility to spread His word falls to the believers.

         What are we doing with it?

         Churches that are more interested with social gospel than God’s Gospel. ‘Christians’ who cannot be identified separately from the world. ‘Believers’ who mock true believers. In other words, we are failing the Lord as bad as the Jewish people did.

               10.) The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever! What held for the Jews holds for us. In this verse, the Hebrew word for ‘fear’ is ‘Yir’ah’. In regular usage it means to be in absolute awe of something. Crossing the sea with Moses would have been a Yir’ah moment. When used in reference to God, it means absolute reverence. The Hebrew word for ‘wisdom’ is ‘Chokman,’ and it means just what we think of when we think of wisdom. So, The absolute reverence of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever! And this is where we are failing the Lord. Same as the Jewish failure. We do not have absolute reverence for the Lord. To many things come between us and our service to the Lord. Do you go to church because you want to go to church, or because you feel you must? If you had absolute reverence, worship would be top of your list. We cannot expect to have wisdom in things until we have absolute reverence to the Lord. Not just in church attendance, but in all aspects.

         You are married. You love your spouse. But every Friday night you step out with another. You wine and dine and it usually ends in a sexual encounter. Does your spouse understand? Does your spouse let it go? Even if you give all your time and energy to your spouse the rest of the time, will your spouse overlook your weekly indiscretion? Of course not. Our indiscretions toward the Lord are more than weekly. Sometimes they are even daily. Does He understand? Is it OK? Being a person of God means absolute reverence.

         Our prayer today comes with some action, as well. First, pray that we would become those who have absolute reverence toward God. God is first, always. The action part is most of us, I think, know or have known someone who has absolute reference toward God. If they have passed away, give thanks that they were in your life. If they live, contact them. They may live thousands of miles away or they may be just down the street. But contact them. Thank them for being that example in your life. If I could, I would be calling LeRoy Benefield in Oklahoma, but he has passed. Someday, though, I will be able to give him a hug and thank him for being my human example.

        Blessings.