Psalm 112: Read the instructions

by Ella Bewsey

Psalm 112 (NIV)

I am a geek. I love a bit of technology but in a truly geek fashion, I like to know how to get the very best out of my technology. When I first submitted to the draw of Apple and got on board the iPhone train, I was so excited to get my new gadget out of the box and see all that it could do. I frantically opened it up and found the user manual to tell me how many tiresome hours I would have to leave it plugged in before I could play. The manual told me how to use a stupid little pin thing to get the MicroSIM in, how to plug it into my computer and download iTunes, and that was it. End of manual. There was nothing to tell me how to use my phone, how to get the best out of it, all the fancy shortcuts I had seen friends use to casually swipe from one app to the next. Nothing. Plug it in, off you go. As I continue using my iPhone I keep stumbling upon new things that it can do, such as a friend showing me I had voice command after I had been scrolling through contacts for a good few months. But in these discoveries all I feel is frustration that I haven’t been able to do that all along! Sorry men, but I love an instruction manual.

What has this got to do with Psalm 112 I hear you cry? This Psalm is an inspiring but also potentially disheartening psalm as it describes to us a man who is righteous and successful, he is generous, gracious and compassionate. He appears to be human at human’s best, with all the potential functions working at full capacity. This portrayal of a man (and this applies to us too girls) stirs in us both a desire to be like him, and a heavy heart when we see how far from him we are. But what is absolutely AMAZING about this passage is what we find in verse 1,

“Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who finds delight in His commands.”

This verse is actually the only verse that describes anything that the man himself has done, everything else comes to him. His children will be mighty (v2). Wealth and riches are inhis house (v3). Light dawns for the upright (v4). So what is it he has done? He fears the Lord and delights in his commands. He recognises the Holiness of God compared to his own brokenness, and follows God’s commands. When we reflect on the commands of God, we see that they fall into two categories, showing God’s holiness and living as we were designed. When we follow the instruction manual we live fully as we were designed and become the, inspiring, magnetic, righteous man written about in this psalm.

Do we delight in following God’s commands? Do we submit to Him because we know that His way is the instruction manual to living the very best life, or do we grump and groan because of the things we don’t get to do? I pray that we would find true delight in following his commands, knowing the promise of what that brings in Him. Perhaps there is a particular command that you are wrestling with at the moment. Read this psalm again and be stirred by the righteous man.