Ps. 112 (World Severed From Yhwh)

The wicked person sees it with anger

He gnashes his teeth and fades away

The desires of the wicked come to nothing

When the righteous man stands within Yhwh’s sphere, he stands within a divine power that sustains his generations forever in a type of resurrection. That power, however, does not simply maintain his descendants. It flowers in them, and they come to be, themselves, carriers of divine power in the Land. And not only that, but the righteous man himself shines with divine blessing as his home is filled with riches. What finds expression in his descendants (power) begins with him (riches). Crucially, though, these righteous ones participate in Yhwh’s own divine act of giving and blessing—they lend and give generously to the poor. Again, acts that visible, evident, and shine with divine benevolence and concern. These visible acts give expression to their interior hearts and mind. They are ‘steady’. They do not ‘fear’. They are firm. They are constant. They establish peace and justce.

But here, in this concluding verse, we come to see what happens to those who stand outside of Yhwh’s sphere. They see all of this, from the top to the bottom, and they are angry. This is a world that is not simply outside of Yhwh’s sphere—it hates it; it opposes it; it gnashes its teeth at it. The wicked despise the righteous man’s descendants and their powerful stability. They hate the righteous man’s wealth. But, more than that, they also see their prodigality to the poor. They hate their lending and their giving to the poor. Perhaps they are undeserving, he thinks. Perhaps they are only being enabled. For whatever reason, the glory of wealth should only serve as a light to those in power, not those on the bottom. They hate that the righteous man does not hoard his wealth as a protection against misfortune.

Where the righteous man’s interior life is marked by calm stability, the wicked’s is one of fearful commotion and anger. Where the righteous man’s posterity is also firm and where his wealth is assured, the wicked man “fades away”, becoming the instability he is. And whereas the righteous man “delights in [Yhwh’s] commands”, the desires of the wicked come to nothing. The righteous man feeds on food (Yhwh’s commands) that enables him to become the blessing. The evil man feeds on food that brings him nothing.

This is the world severed from Yhwh. A world spiraling in its own vanity, and inability to find the stable, and prodigal perpetuity that is man’s desire.

Ps. 112 (The Rising Light)

Light rises in the dark for the upright

The righteous person is dutiful and affectionate

It is good for a man to lend dutifully

To order his affairs justly

Never will he be shaken

The righteous person will ever be remembered

Heavenly power supports the righteous man. And his descendants. Wealth and riches flow into his home, to flow back out. And here, in times of darkness that same heavenly aide will provide him light. It will “rise in the darkness”, bringing clarity and vision and security. 

Interestingly, this portion of the psalm begins with this light-and-darkness, but then it immediately moves into a discussion about how the righteous man orders his life. It then concludes with him not being ‘shaken’, presumably because of the ‘light’ that has arisen. What are we to make of this? Why begin with heavenly aid, only to shift to how he orders his life? Why is there no mention of him defeating his enemies/darkness? 

The psalmist is making a rather profound point—heavenly light rises for the upright because he, himself, is a light to others. He will “lend dutifully”. His wealth and riches will themselves become a “light” to those who need a loan. Later, he will be a “light” to the poor.  He “orders his affairs justly”, thereby establishing wisdom and justice in his daily living with others. The righteous person, in other words, participates in, and mimics, the creation-salvation power of Yhwh.

We know that Psalm 112 is the reflection of man’s participating in Psalm 111. In Psalm 111, Yhwh is described as being “dutiful and affectionate”. Here, the righteous man is “dutiful and affectionate”. In Psalm 111, Yhwh is seen as providing a “loan” to the Israelites in the form of their way-bread for their journey. It is a temporary, sustaining, heavenly force. Here, the righteous man extends loans to others. In Psalm 111, Yhwh acts justly towards his people. Here, the righteous man does the same.

When we come to see this we realize that this righteous man is standing in Yhwh’s own divine light, participating within it, and sharing it out to others. He is Yhwh’s image on earth.

That is why the “light” rises and why, importantly, he will “never be shaken”. He does not stand on his own, but in Yhwh’s own sphere of authority, power and in his dutiful and affectionate gaze.

And, if Yhwh is the undying one, so too, will this man “ever be remembered.”

Ps 112 (Power, Riches and the River)

His descendants will be powerful in the Land

The circle of the upright receive blessing

Wealth and riches are in his home

And his righteousness continues forever

Here we witness the first expression of the Commands’ power—the ongoing stability and power of the righteous persons’ descendants. Delight and reveling in Yhwh’s commands unleashes divine power and one its fruits is perpetual power in the Land. Notice this--that the earthly 'reveling', this type of festive joy in Yhwh's commands is met by heaven's own reveling, festive joy--or, we would say, blessing.

But this blessing-power extends beyond the blessing found elsewhere in Scripture, where obedience to the covenant results in living long within the Land. Here, it is not simply the fact that they will participate in Yhwh’s perpetuity through their generations. It is that their children will be powerful. This is not, however, simply a form of earthly power. It is a power that is brought about by heavenly blessing. It is buttressed by it. The psalmist envisions the ‘father’s’ faithfulness, that originally cracks open heavenly blessing, to be perpetuated down through his descendants, such that they will live into that blessing, returning a hundred fold what their father planted.

This power, on one level, finds its genesis in the faithful man’s “wealth and riches” which are in his home. This is another side of covenant power being unleashed. Heavenly wealth, heavenly riches, heavenly glory, when they ‘come down’ are expressed in the faithful man’s “home”. This is not so much a reward as much as an enacting of the covenant. It is reward, but it is much more than that. As we will see, it takes rains down heaven into the faithful’s home, only for it to flow out from that home to his ‘neighbors’. It is not given to remain ‘in his home’. It is given in order to become a blessing to others. And that is why his ‘righteousness continues forever’. So long as the river of blessing flows through the house, his righteousness will continue.

Ps. 112 (The Vine, the Branches and the Fruit)

How fortunate is the person who reveres Yhwh

Who takes great delight in his commands

If Psalm 111 was contemplation from a more heavenly perspective, focusing on Yhwh’s acts, then this psalm turns to the earth and focuses on the one who, as said in Psalm 111, “revels” in Yhwh. 

There, the psalmist reveled in Yhwh’s “deeds”. Here, he “delights in his commands.” As we will see the explosive nature of Yhwh’s deeds is now understood to be the explosive power of Yhwh’s commands. They come forth and are enacted in abundant power. If Psalm 111 observed Heaven pouring down to earth, then Psalm 112 contemplates the faithful earth taking in this Heavenly water, adding to it its own adherence and faithfulness, and thereby bearing fruit. It displays the wonderful dynamic of “grace” coming down, strengthening the psalmist, and then the psalmist himself participating within that movement and producing “works” or “merit” or, to put it more biblically, “fruit”. The Vine, the Branches and the Fruit.

One thing that is crucial to note before moving on—the “fruit” of this psalm is the display of “wealth and riches”. Psalm 111 promised the sojourners that after the “time of Bread” they would receive the “wealth of the nations”. In Revelation, this “wealth of nations” is truly awe-inspiring and overwhelming. But, we have to also see that the “fruit” of this psalm is not simply the wealth. Perhaps even more importantly, the fruit is the “lending dutifully” and the psalmist's “giving generously to the poor”. This act of giving away the wealth is not simply obedience as if it itself was not part of the “fruit of grace”. No. The display of generosity that the psalmist displays is itself a participation in, and reflection of, Yhwh’s own generosity that he displays. In other words, the entire dynamic of wealth-and-provision is a mirror and participation in the heavenly dynamic of wealth-and-provision. The Giving is Glory. Earth is, here, mimicking, displaying, and enacting Heaven. And that is the Earth’s Fruit.

Ps 111 (Seeing the Christ)

Seeing the Christ

When Christ’s face emerges from this psalm we find the incarnate Act and heart of Yhwh and Israel. And it is in him that we see how these two things—the heart and the Act—are inseparable.

We saw in the psalm how Yhwh’s acts, through the covenant, are ‘elongated’; they are prophetic. They can be meditated upon because Yhwh, as the Actor, is faithful and present. For that reason, meditating upon his great acts is not simply the turning of the mind back in time. Meditation upon the acts is itself a participation in those acts. As we said, the acts are like seeds that grow—truly—within Israel through their meditation (their ‘watering’). Their meditations carry the Acts forward, en-acting them again through each generation, until the Prophetic Act will find its Fulfillment.

As Jesus grew, he became meditative Israel. And, through his meditation upon the acts, he brought them more and more to bear—he incarnated them, more and more. They were prophecies that became fulfilled in and through him, which included in and through his meditation upon them. The Time had come, and Time ‘approached’ and ‘arrived’ not in a way that was external to Christ—it arrived in and through him. This is key—the fulfillment of the great Acts, the fulfilment of them as prophecy, was not, in any way, separated from the human, covenant partner of Yhwh’s, heart. In Christ, the Heavenly Act and the Human Heart, are one, and they, in a sense, ‘grow together’. The Act becoming the Act. Jesus becoming Jesus (Yhwh-saves).

And so, Prophetic Exodus, and the Prophetic Wandering—those great Acts that were themselves prophetic in the hearts and mind of Israel—found their fulfillment and their goal in Christ. He gathers together, and becomes, these prophecies and, in his life, brings them to fruition. In the context of this psalm, Jesus is Meditative Israel. In his meditation upon the Acts of his Father, he, like Israel, is ‘incarnating them’ in his heart and in his life. However, because he is the Son of God who came in order become the Day of the Lord, he is also the Fulfillment of all Acts. As Fulfilment, Jesus turns the Acts into Sacraments. This is absolutely key—what lived as prophecy became sacrament through Jesus. Jesus closes the prophetic distance between Earth and Heaven. Here is one example, drawn from this psalm.

Jesus is Wandering Israel—as he is cast out into the Wilderness by the Spirit (as he will later ‘cast out’ demons). And, importantly, he brings the Wandering to its Fulfilment. In Mark, when Jesus is cast out into the Wilderness for forty days to wrestle with the Accuser, he overcomes him and, in so doing, he establishes Peace in the Wilderness. He will, later in the gospel, then be able to retreat to the Wilderness in order to pray because he has already established Peace and cleansed it, returning it to its original state of Eden-Peace. Jesus does this throughout Mark—establishing beachheads in his battle against the Accuser, Chaos, Sickness and Death. He is not performing isolated, metaphorical acts. He is spreading heaven across the cosmos. What we find in the Wilderness episode is not a symbol or metaphor, but the actual, and literal Fulfilment of the Wandering and the Acts that Yhwh performed there. And it was through Jesus’ fulfilment of the Wandering that he would then, himself, become the Bread that his new Israel would feed upon as they journeyed toward the Land. In Jesus, Heaven has again become conjoined to Earth such that the Acts can now become Sacraments. Jesus’ life sacramentalizes the old covenant Acts.

From the Wandering to the Nations—if this is the case (which it is), then a new light is cast on Jesus’ life. The Sacraments are Jesus’ way of providing more-than-literal nourishment to his Israel. But, like the bread in the old covenant, it will stop when his Israel gets to the Land. Once that border is crossed, the “possessions of the nations” will be theirs. Heaven will descend upon the Earth. And there will be no Temple and there will be no need for lamps because God will have finally come to be with his People. And so, we see how Jesus’ life itself, his sacramentalizing of everything that came before, is also a type of prophecy pointing forward to his Return. We live in a time of Fulfillment-Waiting, of Already-But-Not-Yet, of Sacrament.

Jesus and the Forever—lastly, we should see Jesus as the one who offers to his Father the perfect praise of this psalm. Jesus takes the Forever-Seed, his Father’s charges, fulfills them, mirrors them back his Father, in perfect faithfulness and uprightness. And they become the perfect mirror of each other. “I and my Father are One. I do what I see the Father doing. And I abide in him, and He in me.” And, as the human covenant partner, he adds to this Forever-Seed his own faithfulness and returns it to his Father, as the fruit that he was sent to become and to harvest. He is not simply the mirror of the Father, in the sense of a 1 to 1 correlation. No—in his (human and divine) faithfulness, he shows forth—better, enacts—the Prodigal and Ever-Flowing Love that is God. In a way, God is more of enacted than shown, which is why the covenant dynamic—the human and divine faithfulness—is the ex-press-ing of God. And why the fruit of Jesus adoration of the Father is a Forever, something kept Forever, something continued Forever.

Ps 111 (Heaven Seed)

The deeds of his hands / are marked by faithfulness and justice

                All his charges / are faithful

                Maintained / for ever and ever

                To be performed / with faithfulness and uprightness

He sent redemption / to his people

                He has commanded / his covenant be kept forever

Holy and reverend / is his name

All who do them / have good success

His praise / will continue forever

Here, in this final portion of the psalm, we see the heaven-and-earth covenant being enacted. From Yhwh’s side, the “deeds of his hands” are not simply acts he performs. As we saw above, they are ‘elongated’ over time. They penetrate and interact with his people. They are “marked by faithfulness and justice”. In a way, the deeds are seeds that grow, over time, within Israel, and through their meditation upon them. And like seeds, they adhere to their original ‘nature’—they can be trusted. And, because they come from Yhwh, they enact his Forever. They are ‘maintained for ever and ever’. The earth can bear Yhwh’s Forever.

From Israel’s side, they take this Forever-Seed, and they take his charges, and they mirror Yhwh’s own faithfulness and “perform them with faithfulness and uprightness”. Like a woman accepting her husband’s seed, Israel takes Yhwh’s charges into her, adds to them her own life-giving power (faithfulness and uprightness) and produces ‘fruit from her womb’.

All of this flows down from heaven—redemption is “sent to his people”. The commandments, the Acts—they all pour out of heaven in order to water and fructify the earth. And the earth, in turn, then mirrors it back and from the two—from Heaven and Earth—this third is born—this “fruit”. And here, this “fruit”, this third, is Praise---which will not, itself, participate in the Forever that is the result of heaven and earth’s faithfulness.

Ps 111 (Food and Possessions)

He gave food / to those who revered him

                He is mindful of his covenant / forever

He declared his mighty deeds / to his people

                That he would give them / the possessions of the nations

And here we see a concrete example of this. Between the Exodus and the Entry, between the Act and its Fulfilment, is the Food—the ‘bread of angels’, that comes down from heaven, in order to provide sustenance to Yhwh’s people while they journey toward the “possessions of the nations”. This Food is the manifestation of Yhwh’s “mindfulness” and his “loyalty”. It is what carries them between the times, of the already but not yet time, when the Act exists as prophecy. This is important—this Food is the ‘elongation’ of the covenant.

The Food and the Acts—together they constitute the way in which Yhwh sustains his people during their journey to the Abundance. The Food is ever-present to them. It cannot be hoarded so it is always rooting the people’s hearts in its heavenly reality. The Acts are ever-present to them as a source of reverie and study. The liturgy of the Word, and the liturgy of the Bread.

The Possessions of the Nations—once Yhwh’s people enter the Land, the Food stops. The Land is the fulfillment of the great Acts, where the prophecy of the Exodus is completed. The Land becomes the Final Act, so to speak. But here, it is not called the Land but “the possessions of the nations”. It is as if Yhwh has held these possessions for them, waiting for them to arrive so that he could give them to them. It is an overwhelming abundance. If the Food was something that was given only day-by-day and could not be hoarded, the Possessions are different. While they were “on the way”, they lived in a type of fasting. When they arrive, they will arrive at a banquet. While they were “on the way”, they possessed nothing and could take nothing with them. When they arrive, they will possess the wealth of the nations. While they were “on the way” Yhwh dwelt in a tabernacle. When they arrive, Yhwh will dwell in their midst in the Temple. In all of these, we see their movement as one heading toward permanence, ownership and stability.

We cannot understand this, though, as some type of earthly reality—this is heaven power, covenant power come to its fulfillment. Only heaven can permit possessions to become permanent. Only through heaven can earth be truly owned. And only through heaven can possessions be enjoyed with stability.

There is a way of reading this psalm that divides Yhwh’s acts (of mighty deeds and food, etc…) from the covenant requirements—you might say, Acts and Ethics. Seeing the Acts as incentives to obedience. That may be true on some level but I feel as it in some ways it gets it backwards. When we understand that these covenant obligations came from Yhwh we can re-frame that understanding this way—they are not, in the first place, earthly, but heavenly. In other words, they are the expressions of heavenly life. In so far as one stands within them—enacts them—one is ‘living in heaven’ and making heaven come to earth. Understood this way, they coincide with the glory of the Acts—they both make heaven visible, make heaven present. They are both, in this way, a type of sacrament, a perfect divine Art.

But, it also means that certain acts of faithfulness performed “on the way” will not be performed once the people obtain the “possessions of the nations”. They can fast now, and they should, but when the wedding banquet begins, they should join in the revelry. They should meditate, now, upon the great Acts, mining them for their sustenance. When they arrive, however, they should gaze upon the Act Himself, and remove the veil that lies over them.

Ps 111 (Part Two--Loyalty Forever)

Yhwh’s deeds / are so great

                Worth studying / by all who revel in them

His activity is marked / by majesty and splendor

                And his loyalty / continues forever

He has caused / his wonders to be praised

                Yhwh is dutiful / and affectionate

Yhwh’s acts participate in his Forever when they are mediated upon and praised by his people. His covenant with his people also ‘extends’ his acts into his Forever, because it is through his covenant that his “loyalty continues forever.” This is key—the covenant is what enables Yhwh’s people to see that when Yhwh’s acts, Yhwh’s own ‘person’ is revealed. Said in another way, if Yhwh was a god who performed an isolated act for Israel but was not covenantally bound to them, then that act may reveal something about Yhwh, but it would be limited. However, when Yhwh performs these acts and then voluntarily enters into covenant with Israel he is telling them that they are bound to this god and this god is one who has wed his reputation to this people. For that reason, these acts are meant to ‘display’ who Yhwh is—and who he will be, in his faithfulness to the covenant. That is how the covenant ‘extends’ these acts. They are not simply left behind but are covenantally bound to Israel.

We could even say this—that Yhwh’s acts, performed in the past, are also prophecies of the future, and what ties the past to the future (what makes the acts into prophecies) is Yhwh’s loyalty. Thought of this way, Yhwh’s loyalty is what also enables the people to praise his acts in the present, understanding that they stand within the stream of Yhwh’s Forever.

Ps. 111.1 (Becoming the Forever)

I will give Yhwh / wholehearted thanks

                in the assembled congregation of the upright

Everything in this psalm is visible. It is public. It is on display. Yhwh’s acts are Majesty and Splendor—they are the beautiful displays of Yhwh’s overwhelming power and authority. This is the divine heaven reality becoming manifest in and through the cosmos. It is the cosmos on fire with Yhwh’s activity.

These acts—these conflagrations—are performed once, but for those who recognize their grandeur, they are not extinguished; they are forever flames that  burn in the hearts of Yhwh’s faithful. They “worth studying”. They are ever-flames. They are not exhausted in their time.  Yhwh’s praise for his acts “will continue forever”. They stand as the fountain of the forever-covenant between Yhwh and his people.

“Forever” is mentioned several times in this psalm—almost always in connection with the covenant. Yhwh’s loyalty is “forever”. He is mindful of his covenant “forever”. His people live within that covenant “forever and ever”. He has commanded it be kept “forever”. His praise “will continue forever”.

So what can we say about this opening verse? The psalmist puts himself in the stream of Yhwh’s Forever. He enters into the flame that is ignited by Yhwh’s act, through studying them, and then performs the act of praise that will, itself, partake of Yhwh’s own undying Forever. This is not simply the psalmist declaring something. Heaven and earth meet here—the Forever is enacted here, through the psalmist’s studying and praise of Yhwh’s acts. Yhwh “continues forever” and, likewise, so will his covenant-creation continue forever in their praise of him. We see, here, then, a type of resurrected power, a type of heaven power, a covenant power, that lifts Yhwh’s people up into his own Forever sphere and makes them into one of his Majestic and Splendorous Acts.