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.