Psalms 111-112

What’s Happening?

Psalms 111 and 112 are literary twins. Psalm 111 praises God’s good character, and Psalm 112 praises a blessed man who reflects God’s good character. The psalms share the same Hebrew structure, with each line beginning with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet to show how the blessed man becomes like God by doing what he does. 

Psalm 111 praises God for the works he has done for his people (Psalm 111:1-3). God rescued Israel from slavery in Egypt, fed them in the wilderness, made them his people, and brought them into a new land. God worked mightily in the world to make Israel his people. Israel was told to remember and delight in these wondrous deeds because they reveal what God is like. God’s righteousness is eternal, meaning he never stops putting the world in its right and good order (Psalm 111:4). God is always feeding those who are hungry, freeing slaves from oppression, and restoring right relationship between humans and himself (Psalm 111:5-9). God’s works not only show us who he is, but who he wants humans to be. Therefore, a wise person will see God’s works and do as he does, while a wicked person will hate God’s works and refuse to do as he does (Psalm 112:10). 

Then the God from Psalm 111 is reflected in the blessed man of Psalm 112 (Psalm 112:1). This human image of God does the same works God does. Like God, this man feeds the hungry and gives to the needy. Like God, he never stops putting the world in its right and good order. Like God, he is gracious and compassionate toward others (Psalm 112:4). Like God, he generously uses his wealth to help the poor (Psalm 112:5,9). And like God, his works are remembered and delighted in (Psalm 112:6,7). God has worked mightily in the world to make Israel his people. Now he works mightily through his people to work in the world. 

Where’s the Gospel?

From the beginning, God created man in his own image. As the image of God, man was meant to be like God in the world. But humans did not delight in God’s righteousness and so did not reflect it in the world. Instead of putting the world in its right and good order, humanity disordered the world in wickedness. 

But the God who never stops putting the world in its right and good order came to reorder his image in humanity. Jesus is Psalm 111 and 112 beautifully united in God and man (Colossians 1:15-20). God came in the image of man to restore the image of God in man. Jesus would show us how to be human again. 

As the image of God, Jesus is what humans are meant to look like (1 Peter 2:21). Jesus fed the hungry, gave generously to the needy, and freed those enslaved to wickedness. Jesus restored humanity to its God-intended image. Wherever he saw humanity broken and maimed, he restored it to its right and good order. Jesus restored shriveled hands, blind eyes, leprous skin, paralyzed legs, and dead corpses (Mark 1:40-42, 3:5, 5:41-42). Jesus healed the human image wherever he went. 

Ultimately, he did not just realign our marred bodies, but restored our marred image. Because Jesus perfectly joined the image of God with humanity, he can restore the image of God in us when we are joined to him. As Psalm 111 invites us to do, we remember and delight in the works and image of Jesus (John 14:21). And as Psalm 112 shows, when we do this, we become like him as we do what he does. This is why the church is called the body of Jesus in the world (Colossians 1:24). Jesus has worked mightily in the world to make us his people. Now he works mightily through his people, the church, to image him and do his works in the world. 

See for Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit would open your eyes to see the God who made us to be like him. And may you see Jesus as the one who became like us to make us like God.