Psalm – Psalm 111-113
How many of you enjoy the pre-service hymn singing and make it a point to come early just so you can join in? What about the Family Hymn Singing every 3rd Saturday of the month? The Tuesday Hymn and Prayer service?
I certainly enjoyed yesterday’s pre-service hymn singing in the morning and afternoon. There is something wonderful about singing praises that draws my heart closer to God and lift my spirits.
Let’s see if today’s passage from Psalms sets your heart soaring …
Bible Passage: Psalm 111-113
I read Psalm 111 and 112 hand in hand. Psalm 113 belongs to another group of Psalms that I will share briefly later.
The Fear of the Lord
Psalm 112 follows Psalm 111 in a special way.
Psalm 111 is about a righteous God.
Psalm 112 is about that man that God makes righteous.
We always read and hear about the word “righteous”. But what does it mean to you?
To me, it simply means “always doing what is right.” Hmmm…. quite a tall command isn’t it. Besides, only God is really righteous.
But we also read in the Bible that the people that love and obey God are also righteous.
They are not righteous because they always do what is right. Sometimes they do what is not right! They are righteous because God gives them the gift of righteousness. Not only this, God also showers His abundant blessings on them (Psalm 112:2-10).
Why?
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;
A good understanding have all those who do His commandments.
His praise endures forever.
Psalm 111:10
Praise the LORD!
Blessed is the man who fears the LORD,
Who delights greatly in His commandments.
Psalm 112:1
When I was young, I always had problem with the phrase “fear the Lord”. Why should I fear a God who is so loving and wonderful? Isn’t Jesus our greatest friend? So why should I fear Him?
A better English word for “afraid” is “in awe”. It means more than being afraid. It also means to want to love and obey the person that you are afraid of!
So much so that the commandments of God are not burdensome. In fact, they are a delight to those that fear God. Blessings overflow.
But it all starts with the fear of God.
Learning Faith Through Songs
Praise the LORD!
Praise, O servants of the LORD,
Praise the name of the LORD!
Psalm 113:1
I always find one of the easiest way to teach and remember spiritual truths and lessons is through a song. Likewise, memories are often passed on most effectively through music.
From Psalm 113-118, these are a series of Psalms that the Hebrews composed to be sung around the supper table during Passover.
The first two are sung before the meal and the rest afterwards. Each of the Psalms commemorated some aspect of the escape of the Israelites from their bondage to Pharaoh and the Egyptians (Exodus 12-15). For this reason, they are sometimes refered to as the “Hallelujah” chorus (Hallel means praise).
The themes of these six Passover psalms are:
Psalm 113: Praising God for releasing the downtrodden
Psalm 114: Escaping from Egypt
Psalm 115: Praising God together as a people
Psalm 116: Thanking God personaly and giving oneself to Him
Psalm 117: Calling the Gentiles to praise God
Psalm 118: Recalling God’s steadfast, enduring love.
Just imagine worshipping God through songs round the family table.
And this begs the questions:
Does our family have songs that it can sing to encourage each member to give thanks to God, remember His acts, and learn important truths about Him?
Do we occassionally pause to express our joy together in music?
Do we lead our family in singing our praises to God?
This is something that should also extend to our spiritual family – our church.
Think about it.
Finally, after all this talk of singing praises to God, it will be remiss not to include a song of praise 🙂
And here is one that I found on Youtube – “I Will Sing Praises to Your Name” – a very old familiar favourite of mine that I have forgotten.
2 Comments
shalom
Thank God and thank you for sharing this passage of Psalm and the song… they really brought tears of thanksgivings as i read and listened to this song.
Indeed our God is the same yesterday, today and forever. His love for us never changes and is so great that we must fear Him, but just like what biblereadingcompanion says “A better English word for “afraid” is “in awe”. It means more than being afraid. It also means to want to love and obey the person that you are afraid of!”.
This morning I’ve also read John 15, and in v 12 to 14, Jesus our God calls us friends! He wants us to emulate His love to love one another, and His standard of love is to even lay down one’s life for his friends! Can we do that for our friends, our family members, our brethren in Christ?
We are often being admonished to leave our comfort zones and reach out to our truthseeking friends, but what about leaving our comfort zones to be more like a family to our brothers and sisters in Christ? Leaving our comfort zones doesn’t require us to lay down our lives, maybe not not, yet we find it so hard to do. Some of us even want to keep an arm’s length in relation to our brothers/sisters in Christ. Is this pleasing to our God? Is this obeying the commandment of God to love one another as Jesus loves us? It is human tendency to feel difficult to love someone whom we are not so close to or someone who doesn’t like/love us in the church, but is it difficult to love someone who loves us?
It is good and a blessing to be able to sing praises to God as a family, be it our own family or our spiritual family, but we all must sing with sincerity and with love, true love in our hearts like that of Christ’s. If not it will be useless.
Psa 137:4 How shall we sing the LORD’s song
In a foreign land?
PS
The chinese bible states Psa 113:7 differently, i think it describes human’s situation even more aptly:
He raises the poor out of the dust,
And lifts the needy out of the ash heap(粪堆）
Yes, we are but in a heap of dung and going into a lake of everlasting burning fire, if not for Lord Jesus.
Psa 111:9 sums it all up:
He has sent redemption to His people;
He has commanded His covenant forever:
Holy and awesome is His name
他的名 圣 而 可畏
Bec my English is hopelessly weak, i can’t help but say that the Chinese bible conveys a deeper message than the Eng in some parts:
Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Fear is敬畏 in ch bible. See, the ch has 2 elements: Revere n fear
Be it Eng or Ch, the heart matters most.
Worship God in spirit and truth. God wants it this way.