Psalm 112
Scripture:
1 Praise the Lord!
Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
who greatly delights in his commandments!
2 His offspring will be mighty in the land;
the generation of the upright will be blessed.
3 Wealth and riches are in his house,
and his righteousness endures forever.
4 Light dawns in the darkness for the upright;
he is gracious, merciful, and righteous.
5 It is well with the man who deals generously and lends;
who conducts his affairs with justice.
6 For the righteous will never be moved;
he will be remembered forever.
7 He is not afraid of bad news;
his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.
8 His heart is steady; he will not be afraid,
until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.
9 He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever;
his horn is exalted in honor.
10 The wicked man sees it and is angry;
he gnashes his teeth and melts away;
the desire of the wicked will perish!
Devotion:
We began this week with a portrait, and it is worth spending a few minutes looking at the whole thing before Sunday. The man of Psalm 112 fears the Lord and finds delight in His Word, and out of that foundation grows a life that is generous and just and steady in the face of bad news. Micah named the same life from a prophetic angle: do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with your God. And then Jesus climbed a hill in Galilee and told His disciples that the blessed ones are the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, drawing from the same deep well the psalm had been drawing from all along and showing His followers that He was the one who had come to make it all possible.
That is the thread running through every day this week. The life described in Psalm 112 is not a project of self-improvement. It is the natural shape of a person who has been spending time with God and has begun to look a little like what they have been beholding. Jesus is the one who perfectly embodies every word of the psalm and every word of the Beatitudes, and He is the one forming us into people who can follow suit.
How will you apply what you’ve studied? It may be gratitude for a truth that landed somewhere it needed to land. It may be a confession of the gap between the portrait and what you saw in the mirror this week. It may be a commitment to follow through on what Friday asked of you. Whatever God has said, write it honestly below and carry it into worship, because the gathering on Sunday is the overflow of a people who have been in the Word all week and are ready to respond together.
HEAR about it:
Respond:
Write your response to God. What has He spoken to you this week through Psalm 112? What will you do about it? A prayer, a commitment, a confession? Make it honest and make it yours.
Prayer and Reflection:
Take a few minutes to sit quietly and reflect on the passage you read today. Let the Holy Spirit bring to mind what stood out to you and why. Then spend some time in prayer. Pray for the people around you, for your outlook on this day, and for the needs you are carrying in your own life.
Lord, You gave me a portrait this week of what a life shaped by the fear of You looks like, and You gave me Micah's plain-spoken requirement and Jesus' Beatitudes as lenses for the same truth, that the blessed life flows from You and looks like You. I come to You today with whatever this week has turned up in me, the parts that resembled the portrait and the parts that did not, my response to your Word, and the application I made. Take all of it, and let what is real in me meet what is real in You. In the name of Jesus, who is the King of the blessed, Amen.
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