Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Psalms · About this commentary
The Beginning of Wisdom
Psalms 111:1-10
1 Praise Yah! I will give thanks to Yahweh with my whole heart, in the council of the upright, and in the congregation. · WEB
An alphabetical psalm about God's works, ending on the line that opens the wisdom books.
Praise Yah! I will give thanks to Yahweh with my whole heart Psalms 111:1.
An acrostic, and a tightly built one: after the opening call, each half-line begins with the next letter of the alphabet, twenty-two in ten verses. It is a poem designed to be memorized.
Yahweh's works are great, pondered by all those who delight in them Psalms 111:2.
The verb means to study — sought out, examined. Delight produces investigation rather than replacing it, and the psalm assumes that God's works reward close attention.
He has caused his wonderful works to be remembered Psalms 111:4.
Memory is arranged for. The festivals, the Sabbath, the Passover — all of them exist so that the acts do not fade, which is the same purpose the seventy-eighth psalm gave for teaching children.
He has given food to those who fear him. He always remembers his covenant Psalms 111:5.
The two halves sit oddly together and belong together. Dinner and the covenant, in one verse, as though provision were a clause in the agreement.
The works of his hands are truth and justice. All his precepts are sure Psalms 111:7.
What God does and what God says are described in the same terms, which is the psalm's quiet argument: the commands and the acts come from one character.
The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom. All those who do his work have a good understanding Psalms 111:10.
The sentence that opens Proverbs Proverbs 9:10, placed here at the end of a list of things God has done. The order is the point. Fear is not where a person starts in ignorance; it is what a person arrives at after considering the works, and it is called the beginning because everything else follows from it.
And the second clause is practical. Understanding belongs to those who do — not to those who have studied the acrostic.
settled What this mark means