Latest / Reformed Thinking / Blessed Is the Man Who Fears the Lord (Psalm 112) | Charles Spurgeon

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Blessed Is the Man Who Fears the Lord (Psalm 112) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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  So if you break your arm, the X-ray shows a jagged white line,
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  right? And the doctor just points at
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  the screen and says, there it is.
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  It's, you know, binary. Broken or not broken, it's a
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  clean, visible, neat categorization.
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  But what happens when you try to put a believer's soul into an
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  X-ray machine? Welcome to Reformed thinking.
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  You step into the world of theology and the daily life of a
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  Christian, and suddenly that physical scan seems totally
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  inadequate. Yeah, completely.
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  We want a simple glowing indicator to show us who is
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  righteous and who is not. I mean, we want to be able to
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  spot it from across the room. It would make things easier.
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  Right, but the reality of faith playing out in real time
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  involves hidden internal motives, private financial
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  decisions and, well, quiet reactions to really devastating
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  news. Yeah.
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  So today we are taking a deep dive into the source material to
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  look at the X-ray of a believers soul.
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  We are looking at Charles Spurgeon's exposition of Psalm
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  112 from his massive work The Treasury of David.
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  Such a great resource. Oh, absolutely.
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  And we have notes from some of the greatest minds in Christian
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  history. John Calvin, Thomas Manton,
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  Albert Barnes, and many others. We really want to see what a
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  life altered by Grace actually looks like on a Tuesday
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  afternoon when things go terribly wrong for you.
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  Yeah, that X-ray analogy is a great starting point.
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  When we look at Psalm 112, we we have to start by setting the
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  proper context, because reading this text in isolation can lead
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  to a massive misunderstanding of what is actually being
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  prescribed here. Right, context is everything.
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  It really is so. Psalm 112 is the companion to
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  Psalm 111. In fact, Spurgeon provides a
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  brilliant illustration right at the beginning of his exposition.
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  He suggests that Psalm 111 is the sun and Psalm 112 is the
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  moon. Oh.
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  I like. It, Psalm 111 is entirely about
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  declaring the glory, the majestic works, and the
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  character of God Himself. It's the blinding original light
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  of divine perfection. So I'm 112 on the other hand, is
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  the moon, because it speaks of the reflection of that divine
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  brightness in the lives of believers.
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  The moon has no light of its own right.
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  Right. It only shines because it's
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  positioned to reflect the sun. Spot on.
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  And this brings us to a theological framing for our
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  entire discussion today, one of the lines completely with the
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  Westminster Confession of Faith. Which is crucial for us here.
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  Absolutely. This text does not extol human
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  merit. I mean we are not reading a self
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  help manual on how to become a morally superior person through
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  sheer willpower or like strict habit tracking.
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  Right, it's not a ten step program.
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  No, not at all. The psalmist is praising God for
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  the manifestation of His glory seen in His people.
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  Any goodness, any charity, any stability you see in the
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  believer described in this Psalm is a result of God's grace.
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  We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.
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  The praise goes to the Creator, not the reflection.
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  OK, let's untack this because that is a massive distinction.
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  We have a strict rule on this show, by the way, for you
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  listening, no interrupting each other, score arguments.
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  We want to allow for complete, thoughtful analysis, but I'm
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  tracking right with you here. I appreciate that.
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  If we approach this Psalm thinking it's a checklist for us
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  to earn God's favor, we have missed the point entirely.
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  We are looking at the fruit of salvation, not the root of it.
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  Yes, the root is God's grace, the fruit is the behavior
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  described here. So looking at the very first
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  verse, it says praise ye the Lord.
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  Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth
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  greatly in his commandments. Right away we have this command
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  to praise Jehovah. And then the definition of the
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  blessed man. He is defined by two actions,
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  fearing the Lord and delighting greatly in His commandments.
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  Two very distinct things. Yeah, and honestly, I have to
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  push back on this concept, or at least voice a question that I
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  think many of you listening might be asking right now.
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  Sure, go for it. Wait, if someone is afraid, how
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  can they take pleasure in the roles?
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  Fear and delight seem like oil and water.
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  They just don't mix. Fair question.
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  Right. I mean, if I am terrified of a
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  tyrant, I do not delight in his laws.
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  I obey them to survive, but I resent them.
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  Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
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  But I think we resolved this by comparing it to a child's
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  healthy respect for a loving parent.
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  A child who knows they are loved still has a reverence, a fear of
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  crossing a boundary because they respect the parents authority.
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  That's a great way to frame it. Contrast that with a citizen's
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  dread of a dictator. The dictator rules by terror and
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  the citizen obeys out of a desire for self preservation.
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  The child obeys out of desire to honor the relationship.
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  How do the commentators in our source material breakdown the
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  specific tension between fear and delight?
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  So Wolfgang Musculus and Thomas Wilson are particularly helpful
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  here. In our source material, they
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  distinguish between two types of fear, slavish fear and filial
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  fear. Slavish fear is what you just
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  described as the dictator. It's a dread of punishment.
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  Musculus points out that there is a kind of fear that produces
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  misery and wretchedness, not blessedness.
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  Right, the fear of the whip. Yes, exactly.
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  The fear of a slave who only works because the whip is
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  raised, but filial fear, the fear of a son or daughter, is
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  godly reverence that has been sweetened into love.
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  Sweetened into love. I love that phrase.
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  Yeah, Wilson defines it as the emotion that restrains us from
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  evil and incites us to, well, doing, noting that God alone is
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  the author of this specific type of fear.
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  And this connects directly to the Reformed doctrine of total
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  depravity and irresistible grace.
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  How? Sir.
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  Well, total depravity teaches that in our fallen state, our
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  natural disposition toward God's law is hostility.
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  We might obey outwardly out of slavish fear to avoid
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  consequences, but we do not delight in it.
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  Our hearts are naturally opposed to His authority.
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  We naturally want to be our own boss.
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  Right. Therefore, for a human being to
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  transition from either ignoring God or dreading Him to
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  possessing a filial fear that actually delights in His
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  commandments, well, that requires a supernatural
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  intervention. God's irresistible grace must
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  change the heart of stone into a heart of flesh.
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  The mechanism of this change is pretty staggering.
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  It's not a negotiation. My God doesn't farter with us.
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  No, he does not just persuade the mind, He fundamentally
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  alters the affections. John Calvin zeroes in on the
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  Hebrew word used for delight, which is chaffetz.
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  Chaffetz. He notes that it means a willing
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  and prompt endeavor. It is not constrained obedience,
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  and this brings us to what we call the third use of the law in
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  reformed theology. Right, because the law has
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  multiple uses. Correct, The law is not just a
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  mirror to show us our sin, nor just a bridle to restrain
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  societal evil for the redeemed believer.
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  It is a guide for Christian living.
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  Yeah, a road map. Thomas Manton makes an
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  observation in the sources saying that we have known
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  hypocrites who rejoice in doctrines, but never in the
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  commandments. Wow, that is.
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  That cuts deep. It does a slavish religiousness
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  where someone would rather not do the work if they could get
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  away with it. Lacks sincere love.
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  True believers cheerfully practice the law because love
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  sweetens the command. Hypocrites rejoicing in doctrine
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  but ignoring the commandments. I mean, that hits close to home
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  for anyone who spends time in theological circles.
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  Very true. It is so much easier to win a
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  debate about theology online than it is to cheerfully
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  practice patients with your family on a frustrating Tuesday
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  morning. Isn't that the truth?
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  Manton is showing us that mental assent to a doctrine is cheap.
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  The actual X-ray of the soul is what you do when the commandment
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  requires sacrifice. And this inward delight that
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  Calvin and Manton were talking about, it logically results in
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  outward visible fruit. It does not stay trapped in the
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  mind. It spills over.
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  Right. It spills over into the physical
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  world, which brings us to the generational effects of faith
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  found in verses 2 and three. The text says his seed shall be
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  mighty upon earth, the generation of the upright shall
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  be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in
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  his house, and his righteousness endureth forever.
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  OK, yeah. We have to address the obvious
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  tension here. We read promises about the
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  upright having mighty children and houses full of wealth and
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  riches. Right.
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  Yet many devout, faithful believers are incredibly poor.
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  They struggle to pay the rent. Their children might face
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  immense hardships. I mean, some of the most
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  faithful Christians in history were martyred and left their
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  families. Absolutely, absolutely
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  destitute. That's a historical fact.
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  So how do we read this without falling into a prosperity gospel
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  trap that says if you are good, you will get rich?
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  Applying A Reformed hermeneutic here is essential to avoid that
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  exact prosperity gospel trap. When we look at the notes from
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  Albert Barnes and David Dixon, they clarify that these are
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  general statements, not universal guarantees for every
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  single individual. General statements, OK, yes.
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  They are describing the general trajectory of a life lived with
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  integrity. Honesty, diligence, and upright
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  dealing usually yield better societal and financial results
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  than cunning and deceit. That makes sense.
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  If you are trustworthy, people want to do business with you.
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  If you are diligent, you tend to build stability.
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  Thomas Scott provides A vivid biblical comparison in his
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  commentary to illustrate this dynamic.
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  What's the comparison? He compares lot to.
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  Abraham Oh, interesting. Yeah.
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  Lot looked at the fertile, wealthy planes of Sodom and
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  chose them for quick financial gain.
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  He was hoping to enrich his family through proximity to a
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  booming, albeit wicked, economy. Right, he chased the bag, as
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  they say. He did, and the result was
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  disaster. He lost everything and his
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  family was shattered. Abraham, on the other hand,
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  chose piety and obedience. He did not chase the quick
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  wealth, yet he left a far better, more lasting legacy for
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  his descendants. But we must also spiritualize
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  this wealth, as Charles Spurgeon does so beautifully in the text.
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  Spurgeon asks what wealth can equal that of the love of God?
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  What riches can rival A contented heart?
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  Nothing really, right? An honest man might be a rising
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  man in society, but the true riches of the believer are
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  internal and spiritual. A thatched roof and a cold stone
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  floor mean nothing if the heart is cheered with the favor of
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  heaven. That's a beautiful image.
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  What's fascinating here is the phrase at the end of verse 3.
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  His righteousness endureth forever.
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  John Fry and JJS Peron weigh in on this.
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  Human goodness fades. Our best moral efforts are
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  flawed. Very flawed.
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  So for righteousness to endure forever, it cannot be our own
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  manufactured morality. This must be a reference to the
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  everlasting imputed righteousness of the Mediator,
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  Jesus Christ. That concept of imputed
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  righteousness changes everything.
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  I mean, if my eternal standing depended on my own enduring
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  goodness, I would be in constant panic.
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  Oh absolutely. It would be like trying to
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  maintain a perfect credit score in a system where one late
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  payment means permanent bankruptcy.
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  That's a terrifying thought. But the doctrine of
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  justification says that Christ's perfect righteousness is
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  credited to the believer by faith alone.
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  It is a legal forensic declaration.
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  Yes, God looks at the believer and sees the perfect record of
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  Christ. So while earthly wealth may come
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  and go, the believer standing before God, their imputed
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  righteousness, is secure for all eternity.
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  Completely secure. And having established that the
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  believer has this secure standing before God, we really
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  have to look at what happens when the secure believer faces
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  inevitable worldly trials. Because the X-ray of the
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  Christian life is not always a picture of perfect health and
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  sunny skies. No, it barely is.
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  Right, verse 4 says unto the upright there riseth light in
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  the darkness. He is great, gracious and full
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  of compassion and righteous. Notice that it explicitly says
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  in the darkness even the upright experience dark days.
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  That's unavoidable. This text shatters the illusion
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  that faith is a shield against all earthly suffering.
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  I love the analogy used by Alexander Raleigh in the source
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  notes. He compares the spiritual dawn
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  to the physical sunrise. It's.
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  A great visual. Yeah, think about a city
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  sleeping. When the sun rises, the vast
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  majority of people do not even notice.
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  The light comes, the day begins, and they sleep right through it,
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  right? But think about the person who
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  has been awake all night in a sick room, watching a loved one
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  suffer, listening to them breathe, waiting for the
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  morning. Or think about a Tempest tossed
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  sailor who has been fighting huge waves and pitch blackness,
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  not knowing where the jagged rocks of the shore.
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  Are desperately waiting for the light.
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  Exactly. To those people, the sunrise is
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  intensely anticipated. It is a victory.
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  The spiritual, the full light that God brings to the upright
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  is like that. It is profoundly felt by those
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  who are in the midst of the darkness.
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  George Horne provides A magnificent outline of this
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  experience in his commentary. He identifies A threefold
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  darkness that every believer is subject to while on this earth.
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  Threefold darkness. Yeah, the darkness of air, the
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  darkness of sorrow and the darkness of death.
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  These are unavoidable human experiences.
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  You cannot pray your way out of encountering them.
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  Yeah, no one gets a pass, right? But Horn notes, God meets this
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  threefold darkness with a threefold light.
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  To dispel the darkness of error, God provides the light of truth.
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  To dispel the darkness of sorrow, he provides the light of
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  comfort. And to dispel the darkness of
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  death, he provides the light of life.
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  God comforts the believer just as surely as the morning follows
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  the night. But there is also a causal
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  connection regarding the character of the believer here,
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  which Thomas Chalmers points out.
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  What's the connection? Chalmers argues that doing what
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  is right logically leads to seeing what is true.
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  Integrity of purpose actually creates clearness of perception.
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  That's really interesting. If you have an honest desire to
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  know the truth, and you obey the truth you already know, it
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  brings a light into your circumstances that nothing else
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  can. A person who is constantly
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  living in deceit is shrouded in a mental fog of their own
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  making. They cannot see clearly because
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  they're always managing their lies.
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  Trying to remember who they told what to.
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  Exactly. The upright man does not have to
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  manage lies, so his vision is clear.
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  Furthermore, we must look at the adjectives at the end of verse
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  4. Gracious, full of compassion,
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  and righteous. Okay, as we establish in our
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  introduction, Psalm 111 describes God.
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  In verse 4 of Psalm 111, God is described with these exact same
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  words, gracious, full of compassion, and righteous.
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  I see the parallel. Now in Psalm 112, the believers
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  described with these words, When God makes a man upright, he
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  makes him like himself. We are imitating the Creator.
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  We are, as Spurgeon says, humble copies of the great original.
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  Our grace, our compassion, and our righteousness are derived
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  directly from our union with Christ and the sanctifying work
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  of the Holy Spirit. We are humble copies of the
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  great original. That is such a high calling and
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  that compassion we just mentioned, it's not just an
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  inward feeling. It's not just sitting in a room
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  feeling bad for people who are hurting.
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  True compassion requires a practical outlet.
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  It moves into the physical realm.
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  So if a believer is filled with this compassion and grace, how
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  does it manifest in their daily routine?
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  This should show up somewhere. Right, which steers our
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  discussion directly toward the economics of the believer.
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  Which brings us to verse 5. A good man showeth favor, and
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  lendeth. He will guide his affairs with
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  discretion. Here's where it gets really
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  interesting for me. I agree.
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  We often divorce the spiritual from the practical.
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  We think of piety as long prayers, reading massive
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  theological volumes and quiet contemplation in a dimly lit
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  room. The monastery mindset.
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  Yes, exactly. But this text zeroes in on the
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  practical nature of piety. It does not say the Goodman only
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  prays, it says he manages his accounts.
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  Well. True religion is sanctified
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  common sense. The X-ray of the believer soul
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  shows us their financial Ledger. Now I will admit reading this I
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  have a bit of pushback. OK, let's hear.
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  It says he lends, but isn't lending inherently risky?
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  If we are called to be radically generous, shouldn't a believer
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  just give everything away? Why is there this focus on
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  managing affairs and lending rather than just taking a vow of
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  poverty and giving every single penny to the poor to prove how
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  detached we are from the world? You are absolutely right to
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  focus on that tension and the commentators place massive
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  weight on the concept of discretion to answer that
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  question. Yeah, Thomas Binney addresses
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  this by stating that money stewardship demands reflection,
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  conscience and tact. The believers mind is their
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  masters just as much as their hands are.
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  Everything must be weighed in the balance.
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  OK, John Spencer shares a fascinating story about Saint
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  Anthony. To illustrate this, Saint
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  Anthony asked various fathers what virtue most directly leads
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  to perfection. And what do they say?
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  Well, some said fasting, some said prayer, some said poverty,
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  obedience. But Saint Anthony concluded that
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  while all those graces are excellent, discretion is the
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  chief of them all. Wow, really?
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  Over prayer and fasting. Yes, discretion is the moderator
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  of all affections. As Spencer notes, zeal without
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  knowledge is blind. Alms must be given with
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  discretion. If you fast without discretion,
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  you destroy your physical health.
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  That's true. If you give without discretion,
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  you might actually cause harm to yourself and your dependents
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  regarding your pushback on lending versus just giving
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  everything away. Michael Cox and Albert Barnes
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  provide excellent clarity. What do they?
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  Say Providence makes the believer able to lend, and grace
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  makes him willing to lend, but discretion prevents him from
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  risking his all foolishly. If a good man gives everything
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  away recklessly, he removes his future capacity to be a blessing
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  to others. He drives up his own well.
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  Precisely. Spurgeon had a sharp warning
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  here. He says carelessness in business
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  can become almost as bad as actual navery.
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  That is a strong word. It is if a Christian is so
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  spiritual that they neglect their secular business, go into
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  terrible debt, and cannot pay their employees or their bills,
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  They bring ruin on themselves and disgrace to the gospel.
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  The world is watching. They are true religion requires
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  us to drive our affairs, and that allow them to drive us.
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  Sanctified common sense means our accounts are straight, our
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  plans are wisely laid, and we are sensible.
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  We don't use faith as an excuse for financial incompetence.
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  I love that phrase. Carelessness and business can
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  become almost as bad as actual navery.
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  It totally reframes how we view our daily responsibilities.
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  It really does. Doing your spreadsheet
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  accurately is a spiritual act. Paying your vendors on time is a
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  theological statement. So if a believer is meticulously
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  managing their finances and acting with this high level of
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  discretion, what happens when something totally outside their
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  control wipes it all out anyway? Because that.
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  Happens all the time. Right.
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  What happens when a market crash hits or a medical diagnosis
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  drains the savings account? Does that discretion just turn
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  into panic versus 6 through 8? Show us an unshakable posture
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  against bad news. Let's look at the text.
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  The text reads, Surely he shall not be moved forever.
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  The righteous shall be an everlasting remembrance.
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  He shall not be afraid of evil tidings.
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  His heart is fixed. Trusting in the Lord, his heart
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  is established. He shall not be afraid until he
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  see his desire upon his enemies. Let's start with verse 7.
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  He shall not be afraid of evil tidings.
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  Such a relevant verse for today. We live in a 24 hour news cycle
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  where evil tidings are delivered to our phones constantly.
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  Economic collapse, War, disease, political upheaval.
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  I want to compare the believer in this text to a well anchored
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  ship when the weather forecast predicts a category 5 hurricane,
• 19:23
  which is, you know, the ultimate evil tithing for a sailor.
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  The ship is not destroyed by panic, the waves have not even
• 19:29
  hit yet, but the sailor knows the anchor is dropped and it is
• 19:32
  caught on solid rock beneath the surface.
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  The preparation was done in the calm.
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  Yes, the fear of the storm is mitigated entirely by the
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  strength of the anchor. The anchor holds, and then we
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  have this phrase about being an everlasting remembrance in verse
• 19:46
  6. How do the commentators view
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  this kind of legacy compared to the ways the world tries to
• 19:52
  build a lasting memory? The contrast regarding
• 19:55
  everlasting remembrance is beautifully articulated by John
• 19:58
  Donne in our source material. He contrasts the durability of
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  the believer's legacy with worldly monuments, specifically
• 20:06
  the Egyptian pyramids. Oh, the pyramids, Yeah.
• 20:09
  Those stately, durable pyramids were built to immortalize the
• 20:12
  Pharaohs at immense human cost, but as Done points out, they
• 20:16
  have not even successfully transmitted the names of those
• 20:18
  buried in them to the general. Public.
• 20:20
  That's ironic. It is the embalming process
• 20:23
  merely resulted in their bodies being cost about and exposed as
• 20:26
  spectacles of meanness or horror to the curious.
• 20:29
  Centuries later, they wanted eternal glory and became museum
• 20:33
  exhibits. Wow, that is a striking point.
• 20:35
  But don't notes the piety of Abraham, Jacob, David, and
• 20:40
  Samuel outlasts the stars. Their legacy is celebrated to
• 20:44
  this very day. And when the pyramids sink and
• 20:46
  the seas cease to roll, the righteous will still be in
• 20:49
  everlasting remembrance, because God himself takes charge of
• 20:53
  their memorials. That's a beautiful thought.
• 20:56
  God takes charge of the memorial.
• 20:57
  Now regarding the anchor, you mentioned the fixed heart in
• 21:01
  verse 7. This links directly to the
• 21:03
  Reformed doctrine of the perseverance of the Saints.
• 21:06
  Robert Layton and Thomas Mann expound on this brilliantly.
• 21:09
  OK, what do they know? Madden says that when a man's
• 21:12
  comfort ebbs and flows with the creature, meaning earthly things
• 21:15
  like his bank account, his health, his social standing, he
• 21:18
  will panic when evil tidings come.
• 21:20
  Because his foundation is shaking.
• 21:22
  Exactly. If your confidence is in your
• 21:23
  wealth and you hear of a market crash, your heart fails because
• 21:27
  your God is failing. But when your confidence is laid
• 21:30
  up in God's unchangeable sovereignty, you maintain
• 21:33
  equanimity. You stay level headed, yes?
• 21:36
  Leighton echoes this, stating that God is unchangeable and
• 21:39
  therefore faith is invincible because it fastens the heart on
• 21:42
  the rock of eternity. The believer can face the ruin
• 21:45
  of their estate and say my inheritance is safe.
• 21:49
  They can face the death of a dear friend and say my father
• 21:52
  lives. This is not a stoic denial of
• 21:55
  pain. Leighton notes that the believer
• 21:58
  still has compassion and mourns the distresses of the world.
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  But amidst all hard news, there was a calm in the believer's
• 22:04
  mind. Because the throne of God is
• 22:07
  fixed, the news on earth does not change the reality of
• 22:10
  heaven. That distinction between
• 22:12
  Stoicism and Christian peace is vital.
• 22:15
  It is not that the believer does not feel the pain of the evil
• 22:18
  tidings. It is that the pain does not
• 22:20
  unseat their core confidence exactly.
• 22:22
  They still weep, but they don't despair.
• 22:24
  Just look at the historical examples in the Bible regarding
• 22:27
  responses to danger. When King Saul faced the
• 22:29
  Philistine invasion, he was completely panic stricken.
• 22:32
  Right, he fell apart. His heart was not fixed on God,
• 22:35
  so his fear drove him to seek out a witch for help.
• 22:38
  In sheer desperation, he lacked the anchor, so the storm broke
• 22:42
  him. But look at David facing
• 22:44
  Goliath, or King Jehoshaphat facing the Ammonite horde when
• 22:48
  he prayed. We do not know what to do, but
• 22:50
  our eyes are on you. Such a powerful prayer.
• 22:52
  Or look at Stephen in the New Testament, standing before the
• 22:55
  hostile council facing lethal threats, yet his face was like
• 22:59
  that of an Angel. They were fearless, not because
• 23:02
  they were superheroes immune to human adrenaline, but because
• 23:05
  their confidence was in the Creator, not the creature.
• 23:09
  And this inward stability, this freedom from the frantic need
• 23:13
  for self preservation, is what actually allows for the radical
• 23:16
  generosity we see in the very next verse.
• 23:18
  When you are not terrified of losing everything, you are free
• 23:21
  to give. It completely unties your hands.
• 23:24
  Verse 9 says He hath dispersed, He hath given to the poor.
• 23:27
  His righteousness endureth forever.
• 23:29
  His horn shall be exalted with honor.
• 23:32
  Spurgeon points out the mechanism of generosity here.
• 23:34
  He says the believer is Gaiver Reservoir.
• 23:37
  A reservoir. Yeah, a reservoir is designed to
• 23:39
  take in water from a source and then disperse it out to the
• 23:42
  fields that need it. Believers are great at
• 23:45
  dispersing, not just gathering. If someone only gathers and
• 23:48
  never disperses, they are not a reservoir, they are a stagnant
• 23:51
  pond. That's a great metaphor.
• 23:53
  When I see the word horn in this text, my mind immediately goes
• 23:56
  to a Viking drinking horn or maybe a ram on a mountain.
• 24:01
  Is this about abundance or is it a weapon?
• 24:03
  Is actually a combination of several ideas, and Isaac Barrow
• 24:07
  provides a fantastic breakdown of its meaning in our sources.
• 24:10
  Oh good. What does he say?
• 24:11
  He explains that the horn is primarily an emblem of strength,
• 24:15
  both offensive and defensive, much like it is for a beast in
• 24:18
  the wild. It signifies power to repel
• 24:22
  enemies. OK, that makes sense.
• 24:23
  But it is also a symbol of plenty because horns were used
• 24:26
  as vessels to hold liquids, hence the concept of a
• 24:29
  cornucopia, the horn of plenty. Oh, right, the Thanksgiving
• 24:32
  imagery. Exactly.
• 24:34
  Yeah. Furthermore, it is a symbol of
• 24:35
  sanctity and dignity because the holy oil used to consecrate
• 24:39
  kings and priests was held in a horn.
• 24:42
  So when the text says the bountiful person's horn shall be
• 24:45
  exalted with honor, it signifies that God ensures they receive
• 24:48
  solid true honor, abundant strength, and high dignity both
• 24:52
  in this world and the next. Wow, it really encapsulates all
• 24:55
  of that. If we connect this to the bigger
• 24:57
  picture of the entire Psalm, we see a complete circuit of grace.
• 25:01
  In verse one we saw the inward state, the filial fear of God
• 25:06
  and the delight in His commandments.
• 25:08
  Now in verse 9 we see the outward manifestation of that
• 25:11
  inward state, the fruit. We talked about earlier, yes.
• 25:13
  Generosity is the tangible evidence of filial fear.
• 25:16
  A person who genuinely fears the Lord and delights in His law
• 25:19
  will naturally reflect God's own generous heart.
• 25:22
  As Virgin notes, to be strictly just is not enough.
• 25:26
  God is love, and we must act upon those same principles of
• 25:29
  grace which reign in the heart of God.
• 25:30
  It's a higher standard. The Bountiful Soul proves their
• 25:33
  fitness to be a steward of the Lord by the right way they use
• 25:36
  their substance. Their character is not
• 25:38
  spasmodic. They are not generous by fixing
• 25:41
  stars depending on their mood, but their life is the result of
• 25:44
  settled, sure and fixed convictions.
• 25:46
  Their liberality has salted their righteousness, proving its
• 25:50
  reality to the watching world. Liberality has salted their
• 25:53
  righteousness. That is a fantastic image.
• 25:55
  It preserves. It proves it is real.
• 25:58
  The deep peace, the steadfast harp and the open handed
• 26:02
  generosity of the believer create a beautiful portrait it.
• 26:05
  Really does. A person who manages their money
• 26:07
  well, lends to those in need, doesn't panic when the news is
• 26:11
  bad, and reflects the character of God.
• 26:14
  But the Psalm does not end there.
• 26:16
  It ends with a stark, jarring contrast.
• 26:18
  The total shift in tone. Yeah, it shows us the exact
• 26:21
  opposite of everything we have just discussed.
• 26:23
  The text says the wicked shall see it and be grieved.
• 26:26
  He shall gnash with his teeth and melt away.
• 26:29
  The desire of the wicked shall perish.
• 26:31
  Heavy words. The wicked see the blessing, the
• 26:34
  peace and the generosity of the righteous, and their reaction is
• 26:37
  not repentance or even curiosity.
• 26:39
  It is grief and rage. We see a quote in the sources
• 26:43
  from a poem by William Cowper that illustrates this perfectly.
• 26:46
  Oh. The Cowper poem.
• 26:47
  Yes, Cowper writes about how the unwelcome voice of heavenly love
• 26:50
  grates on the thankless ear, crippling his pleasures with the
• 26:53
  cramp of fear. Truth intrudes on the wicked
• 26:57
  man, and his will and judgement are at continual strife.
• 27:01
  I also noticed the historical and cultural note from Joseph
• 27:03
  Roberts about the Ramayanam giant describing a furious man
• 27:07
  gnashing his 32 teeth. Visceral imagery.
• 27:10
  It is a visceral, physical manifestation of spiritual
• 27:13
  defeat. It is almost animalistic.
• 27:16
  Why does goodness provoke such a violent internal torment in the
• 27:20
  wicked? The psychology of this reaction
• 27:22
  is unsettling, but really necessary to understand.
• 27:25
  William Berryman and Joseph Carroll dissect this brilliantly
• 27:28
  in the notes. How do they explain it?
• 27:29
  The wicked are not just angry in a general sense, they are
• 27:33
  specifically tormented by the sight of goodness.
• 27:36
  Why? Because the righteous man's
• 27:38
  peace is a walking indictment of the wicked man's chaotic,
• 27:42
  self-centered life. It is an existential threat.
• 27:45
  Oh, that makes so much sense. Berryman points out that it is
• 27:48
  the property of the devil to hate virtue precisely because it
• 27:51
  was good. The wicked, as his emissaries
• 27:54
  resemble him in this. They grieve to have the foulness
• 27:57
  of their own vices made conspicuous by being placed near
• 28:00
  the light of a virtuous example. The light exposes the dirt.
• 28:04
  Yes, envy is quite literally a self consuming fire, Carol
• 28:09
  explains the phrase melt away. The gnashing of teeth is caused
• 28:12
  by the vexing of the heart. The wicked man melts away from
• 28:15
  his own internal heat and chasing.
• 28:17
  He destroys himself. His own wrath slays him.
• 28:19
  He melts like a snail, leaving a slimy trail behind.
• 28:22
  As Spurgeon vividly describes, the wicked man desired to
• 28:25
  accomplish his purpose through wickedness, but that very
• 28:28
  wickedness is his defeat. He wanted to be a great one, the
• 28:31
  founder of a lasting legacy, but his desire shall perish.
• 28:34
  It all comes to nothing. And this brings us to our
• 28:36
  theological conclusion of the text.
• 28:38
  There is an absolute, unbridgeable chasm between the
• 28:41
  two destinies presented in this Psalm.
• 28:43
  We see Ebal and Jerusalem, the blessing and the curse set
• 28:46
  opposite each other. The righteous endures forever.
• 28:49
  Their memory is always green, their hearts are fixed, and they
• 28:53
  are generous, all by the sustaining power of God's grace.
• 28:56
  The ungodly relying on their own cunning and consumed by their
• 28:59
  own malice, wrought from the inside out.
• 29:02
  Their envy offers no comfort, their grief has no cure, and
• 29:06
  their ultimate fate is dissolution.
• 29:08
  The contrast is total, and it highlights the supreme
• 29:11
  blessedness of the man who fears the Lord.
• 29:13
  It is a sobering way to end the Psalm, but it magnifies the
• 29:16
  beauty of the grace given to the believer.
• 29:18
  To briefly recap our progression today, we started with a
• 29:21
  God-given filial fear and delight in the commandments,
• 29:24
  which requires a supernatural heart transplant.
• 29:26
  Amen. We moved to the practical
• 29:28
  outworking of that faith, showing that sanctified common
• 29:30
  sense leads to discreet and generous living.
• 29:33
  We saw how this fixed trust in the Creator provides an
• 29:36
  unshakable peace amidst the evil tidings of a chaotic world.
• 29:39
  And finally we saw how that very peace and goodness drive the
• 29:43
  unrepentant wicked mad with self consuming envy.
• 29:47
  I want to leave you with a final thought to Mull over, building
• 29:50
  on what we have discussed. It's a challenging thought.
• 29:52
  We spend so much time refining our theology on paper, making
• 29:56
  sure our doctrinal statements are perfectly aligned.
• 29:59
  But based on this text, what if the greatest undeniable proof of
• 30:03
  your theology is not your vocabulary, but your financial
• 30:05
  spreadsheet and your resting heart rate when you get bad
• 30:08
  news? That'll preach.
• 30:09
  Think about that. Thank you for joining us for
• 30:11
  this deep dive into the source material.
• 30:13
  We hope the knowledge gained today equips you to read the
• 30:15
  Psalms with fresh eyes. Until next time.