Psalm 111 "With Faithfulness and Uprightness"

Photo by Sven Mieke on Unsplash

Psalm for Today = 111:7-8

The works of his hands are faithful and just;

    all his precepts are trustworthy;
they are established forever and ever,

    to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.

Comments:

Too often it seems that we sit in judgment on God and his works—critics and Christians alike. Critics look at God’s driving out the Canaanites before Israel as the moral equivalent of genocide. Surely they say, “Such a God is not worthy of worship.” But the psalmist provided commentary on such works of God…as “faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy.” As I have written elsewhere, when we don’t understand the reasons, we must rely on a default setting that embraces God’s faithfulness and justice.

But what about those who claim to be Christians? Do we really live like we believe that “all his precepts are trustworthy” and that they should “be performed with faithfulness and uprightness”? Because we are under a different covenant we often think we no longer have to live in harmony with God’s commands. This faulty view of the Bible produces a life of selfishness. Jesus said “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) Later in the same chapter, Jesus said, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” (John 14:21)

So what are those commandments that we need to keep? It is true that there are commands in the Old Testament that pertain to diet, dress, and sacrifice within the Mosaic Covenant community that were fulfilled in Christ and while continuing to be instructive for us are no longer requirements placed upon us. Yet the heart of the commands continues. Jesus summed them up when he said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)

Because God kept his promises to liberate Israel from Egypt and bring them into the promised land the psalmist not only responded by giving thanks but by encouraging obedience. The psalmist here in Psalm 111 was calling for the same response from us that Jesus later confirms—love God and love your neighbor. All the rest is about helping us to understand what that means and how to do it “with faithfulness and uprightness”.