Psalms 111: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

The speaker vows to thank the LORD with his whole heart, in the gathering of the upright. It lists what God has done: great works worth studying, food for those who fear him, a covenant he keeps in mind, the power he showed his people when he gave them the land of other nations, and redemption he sent them. It closes by saying that respect for the LORD is where wisdom starts, and that everyone who follows his instructions gains good understanding.

Claim by Claim

1. 111:1
   • The psalm opens with a call to praise the LORD.
   • The speaker will give thanks to the LORD with his whole heart.
   • The speaker will do so in the council of the upright.
   • The speaker will do so in the congregation.
2. 111:2
   • The works of the LORD are great.
   • The works of the LORD are studied by all who delight in them.
3. 111:3
   • His work is splendid and majestic.
   • His righteousness stands forever.
4. 111:4
   • He has made a memorial for his wonders.
   • The LORD is gracious.
   • The LORD is compassionate.
5. 111:5
   • He has given food to those who fear him.
   • He will remember his covenant forever.
6. 111:6
   • He has declared the power of his works to his people.
   • He did so in order to give them the inheritance of the nations.
7. 111:7
   • The works of his hands are truth and justice.
   • All his precepts are trustworthy.
8. 111:8
   • They are upheld forever and ever.
   • They are done in truth and uprightness.
9. 111:9
   • He sent redemption to his people.
   • He has commanded his covenant forever.
   • His name is holy and awesome.
10. 111:10
    • The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.
    • All who do them have good understanding.
    • His praise stands forever.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

111:1

"Praise ye the LORD" translates the single Hebrew word *hallelu-yah*, an imperative addressed to a crowd: "all of you, praise Yah", Yah being the short form of God's personal name. In the King James Version, LORD printed in capitals marks that name (Hebrew YHWH) wherever it stands. From this opening word on, the psalm is an acrostic: it consists of twenty-two short lines, and each begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet in order. That form, invisible in English, is why the poem reads as a series of compact, self-contained statements rather than a developing argument.

111:2

"Sought out of all them that have pleasure therein" is 1611 English for "searched into by all who take delight in them." "Of" here means "by," not "from": the works are studied by the people who enjoy them. The verb suggests careful investigation, the way one would examine or research something, not merely looking at it.

111:3

"Righteousness" (Hebrew *tsedaqah*) is broader than personal moral purity. It covers acting rightly, keeping faith with obligations, and putting things right for people who have been wronged, which is why it can shade into "deliverance" or "vindication" in Hebrew poetry. "Honourable and glorious" renders two words for visible splendor and kingly majesty, the sort of impressiveness a royal court was meant to project.

111:4

"Made his wonderful works to be remembered" points to something concrete: Israel's festivals, sacrifices and recited stories existed as memorials, fixed practices that kept particular past events in public circulation. The phrase "gracious and full of compassion" is a stock pair that runs through the Hebrew Bible (it appears in Exodus 34:6 as part of a set description of God); the second word is built on the noun for a womb, and carries the sense of the feeling a parent has for a child.

111:5

"Meat" in 1611 English meant food of any kind, not flesh specifically; the Hebrew word here is *tereph*, normally "prey" or "torn food," an unusual and vivid choice for provisions. "Them that fear him" does not mean people who are frightened of God: throughout the Hebrew Bible "fear of the LORD" means reverence, awe, taking God seriously, closer to the respect owed a king than to terror. A "covenant" is a formal binding agreement with stated obligations on both sides, like a treaty between a ruler and a people; in Israel's case it refers to the agreements made with Abraham and at Sinai.

111:6

"The heathen" translates *goyim*, simply "the nations", the other peoples, with no comment on their beliefs; the modern connotation of "heathen" as savage or irreligious is later. "Heritage" means an inheritance, specifically an allotment of land handed down within a family. The line refers to Israel's occupation of Canaan, land that had belonged to other peoples.

111:7

"Verity" is an old word for truth or reliability. "Judgment" here means justice (the right verdict a judge would hand down), rather than criticism or condemnation. "Commandments" translates *piqqudim*, better rendered "precepts" or "instructions," a word used almost only in the Psalms for the specific directions God has laid down. "Sure" in 1611 English means dependable, something that will hold, not "certain" in the sense of "undoubtedly true."

111:8

The Hebrew of the second half of this verse is compressed and genuinely open: the participle can mean the precepts were *made* or *enacted* in truth and uprightness (God established them honestly), or that they are *to be done* in truth and uprightness (people are to carry them out honestly). Translators split on which reading to take, and the Hebrew does not settle it.

111:9

"Redemption" is a commercial term before it is a religious one: paying a price to buy something back, a relative out of debt-slavery, a field out of another family's hands, a life that has been forfeited. Applied to a whole people, it points to the exodus from Egypt. "Reverend" has shifted meaning since 1611. It was not yet a title for clergy; it meant "to be revered," awe-inspiring, the kind of thing that makes people go quiet.

111:10

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom" is a fixed saying in Israel's wisdom literature, appearing also at Proverbs 1:7 and 9:10. The Hebrew word for "beginning" (*reshit*) carries both senses at once: the starting point you begin from, and the first or chief part of the thing, so the claim is either that reverence is where wisdom starts or that reverence is wisdom's most important element, and the word does not choose. "A good understanding" translates *sekel tov*, which means practical good sense, the competence to handle life well, and can extend to the success such competence brings.