Psalm 111 - The beginning of wisdom

Psalm 111 - The beginning of wisdom

Read: Psalm 111 vs 1-10

We have all have an identity and our identity can be described in different ways or from different angles. You might describe yourself in relationship with other people, naming who your parents are, or were, or perhaps referencing a spouse, children, nieces or nephews. Or you might come at it by referring to yourself in terms of the job you do, or where you live, or grew up. Or in some contexts that sense of identity runs in another direction, naming a football team you support or a club that you belong to. For others identity is rooted in more basic things, gender, race, lifestyle, culture, church, religion … and so the list goes on.

Psalm 111 is a Psalm about identity. There are lots of things we don’t know about the person who wrote this Psalm. We don’t know their gender, we don’t know where they grew up, we don’t know what their family situation was, we don’t know what their hobbies or interests were.

But we we do know that this is a person whose ‘whole heart’ is rooted in ‘Praising the LORD’ (vs 1). This anonymous writer reveals who they are by ‘pondering’ and ‘delighting’ in who God is (vs 2). In vs 6 this person refers to ‘God’s people’, for them this is who they are, this is their identity. The Bible does not blank out the various layers of our identity, the Bible does not envisage a humanity where everyone is the same, dull clones of each other. 

The early Christians lived their life around a basic creed: Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9). When this became their identity, other identities slipped into second place and were worked out and expressed from that centre of submitting every aspect of life to the oversight of Jesus. Psalm 111:10 puts it this way:

‘The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;

All who follow His precepts have good understanding.

To Him belongs eternal praise.’

Prayer: Father please help me to live out a life deeply rooted in the words 'Jesus is Lord'. Help me to learn, day by day, to what it means to live and breath these words. In Jesus' Name. Amen.