"The Life of the Godly Person" (Tolson) | Psalm 112

Fellowship Hall

07.26.2026

Transcript

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The following week I got from lmpc.org and we've been allowed to provide freedom to all if you feel need to give towards the ministry of the Captain Presbyterian Church, we welcome you to do so at lmpt.org at giveaway.

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Please stand for a reading from Psalm chapter one hundred and twelve. Praise the Lord. Blesses the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments. His offspring will be mighty in the land. The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. Light dawns in the darkness for the upright. He is gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with the man who deals generously and lens, who conducts his affairs with justice. For the righteous will never be moved. He will be remembered forever. He is not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm, trusting the Lord. His heart is steady. He will not be afraid until he looks in triumph on his adversaries. He is distributed freely. He is given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn is exalted in honor. The wicked man sees it and is angry. He gnashes his teeth and melts away. The desire of the wicked will perish. This is the word of the Lord. Please be seated.

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Well, good morning. My name's Aaron. I'm the pastor of youth ministry here. It's good to be with you after being out most of the summer. And I just want to say thank you so much to all the parents who have trusted us with your kids in youth ministry on missions, trips, and camps and service weeks. It is just such a blessing to serve here and to watch the middle and high school teams love on kids and create this community. So thank you for that. Before we look at Psalm 112, I actually want to jump backwards just a bit because Psalm 111, you may not know this, is almost like a mirror image. They're both Hebrew acrostic poems, same amount of verses, and one is the foundation for the other. And I wish we could have preached Psalm 111 first, but Psalm 111 is this incredible picture at the glory, the character, the acts, the works of God. They both start with praise the Lord. One fixes its heart entirely on how great our God is. And then it moves into the second. And the verse 10 of 111 ends with the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That's where it all starts. And all those who practice it, which is what Psalm 112 is about, have a good understanding. And he says, the praise of the Lord endures forever. So Spurgeon gives some really great imagery that I love that I want to use as we look at this together. He talks about, he says, the subject of the poem before us, Psalm 112, is the blessedness of the righteous man or the godly person. And so it bears the same relation to Psalm 111, which the moon does to the sun. For while the first declares the glory of God, the second, the second speaks of the reflection of the divine brightness in those born of God. So that's what we're looking at, sun and moon, as we uh think of the glory of God. It's great imagery, God's glory shining brightly, the moon has no brightness of his own, but only as it looks toward the sun does it reflect the glory. So uh if Psalm 112 describes the life of the godly or the God Word person, the one who's turned their face, their heart, and their soul, has centered their life on Christ. So let me pray and we'll ask the Spirit to reveal that glory to us as we study. Heavenly Father, would you give us, be so gracious to give his eyes to see the wonder of your works, the depth of your mercy, and the blessedness that is ours by allowing these beautiful realities to guide and order our lives. I do pray that if anyone here today is struggling, feels like all of life is swimming upstream, would these verses bring us healing, comfort, hope, and strength. We ask in Christ's precious name. Amen. So Dr. Arthur C. Brooks is a social scientist at uh Harvard University, senior fellow at the Harvard Business School. He recently published a book called The Meaning of Life, subtitled Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness. And in this book, he uh he calls himself a lifelong researcher of happiness. He's done various studies, but in this book he talks, he says modern society has a crisis of meaning. And he goes to great lengths, all these letters from people who have said, I followed my parents and my teachers and my own desires, and I have, I can't find purpose. What do I do? So I wonder if you've ever heard a teenager ask, Why are we doing that? Why do I have to learn this? Why are we going there? Maybe you wake up in the morning and you ask, Why am I doing all of this? Why are we going to so much trouble? Why, what is this day even about? I want to suggest that is your soul crying out for meaning. It's asking, what is the reason behind all of this? And our souls are similar to a toddler asking all day long, why, why, why, but why? And they won't be satisfied with the answer, because I said so. And that's not the answer God gives. He gives rich resources. I believe he's written meaning and purpose into your DNA so that your heart and your minds are constantly scanning your life to see are they in rhythm with how and why we were created. And so Psalm 111 and 112 kind of answer that the souls cry for meaning. And they reveal what I would call the source of delight for the godly person. I use delight because that's what the psalmist uses. And it starts by proclaiming, praise the Lord. And I think his heart is exploding. Like he's just dwelt on the wonder of God. He's proclaiming praise the Lord, but he's also inviting us to praise the Lord with him. And the blessed person's starting point is praise. So I've spent about 40 hours in my car alone over the last three weeks, driving to our high school beach trip in South Carolina, middle school in Florida, hours in Atlanta coming back from that. I joined my family in Kentucky at their vacation. That's a lot of podcasts and audiobooks and sermons. I'm sorry if it pours out in this. But something I heard over and over, 10 different people in 10 different spheres of learning, they're all saying, like theologians, psychologists, sociologists, professional coaches are saying this. You need to have a gratitude practice. As I thought about that, I heard one person define the relationship between praise and gratitude like this. Praise evaluates what someone does, while gratitude honors who they are. Praise focuses on recognizing, naming the actions and the character. Whereas gratitude turns that awareness into honor, appreciation, and connection. I think there's a lot of overlap there. It's more Venn diagram than that, but it's recognition that the wonder, the works, the character have been turned towards you. They were done with you in mind. It's for your good and your flourishing. And so gratitude is born out of that. So if we're in a crisis of meaning, as one mental health study said, 83% of adults right now are in a state of chronic stress. If that's where we are, here's what all the experts are saying. What's prescribed by almost all of them is that when you start or end each day by writing three to five things down that you are grateful for, really looking to the creator, the author of the meaning of your life, uh, his foundation is faith. But he says it will realign your soul with the purpose and meaning it's been created for. So going back to Spurgeon's illustration, what happens when the moon, my head's the earth, that'll make it fun for you. If the sun's here and the moon orbits around the earth, what happens? As it's facing the earth and all its desires and all of its things, it stops reflecting the sun. And until it becomes a sliver of light, even eclipsed completely at times. It goes completely dark. In the same way, when our face, when we're focused on the world, all that is in the world, the more we are looking there, the less we reflect the glory of God, the less our souls are aligned with our meaning and purpose. So the source of our delight, it's essentially like a solar panel. The face of God is a charging source for our soul. If we turn our attention towards Him, that is the starting point of the blessed life. Psychologists say it rewires your brain. Sociologists are saying it helps you recognize the deep connections you already have. And God's saying, I made you that way. I created you in my image, and you reflect my glory when you see that. And so you resonate in your soul. So the starting place is praise and gratitude, but I like how the psalmist breaks that into two ideas. He says, Blessed is the one who fears the Lord and greatly delights in his commandments. So fear and delight. Now, by fear, we don't mean I am scared to death of God and hide under the table. Paul Tripp describes it like this He says, The fear of the Lord is not about being scared to death of God, but it's about awe-filled worship, reverence, and joyful submission to Him. So that awe, that wonder becomes the central governing desire of our lives. So a right fear of God can destroy all of our lesser fears. So think about this right now. What are you afraid of today? What is it that you fear? Is it rejection? Failure? Judgment? Is it the loss of comfort? You see, whatever we fear, those become our controlling power instead of God. We fear the loss of comfort, or we're chasing after approval or money, or we actually give the power over our soul to another human being. A romantic interest or a maniacal boss or a coach. We give them authority over who we are, but the fear of the Lord brings blessed freedom to a child of God. So I love how the psalmist says that freedom is marked by delight. He doesn't say the godly person is obligated to the commands of God. He says the godly person greatly delights in God's commands. We love them. David says in Psalm 19, they rejoice the heart, they enlighten my eyes, they're more desirable than gold, they're sweeter than honey. And listen to this, by keeping them, I am warned. There's great reward. So the blessed life of a godly person is rooted in this awe-filled wonder. The wonder of God's works and delight in his words. Do you ever wonder what God's will for your life is? It's wonder and delight. I love the hymn, Let us love and sing and wonder. If you were here today trying to figure out what this Christianity thing is all about, it's an invitation to love and sing and wonder. That's the invitation of Christ. Let's look at how the Psalm describes that blessedness. Verses 2 through 10 show the overflow of that delight for the godly person. So it gives us three things, three blessings that will uh mark us as we lean more and more into wonder and delight. It's blessing, character, and stability. So look at verses two and three. He says, His offspring will be mighty in the land. The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, his righteousness endures forever. So first he describes the blessing for the godly person, and the first blessing is family. He writes that their descendants will be mighty in the land. Now, Boyce points out that the word mighty here it means being of recognized stature or standing rather than like power and strength. So think about that. It's referring, if you think of a child, it's referring to an honor and appreciation given to a child because of the name they carry. Let me illustrate from a couple angles. First of all, we'll do the opposite. I used to work at a church before this one. There's a young man, he was the last in a long line of five brothers who were self-proclaimed hellraisers. And they had gone through this school, and this kid's in middle school, and he's I'm working with him. He's like, I want to follow Jesus. And he gets to ninth grade and they're call and roll, and they're like, David Whitfield? Are you related? I'm made-up name. Are you one of the Whitfields? And he's like, I I was done before I started. My name has a curse on it. There's a kid who wants to follow Jesus. So that's like the opposite of what we're talking about. But think of this in the positive. One of my favorite things about my job here is I get to go to breakfast or lunch or coffee with students and talk about who God is, what's going on in their lives. And in a small town like Chattanooga, when you've been here for 20 plus years, when you go out to eat, you're going to see 12 people you know. And ministries or schools you attend, whatever. People will come up and be like, hey, Aaron, how are you doing? Who's this? And we'll introduce them, and they'll often ask, wait, wait, wait, who are you? What's your last name? And they'll hear the last name and they'll say, Your grandmother helped start our ministry years ago. She means so much to me. Your uncle was there with wisdom and compassion in one of the hardest moments of our life, and we will forever be grateful. He has regard, respect because of the family they belong to. Do you hear what the scriptures are saying? Another great illustration, I think, well, it's also the family of God. Often they'll hear, oh, you go to LMPC? Do you know this couple? They've served in her ministry for 20 years. And because of the family of God, the name of Christ, we have connection and care and regard immediately. I think another great illustration of that is Jane Harris. I never met her. But part of her legacy at this church is that she left a lot of her resources to give a home, the Jane Harris Youth Building, to the children of Lookout Mountain. She had no children of her own. And she has been a matriarch and a blessing to thousands. She's the family of God because of her and her care and being reunited in Christ. I see her as part of my family, though I never knew her. And so let's have an honest moment about families as well. There's deep brokenness in all of our families. There's deep brokenness in mine. I have extended relatives I'm in conflict with because of my sin. And some because of their sin and my sin mixed together. Right? There's real brokenness of sin in all of your families. You are not alone. But also there's profound sorrow. And there's suffering that some of our godly members, family members, face that has no relation to sin, it seems. So how do we square that with what the psalmist saying? I think he's trying to state the obvious that it's a tremendous blessing to grow up in covenant community. We're about to baptize a little girl at 11 into the covenant community and invite the entire church. In fact, I invite you now to be part of El Brower's raising and nurturing and admonitioning the Lord. I wish we could do vows right now for you. But that into the covenant community is a blessing to grow up around friends and adults who love God and wonder and delight instead of living out of greed and self-promotion. That is a great blessing to live according to God's design. But it's just not prosperity gospel. He's not saying believe and everything will be great. That's not what he's saying. And we'll see that because they point he points out the reality of brokenness here. Look at verse 7. He says, the godly person is not afraid of bad news. So what did he just hear? Some real he receives bad news. He receives suffering, trials, adversity, hardship. And verse 10 goes even further. You're going to get anger and opposition. That's the reality for the godly person. But what he's saying is, inasmuch as we reflect the glory of God in our lives, we will be what verse 4 says. Like a light dawning in darkness. You become a lamppost and a dark alley. You become a light and a broken home. You become a light and a hurting family. You become a place of hope and strength. So he speaks of the blessing of family, but he also speaks of wealth. And again, this is a principle that nine out of ten times, if you conduct your affairs with grace and mercy and justice, that you will be well taken care of in this world. You will have what you need. But the psalmist is, I think, pointing to something more. And here's why. I don't think he's just saying, do right and get rich. If your foundation is wonder and delight in God, you're going to be freed from being controlled by money and worshiping it. Whether you think you don't have enough or desperately scared of losing everything you have. Look how he describes that relationship with money in verse 5 and 9. He says, The godly give generously and lend. They distribute freely to the poor. The love of money does not rule their heart. The love of God does. And so money becomes a gift in which you delight in what God loves. You bring light into darkness with it. You are blessed by our right relationship to money. So the first overflow of delight is that there's going to be blessing, bringing healing to your family and your home and receiving healing in our relationship with money. The next overflow of delight is the formation of our character. I love this. Look how the person is described. What happens in us as we wonder and delight. Verse 4, we're marked more and more by grace, mercy, and righteousness. Verse 5 says we're marked more by justice and guiding our affairs with wisdom and discretion. Verse 5 and 9 says that we become known for generosity. In other words, you begin to think and act like God. I was a fill-in because I couldn't find anybody. And I've just been struggling to keep it going. I don't have any musical training or music theory, to be honest. I'm a little insecure about my voice. I would describe it as a bit shaky. But I've been blessed. Well, have you ever heard those whistles that are like that's what my voice does to start a song as I'm looking for the right key. And I get teased occasionally by students for that. But I'm happy to fill in for another 20 years if I need to. But one of the blessings of being here is there's these students who have incredible voices. Girls like Hope Plating, Sutton Salter, Eleanor Keynes, we had Thomas West for a time, and so many others. And they'll be there and I'm playing the intro and I'm like trying to find the in my throat before I start. And then I'll just reach for it when it's time to go in this perfect pitch, this perfect key will come in, and I'll immediately immediately tune my voice to theirs. That's what's happening when we wonder and delight in the character and works of God. Our soul, our character is immediately tuned to his. And we become like him. We sound like him. We live like him. That's the picture of character being formed in us as we live with our face turned towards him. So there's blessing, there's character. The last thing the Psalm says will happen in us is stability. Doesn't that sound good? Don't you want some of that right now? Uh in an age of chronic stress. Uh, verse six says, the righteous will never be moved. Verse seven says, we won't be afraid of bad news. Our hearts are firm, trusting in the Lord. Our hearts are steady, they will not be afraid. You see, because we've meditated on the Lord's heart, on the Lord's character. The incredible story of redemption that is here now, and we're waiting on this. Right? Remember, this is where we are his return to make it all final, but he's kept. All these promises up to this point. And as we look at the faithfulness of God, our feet are planted in the present. As we look to the future, a reverent fear, a worship-filled wonder brings stability and freedom. And remember, if we don't fear God, we don't wonder at who God is, we'll fear everything else. But then he contrasts that with the wicked. He says, though the wicked see it in rage, their evil desires will pass away. So over and over he says, the godly will have a righteousness that endures forever. Verse 3 and verse 9, he says at verse 6, it says, the righteous will never be moved. You see what he's doing? He's grounding our present moment in the light of eternity. The righteousness that endures forever, that outlasts all the desires of this world. When we're hit with bad news, you may have received some this week. When we're opposed with anger because of Jesus, there's resources for the people of God to carry us through. I can't help but think of Paul and Silas in Acts 16. It says they were beaten and thrown into stocks. You've seen a stock? When you're next in a stock, what are you thinking about doing? You thinking about singing? They sang through the night in praise to God. And the spirit moved powerfully. And it makes me think of the hymn, Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder again. It has this line. It says, Let us sing, though fierce temptation threaten hard to bear us down. He says, Because for the Lord our strong salvation holds in view the conqueror's crown. And then he repeats over and over, He who washed us with His blood. He who washed us with His blood. The one who washed us with His blood soon will bring us home to God. That's His hope. And He's repeating it over his heart until he believes it and his feet are planted. He says, though temptation comes from everywhere, though circumstances tell me to despair. I feel I'm going to be crushed under the weight. I'm going to sing the true story of redemption. That the one who did not spare his son will bring us home. 2 Corinthians says, but we have this treasure, this promise in jars of clay. That's our bodies. We're like jars of clay to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. He says, We're afflicted in every way, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not driven to despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down but not destroyed. And so he says this so we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory. So this almost speaks of this righteousness, this eternal weight of glory that endures forever. He says it's a hope and a promise that can carry us through this world in song. It's a hope held firm by our Lord, our strong salvation. So I want to close with an illustration. This is from the Odyssey. You may have heard it 15 years ago the last time I used it, or at a ministry in town, but I love this illustration as the movies just come out. I think it's good timing. In the story, you may know, Odysseus has to sail past the island of the sirens. And Homer just saw something in humanity thousands of years ago that we are drawn to brokenness and destruction by the most beautiful songs. It's a story of temptation. But Odysseus wants to get as close as he can. He wants to hear it. He wants to see it, but he doesn't want to die. And so he puts ears, or sorry, wax in the ears of his men. He has them tie them to the mast. And he says, as we sail by in this moment of my sanity, when we sail by, I'm going to scream, I'm going to yell, I'm going to threaten your lives, but do not listen to me then. Carry me safely through. And so I appear it's portrayed incredibly in the movie. I haven't seen it, but as they sail past, sure enough, he's screaming. He's tempted. He's bound. He's bitter. He's angry. They're terrified of him. They're terrified of the sirens and death. And they sail past, but they make it safely. What a picture of life. Sailing through life. Bound, tempted, bitter, angry. Psalm 112 says, hey, there's another way. There's another way entirely. You see what happens. Many years later in Greek mythology, Jason and the Argonauts come sailing past the same island. And Jason, instead of doing what Odysseus does, he brings Orpheus. Orpheus is the greatest musician who ever lived. And as they get close to the island of the sirens, he invites them up on deck and he's like, Orpheus, do your magic. And he begins to play. And he plays a song a thousand times more beautiful than the sound of temptation. And as they sail past the island, they are singing and laughing and dancing to a song a thousand times sweeter. That's what Psalm 112 is inviting us into. A life of wonder and delight at who God is and what he's done, what he has promised, what is coming, the eternal weight of glory that lies ahead of us. David writes in Psalm 119, I run in the path of your commands, O God, for you have set my heart free. So my friends, that's my prayer for you as you go, that the song of the gospel would so captivate your heart that you would run through life singing and laughing and dancing, that the incredible truth, the God of the universe, made you very good in his image, that he did not spare his own son, but came to rescue you. That Christ right now intercedes for you in heaven, that you are more loved than you ever dared hope, that the Spirit of God lives within you. May that song be your anthem as you sail through this life. I pray it would set your heart free. Let me close us in prayer to that end. Heavenly Father, I pray that we would all see you as you really are. That might we might love you as we ought. We were talking about this passage this week, and someone asked, like, is this passage about me or about Jesus? And who is it about? And we all said, I want it to be about me. But in Christ it is true of us. These things are true in Christ, for he has perfectly kept your law. He is the godly person. And we are joined with him in righteousness. And so would you captivate our souls? Would we run after you in freedom, strength, and grace? But may we be marked by wonder and delight. And may your blessing, your character, your spirit empowered stability be ours this very day and through the years ahead. We pray in the precious name of Christ. Amen.