Psa 111:7-10 “Great Are the Lord’s Works” – Part 3

Psa 111:7  The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure. 
Psa 111:8  They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness. 
Psa 111:9  He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name. 
Psa 111:10  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever. 

This last section of Psalm 111 is a bright reminder of these words of Christ that apply to His people:

Joh 17:3  And this is life eternal^G166, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

G166 aiōnios ahee-o’-nee-os: From G165; perpetual (also used of past time, or past and future as well): – eternal, for ever, everlasting, world (began).

The relationship which we have with Christ is likened to a marriage relationship that we have in earnest now, and we are commanded to keep our eyes on the author and finisher of our faith, our bridegroom, so “that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ” (Eph_5:25).

Eph 1:14 which is an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God’s own possession, unto the praise of his glory.
Eph 1:15 For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which ye show toward all the saints,

1Co 13:12 For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known.
1Co 13:13 But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love [Rom 5:5].

Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it;

So let’s stop and ask the question again, what must happen in our heavens for us to “know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ”? God reveals to his bride today what we need to hear in order to grow unto mature sons who will be in that blessed and holy first resurrection or wedding supper to the lamb “unto the praise of his glory”, and because that is the case “the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which ye show toward all the saints” is manifest in our lives. These three abide faith, hope, love, and the greatest of these is love and God is making it possible through Christ to love our wives [the Church] even as Christ “loved the church, and gave himself up for it“.

Eph 4:13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
Eph 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
Eph 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

Rom 5:5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Luk 17:33 Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. [“loved the church, and gave himself up for it”]

1Jn 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
1Jn 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

Here are some other verses which must be fulfilled “in our heavens for us to “know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ.“

Heb 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me [1Jn 3:1], and gave himself up for me [gave himself up for me, for us, so that we can lose our life and endure unto the end through Christ Mat 16:25].

Rev 11:3  And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
Rev 11:4  These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

If God will grant that we come to “know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ” in this age, then we will be sent as Christ was sent to do the will of our Father.

Joh 20:21  Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

Joh 17:18  As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

Now we see why Paul beseeched the brethren to look to the author and finisher of their faith who would make it possible for them to possess their souls in patience so we can “…run with patience the race that is set before us.”

Luk 21:19  In your patience possess ye your souls.

Luk 8:15 But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep [Rev 22:19] it, and bring forth fruit with patience.

God’s works become understood in our heavens when we are given to have our heavens open to see the “breadth, and length, and depth, and height” of that plan, and the body of Christ is likened unto Noah’s ark which has that “breadth, and length, and depth, and height” that is being constructed as God’s workmanship [the body of Christ] who are living by the faith of the Son of God and who like Noah are “being warned of God of things not seen as yet, [moving] moved with fear, [we are preparing] prepared an ark to the saving of his house”. The house that must be built is the spiritual house (the elects heritage explained in these verses Psa 127:1-3), and it is by keeping the word of God and by being granted the patience and faith of the saints that we will “bring forth fruit with patience“. The breadth and length and depth and height of Noah’s ark represents the word of God that we are being sanctified with today preparing us (God’s temple) so that we can endure through the storms that we are promised are going to come our way and be used to strengthen us so that we can go unto Christ who is the Way and our desired haven who we rest in after we are brought to Him.

Eph 3:17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, [Joh 17:17]
Eph 3:18  May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

Rev 4:8  And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

Mat 7:25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

Psa 127:1 A Song of Ascents; of Solomon. Except Jehovah build the house, They labor in vain that build it: Except Jehovah keep the city, The watchman waketh but in vain.
Psa 127:2 It is vain for you to rise up early, To take rest late, To eat the bread of toil; For so he giveth unto his beloved sleep.
Psa 127:3 Lo, children are a heritage of Jehovah; And the fruit of the womb is his reward.

Gal 4:27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; Break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: For more are the children of the desolate than of her that hath the husband.

Heb 11:7  By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

Mat 24:37  But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Mat 7:25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

Psa 107:29 He maketh the storm a calm, So that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30 Then are they glad because they are quiet; So he bringeth them unto their desired haven.

These scriptures we have looked at up to this point help introduce the rest of our three-part study with Psalm 111, as we continue to learn to identify what are those great works of the Lord in our lives and why we declare, as God’s elect, “Great Are the Lord’s Works”.

Psa 111:7  The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure.

God is making known “The works of his hands” His manifest knowledge through the church, and we are the blessed recipients of His spirit which reveals to us the truth and judgment, the “verity and judgment”, the weightier matters of the law as we come to learn and be convinced by real and tangible experiences in our flesh that “all his commandments are sure”.

Eph 3:10  To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
Eph 3:11  According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:
Eph 3:12  In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.

Eph 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

Joh 14:11 Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.
Joh 14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

Joh 10:38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him. [believe the works that you may know, and believe]

Joh 6:29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

Php 1:29 For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;

Rom 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Heb 9:23 It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. (The better sacrifices are those things that we offer through Christ Gal 2:20, Rom 12:1)

Eph 1:17  That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

Mat 23:23  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

We are living out these experiences together as the body of Christ for his name’s sake, and are promised that it is because of this experience of evil through which we must endure together, until the end of our age through Christ, that we will be able to one day show the rest of the world that, “The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure.”

Mat 10:22  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

Php 4:13  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Php 4:14  Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction. [Pro 27:23, Joh 20:27, 1Co 10:16].

Heb 10:25  Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

We naturally disobey God and skip over the weightier matters of the law at first, “verity and judgment“, until we are chastened and scourged and received of the Lord so that we learn obedience and the importance of doing all things decently and in order in the house of God, based on what God tells us “all his commandments are sure” and not the way that seems right in our own eyes that leads to death.

Pro 14:12  There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

It is very interesting to note that the word “commandments” in this verse is H6490, most often translated as “precept” and comes from the root H6485: “to appoint”, “to be appointed”, “to be called to account”, “to entrust/be entrusted”.

God tells us that having these sure and stedfast promises which “stand fast for ever and ever” (of verse 8), and are given to us from Him (verse 6), gives us reason to rejoice in the Lord and again I say rejoice.

H6490: From H6485; properly appointed, that is, a mandate (of God; plural only, collectively for the Law): – commandment, precept, statute.

H6485 (BDB)

1) to attend to, muster, number, reckon, visit, punish, appoint, look after, care for (verb)

1a) (Qal)

1a1) to pay attention to, observe
1a2) to attend to
1a3) to seek, look about for
1a4) to seek in vain, need, miss, lack
1a5) to visit
1a6) to visit upon, punish
1a7) to pass in review, muster, number
1a8) to appoint, assign, lay upon as a charge, deposit

1b) (Niphal)

1b1) to be sought, be needed, be missed, be lacking
1b2) to be visited
1b3) to be visited upon
1b4) to be appointed
1b5) to be watched over

1c) (Piel) to muster, call up
1d) (Pual) to be passed in review, be caused to miss, be called, be called to account

1e) (Hiphil)

1e1) to set over, make overseer, appoint an overseer
1e2) to commit, entrust, commit for care, deposit

1f) (Hophal)

1f1) to be visited
1f2) to be deposited
1f3) to be made overseer, be entrusted

1g) (Hithpael) numbered
1h) (Hothpael) numbered

2) musterings, expenses (noun masculine plural abstract).

Psa 111:8  They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.

These works of the Lord are “done in truth and uprightness” in the lives of those who God is dragging unto Christ (Joh 6:44) bearing witness of his might and power which are making it possible for us to be more than conquerors through Him (Zec 4:6, Rom 8:36-37).

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Zec 4:6  Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.

Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

Psa 111:9  He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.

There is an order in the redemptive process, and scripture declares that “He sent redemption unto his people” meaning the Israel of God who we are (Gal 6:16), and it is this “covenant” that God has commanded from the beginning of which God’s elect are blessed to be the kind of first fruit recipients.

Eze 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. [Rom 8:9]
Eze 36:27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
Eze 36:28 And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

The ongoing and continual lesson for God’s people is that this change of heart and ability to now “walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” is only possible because of the “holy and reverend” God whom we serve. His name is “holy and reverend”, and we learn who God is by being blessed to keep his words, “his name”, in our hearts which have been (and are being) prepared through many trials and much tribulation so we can remain grafted into the Vine (Joh 15:5). Those trials are needed in order for us to continue to receive that word in a good and honest heart that He is fashioning in the lives of those whom He has predestined to endure until the end.

Joh 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

Act 14:22 Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

Luk 21:19 In your patience possess ye your souls.

Luk 8:15 But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.

Rev 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Eph 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

Psa 111:10  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.

The starting point is “The fear of the LORD” and that fear is a gift given to those with whom God is working in this age. If he builds the spiritual house we want to become, it is because He has softened our hearts to be able to have reverence and fear of God, not wanting to break any of his commandments not even the least of them.

Psa 127:1 A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

Mat 5:19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments [who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright], and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. [Two distinct groups being discussed].

We are blessed to not be ignorant of the devil’s devices, the enemy who constantly looks for advantage to smite the shepherd and divide the flock.

2Co 2:11 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

1Pe 5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
1Pe 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
1Pe 5:9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

Mat 26:31 Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.

When we look at the verses that lead up to this statement, “we are not ignorant of his devices”, we can see why “his praise” ought to endure forever (2Co 2:1-10). God is worthy of that praise as He is faithful, and He is the one who is making it possible for us to do the impossible; that impossible being the changing of our hearts so we can let go of the idols of our own hearts and serve the Lord with reverence and fear, forgiving one another of our sins, and covering a multitude of sins with fervent love (Eph 4:32, 1Pe 4:8). Only then will we clearly see and know what this statement means “Great are the Lord’s works” (Mat 19:23, Rev 3:17, Mat 19:26).

Here is why we praise the LORD, for we are “in the assembly of the upright” “and in the congregation”. We are the ones who are “sought out of all them that have pleasure therein” and who have “his righteousness” working within us. We are the ones to whom God has “given meat”. God has “shewed his people the power of his works” that he may “give them the heritage”. He is sending “redemption unto his people” and “a good understanding have all they that do his commandments.” “Great are the Lord’s works” indeed!

Below are the verses which will be discussed in our next study:

Psa 111:1 Praise ye the LORD. I will praise the LORD with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation.
Psa 111:2 The works of the LORD are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.
Psa 111:3 His work is honourable and glorious: and his righteousness endureth for ever.
Psa 111:4 He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: the LORD is gracious and full of compassion.
Psa 111:5 He hath given meat unto them that fear him: he will ever be mindful of his covenant.
Psa 111:6 He hath shewed his people the power of his works, that he may give them the heritage of the heathen.
Psa 111:7 The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure.
Psa 111:8 They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.
Psa 111:9 He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name.
Psa 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.