Midweek Musing- September 3, 2025

Musing 2 of 3: Psalm 112

Last week, when we explored Psalm 111, we saw how its acrostic form declared that God’s praise is “A to Z” — whole, complete, covering all of life. Psalm 112 sits right beside it as a companion psalm. While Psalm 111 proclaims who God is, Psalm 112 describes who we are called to be as children of the living and holy Creator of all things.

Now just like Psalm 111, Psalm 112 is an acrostic poem in Hebrew. Each line begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, from aleph to tav. For the faithful of ancient Israel, who would have read and heard these words this structure was more than a literary device — for the Hebrew speaking people both then and now this structure was a sermon in itself. Its thesis says:

The righteous life is not fragmented. It is whole, ordered, and comprehensive.

What do we mean by this?

When we say this, we mean that virtue and righteousness are not something you can put in one compartment of your life while ignoring the rest. The psalmist’s acrostic form — working through the entire Hebrew alphabet — reminds us that a faithful life must be consistent across all areas.

It is easy to imagine a “fragmented” faith:

• Worshiping on Sunday but gossiping about others on Monday.

• Offering kindness at church but bitterness at home.

• Giving lip service to generosity while clinging tightly to possessions.

But Psalm 112 refuses to allow us to engage in a life of fragmentation. By structuring the poem from aleph to tav, it embodies the truth that goodness and virtue touches everything —our family, work, money, words, relationships, fears, and hopes.

In other words, living faithfully is not about isolated acts of goodness but about living an abundant life by seeking to be followers who seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God in all we do.

For ancient hearers, the alphabetic order was a way of saying: wholeness matters – every moment of your life matters. For us today, it’s a challenge to let our discipleship be visible not only in what we say but in how we live — not just in public but in private, not just in sacred spaces of worship but in daily choices no matter where we are.

Dr. Ellen Davis is a biblical scholar, theologian, and teacher who specializes in the Old Testament. She is the Amos Ragan Kearns Distinguished Professor of Bible and Practical Theology at Duke Divinity School. She writes thar “Scripture aims not at information but at transformation, not at fragments of faith but at the reordering of life as a whole.”

That is the vision of the 112^th Psalm: righteousness not fragmented but whole, steady, and comprehensive, shaped by the God who is righteous and merciful from beginning to end.

It is whole, ordered, and comprehensive.

Just as God’s character covers the whole alphabet in Psalm 111, so too our lives are meant to reflect that character from A to Z in Psalm 112.

Psalm 112 describes the life of one who “fears the Lord and greatly delights in his commandments” (v. 1). What does that look like?

Generational blessing: “Their descendants will be mighty in the land” (v. 2).

Enduring wealth and legacy: not flashy abundance, but stability rooted in justice (v. 3).

Light in darkness: “They rise in the darkness as a light for the upright” (v. 4).

Steadfast trust: “They are not afraid of evil tidings; their hearts are firm, secure in the Lord” (v. 7).

Generosity and justice: “They have distributed freely; they have given to the poor” (v. 9).

It is a picture of wholeness, echoing the acrostic pattern itself.

For the people of Israel, Psalm 112 said: Your life is to be as ordered and whole as the alphabet itself. The faith you confess is not confined to worship, but it spills over into everything you do.

For us now, Psalm 112 continues to challenge and comfort:

Our goodness, virtue, and righteousness are not about perfection but about reflection. Just as Psalm 111 praises God’s justice and mercy, Psalm 112 says we must show those qualities in our lives.

Our lives are called to be “alphabet lives” — not compartmentalized, but consistent, from the first letter to the last.

Here again is why study matters. You would never know Psalm 112 was an acrostic if you only read it in English. And yet, once you do know, the psalm deepens. It’s not only about righteous deeds; it’s about the wholeness of a life lived in God.

Again, from theologian Ellen Davis:

“We study the Scriptures not to master them, but so that they may master us.”

That’s the gift of struggling with the text in its depth — to discover not just what it says, but how it shapes us.

May this Psalm indeed help shape us in all we do.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Alleluia Amen.