Prosperity of the One Who Fears the Lord.
112 [a]Praise [b]the Lord!
How blessed is the man who [c]fears the Lord,
Who greatly delights in His commandments.
2 His [d]descendants will be mighty [e]on earth;
The generation of the upright will be blessed.
3 Wealth and riches are in his house,
And his righteousness endures forever.
4 Light arises in the darkness for the upright;
He is gracious and compassionate and righteous.
5 It is well with the man who is gracious and lends;
He will [f]maintain his cause in judgment.
6 For he will never be shaken;
The righteous will be [g]remembered forever.7 He will not fear evil tidings;
His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
8 His heart is upheld, he will not fear,
Until he looks with satisfaction on his adversaries.
9 [h]He has given freely to the poor,
His righteousness endures forever;
His horn will be exalted in honor.10 The wicked will see it and be [i]vexed,
He will gnash his teeth and melt away;
The desire of the wicked will perish.
We could skip verses 2 and 3 and everyone would shout “Amen!” But they are there, and it’s God’s word, so then what? I was recently reminded of the story of George Mueller. As a young man, he was anything but righteous, and even made fun of Christians whenever he could. He was not a nice person, until God got ahold of his life. God asked him to be a missionary, and his father was upset that he was going to be a “poor missionary” instead of seeking a good paying job/career.
As a result, George had very little money, and not enough for college, but when he obeyed God, he found all he needed. A professor called upon George to offer him a paid tutoring job, and that job provided the funds he needed to continue his education. In his first church, he was nearly antagonistic to the wealthy, who literally paid for the prime seating in church. He refused a salary from the church and got rid of the practice of paying for seats, and God continued to provide for George’s family.
Later, and probably more well known, George started an orphanage, where they did not seek donations from businesses or wealthy folks. They simply asked God to provide, and He did. But not with money from the sky, God did indeed use businesses and wealthy folks to make the provision, but without the orphanage asking for it. I think perhaps God knew the orphans would not learn the proper lesson if they lived in a well-funded orphanage vs. seeing the Muellers’ dependence on God lived out every day.
Yet each orphan would leave (when they were old enough) with a Bible in one hand and a coin in the other. The lesson was that if they held onto God, he would make sure they had what was needed always. George did not have great earthly riches, but was richly blessed anyway. His wealth was untold after helping over 10,000 orphans.
Now, that is not the life that God calls all of us to. That is, we are not all called to be poor missionaries, but we ARE all called to depend on God. Our business does well, and yet constantly God is teaching me to rely on him every month. He provides again and again, even when it doesn’t make sense to me. Whether you are poor or rich, the point of the psalm is that it all comes from One source.
We must keep our eyes focused on God and trust Him every new day. He knows what we need, and He knows what we can be trusted with. “Present yourself to God as a workman who need not be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.” (2 Tim. 2:15) Leave the rest to Him, and trust Him more every day.