112:1 Praise the Lord!
How blessed is the one 2 who obeys 3 the Lord,
who takes great delight in keeping his commands. 4
112:6 For he will never be upended;
others will always remember one who is just. 5
112:7 He does not fear bad news.
He 6 is confident; he trusts 7 in the Lord.
112:8 His resolve 8 is firm; he will not succumb to fear
before he looks in triumph on his enemies.
1 sn Psalm 112. This wisdom psalm lists some of the benefits of living a godly life. The psalm is an acrostic. After the introductory call to praise, every poetic line (twenty-two in all) begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
2 tn Heb “[Oh] the happiness [of] the man.” Hebrew wisdom literature often assumes and reflects the male-oriented perspective of ancient Israelite society. The individual is representative of a larger group, called the “godly” in vv. 3-4. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender. To facilitate modern application, we translate the gender specific “man” with the more neutral “one.” The generic masculine pronoun is used in the following verses.
3 tn Heb “fears.”
4 tn Heb “in his commands he delights very much.” The words “in keeping” are supplied in the translation for clarification. Taking delight in the law is metonymic here for obeying God’s moral will. See Ps 1:2.
5 tn Heb “for an eternal memorial a just [one] will be.”
6 tn Heb “his heart,” viewed here as the seat of the volition and emotions (see Ps 108:1).
7 tn The passive participle בָּטֻחַ [בָּטוּחַ] (batuakh [batuakh]) expresses a state that results from the subject’s action. See Isa 26:3.
8 tn Heb “his heart,” viewed here as the seat of the volition.