Psalms 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 

Praise the LORD. Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who finds great delight in his commands.

Praise the LORD! How blessed is the man who fears the LORD, Who greatly delights in His commandments.

Praise the LORD! Happy are those who fear the LORD. Yes, happy are those who delight in doing what he commands.

Hallelujah! Blessed man, blessed woman, who fear GOD, Who cherish and relish his commandments,

Let the Lord be praised. Happy is the man who gives honour to the Lord, and has great delight in his laws.

Praise the LORD! Happy are those who fear the LORD, who greatly delight in his commandments.

Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, Who delights greatly in His commandments.

Praise the Lord! How blessed is the one ²  who obeys ³  the Lord, who takes great delight in keeping his commands. ⁴ 

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.