Amen. I invite you to take your copy of Scripture again and turn to Psalm 112. Psalm 112. If you're using the Black Bible that we provide for you, you'll find our passage on page 509 and 510. 509 and 510. Psalm 112, and I'll read the psalm in its entirety. This is God's Word. Praise the Lord. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commandments. His offspring will be mighty in the land. The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in His house, and His righteousness endures forever. Light dawns in the darkness for the upright. He is gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with the man who deals generously and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice. For the righteous will never be moved. He will be remembered forever. He is not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady. He will not be afraid until he looks in triumph on his adversaries. He has distributed freely. He has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn is exalted in honor. The wicked man sees it and is angry. He gnashes his teeth and melts away. The desire of the wicked will perish. Amen. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank You for the Bible. We thank You, Lord, for the opportunity Sunday after Sunday to open the Bible and to hear You speak to us. And Lord, we want to be a people who are wise according to Your Word. And so, Father, we pray that You would come now by Your Spirit and that You would help us. And Lord, that we would be wise and righteous according to the Scriptures. And it's through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray. Amen. We have a strange relationship with fear. I remember when I was young, my sister and I would wait outside of the bathroom until my dad came out and we would jump out and scare him. He did not like that very much. Sometimes he would get mad, understandably so, but he would do it to us as well. Kids, don't do that to your parents. We don't oftentimes like being afraid. But then at the same time, there are some folks who will pay good money to watch a movie that will scare them for weeks and keep them up at night. Or how about roller coasters? You know, the tallest roller coaster at Six Flags in Atlanta is 175 feet tall, and it will send you straight down at 70 miles per hour. And people pay good money for that experience. So is it a good thing to be afraid? Well, of course, it depends, right? For example, I've known some people that are so fearful of car wrecks that they refuse to get a driver's license. But at the same time, we want our children to have a healthy fear of cars so that they don't run out in the street when a car passes by. Well, what about the fear of the Lord? Is it a good thing to fear the Lord? Or is it a bad thing? Some folks suggest that we should only talk about love for God, not the fear of God. You might remember, if you were here last week, some of Kanye West's most recent comments. He, several years ago, professed to be a Christian, but now he is distancing himself from Christianity. And recently he complained, quote, another thing I don't like about Christianity is the fear of God. If God is love, why should you fear Him, end of quote. And we saw in Psalm 111 last week that the Bible teaches us that there are two different kinds of fear. There are different ways in which we can fear God. One is a fear of God that we can experience because we are sinners in rebellion against God and we refuse to receive His forgiveness and we refuse to submit our lives to His rule and reign. This is a fear that pushes us away from God. And it is true that if we determine to live a life in rebellion against God, God and His judgment are terrifying. But there's also another kind of fear. A fear of God. A fear of God that is a reverential awe. A worshipful respect that fills us with wonder and even joy as we look to God in faith and we receive His forgiveness and we yield our lives to His rule and reign. And this is a fear that draws us near to God. The theme in Psalm 111 that we looked at last week and 112 which we're going to be considering this week is the fear of the Lord. So if you look back at Psalm 111 verse 10, we read these words, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. All those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever. And then you notice this morning in Psalm 112, it opens with these words in Psalm 112 verse 1, Praise the Lord, blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commandments. So Psalm 112 picks up where Psalm 111 left off. So last week when we looked at Psalm 111, the title of our message was, The Lord who is to be feared. And this week, as we look at Psalm 112, the title of our message is, The Man Who Fears the Lord. But Psalm 111 and 112 not only share a similar theme, the theme of the fear of the Lord, but they are also structured in a similar manner. And this is actually reflected in our English translations as well, at least in part. So I mentioned last week that Psalm 111 and 112 are both acrostic psalms. Now what that means is that these psalms follow the order of the Hebrew alphabet. So that each line of the psalm begins with the next letter in the Hebrew alphabet. And so, you can see some of this in our English translations, the way these structures are similar. In Psalm 111, you see that Psalm 111 has 10 verses. And in Psalm 112, Psalm 112 has 10 verses. But not only do they both have 10 verses, these verses are structured in a similar manner. So, Psalm 111 verse 1, and it depends on how your English translation lays this out, but Psalm 111 verse 1 is actually 3 lines. And then Psalm 112 verse 1 is 3 lines. And then Psalm 111 verses 2 through 8, each one of those verses is 2 lines. And Psalm 112 verses 2 through 8, each one of those verses is 2 lines. And then in Psalm 111 verses 9 and 10, each of those verses is three lines. And then in Psalm 112 verses 9 and 10, each of those verses is three lines. Now this is obviously intentional. And it's another way for the psalmist to communicate that the man who fears the Lord is to reflect the character of the Lord whom he fears. So in the same way that artistically and poetically Psalm 112 is a reflection of Psalm 111, the man who fears the Lord is to reflect. He's to mirror the Lord who is to be feared. Friends, I want us to consider this morning the man who fears the Lord. And as we do so, we're going to look at our psalm in five parts. First, we'll see the man who fears the Lord is blessed. Secondly, we'll see the man who fears the Lord is wealthy and generous. Third, we'll see the man who fears the Lord is righteous and gracious. Fourth, we'll see the man who fears the Lord is tried and trusting. And then we'll say just a brief word about the wicked. So let's consider first of all, the man who fears the Lord is blessed. Look there in verse 1 of Psalm 112. Praise the Lord, blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commandments. Now as we've already noted, there are some who resist this whole idea of fearing the Lord. But notice here that the psalmist declares that the fear of the Lord is the way of blessing. It's the way of life. It's the way of happiness. To fear the Lord is the way to the good life. It is to experience life as God intended us to experience it and as He designed it. And again, what does it mean to fear the Lord? Well, actually the psalmist gives us a definition here. Notice the psalmist tells us, blessed is the man who fears the Lord. Here it is. Who greatly delights in His commandments. This is what it means to fear the Lord. It means to delight in His commandments. To delight in His Word. This is very similar to the definition of the fear of the Lord we gave earlier. It means that we come, we have a reverential respect for Him, a worshipful awe of Him, and therefore we come in submission under His rule and reign, which is expressed through His Word. To fear God is to revere Him. We could say it this way. To fear God is to take God and His Word seriously. You know, there are many who live and act as though God is unimportant. As though He is inconsequential or irrelevant. But the man who fears the Lord takes God and His Word seriously and therefore he delights in His commandments and he's eager to trust the Lord and to practice His Word. And my friends, what we see in this passage and so many others in Scripture is that God wants to bless us. God wants to do good for His people. God delights to bless His people. But God cannot bless us if we do not fear Him, if we do not revere Him, if we are not disposed to trust Him and eager to obey Him. You see, God created the universe. And when God created the universe, He created it as a moral universe. That is, this universe is governed by certain moral principles and those moral principles are a reflection of the character of God and who God is. And life in this universe that God created works best when we recognize Him as Creator and we live consistently with the way that He designed for us and the universe to function. It's kind of like a car manual. If you buy a car, you'll receive a car manual or you can find one online. And the car manual will include a service plan. The service plan will tell you things like when you need to change your oil, when you need to rotate your tires, when you need to flush out your transmission fluid or replace the timing belt. And if you ignore the service plan in time, you're probably going to have problems with your car. If you follow the service plan, then things will likely go much better. And you will have a much better experience with the car. Now this doesn't mean that some pump may never key your car. This doesn't mean that there's no possibility that you'll ever get in a car accident. But generally speaking, your experience and enjoyment of the car will be much better if you follow the service plan. In a similar way, if we fear God, if we delight in His commandments, it doesn't mean that we'll never experience trials or we'll never experience difficulties. But it does mean that we will save ourselves a whole lot of unnecessary grief and trouble. And it also means that we will experience many blessings in this life as a result of acknowledging God as God. and living according to God's way in God's world. The psalmist declares here that if you want to know the blessed life, the happy life, the good life, then take God seriously. Revere Him in His Word. Give Him the respect and honor that He is due. Practice His ways and you will be blessed. Notice secondly, not only is the man who fears God, not only is he blessed, but notice secondly, the man who fears the Lord is wealthy and generous. He is wealthy and generous. Look there in verses 2-3. His offspring will be mighty in the land. The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in His house, and His righteousness endures forever. And then look down at verse 5. It is well with the man who deals generously and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice. And then again in verse 9. He is distributed freely. He is given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn is exalted in honor. Now we see here in verses 2 and 3 that the psalmist declares that the wealth of the man who fears the Lord is reflected both in his family and in his finances. You see it there in verse 2. His offspring will be mighty and blessed. In verse 3, riches are in his house. Now we want to be very careful here, of course, because we know, many of us know, that there is something out there which is known as the prosperity gospel that many people preach. The prosperity gospel is the idea that if you follow Jesus, then you will always be healthy and wealthy and happy. The prosperity gospel is obviously a distortion of biblical truth and it has caused great harm to the church. But we need to be careful here. We might have such a disdain, such an aversion towards the prosperity gospel that we're not able to hear what the psalmist is saying to us here in Psalm 112. The psalmist is teaching us here in Psalm 112 that we should expect that the man who fears the Lord will experience certain blessings in his family and finances as a result of following God's ways. Now, of course, this psalm here is a wisdom psalm, much like the book of Proverbs is wisdom literature. And wisdom literature does not assert hard and fast rules that are always true no matter what. In that sense, they're not promises in one sense, rather they're principles. Rather, wisdom literature is offering us general observations about life and morality. And the psalmist is teaching us here that the man who fears the Lord, generally speaking, both in his family and in his finances, will benefit from following God's Word. So for example, in Proverbs 22, verse 6, the author of Proverbs writes, Train up a child in the way he should go. Even when he is old, he will not depart from it. Now of course, this does not mean that every child that comes from a Christian home will be a model of godliness. But it does mean that generally speaking, children will benefit from the example of godly parents. And it also means that children who have godly parents will be far more likely to follow the Lord in the future. Proverbs 22 verse 4, it reads, the reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life. Now again, this does not mean what the author of Proverbs is saying here is not that wealth is a test for righteousness. So everyone who is wealthy is righteous and everyone who is poor is unrighteous. No, there are many places in Scripture we could point to where we know that is not the case. We need to say very clearly there are many in the world who are poor, who know and love the Lord deeply. But the author of Proverbs and the psalmist here is acknowledging a general principle. That there are certain financial benefits that come to a man and his family when they consistently practice the principles of God's Word. Like faithfulness in marriage. Hard work and diligence. Integrity and honesty. Gratitude and contentment. Over time, and this is not a get rich quick scheme, right? But over time, as these character qualities and the wealth gained is passed on from one generation to another, There is oftentimes, one of the results, a greater sense of financial stability and even wealth that results. There are many ways in which we see this in society. Many ways in which we observe this. I'll just give one example. There's this study that I've come across many times over the years. I think it's been done actually in different decades just to kind of reconfirm that it's true. But the study conducted has determined that in America there are essentially three things one must do to stay out of poverty. The three things are as follows. One, graduate from high school. Two, marry before having a child. And three, have that child after the age of 20. There are various versions of this study, but that's essentially what it gets down to. It boils down to be faithful in your studies to at least graduate from high school. Avoid teenage pregnancy outside of marriage. Get married first and then have a child in the confines of marriage. What this study has demonstrated is that only 8% of folks who do those things in that order fall into poverty. in the United States, whereas 79% of those who fail to do those things in that order experience poverty in the United States. Now, of course, as we appeal to a study like that, we want to give certain qualifications and say people's lives can change and they can go in a whole different direction and reorient their lives and all kinds of things we would say along those lines. But at the same time, I believe a study like this clearly illustrates in a practical way that character and life choices do in fact influence our financial well-being. But here's the thing. Wealth and financial stability come with many temptations. There's the temptation like fear. Will I lose what I've been able to attain? There's the temptation of greed. We want more and more. There's the temptation of selfishness. I can't share this with others. So if one has experienced some sense of financial stability or even wealth, how can we know that they fear the Lord? Because we know that wealth and financial stability do not equal righteousness, right? They're not one and the same. So how can we know if one has experienced some financial stability that they fear the Lord? And here's the test that the psalmist gives. Are they generous? Look there in verse 5. It is well with the man who deals generously and lends. In other words, the man who fears the Lord is not only concerned for himself and his family, but he has a heart for others. He has a heart for the poor and for those in need. And so he lends, and actually when it's spoken in wisdom literature of the righteous man lending, there's always this sense that he's lending at low or no interest. In other words, he's not getting rich off the backs of the poor, but he's extending a helping hand to those in need. It's like the Proverbs 31 woman who, by her industriousness, provides for her own family. But it's also said of her at the same time in Proverbs 31, verse 20, that she opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy. This virtue, in fact, is so important that the psalmist returns to it in verse 9. He says, he distributed freely, he has given to the poor. And actually the Apostle Paul picks this verse up in 2 Corinthians chapter 9. So when the Apostle Paul is encouraging the Corinthians because out of their extreme poverty they gave to support their fellow Christians who were experiencing famine in Judea. Paul reaches back to Psalm 112 verse 9 and he quotes this passage of scripture. He is distributed freely. He is given to the poor. And as He admonishes them to give, like the man who fears the Lord in Psalm 112, He reminds them that ultimately this type of generosity was demonstrated in the life of the Lord Jesus Himself. As Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9, For you know the grace of the Lord Jesus, who though He was rich, And Jesus knew wealth and riches unlike anything we could ever imagine, right? He had existed eternally with His Father in the heavens. Paul says, for you know the grace of the Lord Jesus that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich. The Lord Jesus demonstrates for us ultimately what it is to be one who is generous and good to others. This is a characteristic, the psalmist says, of the man who fears the Lord. Generally speaking, he enjoys a certain amount of financial stability and he is generous with others. I wonder, my friends, through integrity, through diligence, through faithfulness, has the Lord provided for your needs? And we're not talking here about Elon Musk wealth or Jeff Bezos riches, right? But do you have food to eat? Do you have shelter over your head? Do you have clothes to wear? Do you enjoy some financial stability so you're not anxious about the next meal you're going to eat? And even enjoy some of the creaturely comforts of life? Then let me ask you this question. Are you generous? Are you generous to God's church? Do you faithfully give 10% of your income to support God's work through His people, the church? Are you generous to those in need, whether it be family members or friends? People at work that you know that are going through a hard time. Maybe folks in our community or around the world. And listen, we can't meet every need, nor should we try. But is your life characterized by generosity? You see, all of this relates to the fear of the Lord. Because the man who fears the Lord respects God too much to steal from God what God has required of him. And therefore, he gives to advance God's kingdom. And the man who fears the Lord is so in awe of God that God is able to provide for all his needs that he is free to be generous to those who are in need. The man who fears the Lord will experience some of the blessings of God's grace both in his finances and in his family. Third, notice that the man who fears the Lord is righteous and gracious. So the man who fears the Lord is blessed. The man who fears the Lord is wealthy and generous. Third, the man who fears the Lord is righteous and gracious. Look there in verses 4 and 5 of Psalm 112. Light dawns in the darkness for the upright. He is gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with the man who deals generously and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice." So you notice there in verse 4 that the man who fears the Lord is upright and he is righteous. In other words, he does what is on the up and up. He does what is right. And then in verse 5 you see that he conducts his affairs with justice. Again, he does what is just, he does what is right. He's faithful, he's true to his word. You can count on him because he is a man of integrity. But like wealth, there are actually temptations, unique temptations that come with integrity. If selfishness and stinginess are the temptations of the wealthy, then rigidity and harshness are the temptations of the upright and the righteous. Think of the Pharisees, the religious leaders in Jesus' day. They were scrupulous about keeping all of God's commandments. And at the same time, they were scathing in their critique and condemnation of others. We know all too well that pride can distort righteousness into self-righteousness. And when this happens, the man who does what is right can become merciless and harsh with others. But notice in Psalm 112, the man who fears the Lord is not only upright and righteous in his personal life, not only does he conduct his affairs with justice, but according to verse 5, he is gracious and merciful with others. Like the God he reveres and the God he worships, he is righteous and compassionate. He is principled and kind. He is just and forgiving. Listen to what Charles Spurgeon said on this point. Quote, kindness, benevolence, and generosity are essential to the perfect character. To be strictly just is not enough, for God is love. And we must love our neighbor as ourselves. To give everyone his due is not sufficient. We must act upon those same principles of grace which reign in the heart of God." My friends, this is, as sinners, not natural to us. In fact, for one to be both righteous and merciful is truly an evidence of God's grace in our lives. It reminds me of the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis. As a young man, Joseph's brothers in a fit of jealousy and rage sold him into slavery. And Joseph lost everything. He lost his parents. He lost his brothers. He lost his friends. He lost his homeland and his people who had their own unique history and customs and culture and language. And Joseph became a slave. But Joseph did not forget the God of his fathers. Amid unimaginable trials and what must have seemed to be unbearable grief, Joseph trusted in the Lord. He became a man of character and integrity. And in fact, his character was on full display when again and again he resisted and rejected the advances of Potiphar's wife as she attempted to sleep with him. As you know, many years later when Joseph and his brothers were grown, his brothers through a set of circumstances were forced to appear before Joseph. And we know from the account this was not easy for Joseph. Joseph didn't immediately forgive and reconcile with his brothers. In fact, Joseph went through a series of events where he tested his brothers to seek and discern whether they were repentant, whether they had changed. And you know, for a man with Joseph's integrity, for a man with Joseph's track record, it could have been very easy for Joseph to callously dismiss his brothers. To punish them. to refuse to forgive them. His brothers had failed him miserably. And in fact, Joseph had done what was right and just when it was far more challenging to do so. In far more dire circumstances than they had ever faced. But here's the thing. This is one of the remarkable things I think about the story of Joseph. Is that near the end of Joseph's life, The measure and maturity of Joseph's righteousness is not only shown in the fact that Joseph consistently does what is right, but it's shown in the fact that Joseph is able and willing to forgive those who do not do what is right. And that's a whole other depth and beauty of righteousness. That apart from God's grace, we cannot attain. And how did Joseph do it? How did he come to forgive his brothers who had wronged him so severely? In Genesis chapter 50 verse 19, he says to his brothers, Do not fear, for am I in the place of God. In other words, Joseph feared God. Am I in the place of God? It's God's place to orchestrate events. It's God's place to judge. Therefore, because I revere Him, because I respect the place of God, I am free to forgive. And He goes on to say to them, so do not fear. I will provide for you and your little ones. I know there are some here this morning that have been hurt and wronged in profound ways, and I just want to acknowledge that the path of forgiveness is oftentimes not clear or easy. And you may need time to heal, and you may need wise counsel and prayer from others to help you along the way. And in all honesty, we should acknowledge that it doesn't always It doesn't always end as well as it did with Joseph and his brothers. But my friends, wherever you are and whatever God has for you, it is the fear of the Lord that will enable you to both do what is right and faithful before the Lord, and at the same time to be gracious and merciful to others when they don't. The man who fears the Lord is both righteous and gracious. Fourth, we see that the man who fears the Lord is tried and trusting. So we've seen that the man who fears the Lord is blessed, he's wealthy and generous, he's righteous and gracious. Fourth, the man who fears the Lord is tried and trusting. Look there in verse 4. Light dawns in the darkness for the upright. He is gracious and merciful and righteous. And then look at verses 6-8. For the righteous will never be moved. He will be remembered forever. He is not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady. He will not be afraid until he looks in triumph on his enemies. So in verse 1 of Psalm 112, we read in the opening of this Psalm, blessed is the man who fears the Lord. Now, when we read that first blessing, blessed, happy, is the man who fears the Lord. We might assume that the man who fears the Lord no longer experiences disappointments, or trials, or difficulties in this life. But that is obviously not how the psalmist thinks about the man who fears the Lord. In fact, in verse 4, the psalmist assumes that the man who fears the Lord will know times of darkness. In verse 7, the psalmist assumes that there will be times when the man who fears the Lord will be the recipient of bad news. In verse 8, the psalmist assumes that there will be times where the man who fears the Lord will be opposed by adversaries. The blessing is not that we will come to this point in life where we will never experience difficulty. The blessing is that in the darkness, and when confronted with bad news, and when facing adversaries, the man who fears the Lord trusts in the Lord, and therefore the Lord sustains him, and keeps him, and guides him, and gives him victory. Isn't it interesting that the fear that is spoken of in verse 1 of our psalm, results in the absence of fear in verse seven. Did you see that? In verse one, blessed is the man who fears the Lord. There's the presence of fear. He fears the Lord, which then results in the absence of fear in verse seven. He is not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm and trusting in the Lord. Psychiatrists label different kinds of fear as phobias. So there is arachophobia, a fear of heights, or acrophobia. I'm going to pronounce these wrong. I'll just go ahead and tell you, okay? Acrophobia, fear of heights. Aerophobia, a fear of flying. Agoraphobia, a fear of opened or crowded spaces. Anthophobia, which is a fear of flowers. I didn't know that existed. Nyctophobia, which is a fear of the dark. Claustrophobia, we know that one, a fear of enclosed spaces. Hemophobia, which is a fear of blood. Trypanophobia, which is a fear of needles or injections. Misophobia, which is a fear of germs or contamination. Zoophobia, a fear of animals in general. And we could go on and on and on. And some of those may seem strange or funny, but they illustrate well that as humans, we have many, many fears. And it's not that all fear is sinful. I would not claim that necessarily. If you have a fear of heights, that that's necessarily sinful. But the psalmist reveals here that there is one fear that dispels so many of the daily fears and anxieties that we experience in this life, and it is the fear of the Lord. When we fear God, we do not have to be paralyzed with fear as we anticipate a difficult season. Or as we anticipate hearing bad news. Or as we anticipate engaging in some personal conflict. If we revere the Lord, if we are in awe of Him, that we can trust that He is stronger, mightier, greater than whatever we might be facing ahead of us. And that He is able. And we can trust Him. I recently read an article on the Desiring God website. It was written by Stephen Whitmer. It's a very encouraging article. The article is entitled, Life Will Not Get Easier. Now that doesn't sound encouraging, does it? But it actually was a really encouraging article. Whitmer writes, quote, There's a lie that we all want to believe, even against all the available evidence. It trades on our God-given capacity for hope. It tempts even those with impeccable theology. It lures us in and then leaves us in the lurch. It goes like this, life will get easier if I just make it past this current challenge. End of quote. That's the lie. Life will get easier if I just get past this current challenge. Now, no doubt, thankfully, there are seasons in life, some better, some not as good, some easier, some more difficult. But the point that Whitmer goes on to make is that we will never get to a point in life where we don't face challenges and stresses and difficulties. And yet we deceive ourselves oftentimes in thinking that we will. We might be tempted to think, if I can just get the right boyfriend or girlfriend, then all will be well. Or if I could just finish college, then things, all things will kind of come together. Or if I could just get married, or, well, if we have kids, then things will really be great. Well, if we just get through the teenage years, then all will be well. Ah, if we could just get out of debt. Maybe when we get to retirement, then life will be all that we dreamed it would be. But my friends, it's not true. Every stage of life comes with new temptations, with new challenges, with new difficulties. But what the psalmist is telling us here is that that does not mean we have to live a life of pessimism and despair. In Psalm 112, the psalmist acknowledges that yes, bad news will come. Adversaries will appear. There will be difficult times. But the man who fears the Lord, his hope is not that we will reach this magical state where we don't face any difficulties in life. Rather, his hope is in that facing all the difficulties of life, the Lord is with us. And we fear Him. He is able. And therefore, we can look forward to the future with all the joys and with all the good that will come and with the difficulties. We can look forward with new energy and new vigor and new determination and new hope because the Lord is with us and He is able. And so the man who fears the Lord does not fear the day of bad news, but he is trusting in the Lord. The psalmist tells us here that the man who fears the Lord is blessed. He is wealthy and generous. He is righteous and gracious. He is tried and trusting. But then the psalmist concludes with one word about the wicked. You see it there in verse 10. Psalm 112 verse 10. The wicked man sees it and is angry. He gnashes his teeth and melts away. The desire of the wicked will perish. And that may seem like an abrupt change in the psalm, but it's an important word for us to hear as we've reflected on the man who fears the Lord. As we look at the psalm as a whole, we recognize that Psalm 112 is nine verses of celebrating the man who fears the Lord. It's nine verses of invitation. Psalm 112 is written in such a way that it is inviting us to join the man who fears the Lord in delighting in the Lord's commandments and walking in His ways because this is the way of life. This is the way of blessing. This is the good life. And Psalm 112 is inviting us to that life. But then Psalm 112 concludes with one verse of warning. And here's the warning. You may take the Lord for granted. You may treat Him with contempt. You may assume that He is unimportant and irrelevant. But you cannot defeat the Lord. Your resistance is futile. You see, those who fear the Lord and delight in His commandments will be blessed in this life now and for all eternity. And those who do not will be cursed and suffer everlasting destruction. So some of you might say, well, how can we join the man who fears the Lord on this path, this path of life and blessing? Well, my friends, the Lord Jesus has shown us the way. You know that Jesus is both the Lord who is to be feared in Psalm 111, and He is the man who fears the Lord in Psalm 112. He is The God-man. He is, as Paul says in Colossians 1, verse 15, the image of the invisible God. Or as the author of Hebrews says, He is the exact imprint of His nature. Jesus perfectly reflected the character of God, just as Psalm 112 reflects, mirrors Psalm 111. Just as the man of God is to mirror and reflect the Lord whom He fears. And Jesus went to the cross to die for our wickedness. For all the times that we did not take God and His Word seriously. And then He rose from the dead. And now He offers forgiveness and life and blessing to all those who will repent of their sins and trust in Him. And here's the promise. Here's the promise for all those who will trust in the Lord Jesus. It was actually declared by the Lord through the prophet Jeremiah thousands of years ago. This is the promise. This is the invitation. And they shall be my people and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear Me forever for their own good and for the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of Me in their hearts that they may not turn from Me. And I will rejoice in doing them good. Oh my friends, will you not receive that invitation? Trust in the Lord Jesus and He will put the fear of God in your heart so that you will respect Him and honor Him and worship Him and revere Him and walk in His ways. And God will delight to bless you. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord and delights in His commandments. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Psalm 112. And we thank You for the example of the man who fears the Lord. Father, we pray that as a people we would know Your blessing. as we delight in Your Word and seek to walk in Your ways. Father, we confess that in so many ways we fall short of the picture that we see here in Psalm 112. And yet, Lord, we thank You that You are a God who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. That You are eager to forgive and to bless the one who comes to You in repentance and faith Trust in the Lord Jesus. Father, I pray for any who are here this morning who have yet to bend the knee, to bow to the Lord Jesus and to His rule and reign, and I pray that they would do so even at this time. That they would trust in Christ as Savior and Lord. And Father, for those of us who have trusted in Jesus, Lord, we pray that You would increasingly work in our hearts that we might love and know Your Word better and that we might increasingly take joy in worshiping You and submitting to You and walking in Your ways. Lord, help us to be more and more a reflection of You, to grow in our fear and honor and respect of You. And Lord, we thank You that as we do so, You will be delighted to bless us. And it's through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray. Amen.