Psalm 112

Psalm 112 (like Psalm 111) is an acrostic wisdom psalm; the first Hebrew letter of each line is a successive letter in the Hebrew alphabet. This device probably made the psalm easier for a Hebrew speaker to memorize, but harder (in my experience) for an English speaker because the logical connections between the lines are less apparent.

For instance, the first four verses of Psalm 112 are about the benefits of fearing the Lord and delighting in his commandments and then verse five goes off in a different direction—it is good to be generous in lending—before getting back to the advantages of righteousness.

For whatever reason, this psalm hasn’t been popular with hymn writers and only one Psalm 112-only versification appears in Psalms for All Seasons or any other CRC hymnal. “How Blest Are Those Who Fear the LORD” (PFAS #112A/LUYH #301/PH87 #112/PH57 #223) is one of the 69 hymns to appear in all three Psalter Hymnals and Lift Up Your Hearts with a consistent tune (MELCOMBE). It appears (with a different tune) in the 1912 Psalter of the United Presbyterian Church of North America, which was the first English-language hymnbook approved for use in the CRC and is the source of many psalm settings in CRC hymnals (39 in LUYH and 48 in PFAS).  However, it originates with the earlier 1887 Psalter (source of 13 hymns in LUYH and 11 in PFAS).

Here is the first stanza of the 1887 version:

How blest the man that fears the Lord,
And makes his law his chief delight;
His seed shall share his great reward,
And on the earth be men of might.

The 1912 version (which appeared in the first two Psalter Hymnals):

How blest the man that fears the Lord,
And greatly loves God’s holy will;
His children share his great reward,
And blessings all their days shall fill.

The 1987 Psalter Hymnal update (which appears in LUYH and PFAS):

How blest are those who fear the LORD
and greatly love God’s holy will.
Their children share their great reward,
and blessings all their days shall fill.

I looked at some other versifications of Psalm 112, including three by Isaac Watts that went out of style before the turn of the 20th Century, and they all sound pretty similar.

However, PFAS does contain a recent Psalm 111 & 112 hymn called “Alleluia! Laud and Blessing” (PFAS #111B), which is set to WEISSE FLAGGEN. (I missed this when we briefly looked at Psalm 112 during our Sunday school class session on Psalm 15.) It’s a paraphrase, not a strict versification, that does justice to the themes of the psalms without including every alphabetical detail. According to the PFAS performance notes: “This free paraphrase by Michael Morgan holds the two psalms together. St. 1, based on Ps. 111, praises God’s wonderful works and faithfulness. St. 2, based on Ps. 112, further recounts God’s gifts to humanity and our obligation to reflect God’s graciousness in how we live. The final stanza reflects both psalms together, emphasizing that it is the fear of the Lord that brings us to wisdom (Ps. 111:10).”

Morgan is a Presbyterian musician and scholar who has written many psalm settings (including 23 found in PFAS and 16 in LUYH). These include “O Shepherd, Hear and Guide Your Flock” (PFAS #80C/LUYH #64), which we sang at Trinity during the fourth week of Advent as our Psalm 80 setting, and “Trees” (PFAS #I), based on tree references in Psalms 1, 26, 52 & 92, which is our Sunday school class’ opening song.

Psalms for All Seasons does include a Psalm 112 responsorial setting, “Happy Are They Who Delight” (PFAS #112B/SNC #273).

(Previous posts in my continuing series on our Psalms for All Seasons Sunday school class focused on Psalm 121, Psalm 122Psalms 2/99Psalm 72Psalm 95, and Psalm 147.)

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