Psalm 111 Explained | The True Beginning of Wisdom and Lasting Faith

0:00Welcome back to The Deep Dive. We are doing something a little, a little different today. Usually we're breaking down modern tech trends or, or the latest shifts in the global economy, maybe a new psychological study. But today, we are going upstream. Way upstream. We are tackling a concept that everyone wants, but nobody seems to know how to generate anymore wisdom. It is the scarce resource of the 21st century, isn't it? It really is. I feel like we are just drowning in data. Oh, completely. I mean, I have more information on my phone than the president had 30 years ago. Yeah. But if you look around at the state of the world, or honestly, even just my own decision making process sometimes, I don't know if wise is the word I'd use. We're smart, sure. We're fast, but wise. No, we have smarts. We have processing power. But wisdom is a different operating system entirely. And I think that's why today's topic is so fascinating. Yeah. We are going back to an ancient source, Psalm 111 to see if the old blueprints still works. And before anyone tunes out thinking this is just a history lesson or a Sunday school recap.

1:05Yeah. The research we have today frames this text very differently. Very. We aren't just reading it as poetry. We are reading it as a psychological framework. Exactly. When you look at the structure and the arguments inside this Psalm, it's actually a protocol for resilience. Right. It's a logical argument for how to stabilize your mind when the world around you feels like it's spinning off its axis. It's almost like a cognitive behavioral tool. But from, you know, 3000 years ago, that's great way to put it. So our mission today is to deconstruct this poem. We want to take it apart gear by gear and figure out how gratitude and this specific type of memory it describes are actually survival mechanisms. Survival is the right word. This isn't about feeling fuzzy. It's about not falling apart when the pressure hits. Let's jump right in. The text opens with a phrase that sounds standard on the surface, but the notes say is actually quite aggressive. Psalm 111, verse 1, I will praise the Lord with my whole heart. Aggressive is a great way to put it. That whole heart concept,

2:08Peshola Vav in the Hebrew, is doing a lot of heavy lifting right out of the gate. It implies there's a way to do this half heartedly, which is how I do most things, honestly. Look, yeah. Multitasking, checking email while listening to someone, planning dinner, while I'm in meeting. Exactly. And that fragmentation is the enemy of wisdom. The ancient world was dangerous. You had to be alert to survive. Today, we are fragmented by distraction. We have our work self, our family self, our online persona. The Psalmist is saying that to access this wisdom to really connect with the divine, you have to reintegrate. Just to be all there. You cannot approach deep gratitude if you were fractured. It requires total cognitive and emotional presence. It's an antidote to distraction. It's saying put the phone down, stop thinking about tomorrow and be here. And be here now. And then he immediately places this action physically. He says in the assembly of the upright and in the congregation. This is the second pillar. We tend to think of spirituality or meditation as a solo sport.

3:13Me alone in a room with my thoughts, finding my truth. Right. It's very individualistic. But the text says, no, this happens in the assembly. It's communal. And from a sociological perspective, this is vital. If I am grateful in silence that helps my blood pressure, sure. But if we are grateful together, if we articulate our shared wins or our shared history publicly, it builds something bigger. It builds social cohesion. It creates a shared reality. Okay, so it's not just a private feeling. Not at all. It binds the community together against external threats. You can't have a strong society or a strong family for that matter. If everyone's gratitude is a private secret, you have to voice it. Now, this brings us to the structure of the poem itself. And I have to admit, I missed this completely until I looked at the scholarly breakdown. Most people do. In English, it just looks like a list of sentences. But in the original Hebrew, it's an engineering marvel. It's an acrostic. Explain that for us. Why does that matter? So there are 22 lines in the poem. And in Hebrew, each line begins with a successive letter of the alphabet.

4:17A left, bet, Gimel. All the way to Tav. It's literally an A to Z list. Literally. Is that just a gimmick, like a nursery rhyme to help people memorize it? Well, namanics were huge in an oral culture. So yes, it helped them remember it. Yeah. But stylistically, it implies something deeper. It implies completeness. It's like saying, I'm going to tell you everything there is to know about God's character from A to Z. Nothing is left out. It's the whole alphabet of who God is. Exactly. And think about the psychological impact of that. If you are living in a world that feels random, chaotic, and scary, which they certainly were. Which we certainly are. And which we certainly are. And then you encounter a text that is perfectly ordered, perfectly structured. What does that do to your brain? It imposes order on the chaos. It tells you that there is a design. It's not just noise. There is a signal. Presumably. The structure itself is part of the message. God is a God of order, not confusion. It brings a sense of calm just by the way it's written.

5:17That is fascinating. So the form matches the function. Let's move to the content of this A to Z list. Verses two and three describe the works of the Lord as great, honorable, and glorious. But verse four seems to be the pivot point for our entire discussion on psychology. Verse four is the anchor. It reads, he have made his wonderful works to be remembered. To be remembered. The notes call this the equation. Break this down for us. Why is memory the central mechanic here? Why focus so much on the past? Because human beings are terrible at it. And I don't mean forgetting where your keys are. I mean existential amnesia. When we are in a crisis, a health scare, a financial crash, a global pandemic, our brains tend to wipe the hard drive. We only see the immediate threat. We forget every other time we survived. We forget the track records. Exactly. We assume the current crisis is the one that's finally going to take us out. We view the present as the only thing that exists. Right. We panic because we have no data points. The argument here is that God designed his interventions in history. These wonderful works

6:24specifically to be memorable. They are sticky by design. He did them so you wouldn't forget. So they are data points for the future? Yes. The equation found in the source material is essentially this. Forgetfulness leads to fear. Remembrance leads to confidence. That's powerful. So anxiety is basically a memory failure. In this theological context, yes. If you are anxious, it's because you aren't looking at the track record. You've lost the context of the works. You've forgotten who is running the show. And the text gets very specific about what we are supposed to remember. It doesn't say remember that you felt good once. Verse 5 says, he have given meat unto them that fear him. I love the King James translation there. Meat. It's so visceral. It's not sustenance or blessings. It's a stake. It's dinner. It's tangible. And this is a huge point in the analysis. The psalmist isn't talking about abstract philosophy. You're talking about survival. Meat represents the physical provision required to stay alive. It reminds me of Maslow's hierarchy. You can't have spiritual wisdom if you're starving. God meets people at the bottom of the hierarchy first. The covenant mentioned in that same verse

7:29isn't just a legal contract. It's a promise of care. The source material emphasizes that true wisdom is rooted in the physical reality of history. We were hungry and we were fed. You can't argue with a full stomach. That is empirical evidence. It's the verifiable data we were talking about. It's not just a feeling. It happened. Exactly. It's evidence of faithfulness. Verse 6 takes that a step further. It talks about the power of his works and giving them the heritage of the heap and this refers to the land, right? Right. So we move from meat, daily survival to heritage, which is identity placement, a home. It's the difference between I have lunch today and I have a future for my kids. And both are given their gifts and remembering that you didn't earn the land and you didn't create the meat keeps you humble. It keeps you grateful. Which is a nice segue to the next section. Yeah. Because now the poem shifts from what God gives to what God is. Yes, the stability section. Verse 7 and 8. The works of his hands are verity and judgment.

8:32All his commandments are sure. Verity is a great old word. It means truth but more like reliability, firmness, something you can put your weight on. And verse 8 says, they stand fast forever and ever and are done in truth and uprightness. No, compare that to our current world. Love, yeah. Stand fast forever is not how I would describe the stock market or politics or even technology. Everything we build is in flux, companies rise and fall, scientific consensus shifts, laws change. The source material points out that this causes a low level chronic anxiety in us. We're constantly trying to build our lives on quicksand. We never know if the floor is going to drop out. Right. And the psalmist is offering a contrast. He's saying, look, there's a fixed point. God's character, verity and judgment is the constant variable. It doesn't change based on polling or market trends. It is sure. So if you align yourself with that, you get some of that stability. That's the logic. You cannot build a stable life on a cheeky foundation.

9:34You have to anchor into something that stands fast. If you build your life on his commandments, you inherit that stability. It's interesting that verse 9 ties this stability to redemption. He sent redemption unto his people. It feels like the text is saying, this isn't just a cold static statue. It's a stable force that acts. It's act of stability. It's not a rock that just sits there. It's a rock that saves you. Holy and reverent is his name. That word reverend there. It just means worthy of deep respect and awe. It's where we get the word reverence. Which brings us to the climax. The thesis statement of the entire deep dive. If you have been listening and wondering, okay, I get the gratitude. I get the memory. But how do I actually get wise? Verse 10 is the answer. It's one of the most famous one liners in the Bible. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We have to stop here. Because modern ears hear fear. And we think of a horror movie. Oh, yeah. We think of being afraid of the dark or afraid of a tyrant. Right. Be afraid or I'll hurt you. Is that what this is?

10:36Do we need to be terrified to be wise? No. The sources are emphatic on this. The Hebrew concept is much closer to awe. It's a realignment of perspective. Give me an analogy. How should we picture this fear? Imagine standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon or imagine being in a small boat in the middle of the ocean during a storm. You aren't afraid that the canyon is going to chase you down and beat you up. It's not malicious. But you are acutely aware of how small you are. You're aware of its power. You respect it. You don't try to manage the Grand Canyon. You don't take a selfie while hanging off the edge while some people do and that's the opposite of wisdom. Exactly. That is foolishness. Wisdom is recognizing the scale difference between you and the creator. It's realizing you are not the biggest thing in the universe. So why is that the beginning of wisdom? Why isn't reading a lot of books the beginning or getting a PhD? Because if you don't have that awe, your ego gets in the way. If you think you are the center of

11:37the universe, you can't learn anything. You distort all the data to fit you. You become the measure of all things and your perspective is way too limited. So humility is the gateway to intelligence. It's the gateway to reality. The source material argues that wisdom is simply aligning yourself with the way the world actually is, rather than how you want it to be. The fear of the Lord is admitting I did not make this place. I am a jest here. I should probably learn the house rules. And the verse finishes by telling us how to learn those rules. A good understanding have all they that do his commandments. No, the verb do. It's not think or feel. No. In the Greek philosophy that Westerners are used to, you think your way into right action. You study, you ponder, then you act. Right. The hybride mindset here is the opposite. You act your way into right thinking. You learn by doing. You get good understanding after you obey. You trust the stable verity we talked about. You act on it and then the light bulb goes on. Oh, that's why I shouldn't lie. That's why I should be generous.

12:40The insight follows the obedience. That is a crucial distinction for us today. We want to understand everything before we commit to anything. We want to see the terms and conditions and negotiate. And the Psalmist says, you'll be waiting forever, commit to the verity and the understanding will follow. Wisdom is a result of the walk, not a prerequisite for it. So we have this incredible ancient structure. We have the A to Z of God's character. We have the psychology of memory as an antidote to fear. And we have the fear of the Lord as the starting line for wisdom. But this is the deep dive. We don't just want to admire the text. We want to use it. Yeah. How do we apply Psalm 111 in 2026? The sources suggest three specific domains where this hits the road, personal, communal and professional. Let's start with personal. We talked about resilience. How does this help me when I'm stressed out on a Tuesday? Right. If we accept the premise that anxiety is a form of amnesia, then the cure is deliberate documentation. We need to do what the Psalmist did. Make his works to be remembered. Journaling. It sounds cliche, but yes. But not just

13:45dear diary today was hard. I'm talking about a log of evidence right down the meat. The specific times you were provided for. Yes. When did a check arrive just in time? When did a medical scare turn out okay? When did you navigate a crisis you thought would crush you? You need to build a data set of your own history with God. So when the next crisis hits, you can open that book and say, look at the data. I have a 100% survival rate so far. There's a pattern of provision. It's data-driven confidence. I like that. It moves it out of wishful thinking and into proven track record. Exactly. What about the community aspect? This goes back to the assembly. We live in a fractured polarized world. Everyone is yelling. Tell me about it. The source material suggests that shared praise is a unification technology. When we focus on our opinions, we fight. When we focus on gratitude for shared blessings, the meat, the heritage, the fact that we are alive, it lowers the temperature. It's hard to hate someone when you are both acknowledging a gift

14:45you've received. So focusing on the works of the Lord, rather than the opinions of men, creates unity. It builds a common ground that politics can't touch. It reminds us we were all recipients of grace. And finally, the workplace. This is the one that really struck me, applying verity and judgment to our careers. This is the integrity piece. In business, there is always a temptation to take the shortcut. Always. To fudge the numbers, to overpromise, to exploit a loophole why. Because we feel insecure, we feel like we need to manipulate the outcome to survive. We're afraid the floor will drop out if we don't hustle. Exactly. But if you truly believe, verse eight, that truth and uprightness stand fast forever, then you play the long game. You realize that the shortcut is actually the unstable path. It will collapse eventually. So integrity is actually the most pragmatic strategy. It is. It's aligning your business with the stable structure of the universe. It might cost you in the short term, but it's the only thing the lasts. You are building on the bedrock of verity. And for the intellectuals listening,

15:49the learners, there's a warning here too. The warning is don't confuse data with wisdom. We were obsessed with knowing more. But Psalm 111 says knowing more is useless if you aren't properly oriented oriented by the fear of the Lord. A humility. If you approach your field of study, whether it's physics or coding or history with arrogance, you hit a ceiling. If you approach it with awe with the realization that there is a moral order you didn't create, you are open to true insight. It's that posture of I am not the master of this reality. I am a student of it. That is the beginning of wisdom. It really is a comprehensive system. It's amazing that all of this is packed into just 22 lines of Hebrew poetry. It's incredibly efficient. It covers everything from what we eat to how we think. And it tells us that wisdom isn't some mystical secret. It's available. It's right there in the structure of the world if we just pay attention. So let's synthesize this for the listener. We started by looking for wisdom in a data saturated

16:50world. And we found that wisdom isn't about having a higher IQ. It's about memory and posture. It's about fighting spiritual amnesia. Right. We found that forgetting our history leads to fear. But actively remembering the works, the meat, the provision, the track record leads to confidence. We found that in a shaky world, God's character is the only fixed variable, the only thing that stands fast. And finally, we found that the only way to access that stability is through the fear of the Lord, trading our ego for awe and our anxiety for obedience. I'm going to be thinking about that equation all week. The idea that my stress level is just a metric of how much I've forgotten. It puts the ball in your court. You can't control the future and you can't control the global economy, but you can control your memory. You can choose to look at the anchor points. That is a powerful place to land. We have unpacked the structure, the psychology, and the application. But as always, the deep dive isn't just about listening. It's about doing. So I have to ask you the

17:51question we leave you with every time. How will you apply this information in your life? Thanks for listening. See you on the next deep dive.