AP

Psalm 112:4-5 Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man.  Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely, who conducts his affairs with justice.

This psalm rejoices in the great blessing that flows from persevering in a right relationship with God.  It begins: ‘Hallelujah! O the happiness of a man that fears the LORD, who finds great delight in his commands’ (1).

This man is an ‘UPRIGHT’ man: always showing honesty, openness, integrity and justice in all his dealings.  This man is a ‘GRACIOUS’ man: in all his relationships he reflects the fact that his God has dealt graciously with him, that his friendship with, and acceptance by, God is not because of self-worth but because of the undeserved favour of God to him, a destitute sinner.  This man is a ‘COMPASSIONATE’ man: he does all he can to help others around him who are in need; he ‘is generous and lends freely’ (5), and ‘has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor’ (9).  Yes, this man is a ‘RIGHTEOUS’ man: his ‘fear of the LORD’ has established him in a right relationship with God, as it did for Abraham, ‘[who] believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness’ (Genesis 15:6); he is not depending on his own good deeds or commendable performance to earn God’s favour, but he is depending only on the righteousness with which he has been ‘clothed’ through faith in Christ.

Nevertheless, this man will still have to go through times of darkness, and will have to deal at times with ‘bad news’ (7); but even in these times he will be aware of the presence of God’s light, guiding his feet through the complex and confusing maze that characterises our earthly pilgrimage, and he will KNOW that whatever might confront him as unmistakably BAD news (from his limited human perspective) is ACTUALLY part of the outworking of his loving, sovereign God’s eternal PLAN for his ultimate ‘good’ (Romans 8:28).  Is this a description of how you are travelling at the moment?