“Glimpses of Glory: Journeying Through Psalm 111”

A.W. Tozer, the famous American minister and author, rightly stated that what comes into our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us. In my early days in the faith, many long years ago, now, I devoured the Bible. And I discovered that Jesus, speaking to the Father, said that eternal life is that we should know the Father, the only true God. That scripture gripped my heart unexplainably. All I can say is that it was an act of grace.

Much later, I heard someone remark that they had never received much from this scripture. It humbled me to see how effectively God had applied the same passage to my heart such that it had become a defining principle of my existence. Knowing God became the reason for everything and my life’s pursuit.
But why Psalm 111?

Was it a revelation in a dream, an angelic visitation? It was infinitely more prosaic. I had sensed the need to preach on Psalm 112, which had powerfully blessed my own life in the past. But en route to it, I was arrested in Psalm 111 and detained in its glorious divine revelations for weeks. The two psalms are complementary, one deals with the greatness of God and the second, the blessedness of the man who fears God. They are both acrostic psalms; each has twenty-two lines save for the initial hallelujah, and each line starts with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

Those who want to catch a powerful glimpse of the magnificence of God, cannot go wrong by immersing themselves in Psalm 111. It is a glorious celebration of the Lord and His Person; a vivid description of His character, as revealed in His great works. The picture of the Divine Being as seen in this Psalm is awe-inspiring and joy-inducing. It compels you to stand back in wonder and gasp at this extraordinary Being who is God.

Those who are habitual ‘gazers’ will confirm that this exercise goes beyond the ‘norm’ of received and preconceived notions about Him. Such ideas come neatly packaged and are transmitted to us in bulk, in sermon after sermon, book after book. More often than not, we do not chew on them long enough to forge an accurate picture of the Lord. So, we are constantly straining to see Him, feel Him, and understand Him, amid the vicissitudes of life.

This Psalm, in its depiction and celebration of God, assumes knowledge of specific biblical events relating to God’s works, both for His chosen people in particular and for humanity in general. Consequently, we will revisit those incidents and stories briefly, to gain an in-depth understanding of what the psalmist was thinking of and seeing. Thus, we will be able to share in His appreciation of God more fully.

This article is an excerpt from the book Great God. Download an excerpt below.