Psalms 111:10

My Notes

What Does Psalms 111:10 Mean?

Psalm 111:10 delivers the foundational premise of all biblical wisdom — the sentence that governs Proverbs (1:7, 9:10), Job (28:28), and the entire wisdom tradition. "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom" — re'shit chokhmah yir'at YHWH. Re'shit — beginning, first principle, starting point, the foundation from which everything else is built. Not a preliminary stage you graduate from. The permanent ground floor. Chokhmah — wisdom, the skill of living rightly, the capacity to navigate complexity with moral clarity. Yir'at YHWH — the fear of the LORD, the reverential awe that recognizes who God is and lives accordingly.

"A good understanding have all they that do his commandments" — sekhel tov lekhol-oseyhem. The word sekhel means insight, prudence, practical intelligence. And it belongs to the doers (oseyhem — those who do, those who practice). Not the knowers. Not the studiers. The ones who do the commandments. Understanding is produced by obedience, not by analysis. You get smart by doing, not by thinking about doing.

"His praise endureth for ever" — tehillato omedet la'ad. The psalm closes with permanence: God's praise stands (omedet — upright, established, enduring) la'ad — forever. The wisdom that begins with fear and produces understanding through obedience culminates in endless praise. Fear → obedience → understanding → eternal worship. That's the sequence. And the sequence starts with trembling.

Reflection Questions

• 1.Does your pursuit of wisdom begin with the fear of the LORD — or with some other starting point?
• 2.How does understanding being produced by doing (not studying) challenge your approach to spiritual growth?
• 3.Where have you been seeking wisdom apart from reverence for God — and what has that produced?
• 4.What does the sequence (fear → doing → understanding → praise) look like practically in your life?

Devotional

The fear of the LORD is the beginning. Not a stage you pass through. The permanent starting point.

Every piece of wisdom in the Bible — every proverb, every insight, every navigation tool for the complex terrain of human life — begins here. Not with intelligence. Not with education. Not with experience. With fear. Yir'at YHWH — the reverential awareness that God is God and you are not. The trembling recognition that you're standing in the presence of someone infinitely greater, infinitely wiser, infinitely more powerful than anything you could generate on your own.

Without that fear, everything you build is off-foundation. The smartest analysis without the fear of God is clever foolishness. The most sophisticated theology without reverence is intellectual entertainment. The most impressive life strategy without trembling before God is a house built on sand — functional until the storm arrives.

"A good understanding have all they that do his commandments." The understanding doesn't come from studying the commandments. It comes from doing them. The insight is produced by practice, not by theory. You don't get wisdom by reading about obedience. You get wisdom by obeying — and discovering, through the doing, what the studying could never have taught you.

The sequence is precise: fear first (posture toward God), then doing (obedience to His commandments), then understanding (the practical insight that obedience produces), and finally praise (the eternal response to the God who made it all possible). Skip any step and the sequence breaks. Start anywhere other than fear and the wisdom never arrives.

Where does your wisdom begin? With your own intelligence? With the culture's values? With your accumulated experience? Or with the trembling that says: God is God. I am not. And everything I learn starts there.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture