https://esv.literalword.com/?q=Psalm+111;+Job+16
Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Sunday, 15 February 2026:
Psalm 111:1 — Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
Psalm 111 opens with deliberate, public worship. Gratitude is not confined to private reflection; it is expressed “in the congregation.” Worship is corporate because truth is corporate. God gathers a people to remember together what none of us should attempt to carry alone.
Wholehearted praise requires intention. It is not emotional overflow; it is disciplined devotion. Will you do this when the church gathers? Not merely attend, but give thanks with a whole heart? Worship that costs nothing shapes nothing. Praise is alignment, bringing the heart back under God’s rule.
Psalm 111:2 — Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them.
Those who delight in the Lord study Him. Delight drives discipline. You always study what you love. If God’s works are great, they deserve attention. If His ways are wonderful, they deserve meditation.
Study reveals affection. Casual interest produces shallow understanding. Deep delight produces careful study. Scripture is not skimmed by those who treasure it; it is searched. Wisdom grows where reverence fuels inquiry.
The psalmist ties joy to investigation. The more one studies the works of God, in creation, redemption, providence, the deeper worship becomes.
Psalm 111:4–9 — He has caused His wondrous works to be remembered….
God anchors memory in covenant faithfulness. He provides redemption. He remembers His covenant forever. His works are not chaotic; they are purposeful. His commands are trustworthy.
Psalm 111:10 — The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
This psalm builds upward toward a foundational principle – The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This phrase is repeated across Scripture for a reason. God is the source of all wisdom. To fear Him is to recognize His sovereignty, holiness, authority, and ultimate reality. Wisdom begins not with data, but with submission.
Any knowledge system that excludes God at the foundation is unstable. 1 Corinthians 3:19 declares that the wisdom of this world is folly with God. Scripture repeatedly warns against teachers who distort truth to suit human desires (2 Peter 2:1-3; 2 Timothy 4:3-5). Philosophy detached from Christ becomes empty deceit (Colossians 2:8). A different gospel is not an alternative, it is a deception (Galatians 1:6-9).
The fear of the Lord stabilizes the mind. It guards against arrogance. Romans 9:20 reminds humanity of its place: the creature does not stand over the Creator.
Today, many frame science and faith as adversaries. That narrative is false. True science, knowledge attained through careful study of reality, cannot contradict the God who created reality. Nature reveals God’s glory. When inquiry is honest, it will not eliminate the Creator but illuminate His design.
Conflict arises not from science itself, but from philosophical naturalism masquerading as science. When a worldview begins with the exclusion of God, its conclusions will follow that premise. Wisdom requires examining foundations. Knowledge becomes destructive when severed from the Sovereign.
Psalm 111 teaches that wisdom is not merely accumulation of facts. It is rightly ordered knowledge under God’s authority. The beginning of wisdom is reverent submission to the One who made all things.
Are you prepared not only to gather knowledge, but to apply it under Christ’s lordship? Wisdom is knowledge aligned with God’s will.
Job 16:1-6 — Miserable comforters are you all…
Job responds to his friends with weary clarity. They have offered speeches, but not solace. They have supplied arguments, but not comfort. “Miserable comforters are you all.”
He exposes the irony: if positions were reversed, he could speak as they do. He could assemble accusations and shake his head in moral superiority. But that would not heal.
In suffering, Job needed presence more than diagnosis. Condemnation seldom restores. Correction may be necessary at times, but compassion must precede it. Truth without tenderness wounds unnecessarily.
Job’s words confront a common error: confusing explanation with comfort. Sometimes silence and solidarity are more Christlike than analysis.
Job 16:7-14 — God has worn me out….
Job describes himself as attacked, surrounded, and humiliated. He feels isolated and misunderstood. Suffering often narrows perception; pain amplifies vulnerability.
“Men have gaped at me… they strike me insolently.” Insecurity frequently manifests as aggression. People often attack what exposes their own fragility. When righteousness unsettles the conscience, hostility follows.
Job is experiencing not only loss, but social abandonment. That dimension of suffering is often deeper than physical pain.
Job 16:19-21 — Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven….
Here Job’s faith pierces the darkness. He believes he has a witness in heaven, someone who testifies on his behalf. He longs for an advocate who pleads for a man with God as a friend pleads for a friend.
Job does not yet know the name Jesus, but he senses the need for a mediator. He knows he cannot justify himself before God on his own merit. He hopes for representation.
The New Testament reveals the fulfillment of that longing. Christ is the advocate, the intercessor, the mediator between God and man. Job’s instinct is profoundly prophetic: salvation requires an advocate in heaven.
Even while misunderstood on earth, Job trusts that heaven knows the truth.
- 1 Timothy 2:5 — For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
- Hebrews 8:6 — But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.
- Hebrews 12:24 — And to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
- Galatians 3:20 — Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.
- 1 John 2:1 — My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
- Hebrews 7:25 — Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.
Psalm 111 calls us to fear the Lord as the beginning of wisdom. Job 16 shows what that fear looks like in anguish. Wisdom does not eliminate suffering; it anchors the soul within it.
To fear the Lord is to trust His sovereignty even when explanations are absent. To delight in His works is to believe that unseen purposes are still unfolding. To study His ways is to resist simplistic conclusions about pain.
Job refuses to abandon God, even while wrestling with Him. That is reverent fear in action, not silent resignation, but honest dependence.
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) — 15 February 2026: Examine whether your knowledge begins with reverence for God or with confidence in human systems. In suffering, yours or another’s, do you offer arguments or comfort? Choose one concrete action today: publicly give thanks with your whole heart, study God’s Word intentionally, or offer quiet, compassionate presence to someone who is hurting.
Pray: “Lord, teach me to fear You rightly. Guard my mind from wisdom that excludes You and my mouth from words that wound. Let my study reveal my love for You. When I suffer, anchor me in the assurance that I have an Advocate in heaven. When others suffer, make me a healer, not an accuser. Shape my knowledge into wisdom and my wisdom into worship. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
Defenders Bible Reading Plan 