Psalms 111:10

The psalm this closes is an alphabet. Every line begins with the next Hebrew letter in order, which means the whole thing is built as something to be memorised — a teaching device, given to people who would carry it in their heads rather than on a shelf.

And what it teaches, for nine and a half verses, is God's works: remembered, studied, delighted in by those who take pleasure in them. The psalmist is a man who has been paying attention to what God has actually done, in order, from A to Z.

Then the last line names what all that study amounts to, and it is not information. The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom.

That placement is the argument. Fear, here, is not what you feel before you learn anything. It is what a person arrives at after nine verses of looking closely at the record. It is the appropriate response to evidence, not a prerequisite imposed before the evidence is examined.

And the second clause moves it out of the head entirely: all those who do his work have a good understanding. Doing, not knowing. Understanding is credited to the practitioner. The psalm has just spent ten lines on study and ends by saying the comprehension arrives in the doing.

The final phrase belongs to God rather than the wise: his praise endures forever. Even the wisdom is not the point.