Psalm 111 Bible study: The LORD's works are great

The psalm opens with a call, "Praise the LORD!" (111:1), and after it, in Hebrew, it runs through the whole alphabet. Its first word after the call is odeh, I will give thanks (111:1), and it begins with aleph, the alphabet's first letter. Then words that begin with each next letter come in order, two to a verse through 111:8 and three in each of the last two verses: bet (besod, in the council, 111:1), gimel (gedolim, great, 111:2), dalet (derushim, pondered, 111:2), he (hod, honor, 111:3), vav (vetsidqato, His righteousness, 111:3), zayin (zekher, the word of to be remembered, 111:4), chet (chanun, gracious, 111:4), tet (teref, food, 111:5), yod (yizkor, remembers, 111:5), kaf (koach, power, 111:6), lamed (latet, in giving, 111:6), mem (ma'asei, The works, 111:7), nun (ne'emanim, sure, 111:7), samekh (semukhim, established, 111:8), ayin (asuyim, done, 111:8), pe (pedut, redemption, 111:9), tsade (tsivvah, ordained, 111:9), qof (qadosh, holy, 111:9), resh (reshit, beginning, 111:10), shin (sekhel, understanding, 111:10, where the letter is sounded s) and tav (tehillato, His praise, 111:10), the alphabet's last letter. That is all 22 letters, with none left out. Psalms 25, 34 and 37 also have letters in order, at the start of verses, with a letter or more left out (their notes set them out: Psalm 25:1, 34:1, 37:1). Here the run is whole, and it comes inside the verses. The psalm doesn't explain its letters, and these notes go no further than what the letters show.

Psalms 111:9→leads toGalatians 4:4-5

Psalm 111 says of the LORD, "He has sent redemption to his people" (Psalm 111:9). Galatians says, "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law" (Galatians 4:4), "that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as children" (Galatians 4:5). Galatians doesn't cite Psalm 111, and it was written in Greek, so no link between its words and the psalm's Hebrew is claimed; setting them side by side is a reading. It rests on a shared subject: God sending redemption to his people. Some hear in Galatians what the psalm praises God for, done in the Son he sent. Others read Psalm 111:9 as praise for what the LORD had already done for Israel, the people he gave "the heritage of the nations" (Psalm 111:6), and Galatians 4 on its own terms, without looking from one to the other. These notes don't choose between them.

פְּדוּתpedutsay pe-DOOT

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "ransom". Strong's: "distinction; also deliverance". "He has sent redemption to his people" (111:9). The Hebrew Bible has the word only four times. The first is in Egypt, where the WEB gives it as division: "I will put a division between my people and your people" (Exodus 8:23). The other two are "Abundant redemption is with him" (Psalm 130:7), and "Is my hand shortened at all, that it can’t redeem?" (Isaiah 50:2). The chapter on Exodus 8 sets out all four.