Psalm 33: A Song of Hope and Praise
This summer on More Than Sundays, we turn our attention to the Psalms. We have asked our writers to write about their favorite Psalm with the intention that it will provide our readers with encouragement, insight, and wisdom. Please enjoy!
The Psalms have always seemed to stand out from the other books of the Bible to me. There are different genres within the Bible such as books of the law, poetry and wisdom, letters, and the Gospels. The book of Psalms is categorized as poetry – which, as a poet, may be one of the first reasons I’m drawn to it. But this book also has such a personal feel to it. It’s made up of prayers, songs, and poems that harness authentic and relatable emotion. I love to journal, and this book feels like you’re reading someone’s personal journal of prayers to God. The Psalms are great reminders of God’s position of love and authority, our position as limited humans, and our great need for Him.
There have been different Psalms that have been important to me in different seasons of life – Psalm 103 was the thread I held onto during a season of depression, Psalm 51 was a prayer I constantly prayed in a season of shameful addiction, and Psalm 1 has been an encouragement to cling to the Word of God in a season I felt complacent. But today I want to dive into Psalm 33, titled in the ESV, “The Steadfast Love of the Lord.” This Psalm feels all-encompassing when it comes to God as our Creator and Sustainer. It’s always a reminder to me of the God who holds not only my life but the whole world in His hands (cue the Sunday school song).
This Psalm, as many of them do, begins with a call to praise God: “Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him…Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy. For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does. The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love” (verses 1, 3-5 NIV). Worship is the natural response for knowing God, and it is the defense we have against temptation, anxiety, and fear. Praising God doesn’t only mean listening to our favorite Spotify worship playlist and singing along with the songs, but here the Psalmist also calls us to sing! Singing or “shouting for joy” are extravagant ways to honor the God who loves us extravagantly. When we have experienced the truth of the Word of the Lord, just like the Psalm says, then worship becomes our very language and breath, and we can’t help but sing sometimes! He is worthy of our song first and foremost because of His character – who He is at His core, which is ultimate righteousness, justice, and unfailing love. This is where everything else begins and ends: with who God is.
The writer goes on to describe in colorful imagery the creative power of God in verses 6-9 (NIV): “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere Him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.” God is the Creator of all things – these images portray the magnitude of God’s creative power. The galaxies seem endless to our naked eye, and they were simply breathed into existence by our God; like a child would carefully watch his warm breath take form in the frigid air of winter, we get a picture of our intentional Creator exhaling a whole universe of beauty, immensity, and order for us to experience. We see a picture of God scooping up the waters of the ocean like a ladle lifting from a bowl on the kitchen countertops – He is the calmer and quieter of the raging seas and ruler of the mighty oceans. All of the intricate and vast parts of the created world were ideas God spoke into existence. His authority over creation, alongside His character, is another reason He is worthy of my praise.
The writer so far has shown us God is worthy of our praise because of His character (4-5) and His power within creation (6-9), and in verses 9-10, he brings the lens down to ground level, speaking of God’s intentional hand in our daily lives. “The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations” (verses 9-10, NIV). God’s ultimate plans will always prevail. Charles Spurgeon says, “Their persecutions, slanders, falsehoods, are like puff-balls flung against a granite wall – they produce no result at all; for the Lord overrules the evil, and brings good out of it. The cause of God is never in danger: infernal craft is outwitted by infinite wisdom” (Enduring Word, 2023). When it comes to the political climate of our nation, it can be easy to have strong opinions, and the lure to wholeheartedly follow a political figure or agenda is strong. But as Christians, we must keep both our fervency and fear at bay when it comes to human beings – whether they’re people in positions of power or not. God has the power to thwart the purposes and plans of people – we’ve seen Him do it in the Bible, and He is continually working to bring His plans, unknown to us, into fruition today. We must be careful if our concentrations and enthusiasms have a more worldly focus than a focus on Jesus. His thoughts are higher than ours, and we can trust Him no matter what is going on in the world around us – we want to share this steadfastness with those around us and be an example of a people undivided under the rule of our King.
Verses 16-19 (NIV) zoom in even closer to our lives as individuals: “No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite its great strength it cannot save. But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.” Just like certain political regimens cannot save us, we cannot save ourselves in our own power either. While that statement alone might sound depressing at first, it’s actually a great encouragement when we know the One who has the power to save us. This is a passage that has brought me a lot of peace personally. It’s not an army or horse that I think will save me, but sometimes I believe a locked door, a safe city, a healthy lifestyle, a loving family, or living in a secure country will. All of these measures are simply false senses of physical safety and a trouble-free life – things that are not promised to us. Focusing my attention on physical security only leaves me more anxious, trying to grasp onto control that’s not mine and distrusting our good God. The bottom line is God has saved my soul from death, and every good thing I experience on this side of Heaven is a gift that speaks of the life to come – I do not deserve any good thing, let alone life with Jesus. Now, I’m not just going to live a purposefully ignorant and unsafe life because I know Jesus, but I will not put my hope in these things, because ultimately they are not what save me. My life is in the hands of the One who has given me new life and has gracefully numbered my days – I can trust His plans.
Psalm 33 ends like this: “We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you” (verses 20-22, NIV). The Psalm begins with singing and shouting for joy but ends in waiting. Why would this passage end in something so anticlimactic as waiting? Shouldn’t it be another song, another shout for joy? As followers of Jesus, we wait not as someone in line at the DMV or pharmacy pick-up – dreading the empty space, wondering endlessly if our number will be called, knowing there’s a chance we forgot our license or registration where we’ll surely be rejected. We wait like someone at the airport waiting for their lifelong friend to get off the airplane: the anticipation and joy palpable, because our friend has heard our call, they’re faithful to us, and they will greet us with the best, familiar hug. God is our help, and He always hears our cries for Him. He is worthy of our praise because of His unfailing love. We wait in hope. We put our hope in His character, His power, and His plans. We put our hope in the loving hands that hold us firmly here until we’re in His arms at the gates of Heaven. So until then, we sing for joy, and we wait in eager hope.
Sources:
Enduring Word. (2023, October 13). Enduring Word Bible Commentary Psalm 33. https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/psalm-33/