Psalm 33

(1) Shout with joy, righteous ones, in Yahweh, for the upright, praise is fitting.1 (2) Praise Yahweh with the lyre/guitar, with the harp of ten strings sing2 to him. (3) Sing3 to him a new song, skillfully play with jubilation,4 (4) because upright5 [is] the word/deed of Yahweh, and all his work/labor [is] with faithfulness,6 (5) The One loving righteousness7 and the exercising of authority,8 It is the steadfast loyalty9 of Yahweh that the earth is full of. (6) It was by the word/Word10 of Yahweh that the heavens were made, and at the breath/spirit of his mouth all their host/armies-- (7) The One gathering as a heap the waters of the Sea, The One placing in storehouses the deep/primeval Sea.11 (8) Fear/revere Yahweh, all the earth, of Him stand in awe,12 all the dwellers of the world, (9) because it was He who spoke, and it was. It was He who commanded, and it stood.13 (10) It was Yahweh who broke the counsel of the nations, He frustrated the plans of the peoples.14 (11) The counsel of Yahweh [is] forever, the plans of his heart are standing15 from generation to generation. (12) Blessed is the nation that Yahweh [is] its Elohim/god/God, the people that he has chosen for his inheritance.16 (13) It is from the heavens that Yahweh looked down, he saw all the sons of man.17 (14) It is from his dwelling place that he watched all the inhabitants of the earth-- (15) the One forming all their hearts, the One understanding all their work/labor.18 (16) There is no king being saved by a great army, a warrior is not being rescued by great strength. (17) A deception is the horse to save,19 and by its great strength it cannot deliver.20 (18) Look! It is the eye of Yahweh that [is] on the ones fearing/revering him, on the ones waiting/hoping for his steadfast loyalty.21 (19) to rescue from death their life, and to keep them alive in famine. (20) It is our lives22 that wait for Yahweh, our help and our shield is He, (21) because it is in him that our heart has rejoiced, because it is in his devoted/dedicated name23 that we have trusted. (22) May your steadfast loyalty, Yahweh, be over us, just as we have hoped in you. ------------------------------- 1) The name by which God wants to be known in the OT is Yahweh. Our Bibles translate Yahweh's name as all caps "the LORD," but when you see this, you should know that this is God's name here. It's not a title. So the vast majority of OT scholars simply say Yahweh. If you want to know more about this, you can read Exodus 3-- it's in Exodus 3 that Yahweh reveals his name to Moses and Israel. 2) Some of the words in the translation I've passed out, are different than your English versions. I don't want to make this sermon into a word study. But I'm relying on two standard reference works scholars use for working in Hebrew. 3) In Hebrew, when an author wants to emphasize something, he changes the word order to put the focused part first. So when the psalmist does that here, I underline it and put it in bold font. 4) If anyone wants a copy of the manuscript, come talk to me afterward and give me your email address. ----------------------------------- This has been a difficult year for many of you. I've never talked to more sad farmers, than I have this year. What I'd like to do this morning, is encourage you by lifting your eyes toward the heavens, toward our Father in heaven. In our psalm this morning, I'll talk a little about worship--about how we should worship, and why we should worship. But my focus, and your focus, I hope, will be on God. (1) Shout with joy, righteous ones, in Yahweh, for the upright, praise is fitting. Our psalm opens with a call to worship. There are a lot of things in life that can make us shout with joy. That make us rejoice. But as God's people-- as his righteous ones, the ones who live rightly with Yahweh--you should rejoice in Yahweh. This is fitting; this is suitable. Yahweh has done so much for you; your only response can be to praise him. Verses 2-3: (2) Praise Yahweh with the guitar/lyre, with the harp of ten strings sing/play to him. (3) Sing to him a new song, skillfully play with jubilation, How should we praise Yahweh? Verses 2-3 tell us. First, Yahweh wants to be praised with instruments. Many of you are really good singers, but you aren't so amazing, that God doesn't want instruments to join in. Yahweh enjoys instruments. He enjoys guitars. He enjoys a ten-stringed harp-- whatever that is. In verse 2, it's not clear whether the ten-stringed harp is viewed as praising God, all by itself, or whether the command here is to sing to Yahweh with the harp. Either way, know this: Yahweh enjoys instruments. Every time He sees something slide behind the piano or organ, or pick the guitar, He knows that He's about to enjoy what follows. In verse 3, the psalmist commands you to sing new songs to Yahweh. As much as we like the old songs, Yahweh enjoys hearing something new. There's few things in life more exciting than when you hear some new song on the radio, and you turn it up, and you think, "Wow. This is a ridiculously good song. I'm going to play this song to death for months."24 But when we worship God, we tend to only sing the same songs we've sung to him for decades, or hundreds of years. Make God happy by singing a new song to him. Sing to him something new, that's ear candy. I'm not saying don't sing hymns. I'm saying, God enjoys hearing new songs. In the next line, the psalmist commands you to play skillfully. When we come together on a Sunday morning, worship doesn't have to be flawless. People don't expect perfect transitions. Flawless harmonies. And some of us don't have great voices. We are supposed to praise anyway, and hope the talented musicians among us can cover for us. But all of that said... our worship should be done skillfully. When we are worshipping together, we are worshipping God. The musicians up front are not putting on a concert for us. They are praising their KING. And it makes sense, if God is our King, that we'd put the time in to make it sound good for him. So when musicians practice, and put in the time to fix things and work out the kinks, they do so not for us-- but for God. They want to sound good for Him. In the last line of verse 3, we are told to sing with jubilation. Or, you could translate this, with shouts of joy. This hour, is supposed to be the best hour of every week. This is the hour you get to praise God together as a congregation. You should be thrilled to praise God. You don't sing out of obligation. You don't sing quietly, and unemotionally. You sing with jubilation. If you don't find your heart lifting when you worship, it's a sign that something is wrong with you spiritually. If you go through worship time distracted, or impatient, it's supposed to be a signal for you, that there's something about you that needs to be fixed. You don't value what God has done for you. You aren't thankful. In verse 4, the psalmist moves from telling us how to worship, to why we worship. I'm going to pick this up at verse 2, and keep reading: (2) Praise Yahweh with the guitar/lyre, with the harp of ten strings sing/play to him. (3) Sing to him a new song, skillfully play with jubilation, (4) because upright [is] the word/deed of Yahweh, and all his work/labor [is] with faithfulness, Why do we praise God skillfully, with jubilation? When Yahweh acts, he always acts uprightly. There is nothing crooked or deceptive about how he works. Every single thing that Yahweh does is trustworthy. His works are reliable. We can count on him, and on them. I've been studying Joshua lately, and Yahweh is always faithful to Joshua. He promises Joshua that he won't abandon him halfway through the conquest. He won't get tired of him, or move on to someone else. Yahweh can be trusted. Verse 5: (5) The One loving righteousness and the exercising of authority, It is the steadfast loyalty of Yahweh that the earth is full of. I know I said I didn't want this morning to be a giant word study, but there are three words in this verse that are really important to understanding God and the OT, and I want to take a crack at helping you understand them better. The first big word here is "righteousness." "Righteousness" has to do with acting rightly within a relationship. When you are faithful to your spouse, or a good parent, or an obedient child, or a good employee, you are acting "righteously." You are acting toward someone how you are supposed to, within your relationship with them. So when we say that Yahweh is righteous toward us, what do we mean? We mean that when God makes a promise to you, he keeps it. God has promised to bless you. God is committed to you. God is good to you. When God acts this way, he is acting righteously. And notice, God doesn't do this grudgingly, or half-heartedly. God loves acting this way toward you. He enjoys keeping his promises. He enjoys being faithful to you. This is a great reason to praise God. The second big word in this verse, your English Bibles are going to translate as "justice." They will say that Yahweh loves "justice." But justice is a power word. It has to do with exercising authority. In the book of Judges, when it talks about the different "judges," it's talking about leaders who exercise authority over the people. It's not talking, primarily, about people who are making legal decisions in court. We live in a broken world. We look around, and we find ourselves constantly hoping that God will step in to situations, and fix things. We hope he will make things right. Because this world is often a rough, cruel place. This longing for God to fix things, is a longing for him to exercise his authority. We want God to come in power, and make everything right. As NT Christians, we know that someday, God's kingdom will come in all of its power. Jesus will return as King. And on that day, when God exercises authority over the world, He will make everything right. So for now, we live by faith--knowing that God loves exercising authority. But his timing is not our timing. The third big word here I've translated as "steadfast loyalty." This Hebrew word, khesed, has probably had more written about it than any other.25 The idea with khesed is that it's showing loyalty and faithfulness to someone. When Ruth stays faithful to Naomi, and returns with her to Israel, she shows khesed. She is going to an almost certain death, but she is faithful to her mother-in-law. She honors Naomi; she gives her what she is due as her mother-in-law. So in this psalm, the psalmist says that the earth is filled with Yahweh's steadfast loyalty. Verses 6-7: (6) It was by the word/Word of Yahweh that the heavens were made, and at the breath of his mouth all their host/armies. (7) The One gathering as a heap the waters of the Sea, The One placing in storehouses the deep/primeval Sea. This past year, I've found myself looking up more often, admiring the heavens. I've found myself wanting to just grab a blanket, and watch the clouds by day, and the stars by night, and just get lost in how big the heavens are. When we do this, it should make us think about God. We should remember that God created the heavens simply by his word. As NT Christians, we read this verse, and we maybe find ourselves thinking about the gospel of John. Who is the word of God, who was with God in the beginning, who created the world? It's Jesus. 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.  In verse 7, the psalmist moves his eyes from the heavens, to the Sea. I'm not going to be able to do justice to this, and I apologize in advance. In the OT, the Sea is often personified. It's a living Being, a force of chaos and evil. The Sea is a danger, and a threat to people. In your translation, I've put a few of the verses that talk this way, so you can look at it later if you want. When Yahweh created the world, he placed boundaries on the chaotic Sea. He said, "You get to go this far, and no further." So far in the psalm, we've read about Yahweh is the Creator of the entire world. He made the heavens by his word. He keeps the chaotic Sea in check. And he loves exercising authority over the earth. If it's true that Yahweh is the Creator and Rightful Ruler over all creation-- and he is-- then what should people learn from this? In verses 8-11, the psalmist tells us: (8) Fear/revere Yahweh, all the earth, of Him stand in awe, all the dwellers of the world, (9) because it was He who spoke, and it was. It was He who commanded, and it stood. (10) It was Yahweh who broke the counsel of the nations, He frustrated the plans of the peoples. (11) The counsel of Yahweh [is] forever, the plans of his heart are standing from generation to generation. When you look around the world, people serve many different gods. But these gods are weak.26 Did they create the world with a word? Did they command, and the world stood firm? No! Yahweh is incomparable. Yahweh is the Creator of the world. Yahweh is the one who frustrated the plans of the nations. You can't mess with Yahweh. You can't outsmart him. You can't overpower him. There is nothing you can do against him. So what should you do? Fear him. Revere him. Stand in awe of him. Bend your knee, and submit. This brings us to verse 12. Every teacher has pet subjects, that they are happy to go off about, strongly, for weeks. And they have to figure out how to reign it in, and not focus too much on any one thing. Verse 12 is one of my things, but I'm going to try to control myself. (12) Blessed is the nation that Yahweh [is] its Elohim/god/God, the people that he has chosen for his inheritance. When evangelical Christians in the U.S. hear this, they often instinctively say that we are a Christian nation, and so we are blessed. What I'd like to do, briefly, is pick on this, because I think it's dangerous and unbiblical. Some of you are going to disagree with me strongly on this, and I'm okay with that. I'll leave it to you, to make up your mind about whether I'm right or not. We should all agree, I think, that the psalmist isn't writing about the U.S. The psalmist knows that Israel is God's chosen people. God picked out Abraham, and promised him that he would make him into a great nation. He blessed him, multiplied him, and gave him the promised land. He led Israel out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and made a covenant with Israel at Mt. Sinai. He protected Israel from the nations; Israel was his special portion. Can we take this verse, and apply it to the U.S.? I think this would be a huge mistake. God has not chosen the U.S. to be his special nation. God didn't enter into a covenant with us. God didn't free us from England. In truth, if we read Romans 13, we are supposed to submit to government authorities, right? So if Paul is correct, the Revolutionary War was an act of sinful rebellion against England. And many Christians involved in political leadership in the American colonies resisted rebellion. What are we actually, as Americans? I would say we are a nation born in sin, in rebellion against God's commands. If we are going to claim Psalm 33:12 as a promise, let's do this through Jesus. Who is God's people? Who is his nation? Who is his kingdom? It's us. It's the church. We have entered into God's kingdom through Jesus. Our citizenship is in heaven. God's kingdom transcends national boundaries. It doesn't matter if we are Jews or Gentiles, Americans or Russians. We are part of God's people, and God's nation, through Jesus. Christians who have received Jesus as Lord and Savior-- they are blessed. Verse 13-17 (13) It is from the heavens that Yahweh looked down, he saw all the sons of man. (14) It is from his dwelling place that he watched all the inhabitants of the earth. (15) the One forming all their hearts, the One understanding all their work/labor. (16) There is no king being saved by a great army, a warrior is not being rescued by great strength. (17) A deception is the horse to save, and by its great strength he cannot deliver. It's easy to look at the world, and think that a nation's security depends on its great army, and it's great strength. The psalmist says, this is completely wrong. Weapons are a deception. Armies don't save; warriors aren't rescued by their strength. Whether or not a nation is able to survive, or gets conquered, depends on God. He looks down from heaven at our tiny weapons. He understands what we do, what we are trying to accomplish. And if God says "no," that's it. We are supposed to hear this as an encouragement. No matter how bad things look, and how hopeless the odds look we will survive, we know that our God is heaven. Verse 18-21 (18) Look! It is the eye of Yahweh that [is] on the ones fearing/revering him, on the ones waiting/hoping for his steadfast loyalty. (19) to rescue from death their life, and to keep them alive in famine. (20) It is our lives that wait for Yahweh, our help and our shield is He, (21) because it is in him that our heart has rejoiced, because it is in his devoted/dedicated name that we have trusted. Who is God watching? Who is God ready to help? The ones who revere him, the ones who place their hope in his steadfast loyalty. We wait for Yahweh. Life is maybe falling apart all around us; things look grim. But we know God sees us, and we know God is faithful. God is loyal. Does it look like it? Maybe? Maybe not. But He is our help. He is our shield. And we wait for HIM. We don't go running after other gods in panic. We don't chase things that can only give us a false sense of security. In verse 21, English Bibles are going to say that it is in his holy name that we have trusted. I just learned, the last two weeks, that I didn't know what holiness is. Holiness is about being devoted to something or someone. God has committed himself to us. He is devoted to us; he is dedicated to us. Do we believe this? We do, because we know that God is a promise keeper. Our psalmist closes by turning, for the first time, to directly address God. (22) May your steadfast loyalty, Yahweh, be over us, just as we have hoped in you. The psalmist concludes with a prayer, and I'm going to paraphrase this as our prayer to close us. "Father, we know that you are faithful to your people. We know that you are trustworthy. We know you love exercising authority for your people, and helping them. Father, we pray that you would act in light of your character. We need help. We pray that your steadfast loyalty would be over us, helping us. We have placed our hope in you alone, so please, help.