Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Has there ever been a righteous person?Job 15:14, Isaiah 64:6, and Romans 3:10 deny anyone is righteous — all our righteousness is as filthy rags, there is none righteous, no, not one.
Psalms 12:6(v4)Yahweh’s words are flawless words, as silver refined in a clay furnace, purified seven times.
Psalms 32:11(v1)Be glad in Yahweh, and rejoice, you righteous! Shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart!
Deuteronomy 32:4(v4)The Rock: his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness who does no wrong, just and right is he.
Titus 1:2(v4)in hope of eternal life, which God, who can’t lie, promised before time began;
Philippians 4:4(v1)Rejoice in the Lord always! Again I will say, “Rejoice!”
Show all 57 cross-references
Psalms 119:75(v4)Yahweh, I know that your judgments are righteous, that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
Psalms 147:1(v1)Praise Yah, for it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant and fitting to praise him.
Psalms 150:3-6(v2)Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet! Praise him with harp and lyre! Praise him with tambourine and dancing! Praise him with…
Proverbs 30:5(v4)“Every word of God is flawless. He is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
Daniel 4:37(v4)Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven; for all his works are truth, and his ways justice; and those who walk…
Psalms 19:8(v4)Yahweh’s precepts are right, rejoicing the heart. Yahweh’s commandment is pure, enlightening the eyes.
Psalms 98:4-5(v2)Make a joyful noise to Yahweh, all the earth! Burst out and sing for joy, yes, sing praises! Sing praises to Yahweh with the harp, with the…
Psalms 144:9(vv2–3)I will sing a new song to you, God. On a ten-stringed lyre, I will sing praises to you.
Psalms 36:5-6(v4)Your loving kindness, Yahweh, is in the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God.…
Psalms 97:12(v1)Be glad in Yahweh, you righteous people! Give thanks to his holy Name.
Psalms 118:15(v1)The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous. “The right hand of Yahweh does valiantly.
John 14:6(v4)Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.
Romans 7:12(v4)Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.
Ephesians 5:19(v3)speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
Exodus 15:20(v2)Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with…
1 Chronicles 25:7(v3)The number of them, with their brothers who were instructed in singing to Yahweh, even all who were skillful, was two hundred eighty-eight.
Psalms 96:1(v3)Sing to Yahweh a new song! Sing to Yahweh, all the earth.
Isaiah 42:10(v3)Sing to Yahweh a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the islands and…
1 Corinthians 1:30-31(v1)Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption: that, as…
Genesis 24:27(v4)He said, “Blessed be Yahweh, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his loving kindness and his truth toward my master. As for…
2 Samuel 6:5(v2)David and all the house of Israel played before Yahweh with all kinds of instruments made of cypress wood, with harps, with stringed…
1 Chronicles 13:8(v3)David and all Israel played before God with all their might, even with songs, with harps, with stringed instruments, with tambourines, with…
1 Chronicles 15:16(v2)David spoke to the chief of the Levites to appoint their brothers as singers with instruments of music, stringed instruments, harps, and…
1 Chronicles 15:28(v2)Thus all Israel brought the ark of Yahweh’s covenant up with shouting, with sound of the cornet, with trumpets, and with cymbals, sounding…
1 Chronicles 25:3(v2)Of Jeduthun, the sons of Jeduthun: Gedaliah, Zeri, Jeshaiah, Shimei, Hashabiah, and Mattithiah, six, under the hands of their father…
1 Chronicles 25:6(v2)All these were under the hands of their father for song in Yahweh’s house, with cymbals, stringed instruments, and harps, for the service…
Psalms 25:10(v4)All the paths of Yahweh are loving kindness and truth to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.
Psalms 50:14-16(v1)Offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Pay your vows to the Most High. Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you…
Psalms 71:22(v2)I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, my God. I sing praises to you with the lyre, Holy One of Israel.
Psalms 78:36-37(v1)But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue. For their heart was not right with him, neither were they…
Psalms 81:2-3(v2)Raise a song, and bring here the tambourine, the pleasant lyre with the harp. Blow the trumpet at the New Moon, at the full moon, on our…
Psalms 92:3(v2)with the ten-stringed lute, with the harp, and with the melody of the lyre.
Psalms 96:13(v4)before Yahweh; for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, the peoples with his truth.
Psalms 98:1(v3)Sing to Yahweh a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.
Psalms 119:128(v4)Therefore I consider all of your precepts to be right. I hate every false way.
Psalms 135:3(v1)Praise Yah, for Yahweh is good. Sing praises to his name, for that is pleasant.
Proverbs 15:8(v1)The sacrifice made by the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
Colossians 3:16(v3)Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,…
Revelation 5:8(v2)Now when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp, and…
Revelation 14:2(v2)I heard a sound from heaven, like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of a great thunder. The sound which I heard was like that of…
Psalms 40:3(v3)He has put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God. Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in Yahweh.
Psalms 85:10-11(v4)Mercy and truth meet together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth springs out of the earth. Righteousness has looked…
Psalms 149:1(v3)Praise Yahweh! Sing to Yahweh a new song, his praise in the assembly of the saints.
Psalms 149:3(v2)Let them praise his name in the dance! Let them sing praises to him with tambourine and harp!
Micah 2:7(v4)Shall it be said, O house of Jacob: “Is Yahweh’s Spirit angry? Are these his doings? Don’t my words do good to him who walks blamelessly?”
Romans 3:10(v1)As it is written, “There is no one righteous; no, not one.
Revelation 5:9(v3)They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your…
1 Chronicles 15:22(v3)Chenaniah, chief of the Levites, was over the singing. He taught the singers, because he was skillful.
2 Chronicles 34:12(v3)The men did the work faithfully. Their overseers were Jahath and Obadiah, the Levites, of the sons of Merari; and Zechariah and Meshullam,…
Romans 5:19(v1)For as through the one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, many will be made righteous.
Romans 15:8-9(v4)Now I say that Christ has been made a servant of the circumcision for the truth of God, that he might confirm the promises given to the…
Revelation 14:3(v3)They sing a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the one…
57 distinct cross-references across this passage (58 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (27 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv1–41. Rejoice in Jehovah, ye righteous. Here the inspired…
1. Rejoice in Jehovah, ye righteous. Here the inspired writer addresses believers or the righteous by name, because they alone are capable of proclaiming the glory of God. Unbelievers, who have never tasted his goodness, cannot praise him from the heart, and God has no pleasure in his name being pronounced by their unholy tongues. But the context shows more distinctly why this exhortation is suitable for believers only. Many, accordingly, expound the latter clause, Praise is comely for the upright, as meaning, that if the ungodly or hypocrites attempt this exercise, it will turn to the reproach and dishonor of God rather than to his praise; nay, more, that they only profane his holy name. It is, no doubt, very true, as I have already remarked, that God creates for himself a church in the world by gracious adoption, for the express purpose, that his name may be duly praised by witnesses suitable for such a work. But the real meaning of the clause, Praise is comely for the upright, is, that there is no exercise in which they can be better employed. And, assuredly, since God by his daily benefits furnishes them with such matter for celebrating his glory, and since his boundless goodness, as we have elsewhere seen, is laid up as a peculiar treasure for them, it were disgraceful and utterly unreasonable for them to be silent in the praises of God. The amount of the matter is, that the principal exercise in which it becomes the righteous to be employed is to publish among men the righteousness, goodness, and power of God, the knowledge of which is implanted in their minds. Following other interpreters, I have translated the clause, Praise is comely, but the word rendered comely may also be properly rendered desirable, if we view it as derived from the Hebrew word אוה, avah, which signifies to wish or desire. And certainly, when God allures believers so sweetly, it is proper that they employ themselves in celebrating his praises with their whole hearts. It is also to be observed, that when the prophet, after having in the first clause used the appellation, the righteous, immediately adds the words, the upright, which comprehend the inward integrity of the heart, he defines what true righteousness is, or in what it consists.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv1, 2, 4It is the duty of the godly to set…
It is the duty of the godly to set forth the praises of God for his mercy and power showed toward them.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv1–4Psa 33:1 Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous:…
Psa 33:1 Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous: [for] praise is comely for the upright.
Ver. 1. Rejoice in the Lord, O ye rightness] That is, O ye upright in heart, as it followeth here, and as Psa 32:11. For as there he ended, so here he beginneth, calling upon the saints to be cheerful; and indeed there is hardly any duty more pressed in the Old and New Testament, or less practised. To quicken them, therefore, to so necessary but much neglected a duty, this psalm seemeth to be added to the former, purposely to excite us, by many arguments, to consecrate our whole lives to the singing and setting forth of God’s worthy praises. In which regard nihil potest esse hoc carmine augustius, saith Beza, this is surely a most excellent psalm; and if it were well practised we might have a very heaven here; as because it is not, we lose very much of the comtbrt of our lives. Only that cautionating counsel of Bernard would not be forgotten, Laeti simus, non securi; gaudentes in Spiritu Sancto, sed tamen caventes a recidivo; Let us be cheerful, but not secure; and rejoice in the Holy Ghost, but take heed we let not fall the watch of the Lord. Crede mihi res severa est gaudium verum, Believe me, true joy is a severe matter, said Seneca. We may better say so of spiritual joy, which he never tasted of, neither doth any stranger meddle with. And if Plato could tell the musicians, philosophers could tell how to be merry without music; much more may God’s people. Quid nobis cum fabulis, cure risu? saith Bernard, What have we to do with carnal mirth and jollity? &c.; we have meat to eat, and music to our meat, that the world knoweth not of; let us make us merry with it.
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For praise is comely for the upright] For them, and for none but them; high words are not fit for a fool, saith Solomon. Laudari ab illaudato, to be praised by a praiseless person is no praise at all (Seneca). That State in story would not approve of good words from an evil mouth; no more doth God, Psa 50:15-16. Christ would not suffer the devil to confess him. Hypocrisy slurreth all it toucheth. If a man should sing a good song with his voice, and play a bad one on his instrument, it would make but a black sanctus. Such is the praise of the unupright; who had better therefore be silent, unless themselves were better, since they do not only lose their labour, but commit sin. Displeasing service is double dishonour; and dissembled sanctity double iniquity.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv1–4Rejoice in the Lord; let his excellency discovered in…
Rejoice in the Lord; let his excellency discovered in his works be the matter of your joy and praise.
Praise is comely for the upright; it well becomes them to exercise themselves in this work of praising and blessing of God; partly because they have such singular and abundant obligations and occasions to do so; and partly because they will praise God worthily and heartily, and with due reverence and thankfulness, as God requires, and deserves to be praised; whereas ungodly men do indeed disparage and pollute the holy name of God, while they pretend to praise it, and therefore God rejects their praises and prayers. See Psa 50:16; 119:7; Pro 28:9.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v1Four things the psalmist expresses in these verses:
Four things the psalmist expresses in these verses:
I. The great desire he had that God might be praised. He did not think he did it so well himself, but that he wished others also might be employed in this work; the more the better, in this concert: it is the more like heaven. 1. Holy joy is the heart and soul of praise, and that is here pressed upon all good people (Psa 33:1): Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous; so the foregoing psalm concluded and so this begins; for all our religious exercises should both begin and end with a holy complacency and triumph in God as the best of being and best of friends. 2. Thankful praise is the breath and language of holy joy; and that also is here required of us (Psa 33:2): "Praise the Lord; speak well of him, and give him the glory due to his name." 3. Religious songs are the proper expressions of thankful praise; those are here required (Psa 33:3): "Sing unto him a new song, the best you have, not that which by frequent use is worn, thread-bare, but that which, being new, is most likely to move the affections, a new song for new mercies and upon every new occasion, for those compassions which are new every morning." Music was then used, by the appointment of David, with the temple-songs, that they might be the better sung; and this also is here called for (Psa 33:2): Sing unto him with the psaltery. Here is, (1.) A good rule for this duty: "Do it skilfully, and with a loud noise; let it have the best both of head and heart; let it be done intelligently and with a clear head, affectionately and with a warm heart." (2.) A good reason for this duty: For praise is comely for the upright. It is well pleasing to God (the garments of praise add much to the comeliness which God puts upon his people) and it is an excellent ornament to our profession. It becomes the upright, whom God has put so much honour upon, to give honour to him. The upright praise God in a comely manner, for they praise him with their hearts, that is praising him with their glory; whereas the praises of hypocrites are awkward and uncomely, like a parable in the mouth of fools, Pro 26:7.
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II. The high thoughts he had of God, and of his infinite perfections, Psa 33:4, Psa 33:5. God makes himself known to us, 1. In his word, here put for all divine revelation, all that which God at sundry times and in divers manners spoke to the children of men, and that is all right, there is nothing amiss in it; his commands exactly agree with the rules of equity and the eternal reasons of good and evil. His promises are all wise and good and inviolably sure, and there is no iniquity in his threatenings, but even those are designed for our good, by deterring us from evil. God's word is right, and therefore all our deviations from it are wrong, and we are then in the right when we agree with it. 2. In his works, and those are all done in truth, all according to his counsels, which are called the scriptures of truth, Dan 10:21. The copy in all God's works agrees exactly with the great original, the plan laid in the Eternal Mind, and varies not in the least jot. God has made it to appear in his works, (1.) That he is a God of inflexible justice: He loveth righteousness and judgment. There is nothing but righteousness in the sentence he passes and judgment in the execution of it. He never did nor can do wrong to any of his creatures, but is always ready to give redress to those that are wronged, and does it with delight. He takes pleasure in those that are righteous. He is himself the righteous Lord, and therefore loveth righteousness. (2.) That he is a God of inexhaustible bounty: The earth is full of his goodness, that is, of the proofs and instances of it. The benign influences which the earth receives from above, and the fruits it is thereby enabled to produce, the provision that is made both for man and beast, and the common blessings with which all the nations of the earth are blessed, plainly declare that the earth is full of his goodness - the darkest, the coldest, the hottest, and the most dry and desert part of it not excepted. What a pity is it that this earth, which is so full of God's goodness, should be so empty of his praises, and that of the multitudes that live upon his bounty there are so few that live to his glory!
III. The conviction he was under of the almighty power of God, evidenced in the creation of the world. We "believe in God," and therefore we praise him as "the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth," so we are here taught to praise him. Observe,
1. How God made the world, and brought all things into being. (1.) How easily: All things were made by the word of the Lord and by the breath of his mouth. Christ is the Word, the Spirit is the breath, so that God the Father made the world, as he rules it and redeems it, by his Son and Spirit. He spoke, and he commanded (Psa 33:9), and that was enough; there needed no more. With men saying and doing are two things, but it is not so with God. By the Word and Spirit of God as the world was made, so was man, that little world. God said, Let us make man, and he breathed into him the breath of life. By the Word and Spirit the church is built, that new world, and grace wrought in the soul, that new man, that new creation. What cannot that power do which with a word made a world! (2.) How effectually it was done: And it stood fast. What God does he does to purpose; he does it and it stands fast. Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever, Ecc 3:14. It is by virtue of that command to stand fast that things continue to this day according to God's ordinance, Psa 119:91.
2. What he made. He made all things, but notice is here taken, (1.) of the heavens, and the host of them, Psa 33:6. The visible heavens, and the sun, moon, and stars, their hosts - (2.) Of the waters, and the treasures of them, Psa 33:7. The earth was at first covered with the water, and, being heavier, must of course subside and sink under it; but, to show from the very first that the God of nature is not tied to the ordinary method of nature, and the usual operations of his powers, with a word's speaking he gathered the waters together on a heap, that the dry land might appear, yet left them not to continue on a heap, but laid up the depth in store-houses, not only in the flats where the seas make their beds, and in which they are locked up by the sand on the shore as in storehouses, but in secret subterraneous caverns, where they are hidden from the eyes of all living, but were reserved as in a store-house for that day when those fountains of the great deep were to be broken up; and they are still laid up there in store, for which use the great Master of the house knows best.
3. What use is to be made of this (Psa 33:8): Let all the earth fear the Lord, and stand in awe of him; that is, let all the children of men worship him and give glory to him, Psa 95:5, Psa 95:6. The everlasting gospel gives this as the reason why we must worship God, because he made the heaven, and the earth, and the sea, Rev 14:6, Rev 14:7. Let us all fear him, that is, dread his wrath and displeasure, and be afraid of having him our enemy and of standing it out against him. Let us not dare to offend him who having this power no doubt has all power in his hand. It is dangerous being at war with him who has the host of heaven for his armies and the depths of the sea for his magazines, and therefore it is wisdom to desire conditions of peace, see Jer 5:22.
IV. The satisfaction he had of God's sovereignty and dominion, Psa 33:10, Psa 33:11. He over-rules all the counsels of men, and makes them, contrary to their intention, serviceable to his counsels. Come and see with an eye of faith God in the throne, 1. Frustrating the devices of his enemies: He bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought, so that what they imagine against him and his kingdom proves a vain thing (Psa 2:1); the counsel of Ahithophel is turned into foolishness; Haman's plot is baffled. Though the design be laid ever so deep, and the hopes raised upon it ever so high, yet, if God says it shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass; it is all to no purpose. 2. Fulfilling his own decrees: The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever. It is immutable in itself, for he is in one mind, and who can turn him? The execution of it may be opposed, but cannot in the least be obstructed by any created power. Through all the revolutions of time God never changed his measures, but in every event, even that which to us is most surprising, the eternal counsel of God is fulfilled, nor can any thing prevent its being accomplished in its time. With what pleasure to ourselves may we in singing this give praise to God! How easy may this thought make us at all times, that God governs the world, that he did it in infinite wisdom before we were born, and will do it when we are silent in the dust!
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv1–4Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous,.... See Gill…
Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous,.... See Gill on Psa 32:11;
for praise is comely for the upright; it becomes them; it is their duty; they are bound unto it by the mercies and favours they have received; should they not give praise to God, the stones of the wall would cry out, and rebuke them for their ingratitude: it is beautiful, and looks lovely in them; it is an ornament to them, and is, in the sight of God, of great esteem: it is very acceptable to him, and when grace is in exercise, and their hearts in tune, being sensibly touched and impressed with the goodness of God, it is desirable by them, and is pleasant and delightful to them.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv1–4The Psalmist exhorts the righteous to praise God, for…
The Psalmist exhorts the righteous to praise God, for his truth, justice and goodness, ver. 1-5, For creating the world, ver. 6-9. For his providence in governing it, ver. 10-17. For his peculiar favour to his people, encouraging them to trust in him, ver. 18-22.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv1–4The Lord is praised for his works of creation,…
PSALM XXXIII
The Lord is praised for his works of creation, 1-9;
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and for the stability of his own counsels, 10, 11.
The blessedness of the people who have the knowledge of the
true God, his grace, and providence, 12-15.
The vanity of all earthly dependence, 16, 17.
The happiness of them that fear God, and trust in his mercy,
18-22.
NOTES ON PSALM XXXIII
This Psalm has no title in the Hebrew and it was probably written on no particular occasion, but was intended as a hymn of praise in order to celebrate the power, wisdom, and mercy of God. Creation and providence are its principal subjects; and these lead the psalmist to glance at different parts of the ancient Jewish history. In eight of Kennicott's MSS., this Psalm is written as a part of the preceding.
Verse 1. Rejoice in the Lord] It is very likely that the last verse of the preceding Psalm was formerly the first verse of this. As this Psalm has no title, the verse was the more easily separated. In the preceding Psalm we have an account of the happiness of the justified man: in this, such are taught how to glorify God, and to praise him for the great things he had done for them.
Praise is comely for the upright.] It is right they should give thanks to Him, who is the fountain whence they have received all the good they possess and thankfulness becomes the lips of the upright.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv1, 2, 4Psa 33:1. Rejoice in the Lord — Let his…
Psa 33:1. Rejoice in the Lord — Let his excellence, discovered in his works, be the matter of your praise. Praise is comely for the upright — It well becomes them to be employed in this work of praising God, partly, because they are under great and singular obligations to him, and have abundant occasions to do so; and partly, they will praise him sincerely, affectionately, and with due reverence and thankfulness, as he requires and deserves to be praised; whereas ungodly men do indeed disparage and pollute the holy name of God while they pretend to praise it; and therefore God rejects their praises and prayers.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv1–4Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous - This…
Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous - This is the sentiment with which the preceding psalm closes. See the notes at Psa 32:11.
For praise is comely for the upright - Is befitting, suitable, proper. That is, the upright - the righteous - have abundant cause for praise, and it is for them a suitable employment, or one which becomes them. A man who is upright, or who is a righteous man, has in this very fact much which lays a foundation for praise, for the fact that he has such a character is to be traced to the grace of God, and this in itself is a more valuable possession than gold or kingly crowns would he. That he is not an open violator of the law of God; that he is not intemperate; that he is not the victim of raging lusts and passions; that he is not a dishonest man; that he is not profane; that he is not an infidel or a scoffer; that he is a pious man - a redeemed man - a man of good character - an heir of heaven - is the highest blessing that could be conferred on him; and he who has been saved from outbreaking transgression and crime in a world like this, and has been enabled to live an upright life, has eminently occasion to praise and bless God. Assuredly for such a man praise is an appropriate employment, for such a man it is “comely.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures1864 · Public DomainOn v1Psalms 33
Psalms 33
1 Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous:
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For praise is comely for the upright.
2 Praise the Lord with harp:
Sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.
3 Sing unto him a new song;
Play skilfully with a loud noise.
4 For the word of the Lord is right;
And all his works are done in truth.
5 He loveth righteousness and judgment:
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
6 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made;
And all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
7 He gathereth the waters of the sea together as a heap:
He layeth up the depth in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the Lord:
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him:
9 For he spake, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast.
10 The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought:
He maketh the devices of the people of none effect.
11 The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever,
The thoughts of his heart to all generations.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord;
And the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
13 The Lord looketh from heaven;
He beholdeth all the sons of men.
14 From the place of his habitation he looketh
Upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
15 He fashioneth their hearts alike;
He considereth all their works.
16 There is no king saved by the multitude of a host:
A mighty man is not delivered by much strength.
17 A horse is a vain thing for safety:
Neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.
18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him,
Upon them that hope in his mercy;
19 To deliver their soul from death,
And to keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waiteth for the Lord:
He is our help and our shield.
21 For our heart shall rejoice in him,
Because we have trusted in his holy name.
22 Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us,
According as we hope in thee.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Arrangement of the Contents.—The pious members of the congregation are summoned to give to the Lord the praise due unto Him (Psa_33:1-3). This is based upon a reference to the nature of the word and work of God (Psa_33:4-5), the Almighty Creator and Preserver (Psa_33:6-7), as well as the Ruler of all the world, who is to be feared (Psa_33:8-9) In contrast with the thoughts of men, His eternal and unchangeable decrees are victoriously carried out in history (Psa_33:10-11), therefore the people chosen by Him for His own, are to be called happy (Psa_33:12). The Omniscient King of heaven observes all things (Psa_33:13-15); worldly power is not the cause of victory and of deliverance (Psa_33:16-17), but the eyes of the Lord are directed upon the pious for their deliverance and preservation (Psa_33:18-19); hence waiting and trusting in Him are essentially the work of the members of His congregation, and this expresses itself as well in thankful confession as in joyous hope and confident prayer (Psa_33:20-22). With this closing clause the movement of thought returns to its beginning, which has the closest relation with the closing words of the preceding Psalm. From this may be explained the position of this Psalm in its present order in the book, yet it hardly shows that these two Psalms originally belonged together (Venema), or are a pair of Psalms (Hengst.), although the title which is usually appended in this book is absent here, which is the case only in the first two Psalms and in Psalms 10 [vid. these Psalms for the reasons of this.—C. A. B.]. For Psalms 32 has its source in the personal experience of an Israelite who was previously impenitent, yet was pardoned after having confessed his sins, and it maintains this character of individual testimony even where it passes over from the description of the contrasted conditions and experiences into a summons to all his companions to give personal expression to similar experiences, under similar treatment in similar circumstances, by praising God. The present Psalm, on the other hand, moves throughout in the tone of a hymn determined for the congregation as such, which has its foundation in the happy feeling of security of the people, who know that they are chosen and guided by the Creator and Ruler of the whole world as His own people. With this thorough-going difference of circumstances and character it is unimportant that this Psalm has twice as many verses as the previous Psalm, and that its fundamental thought appears immediately at the end of the first half of the Psalms 5
Str. I. [Psa_33:1. Praise is comely.—Hupfeld: “This means that it is their duty as well as that it redounds to their honor and is an ornament, just as on the contrary, silence is to their shame: because they alone have a peculiar experience of the glorious government of God, and so they alone are fitted for this.”
Psa_33:2. Upon a ten stringed harp play to Him.—For the musical instruments vid. Introduction. The A. V. improperly makes a separate clause for an instrument of ten strings.—C. A. B.]
Psa_33:3. Play well.—This expression (comp. 1Sa_16:17; Isa_23:16) is given a too narrow reference by some interpreters, after the Sept., to the skill, by others, after Symm., to the power of the execution. The new song is one not heard before. Such an one may spring from a fresh impulse of the heart (Stier), since God’s glory is new every morning (Hengst.), without necessarily distinguishing itself by its originality, or taking its material ever, as Psa_40:4 and Rev_5:9, from a new occurrence. Therefore it is a false conclusion to suppose that this expression has been afterwards reduced to an insignificant formula, because it occurs in such Psalms as 95, 98, 149. And the conjecture, that the Psalm might refer to the disappearance of the Scythians, Zep_3:15 (Hitzig), may be connected externally with Psa_33:5; Psa_33:10; Psa_33:16, but cannot be derived from these verses, nor be supported by a comparison of Psa_33:5 with Jer_9:23, or Psa_33:13-14 with Psa_14:2, which comparisons though ingenious are violent. Nor can it be explained by the reference of Psa_33:4 to Psa_32:8, where it is said that Jehovah’s counsel and protection are promised, nor can it be made probable by the remark that is made, that the flood mentioned in Psa_32:6, which passed away without harm for the entire people, might be referred to the same inroad, since Psalms 32 takes consideration of a hostile invasion, and Psa_33:1 is connected without title with Psa_32:11, and the perfect in Psa_30:10 indicates a particular event, probably of the recent past, a mighty deed of the national God. No more is the design of this “new” song to be regarded, with the more ancient interpreters, as for use at a sacrificial feast, especially as תרועהdoes not mean “sound of trumpets” (De Wette), but merely shouting. Comp. Psa_27:6.
Str. II. Psa_33:5. The predicates, “just and upright or honest,” are not to be taken as a later designation of the Israelites in general (Maurer), but as an address to the true members of the congregation (Hengst., Hupf.), yet so, that the national contrast of the people of God with heathen nations is at the same time indicated by this expression which characterizes the destiny of Israel. Comp. Num_23:10.
Str. III. Psa_33:6. Breath of His mouth.—The connection of these two expressions and their relation to the former half of the verse do not permit the direct reference of ancient interpreters to the hypostatic Spirit of God. But the unmistakable reference to the history of creation, is as clearly against the modern limitation of this expression to the meaning of utterance which is synonymous with the wordIsa. Psa_11:4. And so, if the interpretation of ruach as breath is to be retained, we must yet think of the creative Omnipotence and breath of life, Job_27:3; Job_33:4; Psa_104:30 (Hengst.), and the relative expressions are only synonymous “in so far as there is rendered prominent in dabar not only the creative power, but likewise wisdom (Jer_10:12; Pro_3:19), whilst in ruach peh particularly the vitalizing power embraced in the form of the word (the operative breath from God’s own internal nature).” (Stier).
Psa_33:7. He gathereth the waters of the sea together as a heap.—The Hebrew participles in this and the following clause might in themselves be translated by the perfect as well as by the present. The structure of the clause, however, in its relation to the previous verse favors the latter. For since Jehovah is not the subject of the previous verse, a close connection of the participle with it and at the same time a limitation to the fact of the Creation, which happened once for all, are excluded, although even the chosen expressions likewise take their departure in part from this fact. The clause is independent and expresses an abiding and characteristic action of God; similar to Psa_33:5. This is likewise favored by the following expressions. For the comparison of the waters of the sea with a heap of sheaves (Isa_17:11 decides for this meaning) reminds us of the narrative of Exo_15:8, likewise Jos_3:13; Jos_3:16; Psa_78:13, mentioning with the same expression the towering up of the waters by a miracle of Divine Omnipotence in the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea. But here this fact as such is not mentioned, but by the choice of words the idea is called forth of the waters of the high sea, swelling up above jet held firmly together by the Omnipotence of God. There is no reference in the first half of the verse to limitations such as those formed by the banks and the beds of the waters. If with Cleric and Hupf. an additional thought is added under the figure of parietes horrei, whilst it is in other respects a true explanation, it displaces the point of comparison given in the text. In the translation of Ewald, Luther and all ancient interpreters, “as in a bottle,” we must read nôd [נֹאד=נדֹ ] instead of nçd [נֵד], the correct meaning of which was already given by Calvin and Ruding. after the Rabbins. Under the “bottle” was often understood the clouds, and then they thought of the upper or heavenly waters. Hitzig likewise refers this passage to this heavenly ocean (Job_9:8), which according to Job_26:8, by dint of the Omnipotence of God, is borne by the clouds without their being torn, and this although he translates: He restrains as with a dam. For whilst a real dam is placed to the earthly sea, whose character affords reason to wonder at the greatness of God, (Jer_5:22), here a comparison is expressed. At the same time Hitzig lays emphasis upon the close connection which arises from this explanation with Psa_33:6, and upon the circumstance, that elsewhere likewise (Job_38:22; Jer_10:13; Sir_43:14) only the heavenly reservoirs are called treasury, as here in the second half of the verse. And so he refers this half likewise to the heavenly waters. But תְּהוֹם, which, apart from the history of the Creation and the Flood, is only found in poetical pieces, denotes constantly the roaring and unfathomable depth. However, it is not necessary, therefore, with the Rabbins, to think of the waters under the earth, according to Gen_7:11. The reference in both halves of the verse is to floods of the sea, which in their apparent irregularity are subjected by God’s power to His will (Jer_5:22), and are held together and stored up for the purposes of the Divine household.
Str. IV. 9. For He said and it was.—[The He is emphatic in this and the following clause]. This verse refers back to the omnipotence of God shown in the Creation (most interpreters, with the ancient translations), as a motive for all men to fear such a God as this. To take it as present (Luther, De Wette, Delitzsch) confounds application with interpretation. The supposition that this verse refers to the same fact, which is more clearly given in Psa_33:10 (Hitzig), and relates to an event which only recently occurred (Venema), arises from the presumption which has not been proved, that a special historical occurrence like this was the occasion of this song. In connection with this interpretation, Hitzig understands by the hunger mentioned in Psa_33:19, real hunger, which took place after that the people of the country had been pressed together into the strong cities (Jer_8:14; Jer_4:5). This expression, however, may be more easily taken as a designation of great need and peril of death in general, as Psa_34:10 sq.; Psa_37:19; Job_5:20, and often in the Prophets.
[Str. V. Psa_33:10-11. Perowne: “After speaking of God’s power in Creation, the Psalmist goes on to speak of His Providence as ordering the world. There is a manifest antithesis between ‘the counsels and the thoughts’ of men which Jehovah brings to naught, and ‘the counsels and thoughts’ of Jehovah which abide forever.”
Psa_33:12. Alexander: “This is the centre of the whole Psalm, the conclusion from what goes before, and the text or theme of all that follows. Under the general proposition is included a particular felicitation of Israel as the actual choice and heritage of God, i.e., chosen to be His, in a peculiar sense, by hereditary succession, through a course of ages.”—C. A. B.]
Str. VI. [Psa_33:13-14. From His Providence the Psalmist passes over to His Omniscience. Comp. Psa_11:4; Psa_14:2.—C. A. B.]
Psa_33:15. Former of their hearts all at once.—The reference here is not to governing the heart (Luther) as in Pro_21:1; Jer_10:23. By emphasizing the participle (Hengst., Delitz.) there is gained the idea of a continued and essential activity of God; but the word itself and the context lead not to a Divine influence with respect to forming the thoughts of the heart, but only to the creative formation of the heart. The overlooking and judicial activity of God described in Psa_33:13-14, God exercises in the twofold capacity stated in Psa_33:15. If יחד stood at the beginning of the verse as Psa_49:3; Psa_49:11, it would have to be referred with Hupfeld to both clauses in the signification of pariter ac. Its present position, however, is in favor of the usual meaning: all at once, altogether. The Vulgate renders this idea of being without exception, by singillatim after the Sept. κατὰ μόνας, whilst the plural καρδίας is put instead of the singular.
Str. VII. Psa_33:16. The king is not helped.—The article before melech makes the translation “no king” (De Wette [A. V.]) inadmissible. The particle of negation is to be referred to the participle with strong emphasis. Comp. Ewald, § 321, a.
[Psa_33:17. The horse is a delusion for help.—Alexander: “The horse meant is the war-horse, and is singled out as one of the elements of military strength in which the ancients were especially disposed to trust. Vid.Psa_20:7; Isa_31:1-3. A lie, a falsehood, i.e., something which deceives and disappoints the confidence reposed in it.”—C. A. B.]
[Str. VIII. Psa_33:18-19. Alexander: “While the material strength of other men fails to secure them, those who fear the Lord and hope in His mercy are secure beneath His vigilant inspection.”—C. A. B.]
Str. IX. Psa_33:20-22. In the first half of the verse Hengstenberg finds an allusion to Gen_49:18, in the second half to Deu_33:26; Deu_33:29. [For an explanation of help, and shield, vid.Psa_5:12; Psa_10:14; Psa_22:11; Psa_30:10. Perowne: “This attitude of hope and trust is the attitude of the Church in all ages, for she is not yet made perfect; but the Jewish Church was in a special sense the Church of the future, and therefore also in a special manner a waiting and hoping Church. The whole history of Israel may indeed be summed up in Jacob’s dying words: ‘I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord.’ ”—C. A. B.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The solemn and thankful praise of God in the congregation corresponds on the one side with the will of God, who by His prophet has demanded it, on the other side is appropriate to the upright, who by virtue of their position in the congregation and to God, in the fulfilment of this duty of the appropriate recognition of God, are able to give suitable expression to it. Their jubilation has not only as its subject the glory of God, but exhibits itself likewise as a joy in the Lord, which does not despise the use of art, yet employs it for the honor of God, encourages those like-minded to praise God by personal, joyous confession, and is impelled and enabled to make known in new songs and new ways the renewed feelings of the heart. “To the unrighteous the glory of God is not the subject of joy and of praise, but of terror and aversion.—It is a sad sign of the decline of the Church when the demand to sing Him a new song is no longer executed. The more careful then must it be to preserve its old songs” (Hengst.) Comp. Psa_50:16.
2. The inexhaustible reason for breaking forth in new songs of praise, and the fresh sounding forth of the old songs of faith in the congregation, is the recognition of the glory of God, as it is manifest to the congregation in the word and providence of the Lord. Both mutually confirm one another, and declare God as the one who is worthy of praise, and who is alone reliable as well on account of His moral perfection as with respect to His Omnipotence, which are testified to in the creation and government of the world, whilst they realize in both the unchangeable thoughts and counsels of the righteousness and love of God, which are made known to His chosen people in the words of revelation.
3. All men have therefore good reason to fear a God like this, but to esteem His chosen people as blessed, that they have such a Lord for their God. They have every reason to trust Him, in the greatest dangers to hope in His assistance, and to expect deliverance from Him out of the greatest troubles. For no creature can successfully resist the Creator, nothing can escape the service of the Almighty, no works, yea no thought of the heart can be concealed from the eye of the Omniscient. And when men attempt it and not only singly, but in great masses follow their own end, turning away from God, they are obliged to experience that God’s decrees and order stand fast forever and not only maintain themselves against all opposition and resistance, but are carried out in the world to the honor of God, and the good of His people, whilst the thoughts, counsels and works of the adversaries are observed, judged and brought to nought by God.
4. Since this is so, it is becoming for the pious, not only to praise God, but no more to fear the power of the adversary than rely upon earthly means of help, but much rather in true fear of God to resort to the Lord, and in living faith hope in His grace. But the hope of those who fear God and trust in Him will not be put to shame, for it is not based on human presumptions, suppositions and wishes, but on the holy name, in which the true God has revealed His holy nature, and in which grace and faith meet one another. Those who hide themselves in God, will rejoice in God, yet in all their rejoicings in God will not forget to pray as penitent sinners for new tokens of grace from the faithful God of the covenant, and thereby as true members of the congregation, show how God ceases not to show Himself to them even to the end, the same as He has declared Himself from the beginning, as ever the same reliable God. “The wickedness of men may have in itself the desire to injure, but it has not the power; there is no power except from God” (Augustine).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
To praise God is for the pious a duty as well as an honor and joy.—A new heart is necessary for new songs.—How art is sanctified, when it is used to praise God and edify the congregation.—The happiness of the people whose God is the Lord: 1) in what it consists; 2) how it is expressed; 3) how it may be preserved.—The great joy of the pious in God’s works and government is magnified by their joy in God’s word and holy name, and is fulfilled in a joy in God Himself by a life in His grace.—What God preserves in His treasury He bestows in blessings or in curses, in accordance with His will and the conduct of men.—Human thoughts and Divine decrees.—On what the confidence is based that God will help His people out of all their troubles and can help them!—The pious can rely upon God’s holy word with the same confidence, as upon God’s holy Providence.—The reliable, comforting and blessed meeting of the Divine grace and human faith.—How we may accomplish that our life as well as our song may begin and close with joy in God.—God is not only the almighty Creator and the kind Preserver of the world, He is likewise the watchful Guardian of the ordinances and laws instituted by Himself, the Omniscient and just Judge of all men, the only reliable Protector and Helper of His people.—.The consideration of the word and works of God should encourage us to fear, love and trust in God respecting all things.—God has made known to us His holy name in order that we may call upon Him in all our troubles, pray to Him, praise and thank Him.
Starke: If the work which is done is to please God, the person must first of all please Him and be justified by faith.—If we properly understood our great benefits and heavenly treasures we would rejoice more over them than over all the honor and glory of this world.—The ungodly cannot praise God, for they have no taste of the goodness of God; their praise pleases God as little as their prayers.—All the works of God show, that He is honest, faithful and true.—In all the commands, threatenings and promises of God look alone to the Divine authority of the Ruler, this will strongly impel you to the obedience of childlike respect and trust.—If God has created the wonderful structure of the heavens with all its hosts and has thus far upheld it, how shall He not be able to sustain thee, who art only one creature and a little piece of earth? It is an especial grace of God, that He brings to nought the blood-thirsty devices of the enemy, the church would otherwise long since have perished.—All that thou dost, take counsel at first with God, for if this is neglected it is an easy thing for Him to bring to nought all thy plans.—Wilt thou have the gracious eye of God directed upon thee, then direct thine eye constantly to Him in faith, love and obedience.—If we do not persevere in patience and constancy, we forfeit true Divine help, and do not obtain what we otherwise would.
Osiander: We should use temporal good so that it may be our greatest joy that God is graciously disposed toward us.—Menzel: God not only does righteousness, but He loves it and demands it likewise of others.—Renschel: If it is true that God can and does do so much, it is likewise fair 1) that we should wait on Him, 2) that we should make Him our shield, 3) that we should rejoice in Him.—Frisch: If a joyous praise and service of God is lacking to a man, he lacks likewise a true knowledge of what he has in God.—Arndt: The great sea is surrounded by the commandments of God; how should He not then bridle men on earth, and put a bit in their mouths?—Francke: Where a new song like this is sung, there must likewise be a new tongue; but a new heart is presupposed.—Nitzsch: The glorifying of God our Saviour by the new songs, which He has awakened from the earliest times in His congregation. These songs glorify Him, 1) by virtue of their origin, since they come only from a newly created heart which is full of salvation; 2) by means of their meaning and contents as the signs of the highest satisfaction, which it is possible for men to attain here below, 3) by means of their long and deep effect upon the present and future; 4) as the living alliance of the saints with the lovely and beautiful.—Umbreit: The same God, to the ordinance of whose words the physical world must submit, rules forever in the kingdom of spirits.—All true power comes from God, and is crowned with victory by Him.—Tholuck: The throne of God is not an idle seat of care, but the judgment seat of a king, from which with lofty glance the fates of the world are ruled.—All victories on earth are gained only by the power of God.—Taube: An appeal to all true Israelites to praise the glory of the Lord, who is the terror of His enemies, but the consolation of His people.—Make no parade with the creature, but be not afraid of the creature, for it is in the hand of God.—Schaubach. Fear and hope are seldom found together in men; but he who would hope in the goodness of God, must likewise fear His holy name.
[Matth. Henry: What pity is it that this earth, which is so full of God’s goodness, should be so empty of His praises; and that, of the multitudes that live upon His bounty, there are so few that live to His glory.—How easy may this thought make us at all times, that God governs the world, that He did it in infinite wisdom before we were born, and will do it when we are silent in the dust!—They that fear God and His wrath must hope in God and His mercy; for there is no flying from God but by flying to Him.—Barnes: God is a great and glorious Sovereign over all, and He will make everything subordinate to the promotion of His own great designs.—True piety leads men to wait on the Lord; to depend on Him; to look to His interposition, in danger, sickness, poverty, want: to rely on. Him for all that is hoped for in this life, and for salvation in the life to come.—Spurgeon: To rejoice in temporal comforts is dangerous, to rejoice in self is foolish, to rejoice in sin is fatal, but to rejoice in God is heavenly.—Heartiness should be conspicuous in Divine worship.—God writes with a pen that never blots, speaks with a tongue that never slips, acts with a hand which never fails. Bless His name.—If earth be full of mercy, what must heaven be, where goodness concentrates its beams?—Happy is the man who has learned to lean his all upon the sure word of Him who built the skies.—The cause of God is never in danger; infernal craft is outwitted by infinite wisdom, and Satanic malice is held in check by boundless power.—All Adam’s sons are as well watched as was Adam himself, their lone progenitor in the garden.—The eye of peculiar care is their glory and defence. None can take them unawares, for the celestial Watcher foresees the designs of their enemies and provides against them.—Believer, wait upon thy God in temporals. His eye is upon thee, and His hand will not long delay.—The root of faith in due time bears the flower of rejoicing. Doubts breed sorrow, confidence creates joy.—C. A. B.]
Footnotes:
[5][However different these two Psalms may be in some respects, yet the close resemblance and the frequently recurring references in expressions and in sentiment to the previous Psalm, favor the idea that the two Psalms were originally one, but were afterwards separated for use in the congregation. The first verse of this Psalm takes up directly the sentiment and words of the closing verse of the previous Psalm. The references in Str. II. to the justice and goodness of God fully accord with these sentiments. The reference to the Divine power in the creation and government of the world is natural in this connection, where the penitent is rejoicing in the forgiveness of sins, especially as the two ideas are brought together in an inverse order in Psalms 19. It is not unimportant that Psa_33:12 ascribes the same blessedness to the nation and people as was ascribed to the individual at the beginning of Psalms 32. The terms and sentiments of Psa_33:16 sq. are in accordance with Psa_32:8-9. And the final expressions of hope and trust in Jehovah’s holiness and mercy form a proper conclusion to the sentiments of both Psalms.—C. A. B.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv3–4a new song--fresh, adapted to the occasion (Psa 40:3;…
a new song--fresh, adapted to the occasion (Psa 40:3; Psa 96:1).
play skilfully--(Compare Sa1 16:17).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv1, 2, 41. Praise is comely—It is suitable, fit, pleasant. A…
1. Praise is comely—It is suitable, fit, pleasant. A call upon the righteous for loud rejoicing.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv1–41. Rejoice] Shout for joy: the same verb as…
1. Rejoice] Shout for joy: the same verb as in Psa_32:11 b, though in a different form. As in that verse, the righteous and the upright, the true Israelites, are addressed. Praise is their duty and their honour: in their mouths alone is it seemly.
for praise &c.] Omit for. Cp. Psa_147:1 b.
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1–3. Introductory call to praise.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv1–4(1) Rejoice.—A common hymnic word, meaning properly to “shout,”…
(1) Rejoice.—A common hymnic word, meaning properly to “shout,” or “sing for joy.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv1–4THIS psalm has no title in the Hebrew, and…
THIS psalm has no title in the Hebrew, and in some manuscripts it is joined on to the preceding psalm, and forms one with it. But the difference of subject-matter and of tone render it highly improbable that that arrangement is the correct one. The two psalms are best regarded as wholly separate compositions, though the writer of the present one took for his key-note the last verse of Ps 32. The Septuagint makes David the author, but with no support from the Hebrew. An author in the reign of Asa or Jehoshaphat, and again one in the reign of Josiah, has been suggested, but the psalm itself scarcely gives a hint towards fixing the date.
As a simple psalm of praise and thanksgiving, intended for the service of the temple, it is well worthy of admiration, being "singularly bright, and replete with beautiful imagery" ("Speaker"s Commentary"). Metrically, it consists of six strophes, the first and last containing three verses each, and the intermediate ones each four verses.
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Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous. (see the first clause of Psa_32:11, of which this is almost a repetition; and comp. also Psa_68:3 Psa_97:12) For praise is comely for the upright. The Prayer-book Version gives the meaning, less literally, but in more idiomatic English, "For it becometh well the just to be thankful.
Vers. 1-3. Spiritual worship.
"Rejoice," etc. Worship is worthless if it be not spiritual. "God is a Spirit," etc. (Joh_4:24) But worship simply spiritual, with no outward expression, no material symbol, would not suffice man"s nature. Man is not spirit only; he is also flesh. His eye, ear, voice, nerves, brain, are as much God"s work as his spirit. The worship he owes to God is that of his whole nature body, soul, and spirit. Spiritual life cannot live on public worship only. There are chambers in the temple of the soul which are secret from every eye but God"s. "Thou, when thou prayest," etc. (Mat_6:6) But if public worship alone will not satisfy our religious need, neither will secret worship. Man"s nature is social. Even in sorrow, though we may shrink from company, we like sympathy to follow us into our solitude. But joy naturally seeks partners, longs to express itself, is sociable, outspoken, and sympathetic. Hence public worship is not an artificial contrivance, such as warm, vigorous piety can afford to dispense with or despise; it is the natural and fitting outcome of spiritual life, and one of the most powerful means for its nourishment. It is indispensable, and the full, complete exercise of Christian fellowship. Let us speak of the reasons and motives which make praise alike a duty and a privilege.
I THE GOODNESS AND FAITHFULNESS OF GOD. (Vers. 4, 5) Characteristic of Bible to place moral attributes in the foreground, as chief reason for "rejoicing in the Lord. " A poet would have put first (what here comes second) the splendour and variety of God"s works. A philosopher, the infinity, eternity, absolute existence of God. Scripture puts that first which at once concerns us most, and is God"s highest glory his character.
II GLORY OF GOD IN CREATION. His all-wise design and all-powerful will both included in "the word of the Lord" (vers. 6-9).
III GOD"S ALL-EMBRACING PROVIDENCE. Controlling all human affairs; baffling and making void, when he sees fit, all human counsels; creating, reading, ruling the minds of men (vers. 10-15).
IV GOD"S SPECIAL CARE AND MERCY TOWARDS HIS PEOPLE. Those who love and trust him (vers. 16-22). This is contrasted with the vanity of earthly power (vers. 16, 17). Yet, in this boundless prospect, the highest, deepest, strongest reason for praise is not included. To the Old Testament saints the veil still hung before the holy of holies. The Holy Spirit gave them the hope and promise of things as yet hid in mystery. (Mat_13:16, 17 Eph_3:5 1Jn_4:10) This is the main theme of the worship of heaven. (Rev_5:9, Rev_5:12)
Only as we have received Christ into our hearts can we "rejoice in the Lord" as our God and Father. Only thus is our worship a preparation for heaven.
Vers. 1-3. Methods of worship.
The forms of temple-worship to which this psalm refers were unsuited to the Christian Church, because the gospel leaves no room for a central holy place on earth. The heavenly sanctuary is open to faith, and the whole world has become like the court of God"s temple. (Heb_9:8, 24 Joh_4:21, Joh_4:23) But as our reasons for praising God are not less, but infinitely more, than the Old Testament saints knew, so Christian worship should not fall below, but rise above theirs. Here are three characters which it should possess:
(1) outward as well as spiritual;
(2) hearty and joyful;
(3) collective and public.
I OUTWARD AS WELL AS SPIRITUAL. All strong emotion seeks and prompts utterance. For grief, because it is often solitary and speechless, God has provided the silent language of tears (sometimes, too, for joy, when too big for words). But the impulse of joy is to shout and sing. Examples: A troop of children when school is over; victors in a race or game; multitude welcoming a sovereign. From the beginning of the gospel, vocal praise, the worship of song, has had a place of honour in the Christian Church. (Eph_5:19 Col_3:16 Act_16:25) What would heaven be without it? (Rev_14:2 Rev_15:3) God might have given language without song; voice and hearing without music. Man alone of living creatures can produce music (for the song of birds is not music. That some birds can be taught tunes proves that they can perceive music, but they have no power to produce it). It is one of God"s choicest gifts, and its highest use is in his praise.
II HEARTY AND JOYFUL, "With a loud noise." The word here used is elsewhere translated shout". (Num_23:21) Also used for the sound of the trumpet. (comp. Psa_98:4-6) Does the value of our praise, then, depend on its noisings? Is God pleased, or man made devout, by noise and shouting? Certainly not. What these passages teach is heartiness in praise. We should throw our soul as well as our voice into it. Drawling languor, indolent affectation, mumbling negligence, should be utterly banished. To be silent, except from infirmity (as lack of ear or voice), in God"s praise, should be held a disgrace. If "do it heartily" (Col_3:23) applies to any duty, surely to this.
III COLLECTIVE AND PUBLIC. When the Apostles Peter and John returned "to their own company," after their noble testimony before the Sanhedrin, we read that "they lifted up their voice to God with one accord". (Act_4:24) Not "their voices," but "their voice," which must mean either that one spoke for the rest, or that they joined in holy song; for in music many voices become one. Accordingly, what follows may well be regarded as a psalm of praise and prayer, in which one prophet led and the rest joined in chorus. It is a very significant fact, that neither in the Jewish temple nor in ancient heathen temples was there harmony in our sense of the word. The full, rich blending of the four kinds of voice, each in its part, is an art for which the world may thank the Church.
The duty and privilege of praise is one chief lesson of the whole Book of Psalms. It draws to a close, as if with the unrisen sunlight of the new covenant shining on it, with exhortations to universal praise. (Psa_148:12 Psa_150:6) This part of public worship, therefore praise as one of the noblest duties and highest privileges of Christians, is the concern of the whole Church; not to be left to a handful of choristers or a specially excellent voice here and there. Preparation intelligently and harmoniously to join in psalmody should be part of Christian education. Hearty, skilful, joyful, sympathetic psalmody is no mean part of our education for heaven.
HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE Vers. 1-22. Joy in God.
In this section of the Commentary we aim at discovering the unity of the psalm, and of dealing with it accordingly, reserving the treatment of specific verses as separate texts, for another department. This psalm has neither title nor author"s name appended thereto. It is manifestly an outburst of glad and gladdening song from some Old Testament believer, and is a glorious anticipation of Php_4:4. It is refreshing to the spirit to find that in the olden times there were pious and holy souls, receptive of the revelation which God had even then given of himself, and who could gather up their thoughts in grateful calm as they mused on the perfections of their ever-reigning Lord. In this psalm there are no historic considerations presented, nor is there any individual experience suggested at which we have to look in studying this amazing illustration of joy in God. It is the "itself by itself the pure thing, the uplifting of a soul from the cloudland of earth to the sunland of heaven. Here is
I AN ENRAPTURING VIEW OF THE GLORY OF OUR REVEALED GOD. We use this word "revealed," as indicated By this psalm, advisedly on two grounds. For
(1) the name "Jehovah" (ver. 1) is the name by which God revealed himself to Israel. (Exo_6:3) The name "I am that I am" at once removes the God of the Hebrews far above all anthropomorphism. Then
(2) in ver. 4 we are told, "The Word of the Lord is right;" so that, as the word is the expression of thought, and as expressed thought indicates will, it is here declared that God had made known his will. (see Psa_103:7 Heb_1:1) How far God"s early disclosures of himself went, our Lord Jesus Christ tells us. (Mat_22:31, Mat_22:32) And it is by the light from words of God that we read his natural works. Having, then, God revealed by name and by word, what are the contents of that revelation which are here pointed out?
1. Right. (Ver. 4) The Word of God, as given under the Old Testament, was preeminently right. As being such, the whole of the hundred and nineteenth psalm extols it. And now no nobler ethical code does the world possess than that given to Moses and the prophets, and confirmed by Christ.
2. Truth. (Ver. 4) I.e. faithfulness. As righteousness marks the Word, so fidelity to the Word marks the works of God.
3. Goodness. (ver. 5) I.e. loving-kindness. The earth is full of it. The sound eye rejoices in the sunshine; and the pure heart reads the goodness of God everywhere.
4. Power. (Vers. 6, 7, 9) We cannot rejoice in bare power; but when infinite power is in alliance with perfect goodness and with loving-kindness, then we can.
5. Wisdom. (Ver. 10) There is not only a power that sways matter, but a wisdom which controls mind, so that among the nations there can never be any plotting which can frustrate or intercept his plans.
6. Omniscience. (Vers. 14, 15) He espies from afar the hidden thought of every soul. (Pro_15:3 Ps 139) He knows men"s hearts, as having created them (ver. 15) "alike," i.e. altogether, in one. There are variations in mind, but yet all minds act responsively to some necessary laws of thought inlaid in their original structure.
7. Steadfast counsels. (Ver. 11) This is true of the plans of providence; but it is most gloriously true of the hidden mysteries and triumphs of his grace. (1Co_2:7 Eph_3:9 Act_15:18)
8. All his counsels are in alliance with a holiness which warrants and invites confidence. (Ver. 21) He cannot do wrong; he cannot be unfaithful or unkind. (Psa_92:15)
9. On some he looks with special favour and love. (Vers. 18, 19; see Psa_18:25, Psa_18:26) Those who trust God most fully and follow him most faithfully will find that their lot is as beautifully ordered for them as if God had no one else to occupy his care. They will be guarded in peril, supplied in need, and comforted in sorrow; the loving glances of a gracious eye and the cheering words from a loving heart will give to such many a song in the night. Let all these nine features of God"s glory be put together and looked at in blended sweetness, and see if they will not raise to an ecstasy of delight.
II THE JOY WHICH UPRIGHT SOULS HAVE IN SUCH A GOD IS UNBOUNDED. Yes.
1. The joy has uprightness for its condition. Upright souls! Only such. But this does not mean absolutely perfect men, but men who mourn over the wrong, who have confessed it before God, who have received his pardoning mercy, and who loyally conform their lives to God"s holy will and Word, who would not knowingly harbour any sin or aught that would grieve their God men who have gone, in fact, through the experiences of Psalm 32 (of which, indeed, this may possibly be a continuation).
2. This joy has grace for its resting-place. (Vers. 18, 22) "Mercy." The joy would have no ground stable enough if it were settled on any other basis than God himself, nor unless that basis were "mercy." "O God, be merciful to me I" is the cry which goes up from the penitent"s lips more and more pleadingly as he moves forward in the pardoned life.
3. This joy has all that God is, has, and does for its contents. So the whole psalm teaches us; for the pardoning mercy of God has brought us so near to him that we know there is for us such an outpouring of love Divine as makes us infinitely rich for time and eternity.
4. This joy has boundless hope for its outlook. (Ver. 22) As Bishop Perowne well remarks, "hope" indicates the perpetual attitude of a trusting and waiting Church. Believers know that God will do exceeding abundantly for them above all they can ask or think. As the rich disclosures of God under the prophets have advanced to their unveiling in the unsearchable riches of Christ, so will the wonders of Christ in grace move forward to those of Christ in his glory. We yet seek a Fatherland. "God is not ashamed to be called our God, for he bath prepared for us a city.
5. This joy has prayer for its upward expression. (Ver. 22, "Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us," etc.) Not that this is its only form of expression (for see below), but it is a joy which must and will find outlet in prayer for the constant supply of that mercy which feeds and sustains it.
III THE JOY IS SUCH THAT IT MAY WELL RIPEN INTO A HOLY FELLOWSHIP OF MUSIC AND SONG. Here in vers. 1-3 the psalmist calls on all upright souls to join him in sounding forth the praises of the Lord.
1. God having taken off all our burdens of guilt and care, the tongue is set free for praise.
2. A common joy in God may wall suggest a grand concert of song.
Fellowship in trouble is soothing; fellowship in peril is uniting; fellowship in need touches common sympathy; fellowship in gladness creates a grand inspiration and a mighty burst of praise.
3. In giving vent to our joy musical instruments may be skilfully" made subservient thereto. (Ver. 3) To plead against this verse that we live in another dispensation, is not in place; for musical instruments in the hands of sanctified men are the servants of the Spirit, and we do but utilize God"s own world of harmony when we press them into the service of celebrating redeeming love.
4. The right use and ample enjoyment in hallowed mirth, as we celebrate the praises of the Lord, may be made a holy and blessed means of grace. It is of no mean importance to recruit the bodily powers for God by means of the enjoyment of sacred music and song. And if, indeed, Christian people of musical tastes would seek to sanctify their special powers for God and his Church, many an abuse of their talents might be prevented, and many a holy outlet for their use secured. Well might Frances R. Havergal write"Take my voice, and let me sing Always, only, for my King.
5. The largest scope for the noblest music is opened up by the wonders of redeeming love. Poetry, painting, sculpture, music, all are grandest when inspired by the Cross. C.
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH Vers. 1-22. This is a hymn of praise to God.
as at once the Almighty Creator and Ruler of the world, and the Protector of his chosen people. Ver. 12 may he regarded as the pivot on which the whole psalm turns. What was true ideally, and in part of Israel, is true in fact and perfectly of God"s people. "Blessed
I BECAUSE THE LORD IS THEIR GOD. The prophets delight to mark the contrast between the gods of the heathen and Jehovah. (Deu_32:31 Psa_86:8 Isa_40:18-25) The vital difference between the false and the true was brought out powerfully in Egypt, (Exo_8:10) and with still more intense and dramatic effect on Mount Carmel in the day of Elijah. (1Ki_18:24) No doubt some of the heathen attained to high views of duty, but amongst the people it was otherwise. As has been said, their gods were like themselves"Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust, Whose attributes were rage, revenge, and lust.
But our God is the living and true God. His character commands our highest admiration (vers. 1-3). His Word and his works call forth our most devoted homage and praise (vers. 4-11). Idolaters and all with idol-loving hearts may be constrained to say, in the day of their trouble, "They have taken away my gods, and what have I more?". (Jud_1:18:24) But no power can take away our God. He says to us, "I will never leave thee." And we cry to him with exulting faith, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee". (Psa_73:23-28) To Israel God appealed as the God of Abraham, and claimed their obedience as the Lord their God, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; (Exo_3:6 Exo_20:1) but he stands in a nearer relationship, and has higher claims upon us, as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph_1:3, 7 1Pe_1:3, 1Pe_1:7)
II BECAUSE UNDER GOD"S GOVERNMENT THEY ARE BEING FORMED TO THE CHARACTER OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. Righteousness is the great want of the world. Get people made righteous right in their being and their life, and there would be an end to the great evils that afflict society. Righteousness is the craving of all consciences and the hope of all troubled hearts. God"s great aim is to make his people righteous. For this end he has given his Law; for this he sent his Son into the world; for this, as the potter with the clay, he is continually working in his gracious providence, "fashioning" the hearts of men. Well, therefore, has Paul said, "We are his workmanship". (Eph_2:10) God is blessed because he is righteous; and he would have his people made happy after the same fashion. (Isa_32:17) "Righteousness exalteth a nation"; (Pro_14:34) and this holds true also of individuals. "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled". (Mat_5:6)
III BECAUSE THEY HAVE A GREAT FUTURE BEFORE THEM. Nations have their decline and fall. Even Israel, because unfaithful, have been scattered; (Deu_29:24-28) but the true Israel shall be under the eye and the keeping of the Lord for ever. They are his own inheritance. (cf. Eph_1:18) Therefore they are encouraged to "hope," to "wait," to "trust." Their golden age is not in the past, but in the future. What Jacob said on his death-bed may be said with joy by all his true children, "I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord!" (Gen_49:18; cf. Luk_2:28-32 1Pe_1:10-13) W.F.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Vers. 1-11. A call to praise God.
The psalm is anonymous, and was composed apparently to celebrate some deliverance of the nation from heathen oppression, resulting from God"s interposition and without war. Vers. 1-3 are a summons to praise God, the song to be accompanied with instrumental music. God is to be praised
I AS THE GOD OF REVELATION. (Vers. 4, 5)
1. His Word is upright, always fulfilling itself.
2. All his conduct is faithful and righteous.
3. All his manifestations of himself are full of loving-kindness.
II AS THE CREATOR OF THE WORLD. (Vers. 6-9)
1. His Word the breath of his mouth was sufficient for the creation of the heavens.
2. He gathered together the waters of the sea.
3. Such manifestations of his power ought to fill us with reverence and awe. Study God"s works as well as his Word. In the nineteenth verse we have the thought of the sixth verse repeated.
III As THE IRRESISTIBLE RULER IN THE HISTORY OF MEN. (Vers. 10, 11) Contrast here between what God does with the thoughts and counsels of men bringing them to nought and what he does with his own making them to stand fast to all generations. The counsels which he brings to nought are evil counsels; he prospers and establishes the counsels of the righteous, and fulfils his own plans and purposes. S
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon1885 · Public DomainOn vv1–4Title. This song of praise bears no title or…
Title. This song of praise bears no title or indication of authorship; to teach us, says Dickson, "to look upon Holy Scripture as altogether inspired of God, and not put price upon it for the writers thereof."
Subject and Division. The praise of Jehovah is the subject of this sacred song. The righteous are exhorted to praise him, Ps 33:1-3; because of the excellency of his character, Ps 33:4-5; and his majesty in creation, Ps 33:6-7. Men are bidden to fear before Jehovah because his purposes are accomplished in providence, Ps 33:8-11. His people are proclaimed blessed, Ps 33:12. The omniscience and omnipotence of God, and his care for his people are celebrated, in opposition to the weakness of an arm of flesh, Ps 33:13-19; and the Psalm concludes with a fervent expression of confidence, Ps 33:20-21, and an earnest prayer, Ps 33:22.
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Ver. 1. Rejoice in the Lord. Joy is the soul of praise. To delight ourselves in God is most truly to extol him, even if we let no notes of song proceed from our lips. That God is, and that he is such a God, and our God, ours for ever and ever, should wake within us an unceasing and overflowing joy. To rejoice in temporal comforts is dangerous, to rejoice in self is foolish, to rejoice in sin is fatal, but to rejoice in God is heavenly. He who would have a double heaven must begin below to rejoice like those above. O ye righteous. This is peculiarly your duty, your obligations are greater, and your spiritual nature more adapted to the work, be ye then first in the glad service. Even the righteous are not always glad, and have need to be stirred up to enjoy their privileges. For praise is comely for the upright. God has an eye to things which are becoming. When saints wear their choral robes, they look fair in the Lord's sight. A harp suits a blood washed hand. No jewel more ornamental to a holy face than sacred praise. Praise is not comely from unpardoned professional singers; it is like a jewel of gold in a swine's snout. Crooked hearts make crooked music, but the upright are the Lord's delight. Praise is the dress of saints in heaven, it is meet that they should fit it on below.
Whole Psalm. A thanksgiving of the church triumphant in the latter ages, for her final deliverance, by the overthrow of Antichrist and his armies. Samuel Horsley.
Whole Psalm. Let us follow the holy man a moment in his meditation. His Psalm is not composed in scholastic form, in which the author confines himself to fixed rules; and, scrupulously following a philosophic method, lays down principals, and infers consequences. However, he establishes principles, the most proper to give us sublime ideas of the Creator; and he speaks with more precision of the works and attributes of God than the greatest philosophers have spoken of them.
How absurdly have the philosophers treated of the origin of the world! How few of them have reasoned conclusively on this important subject! Our prophet solves the important question by one single principle; and, what is more remarkable, this principle, which is nobly expressed, carries the clearest evidence with it. The principle is this: "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth, "Ps 33:6. This is the most rational account that was ever given of the creation of the world. The world is the work of a self efficient will, and it is this principle alone that can account for its creation. The most simple appearances in nature are sufficient to lead us to this principle. Either my will is self efficient, or there is some other being whose will is self efficient. What I say of myself, I say of my parents; and what I affirm of my parents, I affirm of my more remote ancestors, and of all the finite creatures from whom they derive their existence. Most certainly either finite beings have a self efficient will, which it is impossible to suppose, for a finite creature with a self efficient will is a contradiction: either, I say, a finite creature has a self efficient will, or there is a First Cause who has a self efficient will; and that there is such a Being is the principle of the psalmist; "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth."
If philosophers have reasoned inconclusively on the origin of the world, they have spoken of its government with equal uncertainty. The psalmist determines this question with a great facility, by a single principle, which results from the former, and which, like the former, carries its evidence with it. "The Lord looketh from heaven; he considereth all the works of all the inhabitants of the earth, " Ps 33:13-14. This is the doctrine of providence. And on what is the doctrine of providence founded? On this principle: God "fashioneth their hearts alike, "Ps 33:15. Attend a moment to the evidence of this reasoning, my brethren. The doctrine of providence expressed in these words, "God considereth the works of the inhabitants of the earth, "is a necessary consequence of his principle, "God fashioneth their hearts alike; "and this principle is a necessary consequence of that which the psalmist had before laid down to account for the origin of the world. Yes, from that doctrine of God the Creator of men, follows that of God the inspector, the director, rewarder, and the punisher of their actions. One of the most specious objections that has ever been opposed to the doctrine of providence, is a contrast between the grandeur of God and the meanness of men. How can such an insignificant creature as man be the object of the care and attention of such a magnificent being as God? No objection can be more specious, or, in appearance, more invincible. The distance between the meanest insect and the mightiest monarch, who treads and crushes reptiles to death without the least regard to them, is a very imperfect image of the distance between God and man. That which proves that it would be beneath the dignity of a monarch to observe the motions of ants, or worms, to interest himself in their actions, to punish, or to reward them, seems to demonstrate that God would degrade himself were he to observe, to direct, to punish, to reward mankind, who are infinitely inferior to him. But one fact is sufficient to answer this specious objection: that is, God has created mankind. Does God degrade himself more by governing than by creating mankind? Who can persuade himself that a wise Being has given to intelligent creatures faculties capable of obtaining knowledge and virtue, without willing that they should endeavour to acquire knowledge and virtue? Or who can imagine, that a wise Being, who wills that his intelligent creatures should acquire knowledge and virtue, will not punish them if they neglect those acquisitions; and will not show by the distribution of his benefits that he approves their endeavours to obtain them?
Unenlightened philosophers have treated of the attributes of God with as much abstruseness as they have written of his works. The moral attributes of God, as they are called in the schools, were mysteries which they could not unfold. These may be reduced to two classes; attributes of goodness, and attributes of justice. Philosophers, who had admitted these, have usually taken that for granted which they ought to have proved. They collected together in their minds all perfections; they reduced them all to one object which they denominated a perfect being: and supposing, without proving, that a perfect being existed, they attributed to him, without proof, everything that they considered as a perfection. The psalmist shows by a surer way that there is a God supremely just and supremely good. It is necessary, in order to convince a rational being of the justice and goodness of God, to follow such a method as that which we follow to prove his existence. When we would prove the existence of God, we say, there are creatures, therefore there is a Creator. In like manner, when we would prove that a creature is a just and a good being, we say, there are qualities of goodness and justice in creatures, therefore he, from whom these creatures derive their existence, is a being just and good. Now, this is the reasoning of the psalmist in this Psalm: "The Lord loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord" Ps 33:5; that is to say, it is impossible to consider the work of the Creator, without receiving evidence of his goodness. And the works of nature which demonstrate the goodness of God, prove his justice also; for God has created us with such dispositions, that we cannot enjoy the gifts of his goodness without obeying the laws of his righteousness. The happiness of an individual who procures a pleasure by disobeying the laws of equity, is a violent happiness, which cannot be of long duration; and the prosperity of public bodies, when it is founded in iniquity, is an edifice which, with its basis, will be presently sunk and gone.
But what we would particularly remark is, that the excellent principle of the psalmist concerning God are not mere speculations; but truths from which he derives practical inferences; and he aims to extend their influence beyond private persons, even to legislators and conquerors. One would think, considering the conduct of mankind, that the consequences, which are drawn from the doctrines of which we have been speaking, belong to none but to the dregs of the people; that lawgivers and conquerors have a plan of morality peculiar to themselves, and are above the rules to which other men must submit. Our prophet had other notions. What are his maxims of policy? They are all included in these words: "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance, "Ps 33:12. What are his military maxims? They are all included in these words: "There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength. An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength, "Ps 33:16-17. Who proposes these maxims? A hermit, who never appeared on the theatre of the world? or a man destitute of the talents necessary to shine there? No: one of the wisest of kings; one of the most bold and able generals: a man whom God has self elected to govern his chosen people, and to command those armies which fought the most obstinate battles, and gained the most complete victories. Were I to proceed in explaining the system of the psalmist, I might prove, that as he had a right to infer the doctrine of providence from the works of nature, and that of the moral attributes of God from the works of creation; so from the doctrines of the moral attributes of God, of providence, and of the works of creation, he had a right to conclude, that no conquerors or lawgivers could be truly happy but those who acted agreeably to the laws of the just and good Supreme. James Saurin.
Ver. 1. Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous. Exult, ye righteous, in Jehovah! The Hebrew verb, according to the etymologists, originally means to dance for joy, and is therefore a very strong expression for the liveliest exultation. J. A. Alexander.
Ver. 1. Rejoice, O ye righteous: not in yourselves, for that is not safe, but in the Lord. Augustine.
Ver. 1. Praise is comely for the upright. Praise is not comely for any but the godly. A profane man stuck with God's praise is like a dunghill stuck with flowers. Praise in the mouth of a sinner is like an oracle in the mouth of a fool: how uncomely is it for him to praise God, whose whole life is a dishonouring of God? It is as indecent for a wicked man to praise God, who goes on in sinful practices, as it is for an usurer to talk of living by faith, or for the devil to quote Scripture. The godly are only fit to be choristers in God's praise; it is called, "the garment of praise." Isa 61:3. This garment sits handsome only on a saint's back. Thomas Watson.
Ver. 1. This Psalm is coupled with the foregoing one by the catchword with which it opens, which is a repetition of the exhortation with which the preceding ends, Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous; "Shout for joy, all ye upright." Christopher Wordsworth.
Ver. 1. He pleaseth God whom God pleaseth. Augustine.
Whole Psalm This Psalm is eucharistic: the contents are: --
1. An exhortation to praise God Ps 33:1-3.
2. The arguments to enforce the duty Ps 33:4-19.
3. The confidence of God's people in his name, their happiness, and petition Ps 33:20-22.
Adam Clarke.
Ver. 1. Rejoicing--the soul of praise; the Lord--a wellspring of joy. Character--indispensable to true enjoyment.
Ver. 1. (last clause). Praise comely. What? Vocal, meditative, habitual praise. Why? It is comely as wings to an angel, we mount with it; as flowers to a tree, it is our fruit; as a robe to a priest, it is our office; as long hair to a woman, it is our beauty; as a crown to a king, it is our highest honour. When? Evermore, but chiefly amid blasphemy, persecution, sickness, poverty, death. Whom? Not from the ungodly, hypocritical, or thoughtless. To be without praise is to miss our comeliest adornment.
Psalms 33:2*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv1–2Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous.
Psa_33:1-22
Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous.
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The spirit of rejoicing: life adjusted to the will of God
Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous. It is the vital condition of all spiritual rejoicing that we are right with God. Our life must be adjusted to His will, and the adjustment must be made on every side. If our communion with the Lord is only partial, we shall not reach the condition in which joy becomes inevitable. I remember that some time ago an electric bell apparatus in my home got out of order and the bell ceased to ring. I made a careful examination, and I found that two or three of the strands, which together formed the one wire, had been broken, and along the remaining strands sufficient electrical energy could not travel to ring the bell. I rectified the severed members, and so adjusted them that they were every one in communion with the battery, and in the completed adjustment there was power enough to ring the bell. It appears to me to symbolize the condition of many a life which is partially in communion with the King. If is not that there is complete alienation; it is that there are severed strands. There are departments in the life which are not connected with the Almighty, and along the imperfect communion sufficient power does not travel to ring the joy-bells. It may be that the strand between the Lord and our pleasures is broken, or between the Lord and our business, or between the Lord and some secret realm in our life which is not known to others. This severance will have to be put right, and every side of the life adjusted to the Divine will before we can become possessed by that fulness of power which will create bell-melody in the soul. And so I am not surprised that the psalmist is making his confident appeal to the righteous, the rectified, those who are right on every side with God. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)
Praise to the God of creation, providence, and grace
I. the call to praise, and its reasons (Psa_33:1-11). The first word of Psa_33:1 means not simply to rejoice (as A.V.), but to express the emotions aloud. The subjects of the invitation are addressed as righteous and upright, because this was their ideal character of what they ought to be as the true Israel of God, and to them as such it was every way suitable to show forth Jehovahs praise. It was quite otherwise with the wicked (Psa_50:16; Mar_1:25; Mar_3:12; Act_17:18). In Psa_33:2 the call is to use harp and lyre with the song, the first mention of musical instruments in the Psalter. The Hebrews used wind and stringed and percussive instruments, but their precise nature cannot well be determined.
II. Gods special favour to his people (Verses 12-22). They were His heritage; not simply a temporary possession, but one enduring by hereditary succession through a long course of ages. Their security and happiness in having Jehovah for their God is enforced anew by the assertion of His omniscience. Men can be surprised or overtaken: not so the all-seeing One. He fully understands all their doings, their origin, their motive, their purpose. All is evident at a glance. Hence His will is supreme, and all persons and things are comprehended in His control of the world. What material strength cannot do for those who rely upon it, is secured to believers by the eye of Jehovah. That eye is directed toward those who wait for His loving-kindness. The three concluding couplets finely express the attitude of the Church in all ages--waiting, hoping, trusting. The whole history of Israel may be summed up in Jacobs dying words, I have waited for Thy salvation, O Jehovah. (T. W. Chambers, D. D.)
A call to true worship
I. True worship is happiness to the godly. Rejoice, etc.
1. It is the highest happiness of intelligent existences. Only by worship can the profoundest cravings of their natures be satisfied, or their powers be fully and harmoniously developed.
2. The godly alone can offer true worship.
II. True worship is becoming to the godly. Comely.
1. It agrees with his character.
2. It is congenial with his spirit.
3. It is in keeping with his obligations.
III. True worship is music to the godly. Praise the Lord with harp, etc. Note some of the features of true psalmody.
1. Variety. Both instrumental and vocal music are here mentioned.
2. Freshness. A new song. Whilst our religion should be as settled as the trunk of the oak--the forms and spirit of our devotion should be as changing as the foliage, now green with spring, now tinted with summer, now tinged with the brown hue of autumn.
3. Accuracy. Play skilfully. True music is sound ruled by science.
4. Hearty. With a loud noise. (Homilist.)
The toy which the righteous haw in God
I. the duty. Rejoice in the Lord. Look upon religion in its actions and employment: and what are they? Rejoice and give thanks. Are not these actions that are grateful and delightful? What doth transcend Divine joy, and ingenuous acknowledgments?
II. the reason. It is comely. Whatsoever is the true product of religion is grateful, beautiful, and lovely. There is nothing in religion that is dishonourable or selfish. Then we are to rejoice in the Lord.
1. For Himself, God is the most excellent object in the world. But whosoever are pleased with God, God is pleased with them: but to the wicked and unregenerate, God Himself (as good as He is) He is a burden. Let men pretend love to the things of God never so much, they will not relish them, unless they be born of God. Tis they that are naturalized to heaven, that relish and favour Divine things. That which is born of the world is enmity against God. Our rejoicing must be with some respect to God; and though it be in other things, yet it must be in the Lord. And this is done when we acknowledge God as the Fountain of all good, and better than all other enjoyments whatsoever; and count our enjoyments as all from Him and so endearing Him to us and obliging us to Him. Now, to enforce this joy in God, we note that joy is necessary to the life of man. The apostle hath told us that worldly sorrow causeth death. Sorrow and sadness, melancholy and discontent spoils the temper of a mans mind; it vitiates the humours of the body; it prevents the Divine, and hinders the Physician. For the Divine deals by reason; but this being obliterated, he can do nothing. And it also hinders the Physician; for if the mind be discomposed by melancholy, it doth not afford due benevolence to the body. The sour and melancholy are unthankful to God, and cruel to themselves, and peevish in their converse: so that joy and rejoicing are necessary in respect to ourselves. But also, joy is so safe for us: it will hold us back from sin, it will never be in excess, will always be sincere, and will offend none: it will keep company with gratitude and humility, and will always leave us in a good temper, which worldly joy will not do. If our triumph be in the Lord, it separates from sensual things, and from the spiritual sins of pride and arrogancy. Therefore let there be always something that is spiritual in the ground, reason, or occasion, or motive of your joy.
Praise is comely
It is natures sense, tis the import of any mans reason. Now because God doth infinitely transcend all the benefactors in the world, if any man doth not acknowledge His goodness, and praise Him for His benefits; he is sunk down into baseness, and fallen beneath his creation and nature. God loves us, and therefore He doth us good: we love God because we are partakers of His benefits. All disingenuity and baseness are concentred in the bowels of ingratitude. He that will not be engaged by kindness, no cords of man will hold him. Then let us obey the counsel of the text.
1. Because nothing is more due to God than our gratitude; for He loadeth us with His benefits, and is pleased to please us, and doth many things to gratify us.
2. By this we give testimony of our minds to God. For we have nothing at all to sacrifice to God, but the consent of our minds; an ingenious acknowledgment. (B. Whichcote, D. D.)
Praise is comely for the upright.--
Praise comely
Distinguish between gratitude and praise. Gratitude is an inward, loving sense of obligation for benefits received; praise the expression or outward manifestation of that inward feeling. Gratitude is of the heart; praise of the lip. Gratitude is a something felt; praise a something expressed.
I. Praise is comely for existence. The good man recognizes God as the Dispenser of every blessing. He holds all blessings as a loan or trust, and as a faithful steward, employs them for God, not for selfish purposes. As all the rivers return to the sea whence they came, so the upright man sends all Gods gifts back again in grateful homage and loving service to the Divine source of all good.
II. Praise is comely for redemption.
III. Praise is comely for the gift of immortality. The righteous man has something great and noble to live for, a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory to anticipate. In prospect, he has that which will fill the immensity of his being, satisfy to the full and for ever, the yearning of his great nature, so that the very thought of his immortality fills his soul with ecstasy, and his song with harmony (1Pe_1:3). It is said that when Mendelssohn went to see the great Freiburg organ, and asked permission of the old custodian to be allowed to play upon it, he was refused. After a little kind persuasion, however, consent was reluctantly given. Mendelssohn instantly took his seat, and made the organ discourse sublimest music. The custodian, spellbound, drew near and ventured to ask for the name of the stranger. When it was announced, ashamed, and self-condemned, the custodian exclaimed, What a fool am I to refuse you permission to play! There is One standing by you who can bring forth the most heavenly strains of music from your heart. Place it in His hand and Christ will make every chord send forth celestial harmonies that would make all the angels cease to sing and be mute, that they might the better listen to the nobler music of Christs redeemed ones. (R. Roberts.)
The duty of praise
I. Good and righteous men are most obliged to the duty of praise, and most fit to perform it.
1. There are many of Gods blessings that are universal, in regard to these the duty of thanksgiving should be of as large extent. But since some men partake more particularly of His favour, they are in a more particular manner obliged to gratitude and thanksgiving.
2. The righteous are also most fit to perform this duty.
(1) Because such men are always humble, and ready to acknowledge their unworthiness of Gods goodness.
(2) Because they have a quick and lively sense of it, and are apt to be tenderly and passionately affected with it.
(3) Because they have always a solid foundation of true joy in a good conscience.
(4) Because of that fitness and congruity which there is between praise and other virtues. As the beauty of the body consists in the exact dimensions of every part, and the symmetry and proportion of the whole: so does the beauty of the soul consist in the exercise of all Christian virtues, and in the mutual relation which they have to each other: and if any one be wanting it is a plain deformity, and will be perceived immediately.
II. God is the proper object of praise. The psalmist does not tie himself up strictly to the contemplation of the Divine nature, as to its essential excellencies only, but considers them as they relate to His works, and are beneficial to His creatures.
1. Rejoice in the Lord in regard of His goodness. Whatever is pleasing to us below, is so, because we take it to be good; that is, suppose it to partake of this fountain of ever-flowing goodness. How, then, should we be transported with joy if we lifted up our thought to Him who is Goodness itself, and through His vast abundance pours it upon every creature! But yet this would not be sufficient for His universal praise, unless we consider His goodness in His works.
2. Rejoice in Him because of His wisdom; it is by this He governs and disposes of all things as in wisdom He made them all.
3. Rejoice in the Lord in regard of His power. That very power which is so dreadful to His enemies, at which the whole creation trembles, at which the everlasting mountains are scattered, the perpetual hills do bow; when He marches through a land in indignation and threshes the heathen in His anger. Power can do as much for the righteous. So that this attribute cannot be dreadful to good men, but on the contrary, must be most delightful to them. (J. Adams, M. A.)
The gratitude of the upright
1. The gratitude of upright men is wise. The praise of the Lord becomes them well, because, while they bless God for all their mercies, they arrange them in their proper order; they prize each according to its real worth, and that most of all which is of the greatest value.
2. The gratitude of upright men is real. The praise of the Lord becomes them, because, while they praise God for His benefits, they live to the glory of their benefactor. Every gift of God furnisheth us with both a motive and a means of obedience to Him.
3. Gratitude to God well becomes an upright man, because it is humble. By publishing the gifts of Gods grace, he divests himself of himself, and attributes them wholly to the goodness of Him from whom they came.
4. The gratitude of an upright man is noble and magnanimous. He takes the love of God to him for a pattern of his behaviour to his fellow-creatures. (J. Saurin.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible1887 · Public DomainOn v1Psalms 33
Psalms 33
This is the last of the four psalms in Book 1 which have no title, the others being Psalms 1 and 2, which are introductory, and 10 which is closely connected with 9. Some have endeavoured to establish a similar connection between 32, and 33; but, while the closing summons to the righteous in the former is substantially repeated in the opening words of the latter, there is little other trace of connection, except the references in both to "the eye of Jehovah"; {Psa_32:8; Psa_33:18} and no two psalms could be more different in subject and tone than these. The one is full of profound, personal emotion, and deals with the depths of experience; the other is devoid of personal reference, and is a devout, calm contemplation of the creative power and providential government of God. It is kindred with the later type of psalms, and has many verbal allusions connecting it with them. It has probably been placed here simply because of the similiarity just noticed between its beginning and the end of the preceding. The reasons for the arrangement of the psalter were, so far as they can be traced, usually such merely verbal coincidences. To one who has been travelling through the heights and depths, the storms and sunny gleams of the previous psalms, this impersonal didactic meditation, with its historical allusions and entire ignoring of sins and sorrows, is indeed "a new song." It is apparently meant for liturgical use, and falls into three unequal parts; the first three verses and the last three being prelude and conclusion, the former summoning the "righteous" to praise Jehovah, the, latter putting words of trust and triumph and prayer into their mouths. The central mass (Psa_33:4-19) celebrates the creative and providential work of God, in two parts, of which the first extends these Divine acts over the world (Psa_33:4-11) and the second concentrates them on Israel (Psa_33:12-19).
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The opening summons to praise takes us far away from the solitary wrestlings and communings in former psalms. Now
"The singers lift up their voice,
And the trumpets make endeavour,
Sounding, In God rejoice! In Him rejoice forever!"
But the clear recognition of purity as the condition of access to God speaks in this invocation as distinctly as in any of the preceding. "The righteous" whose lives conform to the Divine will, and only they, can shout aloud their joy in Jehovah. Praise fits and adorns the lips of the upright" only, whose spirits are without twist of self-will and sin. The direction of character expressed in the word is horizontal rather than vertical, and is better represented by "straight" than "upright." Praise gilds the gold of purity and adds grace even to the beauty of holiness. Experts tell us that the kinnor (harp, A.V. and R.V.) and nebel (psaltery) were both stringed instruments, differing in the position of the sounding board, which was below in the former and above in the latter, and also in the covering of the strings (v. Delitzsch, Eng. transl. of latest ed. 1:7, n.). The "new song" is not necessarily the psalm itself, but may mean other thanksgivings evoked by Gods meditated on goodness. But in any case, it is noteworthy, that the occasions of the new song are very old acts, stretching back to the first creation and continued down through the ages. The psalm has no trace of special recent mercies, but to the devout soul the old deeds are never antiquated, and each new meditation on them breaks into new praise. So inexhaustible is the theme that all generations take it up in turn, and find "songs unheard" and "sweeter" with which to celebrate it. Each new rising of the old sun brings music from the lips of Memnon, as he sits fronting the east. The facts of revelation must be sung by each age and soul for itself, and the glowing strains grow cold and archaic, while the ancient mercies which they magnify live on, bright and young. There is always room for a fresh voice to praise the old gospel the old creation, the old providence.
This new song is saturated with reminiscences of old ones, and deals with familiar thoughts which have come to the psalmist with fresh power. He magnifies the moral attributes manifested in Gods self-revelation, His creative Word, and His providential government. "The word of Jehovah," in Psa_33:4 is to be taken in the wide sense of every utterance of His thought or will ("non accipi pro doctrina, sed pro mundi gubernandi ratione," Calvin). It underlies His "works," as is more largely declared in the following verses.
It is "upright," the same word as in Psa_33:1, and here equivalent to the general idea of morally perfect. The acts which flow from it are "in faithfulness," correspond to and keep His word. The perfect word and works have for source the deep heart of Jehovah, which loves "righteousness and judgment," and therefore speaks and acts in accordance with these. Therefore the outcome of all is a world full of Gods lovingkindness. The psalmist has won that "serene and blessed mood" in which the problem of life seems easy, and all harsh and gloomy thoughts have melted out of the sky. There is but one omnipotent Will at work everywhere, and that is a Will whose law for itself is the love of righteousness, and truth. The majestic simplicity and universality of the cause are answered by the simplicity and universality of the result, the flooding of the whole world with blessing. Many another psalm shows how hard it is to maintain such a faith in the face of the terrible miseries of men, and the more complex "civilisation" becomes, the harder it grows; but it is well to hear sometimes the one clear note of gladness without its chord of melancholy.
The work of creation is set forth in Psa_33:6-9 as the effect of the Divine word alone. The psalmist is fascinated not by the glories created, but by the wonder of the process of creation. The Divine will uttered itself, and the universe was. Of course the thought is parallel with that of Genesis, "God said, Let there beand there was" Nor are we to antedate the Christian teaching of a personal Word of God, the agent of creation. The old versions and interpreters, followed by Cheyne, read "as in a bottle" for "as an heap," vocalising the text differently from the present pointing; but there seems to be an allusion to the wall of waters at the passage of the Red Sea, the same word being used in Miriams song; with "depths" in the next clause, there as here. {Exo_15:8} What is meant, however, here, is the separation of land and water at first, and possibly the continuance of the same power keeping them still apart, since the verbs in Psa_33:7 are participles, which imply continued action. The image of "a heap" is probably due to the same optical delusion which has coined the expression "the high seas," since, to an eye looking seawards from the beach, the level waters seem to rise as they recede; or it may merely express the gathering together in a mass. Away out there, in that ocean of which the Hebrews knew so little, were unplumbed depths in which, as in vast storehouses, the abundance of the sea was shut up, and the ever-present Word which made them at first was to them instead of bolts and bars. Possibly the thought of the storehouses suggested that of the Flood when these were opened, and that thought, crossing the psalmists mind, led to the exhortation in Psa_33:8 to fear Jehovah, which would more naturally have followed Psa_33:9. The power displayed in creation is, however, a sufficient ground for the summons to reverent obedience, and Psa_33:9 may be but an emphatic repetition of the substance of the foregoing description. It is eloquent in its brevity and juxtaposition of the creative word and the created world. "It stood,"-"the word includes much: first, the coming into being (Entstehen), then, the continued subsistence (Bestehen), lastly, attendance (Dastehen) in readiness for service" (Stier).
From the original creation the psalmists mind turns over the ages between it and him, and sees the same mystical might of the Divine Will working in what we call providential government. Gods bare word has power without material means. Nay, His very thoughts unspoken are endowed with immortal vigour, and are at bottom the only real powers in history. Gods "thoughts stand," as creation does, lasting on through all mens fleeting years. With reverent boldness the psalm parallels the processes (if we may so speak) of the Divine mind with those of the human; "counsel" and "thoughts" being attributed to both. But how different the issue of the solemn thoughts of God and those of men, in so far as they are not in accordance with His! It unduly narrows the sweep of the psalmists vision to suppose that he is speaking of a recent experience when some assault on Israel was repelled. He is much rather linking the hour of creation with today by one swift summary of the net result of all history. The only stable, permanent reality is the will of God and it imparts derived stability to those who ally themselves with it, yielding to its, counsels and moulding their thoughts by its. "He that doeth the will of God abideth forever," but the shore of time is littered with wreckage, the sad fragments of proud fleets which would sail in the teeth of the wind and went to pieces on the rocks. From such thoughts the transition to the second part of the main body of the psalm is natural. Psa_33:12-19 are a joyous celebration of the blessedness of Israel as the people of so great a God. The most striking feature of these verses is the pervading reference to the passage of the Red Sea which, as we have already seen, has coloured Psa_33:7. From Miriams song come the designation of the people as Gods "inheritance" and the phrase "the place of His habitation". {Exo_15:17} The "looking upon the inhabitants of the earth," and the thought that the "eye of Jehovah is upon them that fear Him, to deliver their soul in death" (Psa_33:14, Psa_33:18), remind us of the Lords looking from the pillar on the host of Egyptians and the terrified crowd of fugitives, and of the same glance being darkness to the one and light to the other. The abrupt introduction of the king not saved by his host, and of the vanity of the horse for safety, are explained if we catch an echo of Miriams ringing notes, "Pharaohs chariots and his host hath He cast into the sea. The horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea." {Exo_15:4; Exo_15:21}
If this historical allusion be not recognised, the connection of these verses is somewhat obscure, but still discernible. The people who stand in special relation to God are blessed, because that eye, which sees all men, rests on them in lovingkindness and with gracious purpose of special protection. This contrast of Gods universal knowledge and of that knowledge which is accompanied with loving care is the very nerve of these verses, as is shown by the otherwise aimless repetition of the thought of Gods looking down on men. There is a wide all-seeingness, characterised by three words in an ascending scale of closeness of observance, in Psa_33:13-14. It is possible to God as being Creator: "He fashions their hearts individually," or "one by one" seems the best interpretation of Psa_33:15 a, -and thence is deduced His intimate knowledge of all His creatures doings. The sudden turn to the impotence of earthly might, as illustrated by the king and the hero and the battle horse, may be taken as intended to contrast the weakness of such strength both with the preceding picture of Divine omniscience and almightiness, and with the succeeding assurance of safety in Jehovah. The true reason for the blessedness of the chosen people is that Gods eye is on them, not merely with cold omniscience nor with critical considering of their works, but with the direct purpose of sheltering them from surrounding evil. But the stress of the characterisation of these guarded and nourished favourites of heaven is now laid not upon a Divine act of choice, but upon their meek looking to Him. His eye meets with love the upturned patient eye of humble expectance and loving fear.
What should be the issue of such thoughts, but the glad profession of trust, with which the psalm fittingly ends, corresponding to the invocation to praise which began it? Once in each of these three closing verses do the speakers profess their dependence on God. The attitude of waiting with fixed hope and patient submission is the characteristic of Gods true servants in all ages. In it are blended consciousness of weakness and vulnerability, dread of assault, reliance on Divine Love, confidence of safety, patience, submission and strong aspiration.
These were the tribal marks of Gods people, when this was "a new song"; they are so today, for though the Name of the Lord be more fully known by Christ, the trust in it is the same. A threefold good is possessed, expected and asked as the issue of this waiting. God is "help and shield" to those who exercise it. Its sure fruit is joy in Him, since He will answer the expectance of His people, and will make His name more fully known and more sweet to those who have clung to it, in so far as they. knew it. The measure of hope in God is the measure of experience of His lovingkindness, and the closing prayer does not allege hope as meriting the answer which it expects, but recognises that desire is a condition of possession of Gods best gifts, and knows it to be most impossible of all impossibilities that hope fixed on God should be ashamed. Hands, lifted empty to heaven in longing trust, will never drop empty back and hang listless, without a blessing in their grasp.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn v1“This psalm is a fit companion, but by no…
INTRODUCTION
“This psalm is a fit companion, but by no means the second half, of the preceding one, being distinct from it both in matter and form. It indicates a more tranquil frame of mind, such as flows from the calm assurance of pence with God. There is nothing against its being of the time and from the pen of David. It consists of twenty-two verses, like the alphabetic psalms. It celebrates the praise of the God of providence and grace. It falls into two halves of eleven verses each. Between three verses of adoration at the beginning, and three of devotion at the end, stand eight verses on the creative, and eight on the saving Word of God,”—Murphy.
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THE CHARACTER OF TRUE WORSHIP
(Psa_33:1-3.)
I. The worship of God is the chief joy of the good. “Ye righteous,” ye who have the new heart, and so have accepted the mercy of God, and are accepted by Him.”—Murphy. “Rejoice,” i.e., exult, shout for joy. “The Hebrew verb, according to etymologists, originally means to dance for joy, and is therefore a very strong expression for the liveliest exultation.”—Alexander. Joy is the soul of worship.
II. The worship of God is the highest duty of the good.
1. It is agreeable to their character. “The upright.” “Praise in the mouth of a sinner is like an oracle in the lips of a fool: how uncomely is it for him to praise God whose whole life is a dishonour to God! The godly are only fit to be choristers in God’s praise.”—Thomas Watson.
2. It is agreeable to their obligations. “Those who have received from God a right spirit and the forgiveness of sins, have a twofold obligation to praise Him.”—Murphy.
3. It is agreeable to their circumstances. Placed in the midst of God’s works, and daily receiving fresh proofs of His loving-kindness in providence and grace, the upright are always in fitting circumstances for praise.
III. The worship of God is the noblest employment of the good. “Praise the Lord with harp.” This is the first time musical instruments are referred to in the psalms. It is impossible now to ascertain the precise form of the “harp,” and the “psaltery,” and the “lute of ten strings.” The chief thing to notice is, that they were used as accompaniments and supports to the voice, as if the voice were too weak by itself to utter the Divine praises. Instruments of varied power and sweetness were employed, so as to secure the grandest effects. Psa_33:3 : “ ‘Sing ur to Him a new song,’ not here one which has new marvels of God’s power and grace for its theme, as in Psa_40:3, Psa_98:1 (cf. Rev_14:3), but rather one which springs freshly from a thankful and rejoicing heart,—one which seeks to put an old theme to a new light.”—Perowne. “Play skilfully.” Do your best in playing. “With a loud noise.” Music should not only be correct in execution, but joyous in spirit. The whole heart should be thrown into it.
The worship of God in song combines—
1. Unity and variety. While there may be both vocal and instrumental music, there should be but one spirit.
2. Sameness and freshness. The same old psalms and hymns and spiritual songs may be sung, and yet there may be the freshness of ever-new wonder, love, and praise, while “new songs” may evermore spring from the heart of the revived Church.
3. Devotion and art. There is scope for the highest efforts of genius in the service of song. Music should be cultivated. Religion and science should go together. We should give our very best to God.
4. Fellowship and individuality. While the service is that of the congregation, every separate heart should take part.
THE REASONABLENESS OF WORSHIP
(Psa_33:4-22.)
“For” introduces the reasons for praising God. The order of the thought is sufficiently marked to admit of the subject being treated under the heads of creation, providence, and redemption. God is to be worshipped, because—
I. He is the God of creation.
We are called to notice—
1. The moral character of God (Psa_33:4-5). Words and works are the exponents of character. The “word” is the idea, and the “work” is the fact. The “word” is the promise, and the “work” is the performance. It is by His words and works that God reveals Himself. They are the expression and embodiment of His eternal purpose. And the great attributes which are seen in beautiful harmony in all God’s words and works are Righteousness and Goodness. “He loveth righteousness,” i.e., it is His habit and delight. “The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord,” as conspicuously as the heaven with stars, as completely as the sea with waters. “Righteousness and goodness” are, as it were, incarnated in God’s words and works, to be the study and delight of His people forever.
2. The glory of creation. “From the present proofs of God’s love in the earth, the thoughts of the sacred poet naturally goes back to the creation of all things, and as He had before declared what the ‘word’ and the ‘work’ of Jehovah are in their essential characters (Psa_33:4), so now He describes further the operation of that word, and the work which results therefrom.”—Perowne. Psa_33:6. There is allusion here to the history of Creation in Genesis. First the mode, and then the extent, of the Divine working are described. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made.” “The word,” “the creative mandate” (Gen_1:1). “All the host,” the universe of things in their perfect order. This verse has special reference to the work of the second day. “Gathereth the waters.” The primary allusion here is to the work of the third day. The verse, however, expresses not a finished act, but a continued process, displaying its variations in the dividing of the Red Sea and the Jordan. Psa_33:8-9. The consequent obligation to worship God, “Let all the earth fear the Lord.” This carries on the thought to the second act of the third day, by which the dry land was clothed with vegetation, and the way prepared for the creation of animals and of man. The parallel of all the earth is all the inhabitants of the habitable globe.—Murphy. “The heavens and the sea are mentioned as the theatre of God’s almighty power, as the earth before, of His loving-kindness; and thus the universe is summed up.”—Perowne. The argument is that Jehovah is the omnipotent Creator, and that we who are all His creatures, should worship Him with Holy reverence.
II. He is the God of providence.
“After speaking of God’s power in creation, the psalmist goes on to speak of His providence as ordering the world.”—Perowne. The providence of God is characterised as—
1. All Wise (Psa_33:10). He who created and sustains the universe, can overrule or frustrate the designs of man, whether as individuals or nations, according as He deems right. We have a signal example of this in the history of Babel.
There is a contrast here between “the counsels” of men and the “counsel” of the Lord. Men come and go, and their thoughts are like the changing clouds, but God moves on in His ordained path, like the sun in the heavens, with unswerving fidelity. The counsels of men are like the edicts of arbitrary kings, which come to nought; but Jehovah’s counsels are His eternal and benign purpose, which He works out by His almighty power, from generation to generation. This holds true, not only with regard to God’s providence in general, but also with regard to His providence in its special bearing on His people. Hence the glad burst of praise (Psa_33:12), “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance.”
2. All Seeing (Psa_33:13-15). “He not only observes men’s doings, but knows their hearts, as having created them.”—Perowne. “From the place of His dwelling” (Psa_33:14). This is a coincidence with the Song of Moses (Exo_15:17). This is His dwelling-place above, of which earth is an adumbration. “Fashioneth their hearts alike” (Psa_33:15). “The principle of reason in one heart is the identical with that in every other. Hence the capacity of mutual understanding and the certainty of human knowledge, as far as the moral reason retains its balance. ‘He considereth,’ not only understands, but observes with attention the conduct of His responsible creatures. There is a philosophy of human nature here.”—Murphy.
3. All Mighty (Psa_33:16-17). “The weakness and insufficiency of ail human power, however great, as before of all human intellect. ‘King and mighty man and horse’ (i.e., war-horse, as elsewhere, ‘chariot and horse’) are selected as types of earthly power in all its greatness.”——Perowne.
“People of God, he means to say, let not the world persuade you that the throne, on which your king is seated, is an idle easy chair; no, He is seated on a throne, on a judgment-seat, from the lofty eminence of which proceed the destinies of the world. People of God, he means to say, firmly believe that all things are either openly or in a hidden manner subject to the influence of His might; not only the works of men, which are evidently so, since the issue never rests with them, but also the secret movings of their hearts, which God can strike with blindness, and can make foolish the understanding of the prudent, and wise the heart of babes. People of God, believe not in appearances according to which kings conquer by their might and warriors triumph in battle by the strength of their horses; it is appearance only, for, as all earthly power is borrowed from the Governor of the world, He may withdraw it at any time, and give it to whomsoever He pleases; so that all the victories on earth are won by His strength.”—Tholuck.
III. The God of redemption (Psa_33:18-22). While mortal strength is vain for defence and security, they who fear the Lord and hope in His mercy shall be safe under Jehovah’s eye, and kept by His almighty “power, through faith unto salvation.” God is the only true deliverer. His deliverance reaches to the soul, and transcends all the perils of time and all the powers of evil. “While such omnipotence terrifies those who love not the Lord, it is rich in consolation to those who hope in His mercy. The whole people commit themselves to the Lord, rejoicing in Him and trusting in His name.”—Tholuck “Antigonus, king of Syria, being ready to give battle near the Isle of Andreos, sent out a squadron to watch the motions of his enemies, and to descry their strength; return was made that they had more ships, and better manned, than he had. ‘How,’ says Antigonus, ‘that cannot be, for how many dost thou reckon me,’ intimating that the dignity of a general weighed down many others, especially when poised with valour and experience. And where is valour, where is experience to be found, if not in God! He is the Lord of Hosts; with Him alone is strength and power to deliver Israel out of all her troubles. He may do it, He can do it, He will do it. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength, besides Him there is no Saviour, no Deliverer. He is a shield to the righteous, strength to the weak, a refuge to the oppressed.”—John Spencer.
“Dear dying Lamb! Thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power,
Till all the ransomed Church of God
Be saved, to sin no more.
E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply;
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.
Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I’ll sing Thy power to save;
When this poor lisping stammering tongue
Lies silent in the grave.”—Cowper.
THREE ASPECTS OF PIETY
(Psa_33:20-22.)
I. Piety waiting on the Lord. “Our soul waiteth for the Lord.” Waiting is an attitude of soul. It is holding one’s self still till the accomplishment of some expected event. It is, therefore, patience and expectation united. “We wait” for the day, that we may work. We wait for the spring to sow and the harvest to reap. But waiting is consistent with action. It is not only testing and disciplinary, but it implies right use of means and opportunities, working while it is day, and sowing and reaping as the seasons of God come round. True waiting implies faith in God’s love. Heedfulness of His will (Psa_123:3). Intense desire for His blessing (Psa_130:6). Diligent use of all the means of grace. And what encouragement we have here to wait upon Him. “For He is our help and shield.”
II. Piety rejoicing in God. “Our heart shall rejoice in Him.” This is not merely rejoicing in God’s Word and works, but rejoicing in Himself. This is the highest attainment of piety. But this joy is one of the fruits of faith. “Because we have trusted in His holy name.” The more we know of God’s grace in Christ, the more shall our hearts exult in Him.
III. Piety praying to God. “Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we hope in Thee.” This prayer is marked by humility. “Mercy” is sought, mercy for the sinner, the mercy of the Lord which bringeth salvation. This prayer is also marked by faith. It implies confidence in God’s grace and in His promises, and in the reality of His Spirit’s work in the heart The hope He begets He will not put to shame (Mat_9:29).
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible1900 · Public DomainOn v1I. The whole of revelation reposes on this broad…
Psa 33:6
Psa 19:1
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I. The whole of revelation reposes on this broad platform: how God and nature stand to one another. Now there are two opposite extremes into which our conceptions on this point may fall. We may immerse God in nature, or we may isolate nature from God. (1) We immerse God in nature if we treat nature as itself possessed of properties which are strictly personal, as when, for example, we accustom ourselves to think of it as originating its own processes, as intending its own results, or as conscious of its own plan. The corrective lies in the Scriptural idea of creation as an act of will in One who is outside of material being. (2) We may unduly isolate nature as God’s workmanship from God the Worker. We do this, e.g., when we conceive of the universe as teaching us nothing of God, being only a whirl of material change without spiritual meaning, or when we represent it as a machine which, being somehow endowed with a given stock of force, must go on, so long as the force lasts, like a watch that has been once wound up. Again, the Scriptural conception of nature will furnish the corrective. According to it, God is personally separate from and above nature; yet, for all that, He has put into His handiwork His own thoughts. We may fairly say that both sides of the idea lie in embryo in the solitary phrase, "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made." For the word of any person serves two functions: it is the organ of command, conveying an act of will; it is also the organ of expression, revealing the speaker’s nature.
II. The moral revelation which began with Abraham and culminated in Jesus Christ admits of being both compared and contrasted with the older nature revelation. (1) The later revelation starts from and builds upon the earlier one. (2) It must be clear that such a revelation as we actually possess in the Bible is only possible if God be (as the Bible teaches) at once above nature and yet present, self-revealed, in nature. (a) We are ourselves part of the world; and if we are to receive communications which transcend what the world itself can tell us, then He who gives them must stand outside of and above the world. (b) The actual revelation recorded in the Bible employed nature as its organ. God makes nature vocal with redemption. (c) Above all, His final revelation of Himself is in the life of a Man, so that the highest of all revelations is in appearance the most human, the least supernatural. Now how could all this be unless, first of all, creation were itself full of God and yet were, after all, God’s servant, to work withal? (3) The voice of the new revelation agrees with the voice of the old. (a) The absolute unity of plan which strict research is daily proving more and more—a unity now known to reach as far as the planets in their spheres—attests that the Creator is one. All Scripture proceeds on the unity of God. (b) Throughout all nature we find a will at work whose method is to bind itself by orderly method and fixed law. Now the revelation of the Divine will in Scripture is likewise the revelation of a law, and its chief end is the reduction of moral anarchy to moral order. (c) Again, we are daily learning how patiently, and through what long, slow, even laborious processes, God has been pleased to build up His physical universe. This is God’s way in nature, and it has been His way in grace. (d) Once more, the God of nature avenges the transgression of every physical law by a sentient creature. Scripture discovers precisely the same features in the moral and spiritual rule of God. Of law, of transgression, of penalty and reward, of life and death, nature has no more to say than the Bible has. But of another law higher than that of penalty—of the spiritual law of self-sacrifice, of redemption of life by life, and giving up of the just for the unjust, and forgiveness of sin, and the regeneration of the lapsed—the physical universe is wholly, or all but wholly, silent.
J. Oswald Dykes, Sermons, p. 84.
References: Psa 33:1.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 355. Psa 33:2, Psa 33:3.—J. M. Neale, Occasional Sermons, p. 108. Psa 33:5.—D. Swing, American Pulpit of the Day, p. 460; G. Bainton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xviii., p. 378. Psa 33:6.—J. Keble, Sermons from Ascension Day to Trinity, p. 384. Psa 33:13.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 272. Psa 33:20.—W. Lindsay Alexander, Christian Thought and Work, p. 155. Psa 33:21.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 184. Psa 33:22.—J. Keble, Sermons from Septuagesima to Ash Wednesday, p. 432. Psa 34:1.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on Passages of the Psalms, p. 77.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant1903 · Public DomainOn v1This God the God of the whole earth.
This God the God of the whole earth.
The psalm following shows us now that Jehovah, the God of redemption, is the God of the whole earth. If this God, then, be for us, all else must be; and this opens the way to the closing praise of the thirty-fourth: "I will bless Jehovah at all times." The theme here, in what is the fourth psalm in the series, anticipates what is more fully brought out in the fourth book, where also Jehovah and the Second Man are shown as One; and thus the security of the earth in blessing is gloriously assured.
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1. The psalmist begins with an exhortation to praise Jehovah, the one theme of praise for the righteous. The first verses here are but the expansion of the closing verse of the previous psalm, where we have found that the righteous are such only by redemption. And Jehovah is the name of God as the Redeemer, -the special name under which He takes up the people in the book of Exodus (see Exo 3:1-22, notes); and thus the covenant Name of blessing for the redeemed. It is true that with Israel the legal spirit which inheres in man, and which had to be yielded to in the covenant of bondage at the mount of law, prevailed to obscure for them the glory of this Name, and still obscures it; yet in it, though veiled, their blessings are nevertheless wrapped up, and will be found in the day that is at hand.
Jehovah is the living and unchanging God, acting from Himself necessarily as independent of all else, finding in Himself the sufficient argument for what He does. Thus no consideration of man has to come in, to hinder the fullest blessing for him. If man came in, it would be only to hinder God acting from Himself, for the glory of His Name, His purpose stands.
Thus the exhortation may well be now, "Shout for joy in Jehovah, ye righteous! Praise is comely for the upright"; -for those delivered from guile by the grace that has wrought conviction of sin, and met with salvation the convicted sinner.
This praise, as will be fully the case when Israel becomes the giver of it, will find its response in all creation round. This is what the harp and lyre in Israel’s hands declare, who, as the earthly people, will awaken this response. If we knew better what these instruments were, -which is disputed, -we should be able to realize, no doubt, distinctive meaning in them. All that we can say now is that the harp was certainly peculiarly connected with strains of joy; while the "ten strings" of the lyre or psaltery would seem to associate it with the more solemn strains of recompense and judgment, all of which must praise Him too.
But no special instrument is connected with the "new song" of the third verse, which will be, assuredly, both for Israel and the earth, what the numeral probably intimates, a resurrection song. And this, like all resurrection of the higher kind, is not a mere restoration to the primitive condition, which would mean almost certainly that it was a mere turning of the wheel, the beginning of the old cycle of transition and decay, but a new and higher and fixed condition reached, in which the thought of God will now be realized, and His purpose from the beginning attained. No wonder that for the accompaniment now there should need skillful playing with loud sound!
2. We have now the testimony given to Him by His work and word; His work being indeed the product of His word, the creation of His mind and will, bearing the impress, therefore, of His character. The written word does not seem here in question, although of course the same must be true of it, and more manifestly, sin having come in to obscure the witness of creation. But sin also does not come as yet into the picture, except quite inferentially.
"For right is Jehovah’s word, and in faithfulness all His work": as in truth the fixed laws that pervade it are a proof, -so fixed, so pervasive, that in all material points we soon get familiar with, and learn to rely on them. And this is an inestimable blessing which only our being so accustomed to it tends to hide from us. Suppose, even, they were certain, and yet so intricate as to make the knowledge of common effects difficult to obtain, what uncertainty would attend all our actions, and what disasters would arise! Instead of this we are in a world generally stable, and with only enough uncertainty to promote dependence. And all this is "faithfulness" to His creatures, the work of His hands who can apprehend these laws; while instinct guides even more surely, though in a more humble manner, the lower races. But moreover, —
"He loveth justice and judgment"; -it is not here in question how men pervert it, but of these same laws in their moral character, which testify for Him. The power which earth manifests is a power that "makes for righteousness." And the earth is full of the goodness of Jehovah." This is that diffuse benevolence which everything displays in nature, the eye, the ear, the senses generally, provided for and gratified; and beauty, melody, variety, showing with much else, (even though we are outside of Eden,) how God has cared for us. Life could go on without what only their prevalence and their inability to pall and injure us, forbid us to call the luxuries of life.
The heavens and their host were called forth by Jehovah’s word; a majestic spectacle to arrest attention, wake up wonder and inquiry, and lift our thoughts above the earth. Preachers to us of our littleness and dependence, their testimony is manifestly in the line of His redemptive work. The philosopher Kant, whose critical spirit was not checked with any excessive reverence, unites "the starry heavens" with the "moral law" as that which filled him with unfailing admiration and reverence. And how easily might they have been shut out from our view, if God had not pleased to fling aside the veil, and bid us gaze! Whatever else those brilliant spheres were made for, they have surely been unveiled to impress us with the sight. They are an open Bethel: as, in the mind of the old patriarch, "the gate of heaven" is "the house of God."
Under these -their earthly reflection -stretches the great sea, whose waters, massed as a heap under Jehovah’s hand, still more, as with closer application, reduce man to nothingness before Him (Psa 107:23-30). The number of testing and of weakness points unmistakably to the meaning here, as does the word for "depths," the plural of that in Gen 1:2, tehom, literally, the "raging deep." These depths He layeth up beneath the quiet and smiling surface, in treasuries from which He bringeth them out whenever He has use for them, with decisive effect. Thus were the heathen sailors who carried Jonah, and Jonah himself, taught the folly of endeavoring to escape from Jehovah’s power.
After this, therefore, comes the exhortation, "Let all the earth fear Jehovah: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him": literally, "sojourn," be as sojourners with Him, to whom alone belongs eternity. The argument is given in the next verse: "for He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast:" these mighty and stable powers came into existence by His mere fiat. The number is here the number of mastery; for He who brought them into being manifestly has them still in His control.
3. From this contemplation of creation we are next brought naturally to consider Jehovah as realizing His name (the Unchangeable) in His dealings with His creatures. Against His counsel the counsels of the nations cannot stand. Nor, since the world is away from Him, and in opposition to Him, the thoughts of peoples either. The last would include, as the first does not, even Israel His "people" also. On the other hand, His counsel stands forever: the thoughts of His heart "from generation to generation." The contrast here only results in more abiding comfort for those whose feebleness is anchored to the rock of His stability, "the nation whose God Jehovah is, and the people chosen" by Him (as Israel is) "for His inheritance."
4. From this safe harbor the world of living men is now reviewed. Jehovah Himself regards them: He not only beholds, He scrutinizes narrowly; and He is the One who fashioned them, who has perfect knowledge of all they do. But the result is only that man’s nothingness is once snore realized. Not the host that encircles a king can save him, nor the strength of a hero. Nor, even to escape, can the strength of a horse suffice to deliver him. But this is only the necessary prelude to another witness to God Himself.
5. "Lo, Jehovah’s eye is toward them that fear Him, -toward those that hope in His mercy, to rescue their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine." And they who speak have realized this: "our soul hath looked for Jehovah: our help and shield is He." The experience is briefly but sufficiently told, that has established the truth of this: "for our heart is glad in Him; because we have trusted in His holy Name." The faithfulness of the divine government is finally invoked: "Let thy mercy, Jehovah, be upon us, according as we hope in Thee."
Thus that Jehovah, the God of redemption, is also the God of creation, is plainly the theme of the psalm; and that He shows Himself the Redeemer by His dealings with the people whose trust is in Him; against whom no creature-strength can possibly avail. This last is taken up and expanded (after the manner of these psalms) in the joyful song of praise with which this series ends.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow1909 · Public DomainOn v1This is an anonymous Ps. of national deliverance, called…
This is an anonymous Ps. of national deliverance, called forth by some historical occasion which it is now impossible to fix with any certainty. From its central conception of God as the ruler of all the earth and all the nations, it appears to belong to the later prophetic age. The metrical structure is specially regular. The first three and the last three vv. form corresponding groups of 6 lines each, and Psa_33:4-19 consist of six groups of 4 lines each. The opening call to praise (Psa_33:1-3) is followed by a description of God's character (Psa_33:4-5); of His rule over all the inhabitants of the earth, based on His creative power (Psa_33:6-9); of His rule over the nations, and of the special privilege of Israel as His people, whose defence is not in military power, but in Jehovah (Psa_33:10-19). The closing vv. (20-22) respond to the summons at the beginning of the Ps.
1. Ye righteous.. the upright] the Israelites who are genuine servants of God.
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2. The psaltery and an instrument of ten strings] RV 'the psaltery of ten strings.' The harp and the psaltery were both stringed instruments, the latter being the larger. 3. A new song] to celebrate a new deliverance. The phrase occurs in several Pss., and has a special connexion with the deliverance from the Babylonian exile: see Isa_42:10.
4. Truth] RV 'faithfulness.'
5. Righteousness] is the principle of God's character, judgment] its practical application to the government of the world. Goodness] RV 'lovingkindness.'
7. The depth (RV 'deeps') in storehouses] The ancient idea of a reservoir of water beneath the earth: see Gen_7:11.
9. Read, 'He spake and it was: He commanded and it stood,' referring to the repeated 'it was so' of Genesis 1.
10. The heathen] RV 'the nations.' The people] RV 'the peoples.'
12. Cp. Deu_33:29.
15. RV 'he that fashioneth.. that considered.' Their hearts alike] RV 'the hearts of them all.'
17. An horse] The Israelites had no cavalry, and the chariots and horsemen of their enemies appeared specially formidable to them: see Deu_17:16; Psa_20:7; Psa_147:10; Pro_21:31; Isa_31:1.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein1922 · Public DomainOn v1Psalm 33
Psalm 33
The Future Praise of Jehovah
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1. The call to praise Jehovah (Psa 33:1-3)
2. His praise as the Creator (Psa 33:4-9)
3. His praise of His governmental dealings (Psa 33:10-17)
4. His praise as the Keeper and Deliverer of the Righteous (Psa 33:18-22)
What the last verse of the preceding Psalm exhorts to shout for joy, is in this Psalm more fully unfolded. Such praise the Lord has not yet received, it looks forward to millennial times when all earth fears the Lord and all the inhabitants stand in awe of Him (Psa 33:8). Now they oppose and defy Him and His Word. Then the counsel of the nations will be brought to nought and His people Israel, His own nation, will be blessed. The last verse is a prayer that His mercy may be bestowed upon His people Israel, who hope in Him.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v1Praise to the Ruler of the World as the…
Praise to the Ruler of the World as the Protector of His People.
This entire psalm is a call to lively and joyful praise of God for His wonderful and glorious attributes and works, as displayed in creation, and of His general and special providence, in view of which the psalmist, in the name of all believers, professes trust and joy and invokes God’s mercy.
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v. 1. Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous, those justified by the grace of God; for praise is comely, fitting, proper, for the upright, it is both their duty and their honor to praise the Lord; for silence on their part would be equivalent to a denial of His blessings.
v. 2. Praise the Lord with harp, a kind of zither; sing unto Him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings, a ten-stringed harp or lute, which was also used in the Temple orchestra.
v. 3. Sing unto Him a new song, one especially adapted to the occasion; play skillfully with a loud noise, with a vim, showing the eagerness of the heart to praise the glory of Jehovah in a song never heard before.
v. 4. For the Word of the Lord is right, upright, true, not full of mistakes and contradictions; and all His works are done in truth, in faithfulness, the fulfillment always agreeing with His promises.
v. 5. He loveth righteousness and judgment; He delights to show these attributes of His divine essence. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord, of the many proofs of His kindness.
v. 6. By the Word of the Lord, the great Word which was in the beginning with God, Joh 1:1-3, were the heavens made, Pro 8:22-30; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth, by the power of His Spirit, the reference obviously being to the third person of the Trinity.
v. 7. He, the Triune God, gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap, the mighty ocean being firmly held together by the almighty power of Jehovah; He layeth up the depths in storehouses, assigning to the vast extent of the ocean waters their place where they must stay.
v. 8. Let all the earth, even the inanimate creatures, fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world, especially men, who are endowed with reason and sense, stand in awe of Him, with a reverence verging on fear.
v. 9. For He spake, with the almighty word of His command, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. The reference is plainly to the story of creation: God said, Let there be; and there was, Genesis 1. God is furthermore to be praised on account of His almighty rule of the universe.
v. 10. The Lord bringeth the counsel to the heathen to naught, making void their plans as actually devised; He maketh the devices of the people, the very thoughts and intentions of their hearts, of none effect, thus frustrating their wickedness.
v. 11. The counsel of the Lord standeth forever, in contrast with the vain counsels and thoughts of men, the thoughts of His heart to all generations, abiding forever.
v. 12. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, Jehovah, as their Ruler, being also their greatest treasure; and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance, as was the case in Israel at the time of David, the spiritual Israel, the Church of God, being His heritage in the highest sense of the word.
v. 13. The Lord, as the great Ruler of the universe, looketh from heaven, with the eyes of His omniscience; He beholdeth all the sons of men, not one being hidden from His knowledge.
v. 14. From the place of His habitation He looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth, all their deeds being open to His gaze.
v. 15. He fashioneth their hearts alike, He is the Former of their hearts all at once, both in the creation of each soul and in forming the thoughts of the heart under His providence; He considereth all their works, understanding exactly how they put their plans into execution.
v. 16. There is no king saved by the multitude of an host, no matter what display of strength and arms he may make; a mighty man is not delivered by much strength, all this is useless without God.
v. 17. An horse is a vain thing for safety, for a man to rely on; neither shall He deliver any by His great strength; as it is a delusion for help and victory, so it will disappoint him who absolutely relies upon it to carry him to safety. All this is subject to God’s government.
v. 18. Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, the entire purpose of the world and of His government is realized in them, upon them that hope in His mercy, putting aside all trust in themselves;
v. 19. to deliver their soul from death, sustaining them in all dangers which threaten their life, and to keep them alive in famine. These facts being set forth, the psalmist makes the application to the Church of God of all times.
v. 20. Our soul waiteth for the Lord, trusting firmly in His help, no matter when it is manifested; He is our Help and our Shield.
v. 21. For our heart shall rejoice in Him because we have trusted in His holy name, as the foundation of their faith, love, and hope, from which all salvation comes.
v. 22. Let Thy mercy, O Lord, which alone gives the believers the courage to invoke the Lord, be upon us, according as we hope in Thee, their confident waiting and trusting and the divine answer being correlates. In this way the attitude of hope and trust is the attitude of the Church in all ages, sustained by the Word of God’s grace.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv1, 4General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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Rejoice in Yahweh
Here "in Yahweh" refers to what Yahweh has done for them. "Rejoice because of what Yahweh has done" (See: Idiom)
praise is appropriate for the upright
"to praise Yahweh is appropriate for upright people"
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv1, 4Ps 33 This hymn of creation (see also Pss…
Ps 33 This hymn of creation (see also Pss 8, 19, 104, 145) might be a continuation of Ps 32. It exhorts readers to praise God (33:1-3), to recognize the power of his word in creation (33:4-7), and to fear the Creator (33:8-11). It offers hope to forgiven sinners (Ps 32) that they can live a new life in the fear of the Lord and under divine protection.
33:1-3 The psalmist exhorts the godly to praise the Lord with melodies, with a new song, and with skillfully-played music.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1–4 1. Rejoice in Jehovah, ye righteous. Here the inspired…
1. Rejoice in Jehovah, ye righteous. Here the inspired writer addresses believers or the righteous by name, because they alone are capable of proclaiming the glory of God. Unbelievers, who have never tasted his goodness, cannot praise him from the heart, and God has no pleasure in his name being pronounced by their unholy tongues. But the context shows more distinctly why this exhortation is suitable for believers only. Many, accordingly, expound the latter clause, Praise is comely for the upright, as meaning, that if the ungodly or hypocrites attempt this exercise, it will turn to the reproach and dishonor of God rather than to his praise; nay, more, that they only profane his holy name. It is, no doubt, very true, as I have already remarked, that God creates for himself a church in the world by gracious adoption, for the express purpose, that his name may be duly praised by witnesses suitable for such a work. But the real meaning of the clause, Praise is comely for the upright, is, that there is no exercise in which they can be better employed. And, assuredly, since God by his daily benefits furnishes them with such matter for celebrating his glory, and since his boundless goodness, as we have elsewhere seen, is laid up as a peculiar treasure for them, it were disgraceful and utterly unreasonable for them to be silent in the praises of God. The amount of the matter is, that the principal exercise in which it becomes the righteous to be employed is to publish among men the righteousness, goodness, and power of God, the knowledge of which is implanted in their minds. Following other interpreters, I have translated the clause, Praise is comely, but the word rendered comely may also be properly rendered desirable, if we view it as derived from the Hebrew word אוה, avah, which signifies to wish or desire. And certainly, when God allures believers so sweetly, it is proper that they employ themselves in celebrating his praises with their whole hearts. It is also to be observed, that when the prophet, after having in the first clause used the appellation, the righteous, immediately adds the words, the upright, which comprehend the inward integrity of the heart, he defines what true righteousness is, or in what it consists.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4 It is the duty of the godly to set…
It is the duty of the godly to set forth the praises of God for his mercy and power showed toward them.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Psa 33:1 Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous:…
Psa 33:1 Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous: [for] praise is comely for the upright.
Ver. 1. Rejoice in the Lord, O ye rightness] That is, O ye upright in heart, as it followeth here, and as Psa 32:11. For as there he ended, so here he beginneth, calling upon the saints to be cheerful; and indeed there is hardly any duty more pressed in the Old and New Testament, or less practised. To quicken them, therefore, to so necessary but much neglected a duty, this psalm seemeth to be added to the former, purposely to excite us, by many arguments, to consecrate our whole lives to the singing and setting forth of God’s worthy praises. In which regard nihil potest esse hoc carmine augustius, saith Beza, this is surely a most excellent psalm; and if it were well practised we might have a very heaven here; as because it is not, we lose very much of the comtbrt of our lives. Only that cautionating counsel of Bernard would not be forgotten, Laeti simus, non securi; gaudentes in Spiritu Sancto, sed tamen caventes a recidivo; Let us be cheerful, but not secure; and rejoice in the Holy Ghost, but take heed we let not fall the watch of the Lord. Crede mihi res severa est gaudium verum, Believe me, true joy is a severe matter, said Seneca. We may better say so of spiritual joy, which he never tasted of, neither doth any stranger meddle with. And if Plato could tell the musicians, philosophers could tell how to be merry without music; much more may God’s people. Quid nobis cum fabulis, cure risu? saith Bernard, What have we to do with carnal mirth and jollity? &c.; we have meat to eat, and music to our meat, that the world knoweth not of; let us make us merry with it.
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For praise is comely for the upright] For them, and for none but them; high words are not fit for a fool, saith Solomon. Laudari ab illaudato, to be praised by a praiseless person is no praise at all (Seneca). That State in story would not approve of good words from an evil mouth; no more doth God, Psa 50:15-16. Christ would not suffer the devil to confess him. Hypocrisy slurreth all it toucheth. If a man should sing a good song with his voice, and play a bad one on his instrument, it would make but a black sanctus. Such is the praise of the unupright; who had better therefore be silent, unless themselves were better, since they do not only lose their labour, but commit sin. Displeasing service is double dishonour; and dissembled sanctity double iniquity.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Rejoice in the Lord; let his excellency discovered in…
Rejoice in the Lord; let his excellency discovered in his works be the matter of your joy and praise.
Praise is comely for the upright; it well becomes them to exercise themselves in this work of praising and blessing of God; partly because they have such singular and abundant obligations and occasions to do so; and partly because they will praise God worthily and heartily, and with due reverence and thankfulness, as God requires, and deserves to be praised; whereas ungodly men do indeed disparage and pollute the holy name of God, while they pretend to praise it, and therefore God rejects their praises and prayers. See Psa 50:16; 119:7; Pro 28:9.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 Four things the psalmist expresses in these verses:
Four things the psalmist expresses in these verses:
I. The great desire he had that God might be praised. He did not think he did it so well himself, but that he wished others also might be employed in this work; the more the better, in this concert: it is the more like heaven. 1. Holy joy is the heart and soul of praise, and that is here pressed upon all good people (Psa 33:1): Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous; so the foregoing psalm concluded and so this begins; for all our religious exercises should both begin and end with a holy complacency and triumph in God as the best of being and best of friends. 2. Thankful praise is the breath and language of holy joy; and that also is here required of us (Psa 33:2): "Praise the Lord; speak well of him, and give him the glory due to his name." 3. Religious songs are the proper expressions of thankful praise; those are here required (Psa 33:3): "Sing unto him a new song, the best you have, not that which by frequent use is worn, thread-bare, but that which, being new, is most likely to move the affections, a new song for new mercies and upon every new occasion, for those compassions which are new every morning." Music was then used, by the appointment of David, with the temple-songs, that they might be the better sung; and this also is here called for (Psa 33:2): Sing unto him with the psaltery. Here is, (1.) A good rule for this duty: "Do it skilfully, and with a loud noise; let it have the best both of head and heart; let it be done intelligently and with a clear head, affectionately and with a warm heart." (2.) A good reason for this duty: For praise is comely for the upright. It is well pleasing to God (the garments of praise add much to the comeliness which God puts upon his people) and it is an excellent ornament to our profession. It becomes the upright, whom God has put so much honour upon, to give honour to him. The upright praise God in a comely manner, for they praise him with their hearts, that is praising him with their glory; whereas the praises of hypocrites are awkward and uncomely, like a parable in the mouth of fools, Pro 26:7.
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II. The high thoughts he had of God, and of his infinite perfections, Psa 33:4, Psa 33:5. God makes himself known to us, 1. In his word, here put for all divine revelation, all that which God at sundry times and in divers manners spoke to the children of men, and that is all right, there is nothing amiss in it; his commands exactly agree with the rules of equity and the eternal reasons of good and evil. His promises are all wise and good and inviolably sure, and there is no iniquity in his threatenings, but even those are designed for our good, by deterring us from evil. God's word is right, and therefore all our deviations from it are wrong, and we are then in the right when we agree with it. 2. In his works, and those are all done in truth, all according to his counsels, which are called the scriptures of truth, Dan 10:21. The copy in all God's works agrees exactly with the great original, the plan laid in the Eternal Mind, and varies not in the least jot. God has made it to appear in his works, (1.) That he is a God of inflexible justice: He loveth righteousness and judgment. There is nothing but righteousness in the sentence he passes and judgment in the execution of it. He never did nor can do wrong to any of his creatures, but is always ready to give redress to those that are wronged, and does it with delight. He takes pleasure in those that are righteous. He is himself the righteous Lord, and therefore loveth righteousness. (2.) That he is a God of inexhaustible bounty: The earth is full of his goodness, that is, of the proofs and instances of it. The benign influences which the earth receives from above, and the fruits it is thereby enabled to produce, the provision that is made both for man and beast, and the common blessings with which all the nations of the earth are blessed, plainly declare that the earth is full of his goodness - the darkest, the coldest, the hottest, and the most dry and desert part of it not excepted. What a pity is it that this earth, which is so full of God's goodness, should be so empty of his praises, and that of the multitudes that live upon his bounty there are so few that live to his glory!
III. The conviction he was under of the almighty power of God, evidenced in the creation of the world. We "believe in God," and therefore we praise him as "the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth," so we are here taught to praise him. Observe,
1. How God made the world, and brought all things into being. (1.) How easily: All things were made by the word of the Lord and by the breath of his mouth. Christ is the Word, the Spirit is the breath, so that God the Father made the world, as he rules it and redeems it, by his Son and Spirit. He spoke, and he commanded (Psa 33:9), and that was enough; there needed no more. With men saying and doing are two things, but it is not so with God. By the Word and Spirit of God as the world was made, so was man, that little world. God said, Let us make man, and he breathed into him the breath of life. By the Word and Spirit the church is built, that new world, and grace wrought in the soul, that new man, that new creation. What cannot that power do which with a word made a world! (2.) How effectually it was done: And it stood fast. What God does he does to purpose; he does it and it stands fast. Whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever, Ecc 3:14. It is by virtue of that command to stand fast that things continue to this day according to God's ordinance, Psa 119:91.
2. What he made. He made all things, but notice is here taken, (1.) of the heavens, and the host of them, Psa 33:6. The visible heavens, and the sun, moon, and stars, their hosts - (2.) Of the waters, and the treasures of them, Psa 33:7. The earth was at first covered with the water, and, being heavier, must of course subside and sink under it; but, to show from the very first that the God of nature is not tied to the ordinary method of nature, and the usual operations of his powers, with a word's speaking he gathered the waters together on a heap, that the dry land might appear, yet left them not to continue on a heap, but laid up the depth in store-houses, not only in the flats where the seas make their beds, and in which they are locked up by the sand on the shore as in storehouses, but in secret subterraneous caverns, where they are hidden from the eyes of all living, but were reserved as in a store-house for that day when those fountains of the great deep were to be broken up; and they are still laid up there in store, for which use the great Master of the house knows best.
3. What use is to be made of this (Psa 33:8): Let all the earth fear the Lord, and stand in awe of him; that is, let all the children of men worship him and give glory to him, Psa 95:5, Psa 95:6. The everlasting gospel gives this as the reason why we must worship God, because he made the heaven, and the earth, and the sea, Rev 14:6, Rev 14:7. Let us all fear him, that is, dread his wrath and displeasure, and be afraid of having him our enemy and of standing it out against him. Let us not dare to offend him who having this power no doubt has all power in his hand. It is dangerous being at war with him who has the host of heaven for his armies and the depths of the sea for his magazines, and therefore it is wisdom to desire conditions of peace, see Jer 5:22.
IV. The satisfaction he had of God's sovereignty and dominion, Psa 33:10, Psa 33:11. He over-rules all the counsels of men, and makes them, contrary to their intention, serviceable to his counsels. Come and see with an eye of faith God in the throne, 1. Frustrating the devices of his enemies: He bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought, so that what they imagine against him and his kingdom proves a vain thing (Psa 2:1); the counsel of Ahithophel is turned into foolishness; Haman's plot is baffled. Though the design be laid ever so deep, and the hopes raised upon it ever so high, yet, if God says it shall not stand, neither shall it come to pass; it is all to no purpose. 2. Fulfilling his own decrees: The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever. It is immutable in itself, for he is in one mind, and who can turn him? The execution of it may be opposed, but cannot in the least be obstructed by any created power. Through all the revolutions of time God never changed his measures, but in every event, even that which to us is most surprising, the eternal counsel of God is fulfilled, nor can any thing prevent its being accomplished in its time. With what pleasure to ourselves may we in singing this give praise to God! How easy may this thought make us at all times, that God governs the world, that he did it in infinite wisdom before we were born, and will do it when we are silent in the dust!
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous,.... See Gill…
Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous,.... See Gill on Psa 32:11;
for praise is comely for the upright; it becomes them; it is their duty; they are bound unto it by the mercies and favours they have received; should they not give praise to God, the stones of the wall would cry out, and rebuke them for their ingratitude: it is beautiful, and looks lovely in them; it is an ornament to them, and is, in the sight of God, of great esteem: it is very acceptable to him, and when grace is in exercise, and their hearts in tune, being sensibly touched and impressed with the goodness of God, it is desirable by them, and is pleasant and delightful to them.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–4 The Psalmist exhorts the righteous to praise God, for…
The Psalmist exhorts the righteous to praise God, for his truth, justice and goodness, ver. 1-5, For creating the world, ver. 6-9. For his providence in governing it, ver. 10-17. For his peculiar favour to his people, encouraging them to trust in him, ver. 18-22.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–4 The Lord is praised for his works of creation,…
PSALM XXXIII
The Lord is praised for his works of creation, 1-9;
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and for the stability of his own counsels, 10, 11.
The blessedness of the people who have the knowledge of the
true God, his grace, and providence, 12-15.
The vanity of all earthly dependence, 16, 17.
The happiness of them that fear God, and trust in his mercy,
18-22.
NOTES ON PSALM XXXIII
This Psalm has no title in the Hebrew and it was probably written on no particular occasion, but was intended as a hymn of praise in order to celebrate the power, wisdom, and mercy of God. Creation and providence are its principal subjects; and these lead the psalmist to glance at different parts of the ancient Jewish history. In eight of Kennicott's MSS., this Psalm is written as a part of the preceding.
Verse 1. Rejoice in the Lord] It is very likely that the last verse of the preceding Psalm was formerly the first verse of this. As this Psalm has no title, the verse was the more easily separated. In the preceding Psalm we have an account of the happiness of the justified man: in this, such are taught how to glorify God, and to praise him for the great things he had done for them.
Praise is comely for the upright.] It is right they should give thanks to Him, who is the fountain whence they have received all the good they possess and thankfulness becomes the lips of the upright.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4 Psa 33:1. Rejoice in the Lord — Let his…
Psa 33:1. Rejoice in the Lord — Let his excellence, discovered in his works, be the matter of your praise. Praise is comely for the upright — It well becomes them to be employed in this work of praising God, partly, because they are under great and singular obligations to him, and have abundant occasions to do so; and partly, they will praise him sincerely, affectionately, and with due reverence and thankfulness, as he requires and deserves to be praised; whereas ungodly men do indeed disparage and pollute the holy name of God while they pretend to praise it; and therefore God rejects their praises and prayers.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous - This…
Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous - This is the sentiment with which the preceding psalm closes. See the notes at Psa 32:11.
For praise is comely for the upright - Is befitting, suitable, proper. That is, the upright - the righteous - have abundant cause for praise, and it is for them a suitable employment, or one which becomes them. A man who is upright, or who is a righteous man, has in this very fact much which lays a foundation for praise, for the fact that he has such a character is to be traced to the grace of God, and this in itself is a more valuable possession than gold or kingly crowns would he. That he is not an open violator of the law of God; that he is not intemperate; that he is not the victim of raging lusts and passions; that he is not a dishonest man; that he is not profane; that he is not an infidel or a scoffer; that he is a pious man - a redeemed man - a man of good character - an heir of heaven - is the highest blessing that could be conferred on him; and he who has been saved from outbreaking transgression and crime in a world like this, and has been enabled to live an upright life, has eminently occasion to praise and bless God. Assuredly for such a man praise is an appropriate employment, for such a man it is “comely.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 33
Psalms 33
1 Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous:
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For praise is comely for the upright.
2 Praise the Lord with harp:
Sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.
3 Sing unto him a new song;
Play skilfully with a loud noise.
4 For the word of the Lord is right;
And all his works are done in truth.
5 He loveth righteousness and judgment:
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
6 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made;
And all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
7 He gathereth the waters of the sea together as a heap:
He layeth up the depth in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the Lord:
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him:
9 For he spake, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast.
10 The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought:
He maketh the devices of the people of none effect.
11 The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever,
The thoughts of his heart to all generations.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord;
And the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.
13 The Lord looketh from heaven;
He beholdeth all the sons of men.
14 From the place of his habitation he looketh
Upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
15 He fashioneth their hearts alike;
He considereth all their works.
16 There is no king saved by the multitude of a host:
A mighty man is not delivered by much strength.
17 A horse is a vain thing for safety:
Neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.
18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him,
Upon them that hope in his mercy;
19 To deliver their soul from death,
And to keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waiteth for the Lord:
He is our help and our shield.
21 For our heart shall rejoice in him,
Because we have trusted in his holy name.
22 Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us,
According as we hope in thee.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Arrangement of the Contents.—The pious members of the congregation are summoned to give to the Lord the praise due unto Him (Psa_33:1-3). This is based upon a reference to the nature of the word and work of God (Psa_33:4-5), the Almighty Creator and Preserver (Psa_33:6-7), as well as the Ruler of all the world, who is to be feared (Psa_33:8-9) In contrast with the thoughts of men, His eternal and unchangeable decrees are victoriously carried out in history (Psa_33:10-11), therefore the people chosen by Him for His own, are to be called happy (Psa_33:12). The Omniscient King of heaven observes all things (Psa_33:13-15); worldly power is not the cause of victory and of deliverance (Psa_33:16-17), but the eyes of the Lord are directed upon the pious for their deliverance and preservation (Psa_33:18-19); hence waiting and trusting in Him are essentially the work of the members of His congregation, and this expresses itself as well in thankful confession as in joyous hope and confident prayer (Psa_33:20-22). With this closing clause the movement of thought returns to its beginning, which has the closest relation with the closing words of the preceding Psalm. From this may be explained the position of this Psalm in its present order in the book, yet it hardly shows that these two Psalms originally belonged together (Venema), or are a pair of Psalms (Hengst.), although the title which is usually appended in this book is absent here, which is the case only in the first two Psalms and in Psalms 10 [vid. these Psalms for the reasons of this.—C. A. B.]. For Psalms 32 has its source in the personal experience of an Israelite who was previously impenitent, yet was pardoned after having confessed his sins, and it maintains this character of individual testimony even where it passes over from the description of the contrasted conditions and experiences into a summons to all his companions to give personal expression to similar experiences, under similar treatment in similar circumstances, by praising God. The present Psalm, on the other hand, moves throughout in the tone of a hymn determined for the congregation as such, which has its foundation in the happy feeling of security of the people, who know that they are chosen and guided by the Creator and Ruler of the whole world as His own people. With this thorough-going difference of circumstances and character it is unimportant that this Psalm has twice as many verses as the previous Psalm, and that its fundamental thought appears immediately at the end of the first half of the Psalms 5
Str. I. [Psa_33:1. Praise is comely.—Hupfeld: “This means that it is their duty as well as that it redounds to their honor and is an ornament, just as on the contrary, silence is to their shame: because they alone have a peculiar experience of the glorious government of God, and so they alone are fitted for this.”
Psa_33:2. Upon a ten stringed harp play to Him.—For the musical instruments vid. Introduction. The A. V. improperly makes a separate clause for an instrument of ten strings.—C. A. B.]
Psa_33:3. Play well.—This expression (comp. 1Sa_16:17; Isa_23:16) is given a too narrow reference by some interpreters, after the Sept., to the skill, by others, after Symm., to the power of the execution. The new song is one not heard before. Such an one may spring from a fresh impulse of the heart (Stier), since God’s glory is new every morning (Hengst.), without necessarily distinguishing itself by its originality, or taking its material ever, as Psa_40:4 and Rev_5:9, from a new occurrence. Therefore it is a false conclusion to suppose that this expression has been afterwards reduced to an insignificant formula, because it occurs in such Psalms as 95, 98, 149. And the conjecture, that the Psalm might refer to the disappearance of the Scythians, Zep_3:15 (Hitzig), may be connected externally with Psa_33:5; Psa_33:10; Psa_33:16, but cannot be derived from these verses, nor be supported by a comparison of Psa_33:5 with Jer_9:23, or Psa_33:13-14 with Psa_14:2, which comparisons though ingenious are violent. Nor can it be explained by the reference of Psa_33:4 to Psa_32:8, where it is said that Jehovah’s counsel and protection are promised, nor can it be made probable by the remark that is made, that the flood mentioned in Psa_32:6, which passed away without harm for the entire people, might be referred to the same inroad, since Psalms 32 takes consideration of a hostile invasion, and Psa_33:1 is connected without title with Psa_32:11, and the perfect in Psa_30:10 indicates a particular event, probably of the recent past, a mighty deed of the national God. No more is the design of this “new” song to be regarded, with the more ancient interpreters, as for use at a sacrificial feast, especially as תרועהdoes not mean “sound of trumpets” (De Wette), but merely shouting. Comp. Psa_27:6.
Str. II. Psa_33:5. The predicates, “just and upright or honest,” are not to be taken as a later designation of the Israelites in general (Maurer), but as an address to the true members of the congregation (Hengst., Hupf.), yet so, that the national contrast of the people of God with heathen nations is at the same time indicated by this expression which characterizes the destiny of Israel. Comp. Num_23:10.
Str. III. Psa_33:6. Breath of His mouth.—The connection of these two expressions and their relation to the former half of the verse do not permit the direct reference of ancient interpreters to the hypostatic Spirit of God. But the unmistakable reference to the history of creation, is as clearly against the modern limitation of this expression to the meaning of utterance which is synonymous with the wordIsa. Psa_11:4. And so, if the interpretation of ruach as breath is to be retained, we must yet think of the creative Omnipotence and breath of life, Job_27:3; Job_33:4; Psa_104:30 (Hengst.), and the relative expressions are only synonymous “in so far as there is rendered prominent in dabar not only the creative power, but likewise wisdom (Jer_10:12; Pro_3:19), whilst in ruach peh particularly the vitalizing power embraced in the form of the word (the operative breath from God’s own internal nature).” (Stier).
Psa_33:7. He gathereth the waters of the sea together as a heap.—The Hebrew participles in this and the following clause might in themselves be translated by the perfect as well as by the present. The structure of the clause, however, in its relation to the previous verse favors the latter. For since Jehovah is not the subject of the previous verse, a close connection of the participle with it and at the same time a limitation to the fact of the Creation, which happened once for all, are excluded, although even the chosen expressions likewise take their departure in part from this fact. The clause is independent and expresses an abiding and characteristic action of God; similar to Psa_33:5. This is likewise favored by the following expressions. For the comparison of the waters of the sea with a heap of sheaves (Isa_17:11 decides for this meaning) reminds us of the narrative of Exo_15:8, likewise Jos_3:13; Jos_3:16; Psa_78:13, mentioning with the same expression the towering up of the waters by a miracle of Divine Omnipotence in the passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea. But here this fact as such is not mentioned, but by the choice of words the idea is called forth of the waters of the high sea, swelling up above jet held firmly together by the Omnipotence of God. There is no reference in the first half of the verse to limitations such as those formed by the banks and the beds of the waters. If with Cleric and Hupf. an additional thought is added under the figure of parietes horrei, whilst it is in other respects a true explanation, it displaces the point of comparison given in the text. In the translation of Ewald, Luther and all ancient interpreters, “as in a bottle,” we must read nôd [נֹאד=נדֹ ] instead of nçd [נֵד], the correct meaning of which was already given by Calvin and Ruding. after the Rabbins. Under the “bottle” was often understood the clouds, and then they thought of the upper or heavenly waters. Hitzig likewise refers this passage to this heavenly ocean (Job_9:8), which according to Job_26:8, by dint of the Omnipotence of God, is borne by the clouds without their being torn, and this although he translates: He restrains as with a dam. For whilst a real dam is placed to the earthly sea, whose character affords reason to wonder at the greatness of God, (Jer_5:22), here a comparison is expressed. At the same time Hitzig lays emphasis upon the close connection which arises from this explanation with Psa_33:6, and upon the circumstance, that elsewhere likewise (Job_38:22; Jer_10:13; Sir_43:14) only the heavenly reservoirs are called treasury, as here in the second half of the verse. And so he refers this half likewise to the heavenly waters. But תְּהוֹם, which, apart from the history of the Creation and the Flood, is only found in poetical pieces, denotes constantly the roaring and unfathomable depth. However, it is not necessary, therefore, with the Rabbins, to think of the waters under the earth, according to Gen_7:11. The reference in both halves of the verse is to floods of the sea, which in their apparent irregularity are subjected by God’s power to His will (Jer_5:22), and are held together and stored up for the purposes of the Divine household.
Str. IV. 9. For He said and it was.—[The He is emphatic in this and the following clause]. This verse refers back to the omnipotence of God shown in the Creation (most interpreters, with the ancient translations), as a motive for all men to fear such a God as this. To take it as present (Luther, De Wette, Delitzsch) confounds application with interpretation. The supposition that this verse refers to the same fact, which is more clearly given in Psa_33:10 (Hitzig), and relates to an event which only recently occurred (Venema), arises from the presumption which has not been proved, that a special historical occurrence like this was the occasion of this song. In connection with this interpretation, Hitzig understands by the hunger mentioned in Psa_33:19, real hunger, which took place after that the people of the country had been pressed together into the strong cities (Jer_8:14; Jer_4:5). This expression, however, may be more easily taken as a designation of great need and peril of death in general, as Psa_34:10 sq.; Psa_37:19; Job_5:20, and often in the Prophets.
[Str. V. Psa_33:10-11. Perowne: “After speaking of God’s power in Creation, the Psalmist goes on to speak of His Providence as ordering the world. There is a manifest antithesis between ‘the counsels and the thoughts’ of men which Jehovah brings to naught, and ‘the counsels and thoughts’ of Jehovah which abide forever.”
Psa_33:12. Alexander: “This is the centre of the whole Psalm, the conclusion from what goes before, and the text or theme of all that follows. Under the general proposition is included a particular felicitation of Israel as the actual choice and heritage of God, i.e., chosen to be His, in a peculiar sense, by hereditary succession, through a course of ages.”—C. A. B.]
Str. VI. [Psa_33:13-14. From His Providence the Psalmist passes over to His Omniscience. Comp. Psa_11:4; Psa_14:2.—C. A. B.]
Psa_33:15. Former of their hearts all at once.—The reference here is not to governing the heart (Luther) as in Pro_21:1; Jer_10:23. By emphasizing the participle (Hengst., Delitz.) there is gained the idea of a continued and essential activity of God; but the word itself and the context lead not to a Divine influence with respect to forming the thoughts of the heart, but only to the creative formation of the heart. The overlooking and judicial activity of God described in Psa_33:13-14, God exercises in the twofold capacity stated in Psa_33:15. If יחד stood at the beginning of the verse as Psa_49:3; Psa_49:11, it would have to be referred with Hupfeld to both clauses in the signification of pariter ac. Its present position, however, is in favor of the usual meaning: all at once, altogether. The Vulgate renders this idea of being without exception, by singillatim after the Sept. κατὰ μόνας, whilst the plural καρδίας is put instead of the singular.
Str. VII. Psa_33:16. The king is not helped.—The article before melech makes the translation “no king” (De Wette [A. V.]) inadmissible. The particle of negation is to be referred to the participle with strong emphasis. Comp. Ewald, § 321, a.
[Psa_33:17. The horse is a delusion for help.—Alexander: “The horse meant is the war-horse, and is singled out as one of the elements of military strength in which the ancients were especially disposed to trust. Vid.Psa_20:7; Isa_31:1-3. A lie, a falsehood, i.e., something which deceives and disappoints the confidence reposed in it.”—C. A. B.]
[Str. VIII. Psa_33:18-19. Alexander: “While the material strength of other men fails to secure them, those who fear the Lord and hope in His mercy are secure beneath His vigilant inspection.”—C. A. B.]
Str. IX. Psa_33:20-22. In the first half of the verse Hengstenberg finds an allusion to Gen_49:18, in the second half to Deu_33:26; Deu_33:29. [For an explanation of help, and shield, vid.Psa_5:12; Psa_10:14; Psa_22:11; Psa_30:10. Perowne: “This attitude of hope and trust is the attitude of the Church in all ages, for she is not yet made perfect; but the Jewish Church was in a special sense the Church of the future, and therefore also in a special manner a waiting and hoping Church. The whole history of Israel may indeed be summed up in Jacob’s dying words: ‘I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord.’ ”—C. A. B.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The solemn and thankful praise of God in the congregation corresponds on the one side with the will of God, who by His prophet has demanded it, on the other side is appropriate to the upright, who by virtue of their position in the congregation and to God, in the fulfilment of this duty of the appropriate recognition of God, are able to give suitable expression to it. Their jubilation has not only as its subject the glory of God, but exhibits itself likewise as a joy in the Lord, which does not despise the use of art, yet employs it for the honor of God, encourages those like-minded to praise God by personal, joyous confession, and is impelled and enabled to make known in new songs and new ways the renewed feelings of the heart. “To the unrighteous the glory of God is not the subject of joy and of praise, but of terror and aversion.—It is a sad sign of the decline of the Church when the demand to sing Him a new song is no longer executed. The more careful then must it be to preserve its old songs” (Hengst.) Comp. Psa_50:16.
2. The inexhaustible reason for breaking forth in new songs of praise, and the fresh sounding forth of the old songs of faith in the congregation, is the recognition of the glory of God, as it is manifest to the congregation in the word and providence of the Lord. Both mutually confirm one another, and declare God as the one who is worthy of praise, and who is alone reliable as well on account of His moral perfection as with respect to His Omnipotence, which are testified to in the creation and government of the world, whilst they realize in both the unchangeable thoughts and counsels of the righteousness and love of God, which are made known to His chosen people in the words of revelation.
3. All men have therefore good reason to fear a God like this, but to esteem His chosen people as blessed, that they have such a Lord for their God. They have every reason to trust Him, in the greatest dangers to hope in His assistance, and to expect deliverance from Him out of the greatest troubles. For no creature can successfully resist the Creator, nothing can escape the service of the Almighty, no works, yea no thought of the heart can be concealed from the eye of the Omniscient. And when men attempt it and not only singly, but in great masses follow their own end, turning away from God, they are obliged to experience that God’s decrees and order stand fast forever and not only maintain themselves against all opposition and resistance, but are carried out in the world to the honor of God, and the good of His people, whilst the thoughts, counsels and works of the adversaries are observed, judged and brought to nought by God.
4. Since this is so, it is becoming for the pious, not only to praise God, but no more to fear the power of the adversary than rely upon earthly means of help, but much rather in true fear of God to resort to the Lord, and in living faith hope in His grace. But the hope of those who fear God and trust in Him will not be put to shame, for it is not based on human presumptions, suppositions and wishes, but on the holy name, in which the true God has revealed His holy nature, and in which grace and faith meet one another. Those who hide themselves in God, will rejoice in God, yet in all their rejoicings in God will not forget to pray as penitent sinners for new tokens of grace from the faithful God of the covenant, and thereby as true members of the congregation, show how God ceases not to show Himself to them even to the end, the same as He has declared Himself from the beginning, as ever the same reliable God. “The wickedness of men may have in itself the desire to injure, but it has not the power; there is no power except from God” (Augustine).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
To praise God is for the pious a duty as well as an honor and joy.—A new heart is necessary for new songs.—How art is sanctified, when it is used to praise God and edify the congregation.—The happiness of the people whose God is the Lord: 1) in what it consists; 2) how it is expressed; 3) how it may be preserved.—The great joy of the pious in God’s works and government is magnified by their joy in God’s word and holy name, and is fulfilled in a joy in God Himself by a life in His grace.—What God preserves in His treasury He bestows in blessings or in curses, in accordance with His will and the conduct of men.—Human thoughts and Divine decrees.—On what the confidence is based that God will help His people out of all their troubles and can help them!—The pious can rely upon God’s holy word with the same confidence, as upon God’s holy Providence.—The reliable, comforting and blessed meeting of the Divine grace and human faith.—How we may accomplish that our life as well as our song may begin and close with joy in God.—God is not only the almighty Creator and the kind Preserver of the world, He is likewise the watchful Guardian of the ordinances and laws instituted by Himself, the Omniscient and just Judge of all men, the only reliable Protector and Helper of His people.—.The consideration of the word and works of God should encourage us to fear, love and trust in God respecting all things.—God has made known to us His holy name in order that we may call upon Him in all our troubles, pray to Him, praise and thank Him.
Starke: If the work which is done is to please God, the person must first of all please Him and be justified by faith.—If we properly understood our great benefits and heavenly treasures we would rejoice more over them than over all the honor and glory of this world.—The ungodly cannot praise God, for they have no taste of the goodness of God; their praise pleases God as little as their prayers.—All the works of God show, that He is honest, faithful and true.—In all the commands, threatenings and promises of God look alone to the Divine authority of the Ruler, this will strongly impel you to the obedience of childlike respect and trust.—If God has created the wonderful structure of the heavens with all its hosts and has thus far upheld it, how shall He not be able to sustain thee, who art only one creature and a little piece of earth? It is an especial grace of God, that He brings to nought the blood-thirsty devices of the enemy, the church would otherwise long since have perished.—All that thou dost, take counsel at first with God, for if this is neglected it is an easy thing for Him to bring to nought all thy plans.—Wilt thou have the gracious eye of God directed upon thee, then direct thine eye constantly to Him in faith, love and obedience.—If we do not persevere in patience and constancy, we forfeit true Divine help, and do not obtain what we otherwise would.
Osiander: We should use temporal good so that it may be our greatest joy that God is graciously disposed toward us.—Menzel: God not only does righteousness, but He loves it and demands it likewise of others.—Renschel: If it is true that God can and does do so much, it is likewise fair 1) that we should wait on Him, 2) that we should make Him our shield, 3) that we should rejoice in Him.—Frisch: If a joyous praise and service of God is lacking to a man, he lacks likewise a true knowledge of what he has in God.—Arndt: The great sea is surrounded by the commandments of God; how should He not then bridle men on earth, and put a bit in their mouths?—Francke: Where a new song like this is sung, there must likewise be a new tongue; but a new heart is presupposed.—Nitzsch: The glorifying of God our Saviour by the new songs, which He has awakened from the earliest times in His congregation. These songs glorify Him, 1) by virtue of their origin, since they come only from a newly created heart which is full of salvation; 2) by means of their meaning and contents as the signs of the highest satisfaction, which it is possible for men to attain here below, 3) by means of their long and deep effect upon the present and future; 4) as the living alliance of the saints with the lovely and beautiful.—Umbreit: The same God, to the ordinance of whose words the physical world must submit, rules forever in the kingdom of spirits.—All true power comes from God, and is crowned with victory by Him.—Tholuck: The throne of God is not an idle seat of care, but the judgment seat of a king, from which with lofty glance the fates of the world are ruled.—All victories on earth are gained only by the power of God.—Taube: An appeal to all true Israelites to praise the glory of the Lord, who is the terror of His enemies, but the consolation of His people.—Make no parade with the creature, but be not afraid of the creature, for it is in the hand of God.—Schaubach. Fear and hope are seldom found together in men; but he who would hope in the goodness of God, must likewise fear His holy name.
[Matth. Henry: What pity is it that this earth, which is so full of God’s goodness, should be so empty of His praises; and that, of the multitudes that live upon His bounty, there are so few that live to His glory.—How easy may this thought make us at all times, that God governs the world, that He did it in infinite wisdom before we were born, and will do it when we are silent in the dust!—They that fear God and His wrath must hope in God and His mercy; for there is no flying from God but by flying to Him.—Barnes: God is a great and glorious Sovereign over all, and He will make everything subordinate to the promotion of His own great designs.—True piety leads men to wait on the Lord; to depend on Him; to look to His interposition, in danger, sickness, poverty, want: to rely on. Him for all that is hoped for in this life, and for salvation in the life to come.—Spurgeon: To rejoice in temporal comforts is dangerous, to rejoice in self is foolish, to rejoice in sin is fatal, but to rejoice in God is heavenly.—Heartiness should be conspicuous in Divine worship.—God writes with a pen that never blots, speaks with a tongue that never slips, acts with a hand which never fails. Bless His name.—If earth be full of mercy, what must heaven be, where goodness concentrates its beams?—Happy is the man who has learned to lean his all upon the sure word of Him who built the skies.—The cause of God is never in danger; infernal craft is outwitted by infinite wisdom, and Satanic malice is held in check by boundless power.—All Adam’s sons are as well watched as was Adam himself, their lone progenitor in the garden.—The eye of peculiar care is their glory and defence. None can take them unawares, for the celestial Watcher foresees the designs of their enemies and provides against them.—Believer, wait upon thy God in temporals. His eye is upon thee, and His hand will not long delay.—The root of faith in due time bears the flower of rejoicing. Doubts breed sorrow, confidence creates joy.—C. A. B.]
Footnotes:
[5][However different these two Psalms may be in some respects, yet the close resemblance and the frequently recurring references in expressions and in sentiment to the previous Psalm, favor the idea that the two Psalms were originally one, but were afterwards separated for use in the congregation. The first verse of this Psalm takes up directly the sentiment and words of the closing verse of the previous Psalm. The references in Str. II. to the justice and goodness of God fully accord with these sentiments. The reference to the Divine power in the creation and government of the world is natural in this connection, where the penitent is rejoicing in the forgiveness of sins, especially as the two ideas are brought together in an inverse order in Psalms 19. It is not unimportant that Psa_33:12 ascribes the same blessedness to the nation and people as was ascribed to the individual at the beginning of Psalms 32. The terms and sentiments of Psa_33:16 sq. are in accordance with Psa_32:8-9. And the final expressions of hope and trust in Jehovah’s holiness and mercy form a proper conclusion to the sentiments of both Psalms.—C. A. B.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv3–4 a new song--fresh, adapted to the occasion (Psa 40:3;…
a new song--fresh, adapted to the occasion (Psa 40:3; Psa 96:1).
play skilfully--(Compare Sa1 16:17).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4 1. Praise is comely—It is suitable, fit, pleasant. A…
1. Praise is comely—It is suitable, fit, pleasant. A call upon the righteous for loud rejoicing.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–4 1. Rejoice] Shout for joy: the same verb as…
1. Rejoice] Shout for joy: the same verb as in Psa_32:11 b, though in a different form. As in that verse, the righteous and the upright, the true Israelites, are addressed. Praise is their duty and their honour: in their mouths alone is it seemly.
for praise &c.] Omit for. Cp. Psa_147:1 b.
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1–3. Introductory call to praise.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–4 (1) Rejoice.—A common hymnic word, meaning properly to “shout,”…
(1) Rejoice.—A common hymnic word, meaning properly to “shout,” or “sing for joy.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–4 THIS psalm has no title in the Hebrew, and…
THIS psalm has no title in the Hebrew, and in some manuscripts it is joined on to the preceding psalm, and forms one with it. But the difference of subject-matter and of tone render it highly improbable that that arrangement is the correct one. The two psalms are best regarded as wholly separate compositions, though the writer of the present one took for his key-note the last verse of Ps 32. The Septuagint makes David the author, but with no support from the Hebrew. An author in the reign of Asa or Jehoshaphat, and again one in the reign of Josiah, has been suggested, but the psalm itself scarcely gives a hint towards fixing the date.
As a simple psalm of praise and thanksgiving, intended for the service of the temple, it is well worthy of admiration, being "singularly bright, and replete with beautiful imagery" ("Speaker"s Commentary"). Metrically, it consists of six strophes, the first and last containing three verses each, and the intermediate ones each four verses.
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Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous. (see the first clause of Psa_32:11, of which this is almost a repetition; and comp. also Psa_68:3 Psa_97:12) For praise is comely for the upright. The Prayer-book Version gives the meaning, less literally, but in more idiomatic English, "For it becometh well the just to be thankful.
Vers. 1-3. Spiritual worship.
"Rejoice," etc. Worship is worthless if it be not spiritual. "God is a Spirit," etc. (Joh_4:24) But worship simply spiritual, with no outward expression, no material symbol, would not suffice man"s nature. Man is not spirit only; he is also flesh. His eye, ear, voice, nerves, brain, are as much God"s work as his spirit. The worship he owes to God is that of his whole nature body, soul, and spirit. Spiritual life cannot live on public worship only. There are chambers in the temple of the soul which are secret from every eye but God"s. "Thou, when thou prayest," etc. (Mat_6:6) But if public worship alone will not satisfy our religious need, neither will secret worship. Man"s nature is social. Even in sorrow, though we may shrink from company, we like sympathy to follow us into our solitude. But joy naturally seeks partners, longs to express itself, is sociable, outspoken, and sympathetic. Hence public worship is not an artificial contrivance, such as warm, vigorous piety can afford to dispense with or despise; it is the natural and fitting outcome of spiritual life, and one of the most powerful means for its nourishment. It is indispensable, and the full, complete exercise of Christian fellowship. Let us speak of the reasons and motives which make praise alike a duty and a privilege.
I THE GOODNESS AND FAITHFULNESS OF GOD. (Vers. 4, 5) Characteristic of Bible to place moral attributes in the foreground, as chief reason for "rejoicing in the Lord. " A poet would have put first (what here comes second) the splendour and variety of God"s works. A philosopher, the infinity, eternity, absolute existence of God. Scripture puts that first which at once concerns us most, and is God"s highest glory his character.
II GLORY OF GOD IN CREATION. His all-wise design and all-powerful will both included in "the word of the Lord" (vers. 6-9).
III GOD"S ALL-EMBRACING PROVIDENCE. Controlling all human affairs; baffling and making void, when he sees fit, all human counsels; creating, reading, ruling the minds of men (vers. 10-15).
IV GOD"S SPECIAL CARE AND MERCY TOWARDS HIS PEOPLE. Those who love and trust him (vers. 16-22). This is contrasted with the vanity of earthly power (vers. 16, 17). Yet, in this boundless prospect, the highest, deepest, strongest reason for praise is not included. To the Old Testament saints the veil still hung before the holy of holies. The Holy Spirit gave them the hope and promise of things as yet hid in mystery. (Mat_13:16, 17 Eph_3:5 1Jn_4:10) This is the main theme of the worship of heaven. (Rev_5:9, Rev_5:12)
Only as we have received Christ into our hearts can we "rejoice in the Lord" as our God and Father. Only thus is our worship a preparation for heaven.
Vers. 1-3. Methods of worship.
The forms of temple-worship to which this psalm refers were unsuited to the Christian Church, because the gospel leaves no room for a central holy place on earth. The heavenly sanctuary is open to faith, and the whole world has become like the court of God"s temple. (Heb_9:8, 24 Joh_4:21, Joh_4:23) But as our reasons for praising God are not less, but infinitely more, than the Old Testament saints knew, so Christian worship should not fall below, but rise above theirs. Here are three characters which it should possess:
(1) outward as well as spiritual;
(2) hearty and joyful;
(3) collective and public.
I OUTWARD AS WELL AS SPIRITUAL. All strong emotion seeks and prompts utterance. For grief, because it is often solitary and speechless, God has provided the silent language of tears (sometimes, too, for joy, when too big for words). But the impulse of joy is to shout and sing. Examples: A troop of children when school is over; victors in a race or game; multitude welcoming a sovereign. From the beginning of the gospel, vocal praise, the worship of song, has had a place of honour in the Christian Church. (Eph_5:19 Col_3:16 Act_16:25) What would heaven be without it? (Rev_14:2 Rev_15:3) God might have given language without song; voice and hearing without music. Man alone of living creatures can produce music (for the song of birds is not music. That some birds can be taught tunes proves that they can perceive music, but they have no power to produce it). It is one of God"s choicest gifts, and its highest use is in his praise.
II HEARTY AND JOYFUL, "With a loud noise." The word here used is elsewhere translated shout". (Num_23:21) Also used for the sound of the trumpet. (comp. Psa_98:4-6) Does the value of our praise, then, depend on its noisings? Is God pleased, or man made devout, by noise and shouting? Certainly not. What these passages teach is heartiness in praise. We should throw our soul as well as our voice into it. Drawling languor, indolent affectation, mumbling negligence, should be utterly banished. To be silent, except from infirmity (as lack of ear or voice), in God"s praise, should be held a disgrace. If "do it heartily" (Col_3:23) applies to any duty, surely to this.
III COLLECTIVE AND PUBLIC. When the Apostles Peter and John returned "to their own company," after their noble testimony before the Sanhedrin, we read that "they lifted up their voice to God with one accord". (Act_4:24) Not "their voices," but "their voice," which must mean either that one spoke for the rest, or that they joined in holy song; for in music many voices become one. Accordingly, what follows may well be regarded as a psalm of praise and prayer, in which one prophet led and the rest joined in chorus. It is a very significant fact, that neither in the Jewish temple nor in ancient heathen temples was there harmony in our sense of the word. The full, rich blending of the four kinds of voice, each in its part, is an art for which the world may thank the Church.
The duty and privilege of praise is one chief lesson of the whole Book of Psalms. It draws to a close, as if with the unrisen sunlight of the new covenant shining on it, with exhortations to universal praise. (Psa_148:12 Psa_150:6) This part of public worship, therefore praise as one of the noblest duties and highest privileges of Christians, is the concern of the whole Church; not to be left to a handful of choristers or a specially excellent voice here and there. Preparation intelligently and harmoniously to join in psalmody should be part of Christian education. Hearty, skilful, joyful, sympathetic psalmody is no mean part of our education for heaven.
HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE Vers. 1-22. Joy in God.
In this section of the Commentary we aim at discovering the unity of the psalm, and of dealing with it accordingly, reserving the treatment of specific verses as separate texts, for another department. This psalm has neither title nor author"s name appended thereto. It is manifestly an outburst of glad and gladdening song from some Old Testament believer, and is a glorious anticipation of Php_4:4. It is refreshing to the spirit to find that in the olden times there were pious and holy souls, receptive of the revelation which God had even then given of himself, and who could gather up their thoughts in grateful calm as they mused on the perfections of their ever-reigning Lord. In this psalm there are no historic considerations presented, nor is there any individual experience suggested at which we have to look in studying this amazing illustration of joy in God. It is the "itself by itself the pure thing, the uplifting of a soul from the cloudland of earth to the sunland of heaven. Here is
I AN ENRAPTURING VIEW OF THE GLORY OF OUR REVEALED GOD. We use this word "revealed," as indicated By this psalm, advisedly on two grounds. For
(1) the name "Jehovah" (ver. 1) is the name by which God revealed himself to Israel. (Exo_6:3) The name "I am that I am" at once removes the God of the Hebrews far above all anthropomorphism. Then
(2) in ver. 4 we are told, "The Word of the Lord is right;" so that, as the word is the expression of thought, and as expressed thought indicates will, it is here declared that God had made known his will. (see Psa_103:7 Heb_1:1) How far God"s early disclosures of himself went, our Lord Jesus Christ tells us. (Mat_22:31, Mat_22:32) And it is by the light from words of God that we read his natural works. Having, then, God revealed by name and by word, what are the contents of that revelation which are here pointed out?
1. Right. (Ver. 4) The Word of God, as given under the Old Testament, was preeminently right. As being such, the whole of the hundred and nineteenth psalm extols it. And now no nobler ethical code does the world possess than that given to Moses and the prophets, and confirmed by Christ.
2. Truth. (Ver. 4) I.e. faithfulness. As righteousness marks the Word, so fidelity to the Word marks the works of God.
3. Goodness. (ver. 5) I.e. loving-kindness. The earth is full of it. The sound eye rejoices in the sunshine; and the pure heart reads the goodness of God everywhere.
4. Power. (Vers. 6, 7, 9) We cannot rejoice in bare power; but when infinite power is in alliance with perfect goodness and with loving-kindness, then we can.
5. Wisdom. (Ver. 10) There is not only a power that sways matter, but a wisdom which controls mind, so that among the nations there can never be any plotting which can frustrate or intercept his plans.
6. Omniscience. (Vers. 14, 15) He espies from afar the hidden thought of every soul. (Pro_15:3 Ps 139) He knows men"s hearts, as having created them (ver. 15) "alike," i.e. altogether, in one. There are variations in mind, but yet all minds act responsively to some necessary laws of thought inlaid in their original structure.
7. Steadfast counsels. (Ver. 11) This is true of the plans of providence; but it is most gloriously true of the hidden mysteries and triumphs of his grace. (1Co_2:7 Eph_3:9 Act_15:18)
8. All his counsels are in alliance with a holiness which warrants and invites confidence. (Ver. 21) He cannot do wrong; he cannot be unfaithful or unkind. (Psa_92:15)
9. On some he looks with special favour and love. (Vers. 18, 19; see Psa_18:25, Psa_18:26) Those who trust God most fully and follow him most faithfully will find that their lot is as beautifully ordered for them as if God had no one else to occupy his care. They will be guarded in peril, supplied in need, and comforted in sorrow; the loving glances of a gracious eye and the cheering words from a loving heart will give to such many a song in the night. Let all these nine features of God"s glory be put together and looked at in blended sweetness, and see if they will not raise to an ecstasy of delight.
II THE JOY WHICH UPRIGHT SOULS HAVE IN SUCH A GOD IS UNBOUNDED. Yes.
1. The joy has uprightness for its condition. Upright souls! Only such. But this does not mean absolutely perfect men, but men who mourn over the wrong, who have confessed it before God, who have received his pardoning mercy, and who loyally conform their lives to God"s holy will and Word, who would not knowingly harbour any sin or aught that would grieve their God men who have gone, in fact, through the experiences of Psalm 32 (of which, indeed, this may possibly be a continuation).
2. This joy has grace for its resting-place. (Vers. 18, 22) "Mercy." The joy would have no ground stable enough if it were settled on any other basis than God himself, nor unless that basis were "mercy." "O God, be merciful to me I" is the cry which goes up from the penitent"s lips more and more pleadingly as he moves forward in the pardoned life.
3. This joy has all that God is, has, and does for its contents. So the whole psalm teaches us; for the pardoning mercy of God has brought us so near to him that we know there is for us such an outpouring of love Divine as makes us infinitely rich for time and eternity.
4. This joy has boundless hope for its outlook. (Ver. 22) As Bishop Perowne well remarks, "hope" indicates the perpetual attitude of a trusting and waiting Church. Believers know that God will do exceeding abundantly for them above all they can ask or think. As the rich disclosures of God under the prophets have advanced to their unveiling in the unsearchable riches of Christ, so will the wonders of Christ in grace move forward to those of Christ in his glory. We yet seek a Fatherland. "God is not ashamed to be called our God, for he bath prepared for us a city.
5. This joy has prayer for its upward expression. (Ver. 22, "Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us," etc.) Not that this is its only form of expression (for see below), but it is a joy which must and will find outlet in prayer for the constant supply of that mercy which feeds and sustains it.
III THE JOY IS SUCH THAT IT MAY WELL RIPEN INTO A HOLY FELLOWSHIP OF MUSIC AND SONG. Here in vers. 1-3 the psalmist calls on all upright souls to join him in sounding forth the praises of the Lord.
1. God having taken off all our burdens of guilt and care, the tongue is set free for praise.
2. A common joy in God may wall suggest a grand concert of song.
Fellowship in trouble is soothing; fellowship in peril is uniting; fellowship in need touches common sympathy; fellowship in gladness creates a grand inspiration and a mighty burst of praise.
3. In giving vent to our joy musical instruments may be skilfully" made subservient thereto. (Ver. 3) To plead against this verse that we live in another dispensation, is not in place; for musical instruments in the hands of sanctified men are the servants of the Spirit, and we do but utilize God"s own world of harmony when we press them into the service of celebrating redeeming love.
4. The right use and ample enjoyment in hallowed mirth, as we celebrate the praises of the Lord, may be made a holy and blessed means of grace. It is of no mean importance to recruit the bodily powers for God by means of the enjoyment of sacred music and song. And if, indeed, Christian people of musical tastes would seek to sanctify their special powers for God and his Church, many an abuse of their talents might be prevented, and many a holy outlet for their use secured. Well might Frances R. Havergal write"Take my voice, and let me sing Always, only, for my King.
5. The largest scope for the noblest music is opened up by the wonders of redeeming love. Poetry, painting, sculpture, music, all are grandest when inspired by the Cross. C.
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH Vers. 1-22. This is a hymn of praise to God.
as at once the Almighty Creator and Ruler of the world, and the Protector of his chosen people. Ver. 12 may he regarded as the pivot on which the whole psalm turns. What was true ideally, and in part of Israel, is true in fact and perfectly of God"s people. "Blessed
I BECAUSE THE LORD IS THEIR GOD. The prophets delight to mark the contrast between the gods of the heathen and Jehovah. (Deu_32:31 Psa_86:8 Isa_40:18-25) The vital difference between the false and the true was brought out powerfully in Egypt, (Exo_8:10) and with still more intense and dramatic effect on Mount Carmel in the day of Elijah. (1Ki_18:24) No doubt some of the heathen attained to high views of duty, but amongst the people it was otherwise. As has been said, their gods were like themselves"Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust, Whose attributes were rage, revenge, and lust.
But our God is the living and true God. His character commands our highest admiration (vers. 1-3). His Word and his works call forth our most devoted homage and praise (vers. 4-11). Idolaters and all with idol-loving hearts may be constrained to say, in the day of their trouble, "They have taken away my gods, and what have I more?". (Jud_1:18:24) But no power can take away our God. He says to us, "I will never leave thee." And we cry to him with exulting faith, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee". (Psa_73:23-28) To Israel God appealed as the God of Abraham, and claimed their obedience as the Lord their God, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; (Exo_3:6 Exo_20:1) but he stands in a nearer relationship, and has higher claims upon us, as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph_1:3, 7 1Pe_1:3, 1Pe_1:7)
II BECAUSE UNDER GOD"S GOVERNMENT THEY ARE BEING FORMED TO THE CHARACTER OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. Righteousness is the great want of the world. Get people made righteous right in their being and their life, and there would be an end to the great evils that afflict society. Righteousness is the craving of all consciences and the hope of all troubled hearts. God"s great aim is to make his people righteous. For this end he has given his Law; for this he sent his Son into the world; for this, as the potter with the clay, he is continually working in his gracious providence, "fashioning" the hearts of men. Well, therefore, has Paul said, "We are his workmanship". (Eph_2:10) God is blessed because he is righteous; and he would have his people made happy after the same fashion. (Isa_32:17) "Righteousness exalteth a nation"; (Pro_14:34) and this holds true also of individuals. "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled". (Mat_5:6)
III BECAUSE THEY HAVE A GREAT FUTURE BEFORE THEM. Nations have their decline and fall. Even Israel, because unfaithful, have been scattered; (Deu_29:24-28) but the true Israel shall be under the eye and the keeping of the Lord for ever. They are his own inheritance. (cf. Eph_1:18) Therefore they are encouraged to "hope," to "wait," to "trust." Their golden age is not in the past, but in the future. What Jacob said on his death-bed may be said with joy by all his true children, "I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord!" (Gen_49:18; cf. Luk_2:28-32 1Pe_1:10-13) W.F.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Vers. 1-11. A call to praise God.
The psalm is anonymous, and was composed apparently to celebrate some deliverance of the nation from heathen oppression, resulting from God"s interposition and without war. Vers. 1-3 are a summons to praise God, the song to be accompanied with instrumental music. God is to be praised
I AS THE GOD OF REVELATION. (Vers. 4, 5)
1. His Word is upright, always fulfilling itself.
2. All his conduct is faithful and righteous.
3. All his manifestations of himself are full of loving-kindness.
II AS THE CREATOR OF THE WORLD. (Vers. 6-9)
1. His Word the breath of his mouth was sufficient for the creation of the heavens.
2. He gathered together the waters of the sea.
3. Such manifestations of his power ought to fill us with reverence and awe. Study God"s works as well as his Word. In the nineteenth verse we have the thought of the sixth verse repeated.
III As THE IRRESISTIBLE RULER IN THE HISTORY OF MEN. (Vers. 10, 11) Contrast here between what God does with the thoughts and counsels of men bringing them to nought and what he does with his own making them to stand fast to all generations. The counsels which he brings to nought are evil counsels; he prospers and establishes the counsels of the righteous, and fulfils his own plans and purposes. S
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv1–4 Title. This song of praise bears no title or…
Title. This song of praise bears no title or indication of authorship; to teach us, says Dickson, "to look upon Holy Scripture as altogether inspired of God, and not put price upon it for the writers thereof."
Subject and Division. The praise of Jehovah is the subject of this sacred song. The righteous are exhorted to praise him, Ps 33:1-3; because of the excellency of his character, Ps 33:4-5; and his majesty in creation, Ps 33:6-7. Men are bidden to fear before Jehovah because his purposes are accomplished in providence, Ps 33:8-11. His people are proclaimed blessed, Ps 33:12. The omniscience and omnipotence of God, and his care for his people are celebrated, in opposition to the weakness of an arm of flesh, Ps 33:13-19; and the Psalm concludes with a fervent expression of confidence, Ps 33:20-21, and an earnest prayer, Ps 33:22.
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Ver. 1. Rejoice in the Lord. Joy is the soul of praise. To delight ourselves in God is most truly to extol him, even if we let no notes of song proceed from our lips. That God is, and that he is such a God, and our God, ours for ever and ever, should wake within us an unceasing and overflowing joy. To rejoice in temporal comforts is dangerous, to rejoice in self is foolish, to rejoice in sin is fatal, but to rejoice in God is heavenly. He who would have a double heaven must begin below to rejoice like those above. O ye righteous. This is peculiarly your duty, your obligations are greater, and your spiritual nature more adapted to the work, be ye then first in the glad service. Even the righteous are not always glad, and have need to be stirred up to enjoy their privileges. For praise is comely for the upright. God has an eye to things which are becoming. When saints wear their choral robes, they look fair in the Lord's sight. A harp suits a blood washed hand. No jewel more ornamental to a holy face than sacred praise. Praise is not comely from unpardoned professional singers; it is like a jewel of gold in a swine's snout. Crooked hearts make crooked music, but the upright are the Lord's delight. Praise is the dress of saints in heaven, it is meet that they should fit it on below.
Whole Psalm. A thanksgiving of the church triumphant in the latter ages, for her final deliverance, by the overthrow of Antichrist and his armies. Samuel Horsley.
Whole Psalm. Let us follow the holy man a moment in his meditation. His Psalm is not composed in scholastic form, in which the author confines himself to fixed rules; and, scrupulously following a philosophic method, lays down principals, and infers consequences. However, he establishes principles, the most proper to give us sublime ideas of the Creator; and he speaks with more precision of the works and attributes of God than the greatest philosophers have spoken of them.
How absurdly have the philosophers treated of the origin of the world! How few of them have reasoned conclusively on this important subject! Our prophet solves the important question by one single principle; and, what is more remarkable, this principle, which is nobly expressed, carries the clearest evidence with it. The principle is this: "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth, "Ps 33:6. This is the most rational account that was ever given of the creation of the world. The world is the work of a self efficient will, and it is this principle alone that can account for its creation. The most simple appearances in nature are sufficient to lead us to this principle. Either my will is self efficient, or there is some other being whose will is self efficient. What I say of myself, I say of my parents; and what I affirm of my parents, I affirm of my more remote ancestors, and of all the finite creatures from whom they derive their existence. Most certainly either finite beings have a self efficient will, which it is impossible to suppose, for a finite creature with a self efficient will is a contradiction: either, I say, a finite creature has a self efficient will, or there is a First Cause who has a self efficient will; and that there is such a Being is the principle of the psalmist; "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth."
If philosophers have reasoned inconclusively on the origin of the world, they have spoken of its government with equal uncertainty. The psalmist determines this question with a great facility, by a single principle, which results from the former, and which, like the former, carries its evidence with it. "The Lord looketh from heaven; he considereth all the works of all the inhabitants of the earth, " Ps 33:13-14. This is the doctrine of providence. And on what is the doctrine of providence founded? On this principle: God "fashioneth their hearts alike, "Ps 33:15. Attend a moment to the evidence of this reasoning, my brethren. The doctrine of providence expressed in these words, "God considereth the works of the inhabitants of the earth, "is a necessary consequence of his principle, "God fashioneth their hearts alike; "and this principle is a necessary consequence of that which the psalmist had before laid down to account for the origin of the world. Yes, from that doctrine of God the Creator of men, follows that of God the inspector, the director, rewarder, and the punisher of their actions. One of the most specious objections that has ever been opposed to the doctrine of providence, is a contrast between the grandeur of God and the meanness of men. How can such an insignificant creature as man be the object of the care and attention of such a magnificent being as God? No objection can be more specious, or, in appearance, more invincible. The distance between the meanest insect and the mightiest monarch, who treads and crushes reptiles to death without the least regard to them, is a very imperfect image of the distance between God and man. That which proves that it would be beneath the dignity of a monarch to observe the motions of ants, or worms, to interest himself in their actions, to punish, or to reward them, seems to demonstrate that God would degrade himself were he to observe, to direct, to punish, to reward mankind, who are infinitely inferior to him. But one fact is sufficient to answer this specious objection: that is, God has created mankind. Does God degrade himself more by governing than by creating mankind? Who can persuade himself that a wise Being has given to intelligent creatures faculties capable of obtaining knowledge and virtue, without willing that they should endeavour to acquire knowledge and virtue? Or who can imagine, that a wise Being, who wills that his intelligent creatures should acquire knowledge and virtue, will not punish them if they neglect those acquisitions; and will not show by the distribution of his benefits that he approves their endeavours to obtain them?
Unenlightened philosophers have treated of the attributes of God with as much abstruseness as they have written of his works. The moral attributes of God, as they are called in the schools, were mysteries which they could not unfold. These may be reduced to two classes; attributes of goodness, and attributes of justice. Philosophers, who had admitted these, have usually taken that for granted which they ought to have proved. They collected together in their minds all perfections; they reduced them all to one object which they denominated a perfect being: and supposing, without proving, that a perfect being existed, they attributed to him, without proof, everything that they considered as a perfection. The psalmist shows by a surer way that there is a God supremely just and supremely good. It is necessary, in order to convince a rational being of the justice and goodness of God, to follow such a method as that which we follow to prove his existence. When we would prove the existence of God, we say, there are creatures, therefore there is a Creator. In like manner, when we would prove that a creature is a just and a good being, we say, there are qualities of goodness and justice in creatures, therefore he, from whom these creatures derive their existence, is a being just and good. Now, this is the reasoning of the psalmist in this Psalm: "The Lord loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord" Ps 33:5; that is to say, it is impossible to consider the work of the Creator, without receiving evidence of his goodness. And the works of nature which demonstrate the goodness of God, prove his justice also; for God has created us with such dispositions, that we cannot enjoy the gifts of his goodness without obeying the laws of his righteousness. The happiness of an individual who procures a pleasure by disobeying the laws of equity, is a violent happiness, which cannot be of long duration; and the prosperity of public bodies, when it is founded in iniquity, is an edifice which, with its basis, will be presently sunk and gone.
But what we would particularly remark is, that the excellent principle of the psalmist concerning God are not mere speculations; but truths from which he derives practical inferences; and he aims to extend their influence beyond private persons, even to legislators and conquerors. One would think, considering the conduct of mankind, that the consequences, which are drawn from the doctrines of which we have been speaking, belong to none but to the dregs of the people; that lawgivers and conquerors have a plan of morality peculiar to themselves, and are above the rules to which other men must submit. Our prophet had other notions. What are his maxims of policy? They are all included in these words: "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance, "Ps 33:12. What are his military maxims? They are all included in these words: "There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength. An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength, "Ps 33:16-17. Who proposes these maxims? A hermit, who never appeared on the theatre of the world? or a man destitute of the talents necessary to shine there? No: one of the wisest of kings; one of the most bold and able generals: a man whom God has self elected to govern his chosen people, and to command those armies which fought the most obstinate battles, and gained the most complete victories. Were I to proceed in explaining the system of the psalmist, I might prove, that as he had a right to infer the doctrine of providence from the works of nature, and that of the moral attributes of God from the works of creation; so from the doctrines of the moral attributes of God, of providence, and of the works of creation, he had a right to conclude, that no conquerors or lawgivers could be truly happy but those who acted agreeably to the laws of the just and good Supreme. James Saurin.
Ver. 1. Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous. Exult, ye righteous, in Jehovah! The Hebrew verb, according to the etymologists, originally means to dance for joy, and is therefore a very strong expression for the liveliest exultation. J. A. Alexander.
Ver. 1. Rejoice, O ye righteous: not in yourselves, for that is not safe, but in the Lord. Augustine.
Ver. 1. Praise is comely for the upright. Praise is not comely for any but the godly. A profane man stuck with God's praise is like a dunghill stuck with flowers. Praise in the mouth of a sinner is like an oracle in the mouth of a fool: how uncomely is it for him to praise God, whose whole life is a dishonouring of God? It is as indecent for a wicked man to praise God, who goes on in sinful practices, as it is for an usurer to talk of living by faith, or for the devil to quote Scripture. The godly are only fit to be choristers in God's praise; it is called, "the garment of praise." Isa 61:3. This garment sits handsome only on a saint's back. Thomas Watson.
Ver. 1. This Psalm is coupled with the foregoing one by the catchword with which it opens, which is a repetition of the exhortation with which the preceding ends, Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous; "Shout for joy, all ye upright." Christopher Wordsworth.
Ver. 1. He pleaseth God whom God pleaseth. Augustine.
Whole Psalm This Psalm is eucharistic: the contents are: --
1. An exhortation to praise God Ps 33:1-3.
2. The arguments to enforce the duty Ps 33:4-19.
3. The confidence of God's people in his name, their happiness, and petition Ps 33:20-22.
Adam Clarke.
Ver. 1. Rejoicing--the soul of praise; the Lord--a wellspring of joy. Character--indispensable to true enjoyment.
Ver. 1. (last clause). Praise comely. What? Vocal, meditative, habitual praise. Why? It is comely as wings to an angel, we mount with it; as flowers to a tree, it is our fruit; as a robe to a priest, it is our office; as long hair to a woman, it is our beauty; as a crown to a king, it is our highest honour. When? Evermore, but chiefly amid blasphemy, persecution, sickness, poverty, death. Whom? Not from the ungodly, hypocritical, or thoughtless. To be without praise is to miss our comeliest adornment.
Psalms 33:2*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1–2 Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous.
Psa_33:1-22
Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous.
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The spirit of rejoicing: life adjusted to the will of God
Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous. It is the vital condition of all spiritual rejoicing that we are right with God. Our life must be adjusted to His will, and the adjustment must be made on every side. If our communion with the Lord is only partial, we shall not reach the condition in which joy becomes inevitable. I remember that some time ago an electric bell apparatus in my home got out of order and the bell ceased to ring. I made a careful examination, and I found that two or three of the strands, which together formed the one wire, had been broken, and along the remaining strands sufficient electrical energy could not travel to ring the bell. I rectified the severed members, and so adjusted them that they were every one in communion with the battery, and in the completed adjustment there was power enough to ring the bell. It appears to me to symbolize the condition of many a life which is partially in communion with the King. If is not that there is complete alienation; it is that there are severed strands. There are departments in the life which are not connected with the Almighty, and along the imperfect communion sufficient power does not travel to ring the joy-bells. It may be that the strand between the Lord and our pleasures is broken, or between the Lord and our business, or between the Lord and some secret realm in our life which is not known to others. This severance will have to be put right, and every side of the life adjusted to the Divine will before we can become possessed by that fulness of power which will create bell-melody in the soul. And so I am not surprised that the psalmist is making his confident appeal to the righteous, the rectified, those who are right on every side with God. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)
Praise to the God of creation, providence, and grace
I. the call to praise, and its reasons (Psa_33:1-11). The first word of Psa_33:1 means not simply to rejoice (as A.V.), but to express the emotions aloud. The subjects of the invitation are addressed as righteous and upright, because this was their ideal character of what they ought to be as the true Israel of God, and to them as such it was every way suitable to show forth Jehovahs praise. It was quite otherwise with the wicked (Psa_50:16; Mar_1:25; Mar_3:12; Act_17:18). In Psa_33:2 the call is to use harp and lyre with the song, the first mention of musical instruments in the Psalter. The Hebrews used wind and stringed and percussive instruments, but their precise nature cannot well be determined.
II. Gods special favour to his people (Verses 12-22). They were His heritage; not simply a temporary possession, but one enduring by hereditary succession through a long course of ages. Their security and happiness in having Jehovah for their God is enforced anew by the assertion of His omniscience. Men can be surprised or overtaken: not so the all-seeing One. He fully understands all their doings, their origin, their motive, their purpose. All is evident at a glance. Hence His will is supreme, and all persons and things are comprehended in His control of the world. What material strength cannot do for those who rely upon it, is secured to believers by the eye of Jehovah. That eye is directed toward those who wait for His loving-kindness. The three concluding couplets finely express the attitude of the Church in all ages--waiting, hoping, trusting. The whole history of Israel may be summed up in Jacobs dying words, I have waited for Thy salvation, O Jehovah. (T. W. Chambers, D. D.)
A call to true worship
I. True worship is happiness to the godly. Rejoice, etc.
1. It is the highest happiness of intelligent existences. Only by worship can the profoundest cravings of their natures be satisfied, or their powers be fully and harmoniously developed.
2. The godly alone can offer true worship.
II. True worship is becoming to the godly. Comely.
1. It agrees with his character.
2. It is congenial with his spirit.
3. It is in keeping with his obligations.
III. True worship is music to the godly. Praise the Lord with harp, etc. Note some of the features of true psalmody.
1. Variety. Both instrumental and vocal music are here mentioned.
2. Freshness. A new song. Whilst our religion should be as settled as the trunk of the oak--the forms and spirit of our devotion should be as changing as the foliage, now green with spring, now tinted with summer, now tinged with the brown hue of autumn.
3. Accuracy. Play skilfully. True music is sound ruled by science.
4. Hearty. With a loud noise. (Homilist.)
The toy which the righteous haw in God
I. the duty. Rejoice in the Lord. Look upon religion in its actions and employment: and what are they? Rejoice and give thanks. Are not these actions that are grateful and delightful? What doth transcend Divine joy, and ingenuous acknowledgments?
II. the reason. It is comely. Whatsoever is the true product of religion is grateful, beautiful, and lovely. There is nothing in religion that is dishonourable or selfish. Then we are to rejoice in the Lord.
1. For Himself, God is the most excellent object in the world. But whosoever are pleased with God, God is pleased with them: but to the wicked and unregenerate, God Himself (as good as He is) He is a burden. Let men pretend love to the things of God never so much, they will not relish them, unless they be born of God. Tis they that are naturalized to heaven, that relish and favour Divine things. That which is born of the world is enmity against God. Our rejoicing must be with some respect to God; and though it be in other things, yet it must be in the Lord. And this is done when we acknowledge God as the Fountain of all good, and better than all other enjoyments whatsoever; and count our enjoyments as all from Him and so endearing Him to us and obliging us to Him. Now, to enforce this joy in God, we note that joy is necessary to the life of man. The apostle hath told us that worldly sorrow causeth death. Sorrow and sadness, melancholy and discontent spoils the temper of a mans mind; it vitiates the humours of the body; it prevents the Divine, and hinders the Physician. For the Divine deals by reason; but this being obliterated, he can do nothing. And it also hinders the Physician; for if the mind be discomposed by melancholy, it doth not afford due benevolence to the body. The sour and melancholy are unthankful to God, and cruel to themselves, and peevish in their converse: so that joy and rejoicing are necessary in respect to ourselves. But also, joy is so safe for us: it will hold us back from sin, it will never be in excess, will always be sincere, and will offend none: it will keep company with gratitude and humility, and will always leave us in a good temper, which worldly joy will not do. If our triumph be in the Lord, it separates from sensual things, and from the spiritual sins of pride and arrogancy. Therefore let there be always something that is spiritual in the ground, reason, or occasion, or motive of your joy.
Praise is comely
It is natures sense, tis the import of any mans reason. Now because God doth infinitely transcend all the benefactors in the world, if any man doth not acknowledge His goodness, and praise Him for His benefits; he is sunk down into baseness, and fallen beneath his creation and nature. God loves us, and therefore He doth us good: we love God because we are partakers of His benefits. All disingenuity and baseness are concentred in the bowels of ingratitude. He that will not be engaged by kindness, no cords of man will hold him. Then let us obey the counsel of the text.
1. Because nothing is more due to God than our gratitude; for He loadeth us with His benefits, and is pleased to please us, and doth many things to gratify us.
2. By this we give testimony of our minds to God. For we have nothing at all to sacrifice to God, but the consent of our minds; an ingenious acknowledgment. (B. Whichcote, D. D.)
Praise is comely for the upright.--
Praise comely
Distinguish between gratitude and praise. Gratitude is an inward, loving sense of obligation for benefits received; praise the expression or outward manifestation of that inward feeling. Gratitude is of the heart; praise of the lip. Gratitude is a something felt; praise a something expressed.
I. Praise is comely for existence. The good man recognizes God as the Dispenser of every blessing. He holds all blessings as a loan or trust, and as a faithful steward, employs them for God, not for selfish purposes. As all the rivers return to the sea whence they came, so the upright man sends all Gods gifts back again in grateful homage and loving service to the Divine source of all good.
II. Praise is comely for redemption.
III. Praise is comely for the gift of immortality. The righteous man has something great and noble to live for, a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory to anticipate. In prospect, he has that which will fill the immensity of his being, satisfy to the full and for ever, the yearning of his great nature, so that the very thought of his immortality fills his soul with ecstasy, and his song with harmony (1Pe_1:3). It is said that when Mendelssohn went to see the great Freiburg organ, and asked permission of the old custodian to be allowed to play upon it, he was refused. After a little kind persuasion, however, consent was reluctantly given. Mendelssohn instantly took his seat, and made the organ discourse sublimest music. The custodian, spellbound, drew near and ventured to ask for the name of the stranger. When it was announced, ashamed, and self-condemned, the custodian exclaimed, What a fool am I to refuse you permission to play! There is One standing by you who can bring forth the most heavenly strains of music from your heart. Place it in His hand and Christ will make every chord send forth celestial harmonies that would make all the angels cease to sing and be mute, that they might the better listen to the nobler music of Christs redeemed ones. (R. Roberts.)
The duty of praise
I. Good and righteous men are most obliged to the duty of praise, and most fit to perform it.
1. There are many of Gods blessings that are universal, in regard to these the duty of thanksgiving should be of as large extent. But since some men partake more particularly of His favour, they are in a more particular manner obliged to gratitude and thanksgiving.
2. The righteous are also most fit to perform this duty.
(1) Because such men are always humble, and ready to acknowledge their unworthiness of Gods goodness.
(2) Because they have a quick and lively sense of it, and are apt to be tenderly and passionately affected with it.
(3) Because they have always a solid foundation of true joy in a good conscience.
(4) Because of that fitness and congruity which there is between praise and other virtues. As the beauty of the body consists in the exact dimensions of every part, and the symmetry and proportion of the whole: so does the beauty of the soul consist in the exercise of all Christian virtues, and in the mutual relation which they have to each other: and if any one be wanting it is a plain deformity, and will be perceived immediately.
II. God is the proper object of praise. The psalmist does not tie himself up strictly to the contemplation of the Divine nature, as to its essential excellencies only, but considers them as they relate to His works, and are beneficial to His creatures.
1. Rejoice in the Lord in regard of His goodness. Whatever is pleasing to us below, is so, because we take it to be good; that is, suppose it to partake of this fountain of ever-flowing goodness. How, then, should we be transported with joy if we lifted up our thought to Him who is Goodness itself, and through His vast abundance pours it upon every creature! But yet this would not be sufficient for His universal praise, unless we consider His goodness in His works.
2. Rejoice in Him because of His wisdom; it is by this He governs and disposes of all things as in wisdom He made them all.
3. Rejoice in the Lord in regard of His power. That very power which is so dreadful to His enemies, at which the whole creation trembles, at which the everlasting mountains are scattered, the perpetual hills do bow; when He marches through a land in indignation and threshes the heathen in His anger. Power can do as much for the righteous. So that this attribute cannot be dreadful to good men, but on the contrary, must be most delightful to them. (J. Adams, M. A.)
The gratitude of the upright
1. The gratitude of upright men is wise. The praise of the Lord becomes them well, because, while they bless God for all their mercies, they arrange them in their proper order; they prize each according to its real worth, and that most of all which is of the greatest value.
2. The gratitude of upright men is real. The praise of the Lord becomes them, because, while they praise God for His benefits, they live to the glory of their benefactor. Every gift of God furnisheth us with both a motive and a means of obedience to Him.
3. Gratitude to God well becomes an upright man, because it is humble. By publishing the gifts of Gods grace, he divests himself of himself, and attributes them wholly to the goodness of Him from whom they came.
4. The gratitude of an upright man is noble and magnanimous. He takes the love of God to him for a pattern of his behaviour to his fellow-creatures. (J. Saurin.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 33
Psalms 33
This is the last of the four psalms in Book 1 which have no title, the others being Psalms 1 and 2, which are introductory, and 10 which is closely connected with 9. Some have endeavoured to establish a similar connection between 32, and 33; but, while the closing summons to the righteous in the former is substantially repeated in the opening words of the latter, there is little other trace of connection, except the references in both to "the eye of Jehovah"; {Psa_32:8; Psa_33:18} and no two psalms could be more different in subject and tone than these. The one is full of profound, personal emotion, and deals with the depths of experience; the other is devoid of personal reference, and is a devout, calm contemplation of the creative power and providential government of God. It is kindred with the later type of psalms, and has many verbal allusions connecting it with them. It has probably been placed here simply because of the similiarity just noticed between its beginning and the end of the preceding. The reasons for the arrangement of the psalter were, so far as they can be traced, usually such merely verbal coincidences. To one who has been travelling through the heights and depths, the storms and sunny gleams of the previous psalms, this impersonal didactic meditation, with its historical allusions and entire ignoring of sins and sorrows, is indeed "a new song." It is apparently meant for liturgical use, and falls into three unequal parts; the first three verses and the last three being prelude and conclusion, the former summoning the "righteous" to praise Jehovah, the, latter putting words of trust and triumph and prayer into their mouths. The central mass (Psa_33:4-19) celebrates the creative and providential work of God, in two parts, of which the first extends these Divine acts over the world (Psa_33:4-11) and the second concentrates them on Israel (Psa_33:12-19).
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The opening summons to praise takes us far away from the solitary wrestlings and communings in former psalms. Now
"The singers lift up their voice,
And the trumpets make endeavour,
Sounding, In God rejoice! In Him rejoice forever!"
But the clear recognition of purity as the condition of access to God speaks in this invocation as distinctly as in any of the preceding. "The righteous" whose lives conform to the Divine will, and only they, can shout aloud their joy in Jehovah. Praise fits and adorns the lips of the upright" only, whose spirits are without twist of self-will and sin. The direction of character expressed in the word is horizontal rather than vertical, and is better represented by "straight" than "upright." Praise gilds the gold of purity and adds grace even to the beauty of holiness. Experts tell us that the kinnor (harp, A.V. and R.V.) and nebel (psaltery) were both stringed instruments, differing in the position of the sounding board, which was below in the former and above in the latter, and also in the covering of the strings (v. Delitzsch, Eng. transl. of latest ed. 1:7, n.). The "new song" is not necessarily the psalm itself, but may mean other thanksgivings evoked by Gods meditated on goodness. But in any case, it is noteworthy, that the occasions of the new song are very old acts, stretching back to the first creation and continued down through the ages. The psalm has no trace of special recent mercies, but to the devout soul the old deeds are never antiquated, and each new meditation on them breaks into new praise. So inexhaustible is the theme that all generations take it up in turn, and find "songs unheard" and "sweeter" with which to celebrate it. Each new rising of the old sun brings music from the lips of Memnon, as he sits fronting the east. The facts of revelation must be sung by each age and soul for itself, and the glowing strains grow cold and archaic, while the ancient mercies which they magnify live on, bright and young. There is always room for a fresh voice to praise the old gospel the old creation, the old providence.
This new song is saturated with reminiscences of old ones, and deals with familiar thoughts which have come to the psalmist with fresh power. He magnifies the moral attributes manifested in Gods self-revelation, His creative Word, and His providential government. "The word of Jehovah," in Psa_33:4 is to be taken in the wide sense of every utterance of His thought or will ("non accipi pro doctrina, sed pro mundi gubernandi ratione," Calvin). It underlies His "works," as is more largely declared in the following verses.
It is "upright," the same word as in Psa_33:1, and here equivalent to the general idea of morally perfect. The acts which flow from it are "in faithfulness," correspond to and keep His word. The perfect word and works have for source the deep heart of Jehovah, which loves "righteousness and judgment," and therefore speaks and acts in accordance with these. Therefore the outcome of all is a world full of Gods lovingkindness. The psalmist has won that "serene and blessed mood" in which the problem of life seems easy, and all harsh and gloomy thoughts have melted out of the sky. There is but one omnipotent Will at work everywhere, and that is a Will whose law for itself is the love of righteousness, and truth. The majestic simplicity and universality of the cause are answered by the simplicity and universality of the result, the flooding of the whole world with blessing. Many another psalm shows how hard it is to maintain such a faith in the face of the terrible miseries of men, and the more complex "civilisation" becomes, the harder it grows; but it is well to hear sometimes the one clear note of gladness without its chord of melancholy.
The work of creation is set forth in Psa_33:6-9 as the effect of the Divine word alone. The psalmist is fascinated not by the glories created, but by the wonder of the process of creation. The Divine will uttered itself, and the universe was. Of course the thought is parallel with that of Genesis, "God said, Let there beand there was" Nor are we to antedate the Christian teaching of a personal Word of God, the agent of creation. The old versions and interpreters, followed by Cheyne, read "as in a bottle" for "as an heap," vocalising the text differently from the present pointing; but there seems to be an allusion to the wall of waters at the passage of the Red Sea, the same word being used in Miriams song; with "depths" in the next clause, there as here. {Exo_15:8} What is meant, however, here, is the separation of land and water at first, and possibly the continuance of the same power keeping them still apart, since the verbs in Psa_33:7 are participles, which imply continued action. The image of "a heap" is probably due to the same optical delusion which has coined the expression "the high seas," since, to an eye looking seawards from the beach, the level waters seem to rise as they recede; or it may merely express the gathering together in a mass. Away out there, in that ocean of which the Hebrews knew so little, were unplumbed depths in which, as in vast storehouses, the abundance of the sea was shut up, and the ever-present Word which made them at first was to them instead of bolts and bars. Possibly the thought of the storehouses suggested that of the Flood when these were opened, and that thought, crossing the psalmists mind, led to the exhortation in Psa_33:8 to fear Jehovah, which would more naturally have followed Psa_33:9. The power displayed in creation is, however, a sufficient ground for the summons to reverent obedience, and Psa_33:9 may be but an emphatic repetition of the substance of the foregoing description. It is eloquent in its brevity and juxtaposition of the creative word and the created world. "It stood,"-"the word includes much: first, the coming into being (Entstehen), then, the continued subsistence (Bestehen), lastly, attendance (Dastehen) in readiness for service" (Stier).
From the original creation the psalmists mind turns over the ages between it and him, and sees the same mystical might of the Divine Will working in what we call providential government. Gods bare word has power without material means. Nay, His very thoughts unspoken are endowed with immortal vigour, and are at bottom the only real powers in history. Gods "thoughts stand," as creation does, lasting on through all mens fleeting years. With reverent boldness the psalm parallels the processes (if we may so speak) of the Divine mind with those of the human; "counsel" and "thoughts" being attributed to both. But how different the issue of the solemn thoughts of God and those of men, in so far as they are not in accordance with His! It unduly narrows the sweep of the psalmists vision to suppose that he is speaking of a recent experience when some assault on Israel was repelled. He is much rather linking the hour of creation with today by one swift summary of the net result of all history. The only stable, permanent reality is the will of God and it imparts derived stability to those who ally themselves with it, yielding to its, counsels and moulding their thoughts by its. "He that doeth the will of God abideth forever," but the shore of time is littered with wreckage, the sad fragments of proud fleets which would sail in the teeth of the wind and went to pieces on the rocks. From such thoughts the transition to the second part of the main body of the psalm is natural. Psa_33:12-19 are a joyous celebration of the blessedness of Israel as the people of so great a God. The most striking feature of these verses is the pervading reference to the passage of the Red Sea which, as we have already seen, has coloured Psa_33:7. From Miriams song come the designation of the people as Gods "inheritance" and the phrase "the place of His habitation". {Exo_15:17} The "looking upon the inhabitants of the earth," and the thought that the "eye of Jehovah is upon them that fear Him, to deliver their soul in death" (Psa_33:14, Psa_33:18), remind us of the Lords looking from the pillar on the host of Egyptians and the terrified crowd of fugitives, and of the same glance being darkness to the one and light to the other. The abrupt introduction of the king not saved by his host, and of the vanity of the horse for safety, are explained if we catch an echo of Miriams ringing notes, "Pharaohs chariots and his host hath He cast into the sea. The horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea." {Exo_15:4; Exo_15:21}
If this historical allusion be not recognised, the connection of these verses is somewhat obscure, but still discernible. The people who stand in special relation to God are blessed, because that eye, which sees all men, rests on them in lovingkindness and with gracious purpose of special protection. This contrast of Gods universal knowledge and of that knowledge which is accompanied with loving care is the very nerve of these verses, as is shown by the otherwise aimless repetition of the thought of Gods looking down on men. There is a wide all-seeingness, characterised by three words in an ascending scale of closeness of observance, in Psa_33:13-14. It is possible to God as being Creator: "He fashions their hearts individually," or "one by one" seems the best interpretation of Psa_33:15 a, -and thence is deduced His intimate knowledge of all His creatures doings. The sudden turn to the impotence of earthly might, as illustrated by the king and the hero and the battle horse, may be taken as intended to contrast the weakness of such strength both with the preceding picture of Divine omniscience and almightiness, and with the succeeding assurance of safety in Jehovah. The true reason for the blessedness of the chosen people is that Gods eye is on them, not merely with cold omniscience nor with critical considering of their works, but with the direct purpose of sheltering them from surrounding evil. But the stress of the characterisation of these guarded and nourished favourites of heaven is now laid not upon a Divine act of choice, but upon their meek looking to Him. His eye meets with love the upturned patient eye of humble expectance and loving fear.
What should be the issue of such thoughts, but the glad profession of trust, with which the psalm fittingly ends, corresponding to the invocation to praise which began it? Once in each of these three closing verses do the speakers profess their dependence on God. The attitude of waiting with fixed hope and patient submission is the characteristic of Gods true servants in all ages. In it are blended consciousness of weakness and vulnerability, dread of assault, reliance on Divine Love, confidence of safety, patience, submission and strong aspiration.
These were the tribal marks of Gods people, when this was "a new song"; they are so today, for though the Name of the Lord be more fully known by Christ, the trust in it is the same. A threefold good is possessed, expected and asked as the issue of this waiting. God is "help and shield" to those who exercise it. Its sure fruit is joy in Him, since He will answer the expectance of His people, and will make His name more fully known and more sweet to those who have clung to it, in so far as they. knew it. The measure of hope in God is the measure of experience of His lovingkindness, and the closing prayer does not allege hope as meriting the answer which it expects, but recognises that desire is a condition of possession of Gods best gifts, and knows it to be most impossible of all impossibilities that hope fixed on God should be ashamed. Hands, lifted empty to heaven in longing trust, will never drop empty back and hang listless, without a blessing in their grasp.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 “This psalm is a fit companion, but by no…
INTRODUCTION
“This psalm is a fit companion, but by no means the second half, of the preceding one, being distinct from it both in matter and form. It indicates a more tranquil frame of mind, such as flows from the calm assurance of pence with God. There is nothing against its being of the time and from the pen of David. It consists of twenty-two verses, like the alphabetic psalms. It celebrates the praise of the God of providence and grace. It falls into two halves of eleven verses each. Between three verses of adoration at the beginning, and three of devotion at the end, stand eight verses on the creative, and eight on the saving Word of God,”—Murphy.
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THE CHARACTER OF TRUE WORSHIP
(Psa_33:1-3.)
I. The worship of God is the chief joy of the good. “Ye righteous,” ye who have the new heart, and so have accepted the mercy of God, and are accepted by Him.”—Murphy. “Rejoice,” i.e., exult, shout for joy. “The Hebrew verb, according to etymologists, originally means to dance for joy, and is therefore a very strong expression for the liveliest exultation.”—Alexander. Joy is the soul of worship.
II. The worship of God is the highest duty of the good.
1. It is agreeable to their character. “The upright.” “Praise in the mouth of a sinner is like an oracle in the lips of a fool: how uncomely is it for him to praise God whose whole life is a dishonour to God! The godly are only fit to be choristers in God’s praise.”—Thomas Watson.
2. It is agreeable to their obligations. “Those who have received from God a right spirit and the forgiveness of sins, have a twofold obligation to praise Him.”—Murphy.
3. It is agreeable to their circumstances. Placed in the midst of God’s works, and daily receiving fresh proofs of His loving-kindness in providence and grace, the upright are always in fitting circumstances for praise.
III. The worship of God is the noblest employment of the good. “Praise the Lord with harp.” This is the first time musical instruments are referred to in the psalms. It is impossible now to ascertain the precise form of the “harp,” and the “psaltery,” and the “lute of ten strings.” The chief thing to notice is, that they were used as accompaniments and supports to the voice, as if the voice were too weak by itself to utter the Divine praises. Instruments of varied power and sweetness were employed, so as to secure the grandest effects. Psa_33:3 : “ ‘Sing ur to Him a new song,’ not here one which has new marvels of God’s power and grace for its theme, as in Psa_40:3, Psa_98:1 (cf. Rev_14:3), but rather one which springs freshly from a thankful and rejoicing heart,—one which seeks to put an old theme to a new light.”—Perowne. “Play skilfully.” Do your best in playing. “With a loud noise.” Music should not only be correct in execution, but joyous in spirit. The whole heart should be thrown into it.
The worship of God in song combines—
1. Unity and variety. While there may be both vocal and instrumental music, there should be but one spirit.
2. Sameness and freshness. The same old psalms and hymns and spiritual songs may be sung, and yet there may be the freshness of ever-new wonder, love, and praise, while “new songs” may evermore spring from the heart of the revived Church.
3. Devotion and art. There is scope for the highest efforts of genius in the service of song. Music should be cultivated. Religion and science should go together. We should give our very best to God.
4. Fellowship and individuality. While the service is that of the congregation, every separate heart should take part.
THE REASONABLENESS OF WORSHIP
(Psa_33:4-22.)
“For” introduces the reasons for praising God. The order of the thought is sufficiently marked to admit of the subject being treated under the heads of creation, providence, and redemption. God is to be worshipped, because—
I. He is the God of creation.
We are called to notice—
1. The moral character of God (Psa_33:4-5). Words and works are the exponents of character. The “word” is the idea, and the “work” is the fact. The “word” is the promise, and the “work” is the performance. It is by His words and works that God reveals Himself. They are the expression and embodiment of His eternal purpose. And the great attributes which are seen in beautiful harmony in all God’s words and works are Righteousness and Goodness. “He loveth righteousness,” i.e., it is His habit and delight. “The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord,” as conspicuously as the heaven with stars, as completely as the sea with waters. “Righteousness and goodness” are, as it were, incarnated in God’s words and works, to be the study and delight of His people forever.
2. The glory of creation. “From the present proofs of God’s love in the earth, the thoughts of the sacred poet naturally goes back to the creation of all things, and as He had before declared what the ‘word’ and the ‘work’ of Jehovah are in their essential characters (Psa_33:4), so now He describes further the operation of that word, and the work which results therefrom.”—Perowne. Psa_33:6. There is allusion here to the history of Creation in Genesis. First the mode, and then the extent, of the Divine working are described. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made.” “The word,” “the creative mandate” (Gen_1:1). “All the host,” the universe of things in their perfect order. This verse has special reference to the work of the second day. “Gathereth the waters.” The primary allusion here is to the work of the third day. The verse, however, expresses not a finished act, but a continued process, displaying its variations in the dividing of the Red Sea and the Jordan. Psa_33:8-9. The consequent obligation to worship God, “Let all the earth fear the Lord.” This carries on the thought to the second act of the third day, by which the dry land was clothed with vegetation, and the way prepared for the creation of animals and of man. The parallel of all the earth is all the inhabitants of the habitable globe.—Murphy. “The heavens and the sea are mentioned as the theatre of God’s almighty power, as the earth before, of His loving-kindness; and thus the universe is summed up.”—Perowne. The argument is that Jehovah is the omnipotent Creator, and that we who are all His creatures, should worship Him with Holy reverence.
II. He is the God of providence.
“After speaking of God’s power in creation, the psalmist goes on to speak of His providence as ordering the world.”—Perowne. The providence of God is characterised as—
1. All Wise (Psa_33:10). He who created and sustains the universe, can overrule or frustrate the designs of man, whether as individuals or nations, according as He deems right. We have a signal example of this in the history of Babel.
There is a contrast here between “the counsels” of men and the “counsel” of the Lord. Men come and go, and their thoughts are like the changing clouds, but God moves on in His ordained path, like the sun in the heavens, with unswerving fidelity. The counsels of men are like the edicts of arbitrary kings, which come to nought; but Jehovah’s counsels are His eternal and benign purpose, which He works out by His almighty power, from generation to generation. This holds true, not only with regard to God’s providence in general, but also with regard to His providence in its special bearing on His people. Hence the glad burst of praise (Psa_33:12), “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance.”
2. All Seeing (Psa_33:13-15). “He not only observes men’s doings, but knows their hearts, as having created them.”—Perowne. “From the place of His dwelling” (Psa_33:14). This is a coincidence with the Song of Moses (Exo_15:17). This is His dwelling-place above, of which earth is an adumbration. “Fashioneth their hearts alike” (Psa_33:15). “The principle of reason in one heart is the identical with that in every other. Hence the capacity of mutual understanding and the certainty of human knowledge, as far as the moral reason retains its balance. ‘He considereth,’ not only understands, but observes with attention the conduct of His responsible creatures. There is a philosophy of human nature here.”—Murphy.
3. All Mighty (Psa_33:16-17). “The weakness and insufficiency of ail human power, however great, as before of all human intellect. ‘King and mighty man and horse’ (i.e., war-horse, as elsewhere, ‘chariot and horse’) are selected as types of earthly power in all its greatness.”——Perowne.
“People of God, he means to say, let not the world persuade you that the throne, on which your king is seated, is an idle easy chair; no, He is seated on a throne, on a judgment-seat, from the lofty eminence of which proceed the destinies of the world. People of God, he means to say, firmly believe that all things are either openly or in a hidden manner subject to the influence of His might; not only the works of men, which are evidently so, since the issue never rests with them, but also the secret movings of their hearts, which God can strike with blindness, and can make foolish the understanding of the prudent, and wise the heart of babes. People of God, believe not in appearances according to which kings conquer by their might and warriors triumph in battle by the strength of their horses; it is appearance only, for, as all earthly power is borrowed from the Governor of the world, He may withdraw it at any time, and give it to whomsoever He pleases; so that all the victories on earth are won by His strength.”—Tholuck.
III. The God of redemption (Psa_33:18-22). While mortal strength is vain for defence and security, they who fear the Lord and hope in His mercy shall be safe under Jehovah’s eye, and kept by His almighty “power, through faith unto salvation.” God is the only true deliverer. His deliverance reaches to the soul, and transcends all the perils of time and all the powers of evil. “While such omnipotence terrifies those who love not the Lord, it is rich in consolation to those who hope in His mercy. The whole people commit themselves to the Lord, rejoicing in Him and trusting in His name.”—Tholuck “Antigonus, king of Syria, being ready to give battle near the Isle of Andreos, sent out a squadron to watch the motions of his enemies, and to descry their strength; return was made that they had more ships, and better manned, than he had. ‘How,’ says Antigonus, ‘that cannot be, for how many dost thou reckon me,’ intimating that the dignity of a general weighed down many others, especially when poised with valour and experience. And where is valour, where is experience to be found, if not in God! He is the Lord of Hosts; with Him alone is strength and power to deliver Israel out of all her troubles. He may do it, He can do it, He will do it. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength, besides Him there is no Saviour, no Deliverer. He is a shield to the righteous, strength to the weak, a refuge to the oppressed.”—John Spencer.
“Dear dying Lamb! Thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power,
Till all the ransomed Church of God
Be saved, to sin no more.
E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply;
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.
Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I’ll sing Thy power to save;
When this poor lisping stammering tongue
Lies silent in the grave.”—Cowper.
THREE ASPECTS OF PIETY
(Psa_33:20-22.)
I. Piety waiting on the Lord. “Our soul waiteth for the Lord.” Waiting is an attitude of soul. It is holding one’s self still till the accomplishment of some expected event. It is, therefore, patience and expectation united. “We wait” for the day, that we may work. We wait for the spring to sow and the harvest to reap. But waiting is consistent with action. It is not only testing and disciplinary, but it implies right use of means and opportunities, working while it is day, and sowing and reaping as the seasons of God come round. True waiting implies faith in God’s love. Heedfulness of His will (Psa_123:3). Intense desire for His blessing (Psa_130:6). Diligent use of all the means of grace. And what encouragement we have here to wait upon Him. “For He is our help and shield.”
II. Piety rejoicing in God. “Our heart shall rejoice in Him.” This is not merely rejoicing in God’s Word and works, but rejoicing in Himself. This is the highest attainment of piety. But this joy is one of the fruits of faith. “Because we have trusted in His holy name.” The more we know of God’s grace in Christ, the more shall our hearts exult in Him.
III. Piety praying to God. “Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us, according as we hope in Thee.” This prayer is marked by humility. “Mercy” is sought, mercy for the sinner, the mercy of the Lord which bringeth salvation. This prayer is also marked by faith. It implies confidence in God’s grace and in His promises, and in the reality of His Spirit’s work in the heart The hope He begets He will not put to shame (Mat_9:29).
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 I. The whole of revelation reposes on this broad…
Psa 33:6
Psa 19:1
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I. The whole of revelation reposes on this broad platform: how God and nature stand to one another. Now there are two opposite extremes into which our conceptions on this point may fall. We may immerse God in nature, or we may isolate nature from God. (1) We immerse God in nature if we treat nature as itself possessed of properties which are strictly personal, as when, for example, we accustom ourselves to think of it as originating its own processes, as intending its own results, or as conscious of its own plan. The corrective lies in the Scriptural idea of creation as an act of will in One who is outside of material being. (2) We may unduly isolate nature as God’s workmanship from God the Worker. We do this, e.g., when we conceive of the universe as teaching us nothing of God, being only a whirl of material change without spiritual meaning, or when we represent it as a machine which, being somehow endowed with a given stock of force, must go on, so long as the force lasts, like a watch that has been once wound up. Again, the Scriptural conception of nature will furnish the corrective. According to it, God is personally separate from and above nature; yet, for all that, He has put into His handiwork His own thoughts. We may fairly say that both sides of the idea lie in embryo in the solitary phrase, "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made." For the word of any person serves two functions: it is the organ of command, conveying an act of will; it is also the organ of expression, revealing the speaker’s nature.
II. The moral revelation which began with Abraham and culminated in Jesus Christ admits of being both compared and contrasted with the older nature revelation. (1) The later revelation starts from and builds upon the earlier one. (2) It must be clear that such a revelation as we actually possess in the Bible is only possible if God be (as the Bible teaches) at once above nature and yet present, self-revealed, in nature. (a) We are ourselves part of the world; and if we are to receive communications which transcend what the world itself can tell us, then He who gives them must stand outside of and above the world. (b) The actual revelation recorded in the Bible employed nature as its organ. God makes nature vocal with redemption. (c) Above all, His final revelation of Himself is in the life of a Man, so that the highest of all revelations is in appearance the most human, the least supernatural. Now how could all this be unless, first of all, creation were itself full of God and yet were, after all, God’s servant, to work withal? (3) The voice of the new revelation agrees with the voice of the old. (a) The absolute unity of plan which strict research is daily proving more and more—a unity now known to reach as far as the planets in their spheres—attests that the Creator is one. All Scripture proceeds on the unity of God. (b) Throughout all nature we find a will at work whose method is to bind itself by orderly method and fixed law. Now the revelation of the Divine will in Scripture is likewise the revelation of a law, and its chief end is the reduction of moral anarchy to moral order. (c) Again, we are daily learning how patiently, and through what long, slow, even laborious processes, God has been pleased to build up His physical universe. This is God’s way in nature, and it has been His way in grace. (d) Once more, the God of nature avenges the transgression of every physical law by a sentient creature. Scripture discovers precisely the same features in the moral and spiritual rule of God. Of law, of transgression, of penalty and reward, of life and death, nature has no more to say than the Bible has. But of another law higher than that of penalty—of the spiritual law of self-sacrifice, of redemption of life by life, and giving up of the just for the unjust, and forgiveness of sin, and the regeneration of the lapsed—the physical universe is wholly, or all but wholly, silent.
J. Oswald Dykes, Sermons, p. 84.
References: Psa 33:1.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 355. Psa 33:2, Psa 33:3.—J. M. Neale, Occasional Sermons, p. 108. Psa 33:5.—D. Swing, American Pulpit of the Day, p. 460; G. Bainton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xviii., p. 378. Psa 33:6.—J. Keble, Sermons from Ascension Day to Trinity, p. 384. Psa 33:13.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 272. Psa 33:20.—W. Lindsay Alexander, Christian Thought and Work, p. 155. Psa 33:21.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 184. Psa 33:22.—J. Keble, Sermons from Septuagesima to Ash Wednesday, p. 432. Psa 34:1.—J. M. Neale, Sermons on Passages of the Psalms, p. 77.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 This God the God of the whole earth.
This God the God of the whole earth.
The psalm following shows us now that Jehovah, the God of redemption, is the God of the whole earth. If this God, then, be for us, all else must be; and this opens the way to the closing praise of the thirty-fourth: "I will bless Jehovah at all times." The theme here, in what is the fourth psalm in the series, anticipates what is more fully brought out in the fourth book, where also Jehovah and the Second Man are shown as One; and thus the security of the earth in blessing is gloriously assured.
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1. The psalmist begins with an exhortation to praise Jehovah, the one theme of praise for the righteous. The first verses here are but the expansion of the closing verse of the previous psalm, where we have found that the righteous are such only by redemption. And Jehovah is the name of God as the Redeemer, -the special name under which He takes up the people in the book of Exodus (see Exo 3:1-22, notes); and thus the covenant Name of blessing for the redeemed. It is true that with Israel the legal spirit which inheres in man, and which had to be yielded to in the covenant of bondage at the mount of law, prevailed to obscure for them the glory of this Name, and still obscures it; yet in it, though veiled, their blessings are nevertheless wrapped up, and will be found in the day that is at hand.
Jehovah is the living and unchanging God, acting from Himself necessarily as independent of all else, finding in Himself the sufficient argument for what He does. Thus no consideration of man has to come in, to hinder the fullest blessing for him. If man came in, it would be only to hinder God acting from Himself, for the glory of His Name, His purpose stands.
Thus the exhortation may well be now, "Shout for joy in Jehovah, ye righteous! Praise is comely for the upright"; -for those delivered from guile by the grace that has wrought conviction of sin, and met with salvation the convicted sinner.
This praise, as will be fully the case when Israel becomes the giver of it, will find its response in all creation round. This is what the harp and lyre in Israel’s hands declare, who, as the earthly people, will awaken this response. If we knew better what these instruments were, -which is disputed, -we should be able to realize, no doubt, distinctive meaning in them. All that we can say now is that the harp was certainly peculiarly connected with strains of joy; while the "ten strings" of the lyre or psaltery would seem to associate it with the more solemn strains of recompense and judgment, all of which must praise Him too.
But no special instrument is connected with the "new song" of the third verse, which will be, assuredly, both for Israel and the earth, what the numeral probably intimates, a resurrection song. And this, like all resurrection of the higher kind, is not a mere restoration to the primitive condition, which would mean almost certainly that it was a mere turning of the wheel, the beginning of the old cycle of transition and decay, but a new and higher and fixed condition reached, in which the thought of God will now be realized, and His purpose from the beginning attained. No wonder that for the accompaniment now there should need skillful playing with loud sound!
2. We have now the testimony given to Him by His work and word; His work being indeed the product of His word, the creation of His mind and will, bearing the impress, therefore, of His character. The written word does not seem here in question, although of course the same must be true of it, and more manifestly, sin having come in to obscure the witness of creation. But sin also does not come as yet into the picture, except quite inferentially.
"For right is Jehovah’s word, and in faithfulness all His work": as in truth the fixed laws that pervade it are a proof, -so fixed, so pervasive, that in all material points we soon get familiar with, and learn to rely on them. And this is an inestimable blessing which only our being so accustomed to it tends to hide from us. Suppose, even, they were certain, and yet so intricate as to make the knowledge of common effects difficult to obtain, what uncertainty would attend all our actions, and what disasters would arise! Instead of this we are in a world generally stable, and with only enough uncertainty to promote dependence. And all this is "faithfulness" to His creatures, the work of His hands who can apprehend these laws; while instinct guides even more surely, though in a more humble manner, the lower races. But moreover, —
"He loveth justice and judgment"; -it is not here in question how men pervert it, but of these same laws in their moral character, which testify for Him. The power which earth manifests is a power that "makes for righteousness." And the earth is full of the goodness of Jehovah." This is that diffuse benevolence which everything displays in nature, the eye, the ear, the senses generally, provided for and gratified; and beauty, melody, variety, showing with much else, (even though we are outside of Eden,) how God has cared for us. Life could go on without what only their prevalence and their inability to pall and injure us, forbid us to call the luxuries of life.
The heavens and their host were called forth by Jehovah’s word; a majestic spectacle to arrest attention, wake up wonder and inquiry, and lift our thoughts above the earth. Preachers to us of our littleness and dependence, their testimony is manifestly in the line of His redemptive work. The philosopher Kant, whose critical spirit was not checked with any excessive reverence, unites "the starry heavens" with the "moral law" as that which filled him with unfailing admiration and reverence. And how easily might they have been shut out from our view, if God had not pleased to fling aside the veil, and bid us gaze! Whatever else those brilliant spheres were made for, they have surely been unveiled to impress us with the sight. They are an open Bethel: as, in the mind of the old patriarch, "the gate of heaven" is "the house of God."
Under these -their earthly reflection -stretches the great sea, whose waters, massed as a heap under Jehovah’s hand, still more, as with closer application, reduce man to nothingness before Him (Psa 107:23-30). The number of testing and of weakness points unmistakably to the meaning here, as does the word for "depths," the plural of that in Gen 1:2, tehom, literally, the "raging deep." These depths He layeth up beneath the quiet and smiling surface, in treasuries from which He bringeth them out whenever He has use for them, with decisive effect. Thus were the heathen sailors who carried Jonah, and Jonah himself, taught the folly of endeavoring to escape from Jehovah’s power.
After this, therefore, comes the exhortation, "Let all the earth fear Jehovah: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him": literally, "sojourn," be as sojourners with Him, to whom alone belongs eternity. The argument is given in the next verse: "for He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast:" these mighty and stable powers came into existence by His mere fiat. The number is here the number of mastery; for He who brought them into being manifestly has them still in His control.
3. From this contemplation of creation we are next brought naturally to consider Jehovah as realizing His name (the Unchangeable) in His dealings with His creatures. Against His counsel the counsels of the nations cannot stand. Nor, since the world is away from Him, and in opposition to Him, the thoughts of peoples either. The last would include, as the first does not, even Israel His "people" also. On the other hand, His counsel stands forever: the thoughts of His heart "from generation to generation." The contrast here only results in more abiding comfort for those whose feebleness is anchored to the rock of His stability, "the nation whose God Jehovah is, and the people chosen" by Him (as Israel is) "for His inheritance."
4. From this safe harbor the world of living men is now reviewed. Jehovah Himself regards them: He not only beholds, He scrutinizes narrowly; and He is the One who fashioned them, who has perfect knowledge of all they do. But the result is only that man’s nothingness is once snore realized. Not the host that encircles a king can save him, nor the strength of a hero. Nor, even to escape, can the strength of a horse suffice to deliver him. But this is only the necessary prelude to another witness to God Himself.
5. "Lo, Jehovah’s eye is toward them that fear Him, -toward those that hope in His mercy, to rescue their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine." And they who speak have realized this: "our soul hath looked for Jehovah: our help and shield is He." The experience is briefly but sufficiently told, that has established the truth of this: "for our heart is glad in Him; because we have trusted in His holy Name." The faithfulness of the divine government is finally invoked: "Let thy mercy, Jehovah, be upon us, according as we hope in Thee."
Thus that Jehovah, the God of redemption, is also the God of creation, is plainly the theme of the psalm; and that He shows Himself the Redeemer by His dealings with the people whose trust is in Him; against whom no creature-strength can possibly avail. This last is taken up and expanded (after the manner of these psalms) in the joyful song of praise with which this series ends.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 This is an anonymous Ps. of national deliverance, called…
This is an anonymous Ps. of national deliverance, called forth by some historical occasion which it is now impossible to fix with any certainty. From its central conception of God as the ruler of all the earth and all the nations, it appears to belong to the later prophetic age. The metrical structure is specially regular. The first three and the last three vv. form corresponding groups of 6 lines each, and Psa_33:4-19 consist of six groups of 4 lines each. The opening call to praise (Psa_33:1-3) is followed by a description of God's character (Psa_33:4-5); of His rule over all the inhabitants of the earth, based on His creative power (Psa_33:6-9); of His rule over the nations, and of the special privilege of Israel as His people, whose defence is not in military power, but in Jehovah (Psa_33:10-19). The closing vv. (20-22) respond to the summons at the beginning of the Ps.
1. Ye righteous.. the upright] the Israelites who are genuine servants of God.
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2. The psaltery and an instrument of ten strings] RV 'the psaltery of ten strings.' The harp and the psaltery were both stringed instruments, the latter being the larger. 3. A new song] to celebrate a new deliverance. The phrase occurs in several Pss., and has a special connexion with the deliverance from the Babylonian exile: see Isa_42:10.
4. Truth] RV 'faithfulness.'
5. Righteousness] is the principle of God's character, judgment] its practical application to the government of the world. Goodness] RV 'lovingkindness.'
7. The depth (RV 'deeps') in storehouses] The ancient idea of a reservoir of water beneath the earth: see Gen_7:11.
9. Read, 'He spake and it was: He commanded and it stood,' referring to the repeated 'it was so' of Genesis 1.
10. The heathen] RV 'the nations.' The people] RV 'the peoples.'
12. Cp. Deu_33:29.
15. RV 'he that fashioneth.. that considered.' Their hearts alike] RV 'the hearts of them all.'
17. An horse] The Israelites had no cavalry, and the chariots and horsemen of their enemies appeared specially formidable to them: see Deu_17:16; Psa_20:7; Psa_147:10; Pro_21:31; Isa_31:1.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Psalm 33
Psalm 33
The Future Praise of Jehovah
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1. The call to praise Jehovah (Psa 33:1-3)
2. His praise as the Creator (Psa 33:4-9)
3. His praise of His governmental dealings (Psa 33:10-17)
4. His praise as the Keeper and Deliverer of the Righteous (Psa 33:18-22)
What the last verse of the preceding Psalm exhorts to shout for joy, is in this Psalm more fully unfolded. Such praise the Lord has not yet received, it looks forward to millennial times when all earth fears the Lord and all the inhabitants stand in awe of Him (Psa 33:8). Now they oppose and defy Him and His Word. Then the counsel of the nations will be brought to nought and His people Israel, His own nation, will be blessed. The last verse is a prayer that His mercy may be bestowed upon His people Israel, who hope in Him.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 Praise to the Ruler of the World as the…
Praise to the Ruler of the World as the Protector of His People.
This entire psalm is a call to lively and joyful praise of God for His wonderful and glorious attributes and works, as displayed in creation, and of His general and special providence, in view of which the psalmist, in the name of all believers, professes trust and joy and invokes God’s mercy.
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v. 1. Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous, those justified by the grace of God; for praise is comely, fitting, proper, for the upright, it is both their duty and their honor to praise the Lord; for silence on their part would be equivalent to a denial of His blessings.
v. 2. Praise the Lord with harp, a kind of zither; sing unto Him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings, a ten-stringed harp or lute, which was also used in the Temple orchestra.
v. 3. Sing unto Him a new song, one especially adapted to the occasion; play skillfully with a loud noise, with a vim, showing the eagerness of the heart to praise the glory of Jehovah in a song never heard before.
v. 4. For the Word of the Lord is right, upright, true, not full of mistakes and contradictions; and all His works are done in truth, in faithfulness, the fulfillment always agreeing with His promises.
v. 5. He loveth righteousness and judgment; He delights to show these attributes of His divine essence. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord, of the many proofs of His kindness.
v. 6. By the Word of the Lord, the great Word which was in the beginning with God, Joh 1:1-3, were the heavens made, Pro 8:22-30; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth, by the power of His Spirit, the reference obviously being to the third person of the Trinity.
v. 7. He, the Triune God, gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap, the mighty ocean being firmly held together by the almighty power of Jehovah; He layeth up the depths in storehouses, assigning to the vast extent of the ocean waters their place where they must stay.
v. 8. Let all the earth, even the inanimate creatures, fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world, especially men, who are endowed with reason and sense, stand in awe of Him, with a reverence verging on fear.
v. 9. For He spake, with the almighty word of His command, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. The reference is plainly to the story of creation: God said, Let there be; and there was, Genesis 1. God is furthermore to be praised on account of His almighty rule of the universe.
v. 10. The Lord bringeth the counsel to the heathen to naught, making void their plans as actually devised; He maketh the devices of the people, the very thoughts and intentions of their hearts, of none effect, thus frustrating their wickedness.
v. 11. The counsel of the Lord standeth forever, in contrast with the vain counsels and thoughts of men, the thoughts of His heart to all generations, abiding forever.
v. 12. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, Jehovah, as their Ruler, being also their greatest treasure; and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance, as was the case in Israel at the time of David, the spiritual Israel, the Church of God, being His heritage in the highest sense of the word.
v. 13. The Lord, as the great Ruler of the universe, looketh from heaven, with the eyes of His omniscience; He beholdeth all the sons of men, not one being hidden from His knowledge.
v. 14. From the place of His habitation He looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth, all their deeds being open to His gaze.
v. 15. He fashioneth their hearts alike, He is the Former of their hearts all at once, both in the creation of each soul and in forming the thoughts of the heart under His providence; He considereth all their works, understanding exactly how they put their plans into execution.
v. 16. There is no king saved by the multitude of an host, no matter what display of strength and arms he may make; a mighty man is not delivered by much strength, all this is useless without God.
v. 17. An horse is a vain thing for safety, for a man to rely on; neither shall He deliver any by His great strength; as it is a delusion for help and victory, so it will disappoint him who absolutely relies upon it to carry him to safety. All this is subject to God’s government.
v. 18. Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, the entire purpose of the world and of His government is realized in them, upon them that hope in His mercy, putting aside all trust in themselves;
v. 19. to deliver their soul from death, sustaining them in all dangers which threaten their life, and to keep them alive in famine. These facts being set forth, the psalmist makes the application to the Church of God of all times.
v. 20. Our soul waiteth for the Lord, trusting firmly in His help, no matter when it is manifested; He is our Help and our Shield.
v. 21. For our heart shall rejoice in Him because we have trusted in His holy name, as the foundation of their faith, love, and hope, from which all salvation comes.
v. 22. Let Thy mercy, O Lord, which alone gives the believers the courage to invoke the Lord, be upon us, according as we hope in Thee, their confident waiting and trusting and the divine answer being correlates. In this way the attitude of hope and trust is the attitude of the Church in all ages, sustained by the Word of God’s grace.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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Rejoice in Yahweh
Here "in Yahweh" refers to what Yahweh has done for them. "Rejoice because of what Yahweh has done" (See: Idiom)
praise is appropriate for the upright
"to praise Yahweh is appropriate for upright people"
translationWords
joy
Yahweh
righteous
praise
righteous
harp
joy
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4 Ps 33 This hymn of creation (see also Pss…
Ps 33 This hymn of creation (see also Pss 8, 19, 104, 145) might be a continuation of Ps 32. It exhorts readers to praise God (33:1-3), to recognize the power of his word in creation (33:4-7), and to fear the Creator (33:8-11). It offers hope to forgiven sinners (Ps 32) that they can live a new life in the fear of the Lord and under divine protection.
33:1-3 The psalmist exhorts the godly to praise the Lord with melodies, with a new song, and with skillfully-played music.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.