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Psalm 33

The Greatness and Goodness of God

Rejoice in the L ord, O you righteous.

Praise befits the upright.

Praise the L ord with the lyre;

make melody to him with the harp of ten strings.

Sing to him a new song;

play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.

For the word of the L ord is upright,

and all his work is done in faithfulness.

He loves righteousness and justice;

the earth is full of the steadfast love of the L ord.

By the word of the L ord the heavens were made,

and all their host by the breath of his mouth.

He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle;

he put the deeps in storehouses.

Let all the earth fear the L ord;

let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

For he spoke, and it came to be;

he commanded, and it stood firm.

The L ord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;

he frustrates the plans of the peoples.

The counsel of the L ord stands forever,

the thoughts of his heart to all generations.

Happy is the nation whose God is the L ord,

the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.

The L ord looks down from heaven;

he sees all humankind.

From where he sits enthroned he watches

all the inhabitants of the earth—

he who fashions the hearts of them all,

and observes all their deeds.

A king is not saved by his great army;

a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.

The war horse is a vain hope for victory,

and by its great might it cannot save.

Truly the eye of the L ord is on those who fear him,

on those who hope in his steadfast love,

to deliver their soul from death,

and to keep them alive in famine.

Our soul waits for the L ord;

he is our help and shield.

Our heart is glad in him,

because we trust in his holy name.

Let your steadfast love, O L ord, be upon us,

even as we hope in you.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

21. Surely our heart shall rejoice in him. As the particle כי, ki, which is twice employed in this verse, has various meanings in Hebrew, it may be understood in a twofold sense here. If we expound it affirmatively in both clauses, the sense will be, that believers glory both in their joy and in their hope. Nor do I think it improper that these two should be referred to distinctly in the same context thus: Surely God shall always be our joy; surely his holy name shall be like an impregnable fortress for our refuge. Whence is it that believers continue perseveringly to call upon God, but because, satisfied with his favor, they have always, amidst their sorrows and griefs, this comfort, which is sufficient to maintain their cheerfulness? Justly, therefore, do believers affirm, in the first place, that their heart rejoices in the Lord; because, freed from wandering after the fascinations of the world, they neither waver nor hesitate at every change of fortune, but place the whole felicity of their life in enjoying the free and paternal favor of God. They afterwards add, in the second place, that they trust in his holy name. If any one, however, choose to understand the particle כי, ki, as meaning because, assigning a cause or reason, the sense will be no less properly and elegantly expressed in this way: Because our hope is fixed on God, he will be equally ready on his part to minister to us continual matter of joy. And experience undoubtedly proves, that when men are overwhelmed with sorrow, and pine away with care, grief, and anxiety, it is that they may receive the recompense of their folly; seeing that there is nothing to which they are led with more difficulty, than to set their hopes on God alone, and not to exult in their own deceitful imaginations, with which they please themselves.

22. Let thy mercy be on us, O Jehovah! At length the psalm concludes with a prayer, which the sacred writer offers in the name of all the godly, that God would make them feel from the effect that they have not relied on the divine goodness in vain. In the meantime, the Spirit, by dictating to us this rule of prayer by the mouth of the prophet, teaches us, that the gate of divine grace is opened for us when salvation is neither sought nor hoped for from any other quarter. This passage gives us another very sweet consolation, namely, that if our hope faint not in the midst of our course, we have no reason to fear that God will fail to continue his mercy towards us, without intermission, to the end of it.