Weekly Devotional
Psalm 33
33 Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!
Praise befits the upright.
2 Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre;
make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!
3 Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
4 For the word of the Lord is upright,
and all his work is done in faithfulness.
5 He loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.
6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
7 He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap;
he puts the deeps 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 spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.
10 The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever,
the plans of his heart to all generations.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!
13 The Lord looks down from heaven;
he sees all the children of man;
14 from where he sits enthroned he looks out
on all the inhabitants of the earth,
15 he who fashions the hearts of them all
and observes all their deeds.
16 The king is not saved by his great army;
a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
17 The war horse is a false hope for salvation,
and by its great might it cannot rescue.
18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
on those who hope in his steadfast love,
19 that he may deliver their soul from death
and keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waits for the Lord;
he is our help and our shield.
21 For our heart is glad in him,
because we trust in his holy name.
22 Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
even as we hope in you.
Anxiety. Even the word itself can make us anxious. Work, responsibilities, crammed schedules, family life, car troubles, the fear of the unknown. We all face it at times, but what do we do with it? Does it cripple us or do we look to the steadfast love of the Lord? Are we confident in the strength of the Lord?
The great theme of the Psalter is “God’s goodness and unfailing love for the righteous.” He is our only constant in the ever changing reality of our lives and He is good and He never fails.
We see such a confidence in God’s love and care in Psalm 33. “The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord” (v. 5). God creates and governs and causes us to fear and stand in awe of Him. Only God can do these things. We get caught up in so many things. Our social media feeds are littered with all sorts of different political opinions and values and yet the Psalmist reminds us in verses 10-11, “The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.” This is a picture of God’s providence, which stands forever from generation to generation.
That is such precious hope for the people of God! This is always the case. God is always there and always in control.
Moving on in the Psalm we see the omnipresence of God (v. 14-15). He sees everything we do. Nothing gets past him.
In verses 16-17 we are told there is no hope for us at a human level. There is nothing we can access that will guarantee us victory. If our hope is in anything other than God it will be shattered.
My professor in one of my June classes said “we need to go to God first and we need to go to God foremost.” He must be where we turn first and ultimately. Not to other people or to armies or horses like we see in the Psalm.
We really see in the Psalm that the fear of the Lord is a confident expectation of God’s provision and in verse 20 we see the very heart of what it means to fear the Lord, “Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.”
May we put our hope in Him when we face anxiety and the struggles of this life. He always keeps His promises. He always comes through.