Psalm 33:1 ¶ Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous: 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 an 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.
Note these cross-references;
Psalm 135:3 Praise the
LORD; for the LORD is good: sing praises unto his name; for it is pleasant.
Psalm 147:1 ¶ Praise ye the
LORD: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and
praise is comely.
Comely is a word that meant everything from pleasant to look at to
agreeable to worthy or proper to Psalm 147:1 linked with pleasant.
The upright person, the righteous person, for them praise
is proper, seemly, and worthy to express.
Then David goes into praising God with music, even loudly. There
was a huge dispute in the Baptist church of the 1600s about whether music
should be used in worship, whether it was too worldly to do so. Eventually
worshippers became convinced it was okay and, of course, Psalms tells us to
praise God with our voices and our musical instruments and loudly.
God’s word is right, all of his works are truth, and as He loves
righteousness and judgment the earth is full of His goodness. Here David
acknowledges God’s creation of all things.
Verse 7, according to John Gill, is a reminder of when the dry
land and the water were separated.
Genesis
1:9 ¶ And God said, Let the waters under
the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear:
and it was so. 10 And God called the dry
land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God
saw that it was good.
Amazingly, they understood where water is stored as there is a
vast reservoir of water under the earth that is greater than all of the world’s
oceans that could cover, scientists estimate the continents in 600 feet of
water.[1]
We should stand in awe at what God has done and is doing on a moment-by-moment
basis causing all reality to happen, not a watchmaker who winds up the clock
and stands back but is actively involved in every second making the hands move.
We are struck dumb by His unsearchable power and might.
Verse 9 makes two important statements about God’s efforts. First,
He spoke the universe into existence as a manifestation of His own thought
which preceded creation.
Genesis 1:3 And God said,
Let there be light: and there was light.
Secondly, as Jesus Christ
is not only God but the Word by which all things were called forth it is by Him
alone that all things are held together, or said to consist.
Colossians 1:17 And he is
before all things, and by him all things consist.
David confirms by his praise the power of God over the heathen and
how firm His word is. I am reminded of men of history like Hitler, who had
great plans which God brought to failure using both good and bad men to bring
about. God’s eternal decrees are permanent and cannot be overruled by mankind
or any in the spiritual world. That is part of our faith.
Psalm 33:12 ¶ 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 an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength. 17 An 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.
Verse 12 is clearly a reference to Israel although it is great
preaching to apply it to an appraisal of countries and how they regard the
Lord. But God’s eyes are on every nation and He sees the wicked and the good,
the lost and the saved, the person trying to do right and the reprobate who
knows better than what he or she is doing. He sees the innocent and the weak,
and He sees those who think they are the strong and the powerful.
God made all human beings’ hearts like each other. We have that in
common. Our inclinations are never totally unique as we have this similarity between
us. And so, God examines everything we do. The Devil himself knows what we are
likely to do as we are so predictable.
Proverbs 20:27 The spirit
of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly.
The reference to hearts carries with it much more
significance than any beating organ of muscle of blood. I commented on this
back in comments on Psalm 22.
“The mention of heart as in your heart shall live
forever is significant. We think of the heart figuratively as from where
our emotions come although we know the heart is affected by emotions but
doesn’t create them. Still, we do not make rational decisions without emotion
being involved. Our reason is dependent upon both the mind and the heart. Our
ability to choose is profoundly affected by it. And so, our thoughts can be
considered to be products of not only the mind but the heart as well.
Genesis 6:5 And GOD saw
that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Notice some other statements about our spiritual heart, the one
you can’t see, like our minds.
Genesis 17:17 Then Abraham
fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born
unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years
old, bear?
1Samuel 2:35 And I will
raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in mine
heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk
before mine anointed for ever.
The error of Modernism is to read the heart and mind as two
completely different things because they are, well, different words referring
to different organs, one of which we know does not generate thoughts in its
physical self. This is proof the Holy Spirit is talking about heart as it is
used in common speech as in when we say someone is, ‘following their heart.’”
The rest of this passage underscores how the things we depend on
for temporal salvation cannot save us without God involved. We are utterly
dependent upon His mercy. In the pre-Modern western world it was understood
that God imparted to men reasoning ability and also revelation and inspiration
could be given to him. Modernism, beginning with the misnamed “The Enlightenment”
placed all faith in man’s reasoning ability without God involved or even
necessary. Postmodernism, the natural result of Modernism, of man depending on his
own reasoning ability and intellect, denies that there is any truth but your
own truth, any reality but your own reality, and that you define the universe,
with all notions of reason and right or wrong as meaningless. All discussion of
truth or falsehood, reality or unreality, is pointless. Once God is removed
from your reasoning the end result is the madness we see about us every day.
[1] Mark Prigg, “Revealed:The vast reservoir hidden beneath
the Earth's crust that holds as much water as ALL of the oceans,”
DailyMail.com,( June 12, 2023).
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2579584/The-vast-reservoir-hidden-Earths-crust-holds-water-ALL-oceans.html#ixzz47Uti24Se
Lucy Schouten, “Scientists Tally Earth’s Hidden Mega-stashes of
Groundwater,” The Christian Science
Monitor, November 17, 2015 (accessed June 12, 2023).
No comments:
Post a Comment