Psalm 33: Reasons for Praise

God wants us to worship him intelligently. This psalm is a call to worship in which we are given reasons why we should worship and praise God.

A Call to Worship

Psalm 33 is a psalm without a title. We do not know who the author of the psalm was nor the occasion of its composition, but we do know that this psalm exhorts the people of God to praise the Lord with passion, freshness, and skill. This exhortation is given in six commands in the first three verses: Sing joyfully, praise the Lord, make music to him, sing to him a new song, play skillfully, and shout for joy.

Psalm 33 contains the first reference in the book of Psalms to using musical instruments in the worship of God. In verse 2 we are told to “praise the Lord with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre.” There are those who oppose the use of musical instruments in worship, but this psalm should caution us against such dogmatism. This, however, does not mean we must have harps and lyres to worship God in spirit and in truth. No, we can worship God fervently without any musical instruments. Many poor Christians in the world have no musical instruments except the ten-stringed instruments of their hands, but with those they certainly can clap as they sing joyfully in worship to God.

A New Song

In verse 3 we are exhorted to sing a new song to the Lord with passion and skill. What is a new song? We see this term also in Revelation 5:9, “And they sang a new song: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.’” A new song is the song of redemption by Christ’s death. This new song shall never grow old. It is ever new to us and we must always sing it with fresh appreciation of its great efficacy and blessings. Why? A Christian never gets bored with Calvary. The gospel is music in our ears because it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. In fact, we shall sing this song forever in eternity.

The Reasons for Praise

The Spirit of God is calling us to worship in this psalm. What reasons are given for us to praise God? The first reason is that the word of the Lord—God’s revelation, God’s word—is right and true, meaning it is straight, reliable, and does not deceive us. Man exaggerates, lies, contradicts and practices hypocrisy, but “let God be true, and every man a liar” (Rom. 3:4). God’s word is true and effectual. God’s promises are true and therefore we can pray. The basis of prayer is the truth of God’s promises. His threatenings are also true.. In Numbers 23:19 we read, “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” God’s word is dynamic and performs God’s purposes, as we read in Isaiah 55:10, “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

The word of God is the first reason we should praise, make music, play skillfully, and shout for joy to the Lord. It is the creative word, by which God created the universe without any effort. God simply commanded and the universe sprang into existence. We read in Genesis 1, “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Eight times we read in Genesis 1 the expression “and God said.” When God spoke, there was light, there was expanse, there was sea, there was land, there was vegetation, there was man, and so on. All came from the word of the Creator God; thus, we realize that the universe is the work of a single mind. And therefore in verse 8 of Psalm 33 we read, “Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him.” Not only Israel, but all the people of the earth are to fear, revere, bow down and worship God. Why? Every person in the world is his creation. He owns all people, and they are to do his bidding alone.

The Will of God

We should shout, praise, worship and sing with fervor, freshness and skill, not only because of the word of God but also because of his will. In verses 10-11 we read, “The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.”

No one can resist the will, the purpose, and the counsel of God God is not only the creator of the universe, but he is also the ruler of history. He is the sovereign Lord who rules all irresistibly. When the kings of the earth together plan to resist the will of this sovereign Lord, he laughs and scoffs at them, rebuking them in his anger and terrifying them in his wrath (Psalm 2). His will is ever triumphant.

God is almighty over his creation. All of nature obeys him, and yet the moral agents, men, whom he created, defy him. But they will not do so for very long. In Isaiah 40 Isaiah gives us some adjectives to describe people before God. He says men are grasshoppers and grass; nations are worthless; people of the world are nothing and less than nothing. But even those who think they are something will be dealt with by God, as we read in Isaiah 40:23, “He brings princes to nothing and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.” The wisest men in the world are nothing before God. In Isaiah 44:25 we see that God is the one “who foils the signs of the false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense.” Most of modern education is nonsense, and modern man is well-versed in nonsense. In 1 Corinthians 1:19 we read, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate,” meaning God will thwart and foil these things.

Ultimately, God’s purpose alone stands, and for that reason we praise him. In Proverbs 19:21 we read, “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” In Romans 8:28 we read, “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” The psalmist can say, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance,” because verse 11 says, “The plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.”

The Gaze of God

The third reason we need to sing, praise, make music, and shout for joy to the Lord is the gaze of the Lord. Our God sees all mankind and watches all who live on earth. He who formed the hearts of all also has total knowledge of all. No one can escape the notice of this cosmic Seer. He sees everyone’s imagination and knows everyone’s thoughts, words, deeds, and plans. Everyone is under the gaze of the sovereign Judge of all the earth. He has perfect knowledge.

This is a fearful statement, especially to all the wicked of the earth—the proud, the arrogant, the atheists, the materialists. It means God will judge justly one day and punish them eternally.

God’s gaze tells us that he controls all things. Verses 16 and 17 tell us “No king is saved by the size of his army”—literally, by his great army—”no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save.” The word “great” appears three times here. What is the psalmist saying? Go ahead, increase military spending. Trust in horses, trust in the army, trust in military might. Go ahead, trust in technology. Rely on it. But as we read in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, “While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.”

Should we place our trust in a great army, the great strength of a warrior, or the great strength of a horse? Oh, no. God is mightier and greater than these. He controls all things and he is the warrior par excellence . He is the Creator, the Sovereign Lord, and the almighty Controller. As we read in the Shorter Catechism, “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth” (Q. 4). Because of this, the people of God need not be afraid. Because of this, God’s righteous ones can sing and shout.

God is Our Savior

The fourth reason we need to praise God is that he is the Savior of his people. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance.” This is not speaking about just one nation. There is no one Christian nation in the world. I agree with Dr. Boice who says the United States is not a Christian country.1 It is militantly secular and worships the god called money.

God is the Savior of those whom he has chosen from all tribes, nations, and languages. The elect of God make music because this God is our Savior. “The eyes of the Lord is on those who fear him” (v. 18) speaking about the eyes of our heavenly Father, our good Shepherd, our Savior.

In 2 Chronicles 16:9 we are told, “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” This is not speaking of the eyes of the Lord as a Judge, but the eyes of a Shepherd, the eyes of the heavenly Father, who sees us every moment of our lives and helps us continually. His love for us is everlasting, and he does not look upon us in wrath, because his wrath is removed from us once and for all. And now we are his chosen ones, his treasure and his inheritance. Now we are the people of God—of Jehovah Jireh, meaning the God who sees and provides for all our needs, even when we do not see or know. The angels of God deliver us and help us in our going and coming. We are preserved and protected. Every day he sees and helps us. Not only that, God has delivered us from death. In Christ we are delivered from death, and have crossed from death into life. In Christ we are given eternal life. And not only are we righteous because all our sins are forgiven, but the perfect righteousness of Christ has been granted to us and that is why we are told, “Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous.”

Therefore, we do not trust in horses, in the army, in a country, or in technology. We trust in God whose word is true, in God who is the Creator and Lord of history, in God who is the eternal Judge, in God who is our Savior.

Wait in Hope for the Lord

So we wait patiently for the Lord. Look at verse 20: “We wait in hope for the Lord… .” Yes, we wait patiently and hope in him confidently, buoyantly, because “he is our help and our shield.” And in verse 21 we read, “In him our hearts rejoice” as we wait for him to act. We hope in him intelligently “for we trust in his holy name.”

The story is told of a boy who was in a ship that was caught in a great storm. Despite the storm, the boy remained calm and when people asked him, “Why are you not scared?” this boy answered, “I am not scared because my father is the pilot.” Let me tell you, human fathers may fail. But our heavenly Father will never fail, and so we can truly trust in him, hope in him, fear him, and rest in him.

In this psalm, then, commands are given in the first three verses of this psalm to sing joyfully, to praise the Lord, to make music, to sing a new song, to play skillfully, and to shout for joy. And the reasons we can do those things are God’s word is true and he will perform it; his purposes will always be accomplished; he sees all things and controls all things; and he is our Savior. If you are not already trusting in Christ for your eternal salvation, may you do so now, that you also may have reason to praise and worship God!

1. Boice, James Montgomery, Psalms, Volume 1: Psalms 1-41, (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1994), 288.