Fuel for Praise

Psalm 33:1–3 NIV

1 Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him. 2 Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. 3 Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.

The psalmist—whoever it is—begins Psalm 33 by rousing the people of God to sing, praise, make music, sing some more, play skillfully, and shout for joy.

Those are some fairly direct commands, directed at the righteous and the upright, that is, the people of God. Those who have been made righteous through faith in Him and those who are upright are called to sing the LORD’s praises.

To sing joyfully, with instruments, with freshness and fervor.

Verse 3, according to Derek Kidner, is a “superb synopsis of three qualities rarely found together.”

Sing to Him a new song would imply that there are always fresh reasons for praising the LORD Yahweh. If thinking rightly and accurately about the LORD, we would never run out of songs to sing. Beyond that, our praise should never be stale; He deserves our very best.

Shout for joy instructs us in the fervor we should have. We should sing loudly, with all the air in our lungs; with warmth and with little regard for what those around us think.

In 2 Samuel, King David was dancing before the LORD and his wife went and chewed him out for his exuberant conduct. David was joyful; his wife, Michal, was militantly proper.

William Blaikie asks a good question here:

“There are, doubtless, times to be calm, and times to be enthusiastic; but can it be right to give all our coldness to Christ and all our enthusiasm to the world?”

Imagine sitting at a Chiefs game the way we sit at church. Or imagine you’re attending a concert where your favorite band is playing, with hands folded and a sleepy/bored stare on your face, your eyes glaze over, and you start drooling out the corner of your mouth.

I doubt either scenario would happen. As C.S. Lewis wrote in 1958:

“The world rings with praise—readers praising their favorite poet, players praising their favorite game—praise of weather, food, actors, cars, countries, children, flowers, rare stamps, rare beetles, mountains, even sometimes politicians or scholars.

The psalmists, in telling everyone to praise God, are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about.”

- C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms

You see, we praise what we value. And what we truly value shows.

The people of God should, at minimum, praise the LORD with joy and excitement at the same level as we praise a Netflix series or our wife’s cooking.

So here, the psalmist writing Psalm 33 is directing our praise to its rightful place, to its true object.

Look again with me at the end of verse 1:

Psalm 33:1 NIV

1 Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him.

It is fitting for the upright to praise Him. It is a beautiful thing for the upright to praise the LORD; it’s fitting and proper. Even more fitting and proper to praise the LORD than it is to cheer for our team or sing along with the band.

It’s fitting for the upright to praise Him. It’s a beautiful thing when the LORD’s people praise Him. Sometimes we can sense conviction in the way a congregation sings a certain song:

“Then bursting forth, in glorious day, up from the grave He rose again! And as He stands in victory, sin’s curse has lost its grip on me; for I am His and He is mine, bought with the precious blood of Christ.”

Sing joyfully…it’s fitting to praise Him.

Psalm 33:1-3 are prepping us for the task; telling us how to praise, how we should look on the whole exercise of giving Him praise.

Verses 1-3 tell us to praise and how to do it, which begs the question “Why should we praise the LORD?”

The psalmist will take verses 4-22 (the remainder of the psalm) giving us ample reasons to praise the LORD. We have all sorts of reasons for thanks and praise.

Here is, I think, the message of Psalm 33 in a sentence:

The People of God have Plenty of Fuel to Ignite Their Praise

I believe that is what the psalmist is getting at here. He’s addressing the people of God—the righteous, the upright—giving them these commands for worship, for how to sing, what instruments to play, what attitude should color their singing.

The people of God should give Him praise. That much is clear in verses 1-3. The “why”—the fuel that ignites praise—is found in the verses to follow.

Psalm 33:4–9 NIV

4 For the word of the Lord is right and true; he is faithful in all he does. 5 The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love. 6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. 7 He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses. 8 Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him. 9 For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.

Here’s some fuel for our praise:

The Creation Work of the Covenant-Keeping God

Three times in these verses (vv. 4, 6, and 9) the psalmist makes mention of the word, the word of the LORD, and His speaking (He spoke, He commanded).

What the LORD spoke happened. All that the LORD has spoken will come to pass. He has complete intent to bring about His word. He is faithful in all He does.

What the LORD has created springs from who He is, from His character: He is right and good; He loves righteousness and justice. We need to be clear about the kind of God who does this creative work.

The second part of verse 5 is an incredible thought: the earth is full of His unfailing love.

This is the LORD’s hesed, the covenant God’s covenant love. As Sally Lloyd-Jones says, this is “His never-stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love.”

This is a remarkable statement—the earth is full of His unfailing love—remarkable, all on its own. But compare that to the pagan pantheon of the day and it becomes something else entirely.

No one in the ANE would say anything about the love of the gods. Molech wasn’t loving, not even in the estimation of those who worshipped the false god. Neither was Marduk, or Dagon, or Asherah.

All the false deities were flighty and temperamental; one couldn’t know what they might do. They were entirely unpredictable. They were morally indifferent. None of them were actually in control of anything. And in the minds and imaginations of their followers, this god could undo what that god wanted.

Remember, even the gods were subject to a realm beyond them (magic).

For the pagan person, those who didn’t know the LORD Yahweh, the earth wasn’t full of unfailing love. It was full of constant fear and never-ending uncertainty.

Our praise should be motivated, fueled by the knowledge that we’re praising the One true and only God who is Himself love and who fills the earth with His unfailing love.

That is the One who has created all things by His word.

The psalmist is, apparently, obviously thinking about Genesis as he’s composing this song. Remember? God said, “Let there be…,” and there was…” That’s the whole pattern of Genesis 1.

The LORD God merely spoke and the heavens were made. He let out a breath, and boom! Stars, galaxies, constellations, planets, Pluto, meteors, quasars.

It’s easy to praise one who is so superior to us.

What else do you have but praise when you’re driving through the mountains? “Wow. Would you look at that?!? Isn’t that incredible?”

When you’re speechless at the edge of the Grand Canyon or stopped in your tracks before the tides of the Pacific, what can you do but praise the One who created it all?

Makai and I were mowing the other night and finished not long before dark. He looked at the setting sun and he asked, “Dad, does God tell the sun to do that?”

I stopped for a minute and realized I don’t really give it any thought, but that is absolutely God’s work. I didn’t want to get too detailed with my 6-year-old and tell him the earth is actually rotating away from the sun, tilted on its axis at 23.5 degrees, so I simply said,

“Yeah, buddy. You’re right. God made the sun and gets to tell it what to do.”

And I had a little moment of worship there with my son.

The people of God have plenty of fuel to ignite their praise.

The Creator, the Covenant God, effortlessly created all there is—the heavens, the starry host, the earth, the seas. This is creation “ex nihilo.”

It’s everyone’s favorite time: “Let’s learn Latin with Barrett!”

I don’t know Latin; just a few important theological phrases that happen to be Latin.

“Ex nihilo” means “out of nothing.” God spoke and all the nothing became a lot of somethings. Where there once was void, God spoke and filled it with His creation.

“Creation ex nihilo” is an important doctrine. The Creator God made everything from nothing. It’s all made by Him; He is big and we are small.

Look at what He has done! Think about all the marvels of His creation, many unknown to us, many beyond our comprehension.

If He can fashion Mt. Denali and the Marianas trench with a word, with a breath, do you think He can handle whatever it is you’re up against, whatever you might be facing?

Catch this, too! In verse 7, the tense shifts from past tense in verse 6: the heavens were made. In verse 7, we read present participles: gathers, puts.

Only slightly less exciting than “Latin with Barrett” is “Grammar with Barrett.” But stick with me. Grammar is important.

Psalm 33:7 NIV

7 He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses.

The LORD’s work in creation is original to Him, but it’s also ongoing—He gathers, He puts.

Our praise is fueled by the staggering immensity of God. So big is God, He gathers up the vast and unruly seas in a heap and assigns ocean depths to their storage facilities.

He’s puts everything right where He wants it; and I’m not talking about rearranging the canned goods in the pantry. He’s gathering the seas as if in bottles; the deep as if into Sam and Cassandra’s storage units.

Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world revere Him.

At this some would say, “This doesn’t mean we should be afraid, but that we should revere Him.”

Allen Ross says, “No, you should be afraid, you should feel dread; it should intimidate you; seeing His work in creation should buckle your knees. And then it may produce reverence, but don’t try to bypass the fear and trembling with your canned pastel explanations.”

All of this is fuel to ignite our praise. He spoke—and it came to be, He commanded—and there is stood.

We don’t really want a God we can manipulate, a God we can fold up real small and stick in our pocket.

We don’t want some weak, ineffectual deity who bows to our will.

We want a God who is stronger than us, superior to us, sovereign over us. Trust me.

Psalm 33:10–15 NIV

10 The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. 11 But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. 12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance. 13 From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind; 14 from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth— 15 he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.

There’s more fuel for our praise:

The Personal Work of God in History

The same God—the One and Only—the LORD Yahweh who created the world, keeps and preserves all things in ordered existence, condescends to our level and “gets into the dirty stuff of history.”

Jesus—the Word Himself, eternally existing, in the beginning with God, the One who was with God and who was God—He took on flesh and moved into the neighborhood. It doesn’t get more personal than that.

God is intimately involved with His people.

Verses 10 and 11 stand together, and yet show an important contrast. You can see the poetic parallelism, can’t you? Plans, purposes, plans, purposes.

There is the plan of the nations/peoples. And there’s the LORD’s plan. The LORD frustrates the first and fulfills the second.

The LORD carries out His plan and His designs in history, and a big part of that work is frustrating and negating the schemes of nations.

History is pretty much a mess, we might think, but what would it be like if nations/peoples were consistently successful in their schemes?

Who knows how many devious plots of nations the LORD nixed before they got off the ground!?!

If all our plans succeeded, oh boy, would we be in trouble. It’s good that God is over us, to frustrate our plans and purposes in favor of His plans and purposes.

There’s an “out-of-context alert” at verse 12.

I see this verse every stinking 4th of July and during other patriotic holidays. Typically, it’s just the first half of the verse—Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD—and it’s plastered on top of the stars and stripes, and then printed on a T-shirt or posted on some social media meme.

This verse is not referring to the good ol’ U.S. of A. It wasn’t about the United States of America when this psalm was written and it’s not about this country now. Never has been, never will be.

You can’t rip a verse from its place in the Bible and apply it however you’d like. I mean, I guess you can, but you shouldn’t. Don’t do that; we’re better than that, okay?

I actually saw a decorative verse-of-the-day desk calendar that said this for July 3rd:

“If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.” Luke 4:7

That sounds nice and inspirational until you realize that’s Satan tempting Jesus.

That’s the danger in taking verses out-of-context.

Believe it or not (this might blow your mind), Psalm 33:12 goes along with verses 10-11. Verses 10 and 11 speak of God’s plan and purposes, and verse 12 indicates what part of that plan is.

The word nation is defined for us in the second half of the verse as the people He chose for His inheritance. They are parallel phrases.

Keep verse 12 linked to verse 11 and what do you have? God’s purpose and plan is having a people in this world whom He chooses to belong to Him.

This refers initially to the OT people of Israel, the remnant of those who believed in Him. And now, today, not to a country or people of one nation, but to those people God chose to belong to Him in this world.

Writing to Christians in the time of the early church, to those who were scattered throughout the ancient world, and to those who are Christians today, part of the Church, wherever we might find ourselves, Peter borrows this language in Psalm 33 and refers to us as:

1 Peter 2:9 NIV

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

It’s those who belong to the LORD by faith who are blessed/happy. It’s a matter of belonging to the LORD, not to any earthly nation.

So leave this verse where it is and let it mean what it means; what it actually means is much better fuel for praise than a temporary nation will ever be.

Because He is personally involved with His people throughout history, the LORD looks down, sees us, watches all who live on earth.

This is the LORD’s personal activity in actual history. The LORD knows us both inwardly and outwardly. He knows our hearts and sees everything we do.

He—the LORD—is actually at work, always at work among us. He’s preventing the plans and purposes of people, hindering peoples throughout history. Nothing is hidden from Him. He sees it all and He will judge it all. You can count on it.

The God who existed before history, and who is actively working and watching throughout human history, will set all things right.

This is fuel for praise—for His work in the stuff we call history. He not only sets up the game, He governs the playing field.

Psalm 33:16–22 NIV

16 No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. 17 A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. 18 But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, 19 to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. 20 We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. 21 In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. 22 May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.

Yet more fuel to ignite our praise:

The Delivering Work of God in our Trouble

This section begins with a couple verses contrary to common thinking. A king’s army, a strong warrior, a horse in battle—these things are all certain winners.

The psalmist disagrees with conventional thought. So does a good portion of the Bible.

Just ask Pharaoh about horses and armies and how powerful they are to save.

Ask the vast Midianite army how their numbers fared against Gideon’s 300 men.

Or ask Paul about how the foolish and weak shame the wise and the strong.

Think about how the forces of men and evil all conspired to kill Jesus. They just thought they had Him beat. sure looked like it.

Conventional thinking can be way off the mark. Armies and horses don’t save.

It’s God who saves, sees, and works to deliver from death and famine.

We don’t escape trouble or survive because we’ve got enough resources and intelligence and goodness of our own; we are kept by the LORD who watches over us and delivers us, who loves us with an unfailing love.

He is our help and our shield. In Him we trust. In Him we place our hope.

This is fuel for praise. There isn’t a person in this room who doesn’t owe the LORD praise for His work in the difficulties faced in this life.

Comparatively, my troubles and difficulties are pretty small. Some of you have really faced some stuff. And yet, as I was preparing this message, I couldn’t help but think of times when the watching eye of the LORD was upon me to deliver me and preserve me.

I started thinking about stuff I did and scrapes I got myself into and I realized,

“You know, without the LORD, that would have killed me. And that would have landed me in jail. It’s a wonder I’m alive and not under some form of house arrest with one of those little monitors fastened to my ankle.”

All those memories of the LORD’s deliverance and keeping are fuel to ignite our praise—praise to the One who created us, the One who is personally involved in the details of our lives, the One who delivers us from trouble.

Praise to the One who gave us His Son, who suffered and bled and died to free us from the grip of sin and death, to reconcile (make us friendly again) with God.

Praise to the One who loves us with an unfailing, “never-stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love.”

That’s all the fuel for praise we will ever need.