All right, we've got the first 12 verses of Psalm 33 tonight. Let's ask the Lord for his help. Our Father in heaven, how we thank you and praise you for your patience with us. With the display you've made of yourself in creation, the goodness that you have shown us in redemption, It is. Mean and brutish of us towards you. That we are not more bent to praise you. And yet you and your marvelous patients give us instruction and give us reasons. We thank you for your words that we get to study tonight and we pray that you would give us also your spirit and his help. That you would drive home these selected. Words like chosen nails that they would fix your truth in our heart in a way that gives us knowledge of you, experience of you. That you'd set our hearts free to praise you and open our mouths wide with that praise. Pray that you'd bless to us a steady time in such a way that we would be by it well prepared for lifting up our hearts also in prayer. Grant all these things we ask in Jesus name, amen. Psalm 33, I think we'll take the time to read the full Psalm and then we'll come back and we'll read just the first 12 verses which are a portion for this evening. Rejoice in Yahweh, O you righteous, for praise from the upright is beautiful. Praise Yahweh with the harp. Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song. Play skillfully with a shout of joy. For the word of Yahweh is right, and all His work is done in truth. He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the goodness of Yahweh. By the word of Yahweh, the heavens were made, and all the host of them. by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap. He lays up the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear Yahweh. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spoke, and it was. He commanded, and it stood fast. Yahweh brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of Yahweh stands forever. The plans of His heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh. The people He has chosen as His own inheritance. Yahweh looks from heaven. He sees all the sons of men. From the place of his dwelling, he looks on all the inhabitants of the earth. He fashions their hearts individually. He considers all their works. No king is saved by the multitude of an army. A mighty man is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a vain hope for safety. Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength. Behold, the eye of Yahweh is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his mercy to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for Yahweh. He is our help and our shield for our heart shall rejoice in him. because we have trusted in his holy name. Let your mercy, O Yahweh, be upon us, just as we hope in you. And then the first 12 verses are our portion for this evening. Rejoice in Yahweh, O you righteous, for praise from the upright is beautiful. Praise Yahweh with the harp. Make melody to him with an instrument of 10 strings. Sing to him a new song, play skillfully with a shout of joy. For the word of Yahweh is right and all his work is done in truth. He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the goodness of Yahweh. By the word of Yahweh, the heavens were made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap. He lays up the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear Yahweh. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spoke and it was. He commanded and it stood fast. Yahweh brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The council of Yahweh stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh, the people he has chosen as his own inheritance. So far the words of God. So after the first three verses call for joyous praise, and we'll consider those three verses also tonight, there's really four sections. One, the power of God in creation by his word in verses four through nine. And then in verses 10 through 12, the counsel and plans of the nations versus the counsel and plans of the Lord. the power of the Lord's counsel in Providence. So the power of his creating word, the power of his counsel in Providence. And then in verses 13 through 17, it switches from the words of the Lord or the word of the Lord to the eyes of the Lord. verses 13 through 17, the eyes of the Lord that see everything, even the heart, everywhere. And so the perfection of the Lord's judgment or the persistence of his observing and judging men. And then marvelously, since he does see all of that, the eyes of the Lord in verses 18 through 22, on those who fear him, on those who hope, in him to deliver them and save them to be their help and their shield. Well, we'll take the mouth part, the word part this evening up through verse 12 and Lord willing by his help, we will try and do, or we'll hope to do the eye part, the judgment of the Lord. and the deliverance, his compassionately watching to deliver his people. That part we'll take next week, Lord willing. So first in verses one through three, we have this call to praise. Rejoice in Yahweh, O you righteous, for praise from the upright is beautiful. Now all creatures ought to praise God. All things are from him and through him and to him and to him be the glory forever, amen. But it's specifically those men who have been made right with God through faith in the promised Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's particularly the righteous, the upright, who are being addressed in this Psalm. And the righteous and the upright, That way by God's mere grace by his choosing so you have rejoiced in Yahweh. Oh, you're righteous for praise from the upright is beautiful Beginning verse 1 but at the close of our section this evening is the end of verse 12 blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh the people he has chosen to as his own inheritance. And so this righteousness is a righteousness that has come by God's mere grace, by God's planning, by God's choosing, by God's word. And so we are especially invested in praising him for these things because it is by his word, by his counsel, by his choosing that he has determined to save us by himself. by His Son, by His grace. And so we of all creatures ought to praise the Lord, not only for creation, but for redemption. You see both of these in the opening, well, the opening after the letters to the churches in Revelation. You see them praising God for you created all things. And then you see them praising God for you have redeemed us by your blood. by the blood of the Lamb. Those who have been made righteous and upright by God's mere gracious choosing, we have a native tongue or a native dialect. Rejoice! First part of verse one, praise. Second part of verse one, praise. First part of verse two, make melody. Second part of verse two, sing. First part of verse three, shout with joy. Last part of verse three, praise, is the dominating dialect of the people who have been made right with God, who have been made righteous by God's grace. It's not only the commanded form of speech, rejoice in Yahweh, O you righteous, that's a command, but it's also the beautiful and appropriate speech for those who have been made upright, for praise from the upright is beautiful. We are to enlist every proper aid. Verse two, praise Yahweh with the harp, make melody to him with an instrument of 10 strings. Probably at some point I'll cut and paste somewhere what Calvin commented on this verse and how merciful and the Lord is and patient and in the age of, pedagogy, thinking of the law or the ceremonial system as a schoolmaster to get to Christ, and how this was helpful to them then, but now there's grace in the heart that replaces it. It still can be helpful. It certainly can be unhelpful. Many have used instruments quite unhelpfully. And yet the principle that we are to enlist proper aid, if grace and the heart, Ephesians 5.19 and Colossians 3.16 is the new instrument, then how we ought to stir up our thoughts of Christ and our dependence upon his grace and our knowledge that he is the one who leads us and helps us. It will not do simply to have a theology that says, well, the melody that accompanies Christian congregational singing is grace in the heart. And you just say that as a point of theology and dismiss the use of other helps. Well, if that is the accompaniment, then we had better play that tune. and employ that help. We are to enlist proper aid and we're to sing with freshness. This is interesting, studying the first part of verse three, sing to him a new song. And it actually solved for me, a couple of situations where the Lord gives us a song to sing that is not new. If we're always to sing a new song, then we're never to sing, to repeat singing. But the newness here is not the content of the song. It is the singing of the song. That is to sing freshly every time as the first time. To never let familiarity with the praises of God breed the ability to sing it rotely or unthinkingly, which some of the best songs because we've sung them so many times actually do because of their familiarity put us in danger of not singing them newly every time with heart stirred up to God in a fresh and intentional way every time we sing. So we're to sing not just freshly, but then also skillfully and forcefully. We're to sing loudly. I am sure, because I've been in those congregations or sung with those congregations, There are churches out there where you cannot hear yourself think or feel your heartbeat for how loud the organ is. Organs can be horrid for drowning out congregations. And I'm sure present company is also aware that there are many other instruments and amplifications that can do the same thing. What a wonderful, What a wonderful obedience to verse three it would be to be among a congregation that enough of them in a small enough space singing with the force that is commanded. This shout of joy does not indicate lack of musicality. It indicates presence of amplitude. It's loud, but it's also skillful. I've heard loud and unskillful too. So you have this freshness and skillfulness and forcefulness. It's real singing of the people of God in rejoicing and praise, which is the appropriate, the beautiful form of the response of God's people. So we have this great call to praise. This is what our tongues were made for. You remember Isaiah six, Isaiah or Isaiah as our spiritual forebears probably said. hears the angels say, the whole earth is full of his glory. Holy, holy, holy as Yahweh of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And he realizes at that point, Isaiah, what his tongue was made for, what it always ought to be doing and how comparatively unclean it is. And he hadn't been He dwells among the people who don't use their tongue that way. And we know what our mouth is made for, which is why James 3 verses 8 through 10 says, be careful not to use your mouth to curse your brother, because your mouth exists for the praise of God. And the cursing of your brother should not come from the mouth that is supposed to be, especially for the purpose of blessing our God and our heavenly father. Well, if this is what our mouths are for, then we should be careful always to use them in a way that if the next moment what we were called to do was to sing in the way described in verses one through three, it would not be inconsistent. with the way we have just been using our mouths. That's what's, to quote verse one, beautiful. That is the appropriate, the lovely use of the godly one's mouth. So we're praising him, especially out of these four categories, especially this evening, for the power of his creating word, verses four through nine, and the power of his counsel or his plan in his providence, verses 10 through 12. first the power of his creating word we rejoice to see the creation not only because in the creation the glory of God is displayed as Romans 1 tells us and as we'll see in verses 8 and 9 all the inhabitants of the world ought to stand in awe of him and all the earth should fear him but especially his people who have been on the receiving end of this creating word, this righteousness, excuse me, creating word. For the word of Yahweh is right and all his work is done in truth. He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the goodness Yahweh. Now this would be one of those places where having translation that translates a little more consistently or a little more literally might might help us because the word translated goodness towards the end of verse 5 there is the word chesed. It's steadfast love. which is interesting because God's covenanted love or God's steadfast love is a very specific saving love. It's that love that he has set upon his elect in Christ from before the world began and that is determined to bring them at last to to be conformed to the image of his son. We have been chosen in the beloved to use the language of Ephesians 1 and what verse 5 is saying is everything that God does everywhere in the world all the time is out of that covenant love. So you really have like Romans 8 28 packed into the end of Psalm 33 verse five. All things work together for the good of those who love God, the ones who have been called according to his purpose. That's how they came to love God in the first place. And what is it that has produced this salvation? It is the word of Yahweh. than the work of Yahweh that is done in truth. He loves righteousness and justice. Notice how the word and work of the Lord are bound together in verse four. Every word of the Lord infallibly accomplishes its purpose. He says this in Isaiah, that his word that goes out will not return to him without accomplishing its purpose. And the word of the Lord is especially what he has appointed by which to do his work. Now we see that in what is being referred to here, especially as we get into verses six and seven, in the creation. He chose to create by speaking. so that he might refer to his son as the word through whom all things were made and nothing that was made was made without him. And he makes the same point in Colossians chapter one and verse 16, that by him, all things were made, all things were made through him, whether things in heaven or things on earth. And Hebrews chapter one, that Jesus is the one through whom all things through whom he created all things. But it's not just his word that he uses to create, it's also his word by which he works in his world. Hebrews chapter one also says, upholds all things by the word of his power. So the word of the Lord and the work of the Lord are tied together. And they're tied together there appropriately then in verse four. We can see what his word and work do, they accomplish the purposes of his steadfast love. to produce that righteousness and that justice. The righteousness and justice in the first half of verse five corresponds to the righteous ones and the upright ones in verse one. He's the one who by his word produced that righteousness, produced that uprightness. This is of course why the apostle in 2 Corinthians chapter four says that his ministry plan is to just keep plainly speaking the word of God, to keep plainly speaking the truth. Why? Because it's God who said, let there be light, the one who caused light to shine into the darkness. It's he whose power alone can make the light of the knowledge of the glory of God shine in the hearts of believers in the face of Jesus Christ. Even if we were able physically to see Jesus, We would not see divine glory, or at least we would not have before his glorification. We would not have seen divine glory except by the work of the spirit. When the apostle says in John chapter one, the word became flesh and we beheld his glory. There are a lot of people who looked at Jesus and didn't see glory. The rest of the gospel of John is full of them. But God who, by the word of Yahweh, the heavens were made, verse six. By the word of Yahweh, by the breath of his mouth, all the hosts of the heavens were made, verse six. The one who said, let the sea be gathered together and let the dry land appear. And he gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap, verse 7, and lays up the deep in the storehouses, verse 7. So his creating word is at work, not just on the six days of creation, but also in his ongoing work of redemption. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. for good works that we should walk before them. He is still doing creating work when he makes new creatures. And we look forward as new creatures to that new heavens and the new earth to which we'll belong. So the word accomplishes his saving purposes. And it's the same word by which he created all things. It's important to see the way the response in verses eight and nine corresponds to the events in verses six and seven. Let all the earth fear Yahweh. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Yahweh. of him. We know that this is how we are to respond to the creation because the wrath of God that is revealed against all unrighteousness and all ungodliness of men is specifically aimed at those who can look at this world and not give thanks to the Lord. Those who can look at this world and not marvel at his glory and the revelation that he has made of himself. So Romans 1 19 through 21 reinforce that in his creative work, the Lord calls forth our praise of his glory. In fact, in verse six, he may be describing himself Trinitarianly. We've already mentioned that the word refers to the sun, especially when it comes to creation by the word of Yahweh, the heavens were made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. Some of you probably know that the word for breath is the word for spirit. And so you have God, the son and God, the spirit referred to in verse six. And this is not to introduce something into the creation account merely from this place was scripture interpreting scripture. The Lord specifically told us in Genesis one verse two before before he gave us any of the details of the creation, that the spirit of God hovered over the waters. That's not, or brooded over the waters is even more literal translation. That's not the action of an impersonal power. That is a person who is active in the creating work of the rest of Genesis chapter one. So you have this personal revelation of himself in the creation that we are to respond to. And one of the things that we specifically respond to, verse nine, one of the things that we specifically fear him for and stand in awe of him, to take the commands from verse eight, is in verse nine, the immediacy and the instantaneousness There might be a better word for that. Instancy, we'll say. The immediacy and instancy of the creation by his word. This is one of the things that you lose if standing on the shoulders of contemporary fools, you try to insert extra mechanisms or extra time. The immediacy is important and the instancy is important. It's why I didn't read the word in italics either time we went through verse nine, because the word in italics isn't there. That's being supplied by the translator because he thinks you need it to finish out the thought in good English. No, it's he spoke and it was. He commanded and it stood fast. There is immediacy and instancy in how God created with his word. So yes, he created in six days, but there are moments when he said, let there be, and it was, in fact, he didn't say let there be, he called to things that weren't, he said, light be. And in order to obey him, the light first existed, and by existing, it obeyed him. So when Psalm 33 verses 8 and 9 says, now here's how not to commit the error of Romans 119 through 21 that brings man under the wrath of God. recognize the instancy and immediacy of the power of his word in creating this world and respond with fear and awe with reverence and awe to God the creator. Now you see it's not some minor what's the word, adiaphora, indifferent. It's not a minor indifferent thing, whether or not God created at the pace that he describes in Genesis chapter one, or whether you can somehow wedge a bunch of different mechanisms and an unimaginable length of time in there. God the Holy Spirit says we make application, Psalm 33 verse 9, of Genesis 1 the way it's written. So you have the power of his creating word that we are to respond to with worship. And then you have the power of his counsel and providence. There's a much shorter section you can see even in the English. Thankfully, our translators have used the same words in order that we can see the parallel. You have the nations counseling together, taking counsel together. You have the people's planning. What does that remind you of? That's Psalm 2, right? The nation's rage, people plot, plan, a vain thing. The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together. And with the same result, he who sits in the heavens laughs. All of the conspiracies and plans of men and nations to try and bend the history of the world to their will must fail. It is the counsel of Yahweh that stands forever, verse 11. It's the plans of His heart that stand to all generations. Do they intend evil? Yes. Do they carry out some evil? Yes. Do they achieve the ends that they were aiming at? No. because they can only carry out what God has intended for good and is using, has ordained and uses for good. It's his counsel, it's his plan that stands. Do not fear, dear believer, and don't be tempted to try to bend history to your will either. because it's going to be bent to God's will. You obey him. So if a nation plotting its strategy can't achieve its strategy, verse 10, how is a nation supposed to be blessed? Verse 12, blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh, the people he has chosen as his own inheritance. The only effective national policy or and you can stick, you can substitute for nation personal policy, household policy, congregational policy. The only effective national policy is to own the Lord as our God and Christ as our Redeemer and King. when verse 12 was written, that could only be true of Israel. That was the nation, the state that the Lord had chosen as his own inheritance. But he still has a people who are his inheritance. They're just not a state. So if you're a nation today, we live in a nation today. And if the nation wants to have a blessed national policy, what it needs to do is encourage and protect and defend the church. It needs to encourage and urge its citizens to come to Christ and be joined to him through saving faith. The nation that does that, that is full of citizens who are the inheritance of the Lord, not because God has chosen the USA or Ireland or Zimbabwe or whatever nation you are, but because there are a people on earth that God has taken as his inheritance. And the most successful national policy is to do whatever you can as a state to encourage, defend, protect, foster the work of the church in proclaiming the gospel, the peace that enables the church to worship and the church to disciple and the church to evangelize. Because there is a nation that this belongs to, verse 12, but it's not in Nebuchadnezzar's idol. It's the stone that's cut out of the mountain without hands. that the stone that is cut without hands that grows into a mountain that destroys all of the other kingdoms until at last, as they rejoice in Revelation 11, to praise the nations of the earth have become the kingdom of our, the kingdoms of the earth have become the kingdom of our Lord and Christ. So even if your state, your country, isn't operating in the way that would be advisable comparing verse 10 and verse 12. If you're a believer, you have another country. You're a pilgrim, you're a foreigner. We're aliens in this world. But our homeland is the blessed nation that endures forever. And we rejoice that God's providence is ruling and overruling everything that happens everywhere. If you are obeying verses one to three, rejoicing and praising him, and if you are seeing the powerful word by which he has not just created the world, but brought you to himself in Jesus Christ, verses four through nine, then you of all people, dear Christ-bought, word-forged believers, ought have no anxiety, no anxiety, over what the nations are taking counsel to do and the peoples are planning, verse 10. Because it's the counsel of the Lord and the plan of the Lord that stands forever. And you belong to a blessed nation that will endure forever and ever. And it doesn't have a flag, stars, stripes, sickles, anything. It has Christ.