Psalm 33- Blessed is the Nation Whose God is the Lord
1 You godly ones, shout for joy because of the Lord!
It is appropriate for the morally upright to offer him praise.
2 Give thanks to the Lord with the harp!
Sing to him to the accompaniment of a ten- stringed instrument!
3 Sing to him a new song!
Play skillfully as you shout out your praises to him!
4 For a the Lord ʼs decrees are just,
and everything he does is fair.
5 The Lord promotes a equity and justice;
the Lord ʼs faithfulness extends throughout the earth.
6 By the Lord ʼs decree a the heavens were made;
by a mere word from his mouth all the stars in the sky were created.
7 He piles up the water of the sea;
he puts the oceans in storehouses.
8 Let the whole earth fear the Lord!
Let all who live in the world stand in awe of him!
9 For he spoke, and it came into existence,
he issued the decree, and it stood firm.
10 The Lord frustrates the decisions of the nations;
he nullifies the plans of the peoples.
11 The Lord ʼs decisions stand forever;
his plans abide throughout the ages.
12 How blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people whom he has chosen to be his special possession.
13 The Lord watches from heaven;
he sees all people.
14 From the place where he lives he looks carefully
at all the earthʼs inhabitants.
15 He is the one who forms every human heart,
and takes note of all their actions.
16 No king is delivered by his vast army;
a warrior is not saved by his great might.
17 A horse disappoints those who trust in it for victory;
despite its great strength, it cannot deliver.
18 Look, the Lord takes notice of his loyal followers,
those who wait for him to demonstrate his faithfulness
19 by saving their lives from death
and sustaining them during times of famine.
20 We a wait for the Lord;
he is our deliverer and shield.
21 For our hearts rejoice in him,
for we trust in his holy name.
22 May we experience your faithfulness, O Lord,
for we wait for you.
The NET Bible
The is the kind of Psalm that gets a musician’s heart started! Give thanks with the harp, accompany with the ten-stringed instrument, play skillfully, and shout out your praises to Him! That’s about all the encouragement it takes to grab a guitar (six stringed instrument) or a piano (stringed instrument with keys) or a horn (a fancy way to shout) and start making some music to praise the Lord. Even if you are not a skilled musician, your heart should be stirred to shout to the Lord. Everyone can do that, even if you can’t sing on key. My mother used to say that she couldn’t carry a tune in an old wooden bucket, but she still loved the old hymns. Fortunately, he mother was musical and I inherited my grandmother’s musical talent, so I can play the horn a little closer to being on key, but I think that to the Lord, the heart is more important than the skill.
There are lots of musicians that are skillful, but whose heart doesn’t long to worship the Lord. Others may not have the skill to earn a Grammy award, but they have a heart to worship and it is the latter that are pleasing to the Lord. So grab and instrument, or just lift your voice, and lets praise the Lord together!
Verses 4 though 11 list a great many things to praise the Lord for, but if you think about it, you can come up with your own list. The list is really endless of all the good things that the Lord has done for us, and we need to thank and praise Him for His goodness. This is not only beneficial to us and to our relationship to the Lord, but verse 12 says that this actually can bless our nation! Oh, how our nation needs God’s blessing in these days. Do you suppose it would be possible for us to gather our voices together and praise the Lord for His goodness one more time in this nation? If so, maybe the Lord would look from heaven (verse 13) and bless our land once more. Let us praise the Lord together, and wait, with the Psalmist, for the Lord to be our help and shield. And so let our hearts rejoice in Him as we trust in His holy name!
and now for something a bit different, here is a musical version by
Sinéad O' Connor Psalm 33 @ Paris Trianon
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