Turn with me to your Bibles to Psalm 33. I trust that most of you received an outline. It will help you to follow the preacher. I trust.
Psalm 33. Psalm 33, beginning at verse 1. Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, for praise from the upright is beautiful. Praise the Lord 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 the Lord is right, and all His work is done in truth.
He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. By the word of the Lord, 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 the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spoke, and it was done.
He commanded, and it stood fast. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the plans of the people of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance. The Lord 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 the Lord 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 the Lord.
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 Lord, be upon us, just as we hope in you. Amen. Well, let's pray.
Opening Prayer
Our gracious and our loving Heavenly Father, we've read your holy word here, given to us many years ago by the psalmist, and how we pray, Lord, that as we open up this passage now, that you would be pleased to bless it, and may you keep us in truth, hedge us in, Father, that we would only bespeak the things that are true of you, and that we might find to rejoice in and praise you over. For Lord, you are a kind God, you are a merciful God, and that is demonstrated clearly throughout this whole chapter. And so Lord, as we seek to look into this, your word now, we pray that you would give us the light of the Holy Spirit, and we pray that you would be pleased to cause this hour, this time, to be unto edification, and ultimately unto praise and to glorify you. And it's in Jesus' precious name we pray, amen.
Introduction
Well, on purpose, I read chapter 32, Psalm 32, to open our worship this morning, because Psalm 32, it also talks about praise, as this chapter we've just read. Psalm 33 talks about praise, but Psalm chapter 32 talks about praise, but the sentiment in the preceding chapter, in 32, is really for the forgiveness of sin. And so the psalmist simply ends with that praise to God for the forgiveness of sins, and he goes on now in chapter 33, which is the chapter we want to look at today, but I just wanted you to see the connection between 32 and 33. And ultimately, 33 is going to be to give praise to God, not for the forgiveness of sins, he's covered that in 32, but in 33 for his sovereignty in creation. his sovereignty in history.
And God is never extolled by our misery, by long faces. Praise ultimately is the beauty of the Christian. What's a bird without wings? Just imagine that.
It's not a bird. What's a fruit tree without any fruit? Well, we would not call that a fruit tree. What's a thornbush without roses?
Obviously, these things are meant to go together. So for the Christian, praise ought to be something that's on our lips. Praise and worship ought to be something that is in our heart, that possesses our bosom. There's a commentator by the name of Albert Barnes.
I'm going to read just a paragraph of his. He lived in the 1800s, so some of his grammar might be a little bit older, but I think we get the gist of what he is trying to say in regards to praise. Praise for the Christian is befitting, suitable, proper. That is, the upright, the righteous, have abundant cause for praise, and it is for them a suitable employment, or one which becomes them.
A man who is upright, or who is a righteous man, has in this very fact much which lays a foundation for praise. For the fact that he has such a character, is to be traced to the grace of God, and this in itself is a more valuable possession than gold or kingly crowns. That he is not an open violator of the law of God, that he is not intemperate that he is not the victim of raging lusts and passions, that he is not a dishonest man, that he is not profane, that he is not an infidel or a scoffer, that he is a pious man, a redeemed man, a man of good character, an heir of heaven, is the highest blessing that could be conferred on him. And he who has been saved from outbreaking transgression and crime in a world like this, and has been enabled to live an upright life, has eminently occasioned to praise and bless God." Last sentence.
Assuredly, for such a man, praise is an appropriate employment. For such a man, it is comely.
Call to Skillful, Joyful Worship
Moving on to verse three, as you continue, that kind of covers the first two verses. As we look at verse three, God ought to be worshipped with our best. What does he say? Sing to him a new song, play skillfully.
Well, we ought to do it well. When we worship, do it well. If we're playing the piano, we're playing an instrument, do it well. If we sing, that's something we all get to participate in.
Unfortunately, only one person gets to play the piano, but we all get to sing. Well, do I do it skillfully? Do I do it well? Do I do it to the best?
Do I do it with all the volume that is in my lungs? God ought to be earnestly worshipped. What does it say in verse 3? Play skillfully with a shout of joy.
The music should be such that it would be expressive of the highest joy. So in my singing, do I give voice to the highest joy? This is a privilege to sing before God. The opposite, I suppose, of worshipping God with this sense of of shouting for joy would be a dirge, and we know what a dirge is.
It's kind of a bit of an old-fashioned word, but a dirge. We ought not to praise God in a dirge. We ought to praise God with hearty worship, with worship that the Lord desires. I believe that is what the Lord desires, is hearty worship.
That's what he deserves, and that's what we should render to him.
Reasons to Praise God
Moving to the second point. In your outline, it covers the bulk of this chapter, so the first three verses just set the stage that worship is something that ought to be evident in the Christian, and we ought to do it well. We ought to do it with every fiber of our being, to the excellency of God. Now we're moving to verses 4 to 19.
And there are many reasons in this chapter, many reasons for praising God, for His majesty, for His wisdom, and for His power displayed in the creation. If you were listening when I read the chapter, just verse after verse is heaped upon itself in terms of praising God for the creation that's around us. Looking at verse 4, 4a.
God's Word and Works in Truth
excuse me, the word of the Lord is right. Whatever God says is true. The fact that God says a thing is the highest proof that we need for it to be true. We live and have always lived, I suppose, in times when we certainly it happened in the garden, it began in the garden.
Has God really said, and we still probably to some degree we still ask the same question today, certainly the heathen do and sometimes Christians do as well. Has God really said that I must do this or I must not do that? Well, that ought not to be a question we should ask, for the word of the Lord is right. The Lord has said it.
We need to believe it. We need to act upon it. Verse 4b, and all his work is done in truth. All that he does is executed faithfully.
It's in truth that God does all things. He does all that he promises. He's not like a spouse. He's not like a mother.
He's not like a father. Sometimes we might let people down around us. We may not always be faithful to the things that we have said we're going to do or ought to do as fathers, as spouses, as children. as parents, mother and father. But whatever God does, He is worthy of the confidence of His creatures.
I see here in verse 4b. And as I say, who else can that be said of? Certainly not us, but it is something that can be said of God, to have absolute confidence that He will execute all things faithfully. I hearken back to something I referred to last Sunday, and that is covenant theology.
Covenant theology, it came to us when we first began attending here at Free Grace Baptist Church. It's not just a doctrine that's to be held on a shelf over here, but it's a doctrine that ought to live in our hearts. The fact that we are in covenant with God, that God is a covenant-keeping God, that ought to put a smile on our face every day we wake up. It could be the worst day of our lives, or when we go to bed at night, it could have been the worst day of our life. about the fact that we are in covenant with God.
That means God is going to do all things that he has covenanted to do, and just rehearse the promises of God when we consider that, and all that God says is right. Looking at verse 5b. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. Well, ask any astronomer, any geologist, any naturalist, botanist, chemist, anyone who works with the physical things of this earth.
We could say even ask a fisherman who we have amongst us here this morning. And all will say that they will confirm this declaration of verse 5b, the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. Excuse me. It's easy for God to create the universe as easy as it is for man to take a breath.
Although we'd probably say even man taking a breath in his lungs is dependent upon God. But not God our maker. He simply He simply has endowed this whole earth with wonders and he's filled it with wonders Matthew Henry Commenting on this verse says what a pity that this earth which is so full of God's goodness Should be so empty of his praises and that of the multitudes that live upon his bounty There are so few that live to his glory So I ask that of myself, I ask that of you. How do we fare in terms of living to praise God for His goodness, the bounty that He supplies us with?
Because that's what verse 5 is referring to. The earth is full of the goodness of God. in the valley here. They have evidence of that every day. We see evidence of that.
The berry crops right now are just bursting with berries. And that's evidence of the goodness of God.
Sovereignty Over Creation
So not only has God blessed this earth, verse 6 refers to the heavens above. Verse 6, by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made. and all the host of them by the breath of his nostrils." So, just like that, they were made. Innumerable stars in the sky above us. And the stars are represented throughout scripture almost as armies.
They aren't just scattered willy-nilly across the sky, but God marches them out every night in the same order, almost like an army going into battle in a ray. They're in the perfect place that God has placed them. And so, next time you look up the sky, then I trust that you can say with the psalmist here in verse 6, by the word of the Lord the heavens were made all the host of them by the breath of his nostrils and give praise to him for that for the blessing of even the stars as as armies that are led forth into battle every single night and they're in the same places they're not willy-nilly across the sky and we ought to give praise to God for that so we've looked at the earth in verse 5 verse 6 the heavens and then verse 7 we look at the oceans that is that's what's being referred to in in verse 7, he gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap. He lays up the deep in storehouses.
The Hebrew word for gathers there represents a continuous act, not merely the original creation, but an act that continues, that God has, in a sense, heaped up the oceans into a pile in the ocean, and he keeps them there in their place. If you just refer to Hebrews chapter, sorry, not Hebrews, Proverbs. Proverbs 8, verse 29. Proverbs 8, 29. in reference to God's immense power and the fact that the oceans are kept in place and they don't cross that boundary.
As you stand on the ocean shore and you look across that massive amount of water, surely we must give praise to God that he has set a boundary for that ocean that it will not cross. Proverbs 8, 29, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters would not transgress His command. So they will not come past that spot that God has told even the oceans to stop at. I'm going to read a...
It's a little bit of a longer passage. You're going to have to forgive me. I'm going to read a little bit more than certainly last Sunday in regards to good... books that I've read or a good piece of writing that I've read. I just think this captures so well the power of God when it comes to the creation that it just felt I had to read it.
It is by John Piper. I know we always have to give a bit of a caveat to say, well, we don't recommend all things of John Piper, but this, I believe, is very excellent. I think you'll be able to say a hearty amen when I finish it. And he's commenting on rain, something that we know a lot about in the lower mainland here.
But do we ever stop to give thanks to God for rain and just consider what rain is? He's referring in this passage to Job chapter 5, 8 to 10. And this is Job. But as for me, I would seek God, and I would place my cause before God, who does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number.
He gives rain on the earth and sends water on the fields. And now I'm going to read John Piper. If you said to someone, my God does great and unsearchable things. He does wonders without number.
And they responded, really? Like what? Would you say rain? Is rain a great and unsearchable wonder wrought by God?
Picture yourself as a farmer in the Near East, far from any lake or stream. A few wells keep the family and animals supplied with water, but if the crops are to grow and the family is to be fed from month to month, water has to come on the fields from another source. From where? Well, the sky.
The sky? Water will come out of the clear blue sky? Well, not exactly. Water will have to be carried in the sky from the Mediterranean Sea, over several hundred miles, and then be poured out from the sky into the fields.
Carried? How much does it weigh? Well, if one inch of rain falls on one square mile of farmland during the night, That would be 28 million cubic feet of water, which is 200 million gallons, which is 1.6 billion pounds of water. That's heavy.
That's actually what he says too. So, how does it get up in the sky and stay up there if it's so heavy? Well, it gets up there by evaporation. Really?
That's a nice word. What does it mean? It means that the water sort of stops being water for a while, so it can go up and not down. I see.
Then, how does it get down? Well, condensation happens. What's that? The water starts becoming water again by gathering around little dust particles between one ten millionth and one millionth of a centimeter wide.
That's small. What about the salt? Salt? Yes, the Mediterranean Sea is saltwater.
That would kill the crops. What about the salt? Well, the salt has to be taken out. Oh, so this guy picks up a billion pounds of water from the sea and takes out the salt and then carries it for 300 miles and then dumps it on the farm?
While it doesn't dump it, if it dumped a billion pounds of water on the farm, the wheat would be crushed. So the sky has to dribble the billion pounds of water down in little drops. And they have to be big enough to fall for one mile or so without evaporating, and small enough to keep from crushing the wheat stalks. How do all these microscopic specks of water that weigh a billion pounds get heavy enough to fall, if that's the way to ask the question?
Well, it's called coalescence. What's that? It means the specks of water start bumping into each other and join up and get bigger. And when they're big enough, they fall.
Just like that? Well, not exactly, because they would just bounce off each other instead of joining up if there were no electric field present. What? Never mind.
Take my word for it. I think instead, I will just take Job's word for it, or we could say the psalmist's word for it here, as he depicts the creation. I still don't see why drops ever get to the ground, because if they start falling as soon as they are heavier than air, they would be too small not to evaporate on the way down. But if they wait to come down, what holds them up till they are big enough not to evaporate?
Yes, I'm sure there's a name for that too, but I'm satisfied now that by any name, that is a great and unsearchable thing that God has done. I think I should be thankful, lots more thankful than I am. grateful to God for the wonder of rain. So, I know it was a long reading, but I hope it just conjures up in your mind and your heart, wow, just something as simple as rain is evidence of a great God. Or the heaping up of the oceans is evidence of a great God.
All the Earth to Fear the Lord
Continuing on to verse eight. Obviously I will not go as slowly through each verse, otherwise we'll be here much longer than we need to be. Verse eight. Let all the earth fear the Lord.
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him." Well, worship, reverence, adoring, standing in awe of a being so great in power. That's what we're to be evidence here. And notice it's all the inhabitants of the earth. It's not just the believers.
It's believers and unbelievers. We would have to assume by the fact that it says all inhabitants. No distinction is made between the believer and the unbeliever. We're all to worship this God.
Verse 9, For he spoke, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast. God didn't have to struggle to create this earth. God didn't have to struggle and strain to create the whole universe.
He just simply spoke it into by his bare word. That's called ex nihilo, and it serves as a confirmation of Genesis 1, this verse, in verse 9 of our chapter here this morning. Remember, what does it say in Genesis chapter 1? Then God said, let there be And it was so.
And he also confirmed it was good. Let there be light. Let there be water above. Let there be water below.
Let the earth bring forth vegetation. And it continues on in the first chapter of Genesis. And that's just, again, being referred to in this chapter that God simply spoke. And it was good.
God spoke all that we see in this creation into being. And it was not a difficult thing. It wasn't a strain for him. It was by the word of...
It was by his very word.
Stability of God's Counsel
Moving on to section B in verses 10 to 11, the stability of his counsel. The stability of his counsel or purposes. I just have one illustration here to kind of drive home the point of verses 10 to 11. You can refer to 10 to 11 on your own.
I'm not going to take the time to read it, but you can kind of skim over it. And let me just illustrate it with a story here. The year is 1902, and a young English boy came down to breakfast to find his father reading the newspaper, which carried news of preparations for the first coronation in Britain in 64 years. In the middle of breakfast, he turned to his wife and he said, oh, I'm sorry to see this worded like that.
And she said, well, what is it? Why, he replied, here is a proclamation that on a certain date, Prince Edward will be crowned king at Westminster. And there is no deo valente, or God willing. Sometimes you may see people refer to it as DV.
There's no deo valente in this article in the newspaper. The words stuck on the boy's mind for the very reason that on the appointed date, the future Edward VII was ill. with an appendicitis, and the coronation had to be postponed. At this point, at the end of the Queen Victoria's reign, the political, economic, and military power of the British Empire, it was at its zenith. It was as high as it ever had become.
Yet for all its might, Great Britain could not carry out its planned coronation on the appointed date. Was the omission of God willing from the proclamation and the subsequent postponement of the coronation merely a coincidence? two events without any relation to one another? Or did God cause Prince Edward to have an appendicitis to show that he was in control? We don't know why the situation occurred as it did.
One thing we do know, however, whether we acknowledge it with Deo Valente or not, we cannot carry out any plan apart from God's will. And the Bible leaves no doubt about that. In fact, if you just refer to James chapter 4, He has a commentary on this very idea of the stability of the counsel or purposes of God. James chapter 4, verses 13 to 15.
Come now, you who say, today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit, whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or do that." Well, that's God's commentary on this aspect of the stability of His counsel or His purposes.
Blessings on Those Who Fear God
Moving on to the third point, reasons for praising God, the blessings which He bestows upon those who acknowledge Him to be their God. The blessings of care, the blessings of protection, and deliverance are contained in verses 12 to 19. Verse 12, blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance. I think certainly election probably is at the bottom of that verse, verse 12, that God's blessing and His care is with His elect especially, in a special way, so that ultimately His elect become almost a seasoning effect.
They have a seasoning effect upon the nation in which God has placed them, upon those around them. Think of Sodom and Gomorrah. What did Abraham plead for? Abraham pleaded for the city of Sodom, and he said, if there were about 50, will you spare the city?
And if there were 50, we believe God would have spared the city. And he pled for 45, for 40, 30, 20, 10. if God would have spared the city for even 10. So there is that sense that God does look down upon a nation, and he sees his elect amongst that nation, and they do have a sense of, there's the blessing of that seasoning, that Christian seasoning from the people of God in the places that God has placed them throughout society, from high to low. and across society, that God has placed us in those places of influence, in those places, so that he might have a sense of pity upon a nation. Verses 13 to 15, if we look at verses 13 to 15, we see that God's care is with all men because of His common grace.
And I'm going to read a section again. I know, homiletically, I'd probably be fired. That's okay. I'm not looking for a job to preach after this Sunday.
I'm done. But I know, homiletically, people who would say, well, you read too much. Well, I'm afraid that if other people say things better than me, then I'm all for reading them. I'm just going to read one page, a couple of half pages, out of a book called Trusting God.
It's by a very excellent man, a very excellent author, Jerry Bridges. And it's on this theme of God's sovereignty, God's absolute sovereignty. And then we're going to look at an example from Scripture from 2 Chronicles that kind of illustrates it. So just a section here on God's absolute control.
God is in control. He is sovereign. He does whatever pleases Him and determines whether we can do what we have planned. This is the essence of God's sovereignty, His absolute independence to do as he pleases and has absolute control over the actions of all his creatures.
No creature, no person, no empire can either thwart his will or act outside the bounds of his will. For us to trust God in times of adversity, We must believe in God's sovereignty, His love, and His wisdom. Of these three truths, the sovereignty of God seems to be questioned the most frequently and the most stridently. It seems we will allow God to be anywhere except upon His throne, ruling His universe according to His good pleasure and His sovereign will.
Some Christian writers fail to acknowledge the controlling hand of God, either directing or permitting, in every event of our lives. One writer, for example, speaks of suffering sometimes coming because of misfortune or accident, things just happening. and pain coming our way due to circumstances beyond our control. Our response to such statements is more than mere theological discussion. Confidence in the sovereignty of God in all that affects us is crucial to our trusting Him.
If there is a single event in all the universe that can occur outside of God's sovereign control, then we cannot trust him. His love may be infinite, but if his power is limited and his purpose can be thwarted, we cannot trust him. You may entrust to me your most valuable possessions. I may love you, and my aim to honor your trust may be sincere, but if I do not have the power or the ability to guard your valuables, you cannot truly entrust them to me.
Paul, however, said we can entrust our most valuable possessions to the Lord. In 2 Timothy 1.12 he said, That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day. But, someone says, Paul is speaking there of eternal life.
Without question, we can entrust our eternal destiny to God. But what about our problems in this life? They make me wonder about the sovereignty of God. It should be evident, however, that God's sovereignty does not begin at death.
His sovereign direction in our lives even precedes our births. God rules as surely on earth as he does in heaven. He permits, for reasons known only to himself, people to act contrary to and in defiance of his revealed will, but he never permits them to act contrary to his sovereign will. From our limited vantage point, our lives are marked by an endless series of contingencies.
We frequently find ourselves, instead of acting as we planned, reacting to an unexpected turn of events. We make plans, but are often forced to change those plans. But there are no contingencies with God. Our unexpected, forced change of plans is a part of His plan.
God is never surprised, never caught off guard, never frustrated by unexpected developments. God does as He pleases, and that which pleases Him is always for His glory and our good. Well, I trust that that brings encouragement to you. It's a book that Leslie and I are reading through, and I just thought, well, it does tie into the chapter, and I just thought that, well, that should be an encouragement to the people of God this morning in regards to that blessing which He bestows upon His children.
That blessing of care, protection from danger is something that cannot be changed. We may think God can look after the big things. God looks after even the small things, such as even a leaf that falls from a tree. the course of that leaf has been set by God. And so therefore, our lives, the course of our lives, is equally set by God.
No King Saved by His Own Strength
Verses 16 and 17 talk about, 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.
I want to refer you to King Sennacherib in 2 Chronicles. If you could turn your Bibles, please, to 2 Chronicles, chapter 32. as an illustration of verses 16 and 17 in our psalm, chapter 32 of 2 Chronicles. I'm going to read verse 1, and then I'm going to skip down to 9. So I find myself here.
So 2 Chronicles 32 and verse 1 kind of introduces what's happening here. After these deeds of faithfulness, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came and entered Judah. He encamped against the fortified cities, thinking to win them over to himself. So just so you get the context, Sennacherib was the great empire at this particular time, and Judah had been paying money for their protection, and they stopped paying money.
And of course, Sennacherib has already invaded Israel, and he's coming down to Judah to invade them because they had stopped paying their protection money. And this is what our great God did in terms of protecting the people of God. So I'm going to pick up at verse 9. So it just gives you a flavor of this wicked man, Sennacherib.
And ultimately, it was Sennacherib who was trusting in his own army. It was Sennacherib who was trusting in his own great strength. But we see that there was great vain hope in the horse that he was gonna come riding into Judah on. So verse nine of 2 Chronicles, chapter 32.
After this, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, sent his servants to Jerusalem. But he and all the forces with him laid siege against Lachish, to Hezekiah king of Judah, and to all Judah who were in Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Sennacherib king of Assyria, In what do you trust, that you remain under siege in Jerusalem? Does not Hezekiah persuade you to give yourself over to die by famine and by thirst, saying, the Lord our God will deliver us from the hand of the king of Assyria? So he was trying to discourage the people of Judah.
He was trying to get their enthusiasm down and ultimately they would turn over to him and not trust in King Hezekiah. Has not the same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars, and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, saying, You shall worship before one altar and burn incense on it? Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of other lands? Were the gods of the nations of those lands in any way able to deliver their lands out of my hand?
Who was there among all the gods of those nations that my fathers utterly destroyed that could deliver his people from my hand, that your God should be able to deliver you from my hand? Now therefore, do not let Hezekiah deceive you or persuade you like this, and do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people from my hand or the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you from my hand? Furthermore, his servants spoke against the Lord God and against his servant Hezekiah.
He also wrote letters to revile the Lord God of Israel. and to speak against him, saying, as the gods of the nations of other lands have not delivered their peoples from my hand, so the god of Hezekiah will not deliver his people from my hand. Then they called out with a loud voice in Hebrew to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten them and trouble them that they might take the city. And they spoke against the god of Jerusalem, as against the gods of the peoples of the earth, the work of men's hands. Now because of this, King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz, prayed and cried out to heaven.
Then the Lord sent an angel who cut down every mighty man of valor, leader and captain in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned, shamefaced, to his own land. And when he had gone into the temple of his God, some of his own offspring struck him down with the sword there. Well, amen.
That's what God thinks of those who trust in their own strength, those who trust in their own horse. Obviously, not a literal horse, but whatever that is that we might be trusting in to bring us comfort. Think of another couple of examples. We've got Goliath.
He was stronger than any other man who came up against the people of Israel. And what did God do, but how very soon that Big, strong man laid dead on the earth with a single stone shot from the sling of David. Small, relatively young David. He was a mere youth, yet that stone struck Goliath in the forehead.
Just a small thing, because they were not trusting. in the horse, but rather they were trusting their God, that God brought Goliath down. What about Pharaoh and his horses and chariots, who were chasing the Israelites after they had escaped from Egypt, to pursue the Lord's anointed through the Red Sea? Well, very soon we see that those Egyptians were trusting in their own strength, in the strength of their horse, while they were trusting in vain, because our God is a great God. I'm going to read one quotation here.
This comes from a man by the name of Bert Parsons. He's with Ligonier Ministries. I thought just an excellent review of some history to encourage our hearts with. Perhaps more than anything else, John Knox is known for his prayer, give me Scotland or I die.
Knox's prayer was not an arrogant demand, but the passionate plea of a man willing to die for the sake of the pure preaching of the gospel and the salvation of his countrymen. Knox's greatness lay in his humble dependence on our sovereign God to save his people, revive a nation, and reform his church. As is evident from his preaching and prayer, Knox believed neither in the power of his preaching nor in the power of his prayer. but in the power of the gospel and the power of God, who sovereignly ordains preaching and prayer as secondary means in the salvation of his people. Although Knox had been imprisoned and enslaved, and though he was often infirm and under threat of persecution, he consistently lived out his theology, believing that one man with God is always in the majority.
As such, the prayers of one man heard at the throne of God were a threat to the throne of Scotland. During the time of the 16th century Scottish Reformation, Knox's ministry of preaching and prayer were so well known that the Roman Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, is reputed to have said, I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe. Praise the Lord. Well, I see in the course of time, it does fly, so I'm just going to skip.
I was going to, well, maybe I'll just do a couple of points on verses 18 to 19 so that we don't, we aren't completely remiss. So continuing, these are just the last couple of reasons for praising God as we consider verse 18.
God's Watchful Care Over His Children
Verse 18, what better way to conclude this psalm than with this hope of verse 18, that the God of Psalm 33, that is the God of providence and sovereignty, is watching over His children. That's what verse 18 is saying. He's watching over us. Psalm 103, verse 13, says a different way.
It says, as a father has compassion on his children, So the Lord has compassion on those who fear him." So we have a Heavenly Father who's watching over us, and I hope that we take great encouragement in that. In verse 19a, our souls, sorry, to deliver their souls from death. Now, probably not a corporeal death. For the soul never dies.
We know we have an eternal never-dying soul. So that's not in danger of death. And that's probably what the psalmist has in mind here, is that that eternal never-dying soul is never in danger. What did Paul tell us?
That they may kill the body, but they can't kill the soul. To be at home with the Lord, that was going to be a great blessing to him, because he knew that his soul was never going to die. God does care for the souls of His children, and that we can be certain of, that our souls will be delivered from death, from that last enemy. Verse 19b, the famine here, speaks of to keep us alive in a famine.
Again, is that a physical famine? Is it a spiritual famine? If it's a physical famine, well, God, in the Old Testament, we see God can send ravens. God can increase the crews of oil in the hand of the widow.
So if it's a physical, yes, God can. But if it's a spiritual, perhaps God may send a famine of hearing the word of God. in our land. But the Lord also prepares a place for His church in this land, a place for His people in the wilderness, so that whether we can meet and be privately nourished by the Word of God in our own homes, or through the ordinances of the church, our spiritual souls are kept by God. So, again, whether it's a physical or a spiritual famine, I'm not honestly sure.
I did read the commentators, and they didn't seem to be certain either. But let's be assured of this one thing, that we do have the Church of Christ, and the Church of Christ is here for our edification, for our building up, so we will be kept alive in famine, if it's a spiritual famine, from hearing the Word of God.
Resolution to Trust God Alone
And finally, in verses 20 to 22, the last couple of verses, the last three verses of our chapter, in light of God's Greatness, the psalmist's resolution here is to have a strong confidence in God. I think that's what the psalmist wants us. He's told us to praise him, he's given us many reasons to praise him, and now he is saying our resolution as believers, our resolution as New Testament Christians ought to be to have a confidence in this God. Having praised God and considered his greatness from many different angles here in the created order of things as we've gone through them here, it's only appropriate that the psalmist and ultimately that you and that I simply wait for the Lord, for His guidance, for His word, for His deliverance, as we look to Him to be our help and our shield, as it's said there in verse 20.
So let's make that our our covenant this day. Let's be committed to seeking after God and asking that He be our help, that He be our shield, and we not be trusting in other things. Looking at verses 18 to 22, they're filled with many synonyms for trusting in God. Verse 18, it talks about fearing God.
Verses 18 and 22, it talks about hope. These are all synonyms for trusting in God. Verse 20, waiting for God. Verse 20, another one, our help and our shield.
Verse 21, our heart shall rejoice in Him. Verse 21, we've trusted in His holy name, which means ultimately in His holy character. And so the psalm, which emphasizes praise and thanksgiving, also emphasizes trust. And the Hebrew word for trust occurs 50 out of 180 times here in the psalms.
It occurs most often in the psalms, this idea of trusting God. And so the psalmist is saying to us, finally, he's saying at the end of the psalm, having just looked at the sovereignty of God, having just looked at God's sovereignty in all these different aspects, that these truths must serve to ultimately reorientate our thinking. Our trust cannot be in anything but in God and God alone.
Application
So, just a couple of applications when we, as I consider, well, okay, what can we take away from this chapter, and then we will be finished. Can any Bible-believing Christian believe any form of evolution when we consider a psalm like this, even theistic evolution, which gives God part credit for the things we see around us? It's not evident in this chapter. This psalm sets forth a powerful God, in creation, and it ultimately serves to build our trust in that God.
And we need to find that balance. Secondly, we need to find that balance between using the human methods and means and trusting in God. But ultimately, our trust ought to be in God alone. Yes, God uses means and God blesses means as they are applied to our physical surroundings, but ultimately, Our trust needs to be in God alone, and I trust that's who we're trusting in.
Is our worship about delighting in the God whom we see in this chapter? Then it's going to influence our enthusiasm for worship. Do we come in here just mumbling our words, mumbling our praise, our worship to God in our singing, or do we come with exuberance and heartfelt exuberance in our worship to God? I trust that that's what we're coming here to do, an ardent, heartfelt, exuberant worship towards our God.
And fourthly, I guess I would want us to affirm God's sovereignty over all. will cause us, ultimately, to be a thankful, worshipping, praising people. Even the leaf falling to the ground, God's sovereign over that. The army walking out to battle, God is sovereign over that. So, if we can affirm that God is sovereign over these things, as I've read, given so many examples and illustrations, even from the scriptures, Are we worshiping that God?
Are we thankful to that God that He is our sovereign, that He is our Lord, and that we get to worship Him? We've had our minds and our hearts enlightened by the scriptures. Our hearts have been opened by Christ and that forgiveness of sins. So are we enlightened and therefore worshiping God with that enlightenment?
I trust that we are. And ultimately, I guess as Pastor Butler always finishes, to the unsaved, let me read verse eight again. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
Because we're all going to stand before Him. That's clear in the passage. We're all going to stand in awe of God. And how much better to stand in awe of this God, completely forgiven and delivered from that dominion of sin, that power of sin.
I want to stand before God, and I know Brethren here in this church would want every single one of us to be able to stand before that God knowing that our sins are forgiven and that we can truly as verse 8 says Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe before him. That's what we get to do in eternity That's what heaven is going to be about is standing in awe of that great God that God of Psalm 33 so I trust that your hearts been built up this day. I trust that you will leave here worshiping praising God for all that we have in in the creation in the created order but also in that covenant-keeping God that caught that God that is Personal that God who goes with us and is is with us in every circumstance of life.
Closing Prayer
Well, let's go to God in prayer Our gracious and our loving Heavenly Father