Today’s reading is Psalm 33.
Have you ever wished you could go back to an earlier age and start over, but with the knowledge you already have now? This is what is happening in Psalm 32 and 33. It’s like we are starting over in the Psalms, but with all the knowledge we’ve learned up to this point.
Last week, we discovered Psalm 32 was reminiscent of Psalm 1. Both tell us about whom God blesses. Psalm 1 blessed the person who meditated on and followed God’s law and counsel. However, in the 31 intervening psalms we discovered we were in a bit of trouble. We’d blown it. Is there a blessing for us? Yep. Psalm 32 explains those who trust in the Lord and turn to Him for forgiveness are just as blessed.
So, are you ready for something really, really cool? Psalm 33 takes us back to Psalm 2. Psalm 2 is all about all the kings, rulers, nations, and peoples who rage and plot against the Lord and His anointed king. The Lord’s king is the Lord’s son. The Lord will give His king/son the nations as a heritage. The Lord’s king/son will rule over them. And together the Lord and His anointed will laugh at the vain plots and counsels of all those other kings against them.
Psalm 33 is the same. Except this time it isn’t about the anointed king/son. It is about the anointed king/son’s nation. In vss. 10-17, the Lord looks down from heaven and sees all that all the nations are doing. Though the nations counsel and plan, implicitly against the Lord’s people, the Lord frustrates their plans and counsels. In Psalm 2:12, those kings who take refuge in the Son will be blessed. In Psalm 33:12, the nation whose God is the Lord is blessed. That nation is His heritage. The blessing is not simply for the king, but for the entire nation.
No doubt, when Psalm 33 was written, the psalmist was contrasting the geo-political kingdom of Israel with all the other geo-political nations in the world. However, Israel was always pointing toward a greater nation, a greater kingdom. That kingdom is here. The kingdom, not of David, but of David’s Son, Jesus. Psalm 33 is not saying if the USA kind of follows Judeo-Christian morality it is blessed. Psalm 33 is saying Jesus’s kingdom is blessed and the counsels of all the other nations (including the USA) will be frustrated.
We, Christ’s kingdom, Christ’s people, Christ’s church are the Lord’s heritage. We are the nation whose God is Yahweh. We are blessed. Praise the Lord!
Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 33.
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A Word for Our Kids
Hey kids, the psalmist is tricky. He sneaks in little hints, connections, and allusions that drive home his point. However, you have to already be familiar with the Bible, and you have to be paying attention. Because you are young, you may have missed a couple of these. I’d like to share them with you. Then you can tell me if you think I’m on to something or if I’m missing the boat.
I shared with your parents how God frustrates the counsels of the other nations while blessing the nation He has chosen. The psalmist hid in plain sight a wonderful reference to remind us of God’s power to frustrate the counsel of the other nations while blessing His own people.
In Psalm 33:6-7, the psalmist is talking about God’s power to create. We see him not only create the heavens and gather the waters, but we see His “breath” and the “deep.” Both of these terms remind us of Genesis 1:2. There, the word “Spirit” translates the same word as “breath” and of course “deep” is the same in both passages. But then the author makes a second connection. While describing the waters, he mentions them being gathered into a “heap.”
So, here is the fascinating thing. The word translated “heap” is only used 6 times in the Old Testament. One time it is a completely different context and is used to mean something completely different from issues of water (that’s Isaiah 17:11). We’ll scratch that one off our list. Of course, it is used in this psalm. The other four uses are in Exodus 15:8, Joshua 3:13, 16, and Psalm 78:13. Those four uses refer to the heaping up of the waters at the Red Sea during the exiting Egypt and at the Jordan when entering into the Promised Land.
Now that you know that, can you see the “hidden” point the psalmist is making? Let me help you out some more. At the Red Sea, was God frustrating the plans of some nation while blessing His people? You know He was. He completely brought Pharaoh’s plans to nothing as He crushed Pharaoh’s army under those heaps of water. Though no nation was destroyed when the water started rushing back down the Jordan, it was by heaping up the waters that God allowed Israel to cross into the Promised Land and bring the city/state of Jericho to destruction (and all the other nations and kingdoms that were driven out of the land).
In other words, as you read Psalm 33, if you begin to wonder whether God really knows how to frustrate the plans and counsels of the nations who rise up against God’s people, just remember Egypt and the Red Sea and remember Jericho and the Jordan. God knows what He’s about.
Praise the Lord! We are blessed because Yahweh is our God and we are His people, His heritage.
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