Psalms Through the Summer #7: God Bless America – Ps 33

Psalms Through the Summer #7: God Bless America – Ps 33

 Something Is Wrong With America

Frank went to the doctor saying he felt lethargic, tired, worn down and wrung out. He couldn’t seem to get anything done. All he did was sit on the couch and watch television all day. He wanted to know what was wrong with him. After a thorough examination, CT scan, MRI, stress test and every other kind of lab test you can think of Frank came to the doctor for the results.

"Now Doc," said Frank, "If there is anything the matter with me, don't scare me half to death by giving it a long name; just tell me what it is in plain English."

"Well," said the doctor, "to be brutally honest with you, here it is, you are just plain lazy."

"Thank you, doctor," sighed the patient with relief; "now could you give me a big, long name for it, so I can go home and tell my wife."

There’s something wrong with our nation and you can hear a lot of complicated explanations about our racism or our capitalism or about our not caring for the ecology, but there really is a simple explanation to why we are having riots in our streets to protest for the right to kill unborn babies or for criminals who die when they are resisting arrest. The reason isn’t about social, political or economic issues, the real reason is a spiritual one. We are a nation that is seeing the result of losing the blessings of God.

Which brings us to the 33rd Psalms.

The theme for this Psalms is Rejoice in the Sovereignty of the Lord In Creation and History.That sounds a bit formal and this is not a formal Psalms is is a joyful Psalms, one of the most joyful in the collection of Psalms.

Psalm 33 is about praise and rejoicing in the omnipotent God, by the people of God. Specifically, the Psalms is about Israel, God's chosen people, His nation. When we read in verse 12, "Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.” It is speaking of Israel. No other nation has ever been or will ever be God's nation but Israel. God will not allow anyone to steal Israel's relationship to God. In His sovereignty He chose Israel. But we can take Psalms 33 and understanding its proper interpretation then apply its precepts and promises to any people or nation whose God is the Lord. You can't neglect Israel, but you can rejoice with her in our own New Covenant relationship with God.

Praise Jehovah – Psalms 33:1-3

Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright. Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings. Sing unto him a new song; play skillfully with a loud noise.

Rejoice In The Lord

Israel the people of God are exhorted to rejoice and praise the Lord Jehovah. They are told to magnify their praise with the harp and with the psaltery which most commentator say was a special harp with 10 strings which gave it more range and more beauty.

They are told to sing a new song and to play skillfully with a loud noise. Most of the Psalms and especially ones like this were sung outdoors by large choirs and the sound of their praise could be heard all over the old testament city of David. As pilgrims would make their way up Mt. Zion, the sounds of voices singing and harps ringing would flow down the steps and streets of Jerusalem.

And throughout all would be the sense of joy. Joy because they were God’s people and He was their God. They did not deserve God, He chose them my grace and by his sovereign will. They may not ever understand why but they could absolutely understand what it meant. It meant joy.

Rejoicing Still

And here is our first point of application, some things are common to all of God’s people, whether they be of the 12 tribes of Israel or the clans of Scotland. Whether they descend from Abraham or MacDonald, MacEntire or O’Donnel. They can be named the sons of Jacob or they can be Jacobsons. If athey are they people of God and share a covenant relationship with him, whether that is Old Testament or New Testament they are still God’s people and they should rejoice in their God.

Praise Him

I use a website called Hymnary.com when I’m searching for songs and I when I searched for the topic praise, there were 6487 songs about praise on this site. I think it would be worth it if I read all 6487 at this time. (Had some of you worried for a minute. Some of you woke up right then and asked, “What did he say? How long is that going to take?) Well, I’m not going to read them all, in fact I’m not even going to read the titles, but I am going to read the titles of the first few that came up sorted by popularity.

Ready? Praise Him! Praise Him! By Fanny J. Crosby. (382 hymnals) Praise to the Lord, the Almighty by Catherine Winkworth and Joachim Neander. (374) Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow by Thomas Ken. (1024 hymnals) To God be the Glory by Fanny J Crosby (203) and Come, thou Fount of Every Blessing by Robert Robinson is the most popular hymn by hymnal count it is in 2121 hymnals.

All of these familiar hymns were written not by David, or Asaph or the Sons of Korah but by Gentiles in a New Covenant of Grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

This is one of the “orphan psalms” we are not told who wrote it. The unknown Psalmist now gives reasons to rejoice in the Lord God, Jehovah. First in vs. 4, Praise Him For His word.

Praise His Word – Psalms 33:4-9

For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth. He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD. By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.

The Wonder of His Word

The Word used here is not speaking of the scriptures or the Bible. The people of Israel did not have personal copies of the Torah or the prophets. One of the reasons they memorized so much scripture in their families and later in their synagogue schools was so that they could posses God’s word in their hearts. Parchment, vellum and especially paper were luxury items that only the kings and priests of the Temple were able to keep.

Word here is used of the expression of the power of God.

Genesis 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

In this Psalms we read from vss. 6, 9 6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. 9 For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.

But it is not just the word of God in creation, it is the word of God in all things.

Vs 4-5 says,  For the word of the LORD is right; and all his works are done in truth. 5 He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.

God’s word is power but it is a power that is right, it is a power that is true, it is a power that is love in righteous and judgment. It is power that shows the goodness of God. These are all attributes of who God is. He is all powerful, he is all truth, he is holy, he is just and aren’t you glad, that He is love and He is good.

The Word Is Still The Word

So Israel, can rejoice in power of your God. And Christian, rejoice because that is our God, the same God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is our God not by the Abrahamic covenant but by a greater covenant, The covenant of Grace.

It may be a different covenant, but it is by the same sovereign will and power of God. The same power that spoke the universe into existence, is the same loving, righteous, true, holy, just and forgiving God that we can rejoice in today.

Romans 3:21-29 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:

Yes, He is our great God and we can rejoice with the same heart and understanding when we sing Fanny J. Crosby’s Praise Him, Praise Him, as those Israelites who walked up to the temple and heard the praises of God being sung by those ancient Levitical choirs. He is the same God and it is the same power that we rejoice in.

Next, we come to what is the heart of my message this morning in vss. 10-12. Here is another reason for rejoicing. Rejoice in the Counsel of the Lord.

Praise His Counsel – Psalms 33:10-12

The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.

Blessed Is The Nation

The psalmist says the people of God should rejoice because their God is greater, wiser and more powerful than the nations that do not know Him.

He says their plans are reduced to nothing by God, there schemes and trapse have no effect. But in contrast the Lord’s counsel stand for ever, the thoughts of his heart, the plans, the providence, the purposes of God, those will continue to all generations of God’s beloved.

Then our key verse, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.”

This is a kind of summation of the reasons to rejoice in the Lord to this point in the Psalms. Israel was a blessed nation because their God was the Lord, Jehovah. They were blessed as a people because God chose them for His own inheritance.

Israel as a nation and as a people should no longer be in existence from the time of Egypt’s Pharoah drowning Hebrew baby boys in the Nile, to Rome’s destruction of Jerusalem, to the Medieval king of Europe when banished the Jews from their kingdoms, to the armies of Islam who occupied their anciet homeland and made them slave once again, to Hitler who tried in all his Satanic power to destroy every Jewish man, woman and child in all of Europe. And even today in the Middle east where radical Islamics are still driving out and killing God’s chosen people.

The Jewish nation should not exist. And yet it does. If fact in 1948 they reentered their homeland and became a nation again among the nations of the world. After all they endured, it should not have happened and there is only one reason it could have happened, they were God people and God would never desert them, nor deny the promises He have to them.

Blessed Is Our Nation?

I’ve already said that this Psalm is about Israel, and we cannot take that away and be able to understand it properly. But once we do understand that truth then we can apply that truth to others who share a relationship with God.

Our nation is unique in that it was founded in the belief of a sovereign God who ruled over the affairs of men. It was for the purpose of freely worshipping God that many of the first settlers came to America.  It was our founding, built from the ground up God fearing government, and the many national revivals that have swept this nation that have been the major reasons for the prosperity and blessings of our country in the past. And it is the turning from God and His blessings that is opening the door to the chaos and destitution of this country today.

Can we apply Psalm 33:12 to the Unites States? Are be being ignorant or arrogant by thinking that God’s national blessing can apply even to a gentile nation?  Can we honestly say that we are or at least were a nation whose God is the Lord?

I think the evidence is throughout our history. It is written into the documents that brought us to life and now sustain that life. The Declaration of Independence speaks of being "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights." The Colonial Congress and the Constitutional Convention were opened daily in prayer.  The motto of our country, imprinted upon our coins is "In God We Trust."  We pledge allegiance to “one nation, under God.”

Evidence of Our Nation and Our God

The Colonies

Eleven of the first 13 States required faith in Jesus Christ and the Bible as qualification for holding public office.

November 3, 1620 - King James I grants the Charter of the Plymouth council. "In the hope thereby to advance the enlargement of the Christian religion, to the glory of God Almighty."

November 11, 1620 - The Pilgrims sign the Mayflower Compact aboard the Mayflower, in Plymouth harbor. “Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia;

The Revolutionary War

Summer 12, 1775 - Continental Congress issues a call to all citizens to fast and pray and confess their sin that the Lord might bless the land.       "And it is recommended to Christians of all denominations, to assemble for public worship, and to abstain from servile labor and recreation on said day."

Our Constitution

At least 50 out of the 55 men who framed the Constitution of the United States were professing Christians. (M.E. Bradford, A Worthy Company, Plymouth Rock Foundation, 1982).

James Madison who was the primary architect of the Constitution. Said, “We have staked the future of government not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions on the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”

The Presidents

George Washington’s Inaugural Address, “No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency . . . We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.

(Historical note to above: Washington added the pledge, "So help me God," to his inaugural oath. He then kissed the Bible to affirm his submission to the King of Kings.

John Adams, our first vice president and second president, wrote: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." --1798

Thomas Jefferson, our third president and one of the principle framers of the Constitution D.C.: "Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God?" --1781

Our sixth president, John Quincy Adams, said this, "Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the Foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity?" --1837 

Abraham Lincoln Proclamation for National Day of Prayer and fasting

April 30, 1863 - President Abraham Lincoln's Proclamation for a National Day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer. “ We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven.  We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.

Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the ascended power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.- Proclamation of Thanksgiving, October 1863

Gerald Ford, our 38th president, quoted a 1955 speech by Dwight D. Eisenhower on December 5, 1974: "Without God there could be no American form of government, nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first--the most basic--expression of Americanism. Thus, the founding fathers of America saw it, and thus with God's help, it will continue to be." -1974

Yes, as improbable as it may seem today, We were once without a doubt, a nation whose God is the Lord. And having begun on that foundation it is not wonder that the blessing that grew from that planting are no longer evident. It is no wonder why we are seeing chaos and riots and anarchy in our streets, our capitals and even in our homes. We have cast aside the beliefs of our forefathers, the foundation of scripture and have forsaken the God who blessed this nation.

Before we grow pessimistic, we need to read the rest of this Psalm.

Praise His Watchfulness – Psalms 33:13-19

The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men. From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works. There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength. An horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength. Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy; To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.

Rejoice in Hope

Israel could rejoice because God did not just set them up and then let them go. He was still watching and working. He sees all the sons of men not only does He see them he designs and fashions their hearts and judges their works. In all of them and all their power there is no hope, no king can save no matter how vast his army, no mighty hero, no powerful warhorse, these are all empty promises. But God is watching and God working. His eye is on them that fear him, upon them that hope in His mercy. O Israel, rejoice in Hope because God will deliver your soul from death and keep you alive.

There is Still Hope

What is said here about Israel is true for all people. God is watching and we can have hope because His eye is on those who call out for his mercy. He will deliver us.

I believe it is true for individuals but I also believe it is true for a nation. That if there is a faithful remnant of God’s people who will faithfully pray for their nation and pray for their leaders then God’s blessing will continue.

Yes we need to vote, yes we need to speak out, yes we need to tell the Gospel to the lost because that is were real change, eternal change will start. But above all we must pray.

Benjamin Franklin at the Constitutional Convention.

In 1787, Our nation was in a crisis after the Revolutionary War. We were a nation ununited and each state was at odds with the others. If Britain had reinvaded we would not have been able to withstand them.

They met in Philadelphia to charter a new form of government, but it had also bogged down with the same petty problems and selfish interest and it looked as thought America would fail. Then one day, Benjamin Franklin, asked to speak and this is what he said, and this moment changed everything.

He rose from the table where he sat and looking at George Washington the chariman of the convention, he said “I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the  more convincing proofs I see of this truth: "that God governs in the affairs of man." And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?  We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. I also believe that without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in the political building no better than the builders of Babel; we shall be divided by our little, partial local interests; our projects will be confounded; and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing government by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war or conquest. I therefore beg leave to move that, henceforth, prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven and its blessing on our deliberation be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business.

The convention was then adjourned for three days of prayer, Bible reading and special church meetings, following which the Constitution was discussed and adopted.

It is never too late with God if we can pray then we have hope. Hope for our nation, hope for our children, hope for our grandchild, hope for the future.

The final two verses are a benediction, a closing prayer for Israel and I think for us as well. It is a final reason to rejoice in the Lord, because He is faithful and will not fail His own.

Praise Him His Faithfulness – Psalm 33:20-22

Our soul waiteth 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 thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us, according as we hope in thee.

Is it too late for America? Too late for you family, too late for the blessing of God? No it is never too late as long as we can still pray because God is faithful to His people. Rejoice God is Faithful!