Psalm 33 – Five Great Reasons to Praise God

We appreciate Gavin for leading our songs this morning. He did a really good job, and we’re glad that he did it today, and we’re thankful for everyone who’s here this morning, especially if you’re visiting with us. We’re grateful that you are present this morning, and we’re happy to have you.

We’re going to be studying from Psalm 33 this morning. Psalm 33. So if you have your Bibles with you, I invite you to open to Psalm 33. We’re not going to have a PowerPoint presentation today, but we are going to look at five great reasons to praise God. I know you’re probably thinking, well, I’ve already got five great reasons to praise God, but these five great reasons to praise God are going to come from Psalm 33. This Psalm is about praising God. Let’s read the first three verses together, and then we’ll talk about the reasons for praising God.

The first three verses just say, hey, we’re going to praise God. We need to praise God. And that’s something that they did in David’s time in the Old Testament. And this Psalm is about praising God in a formal worship ceremony.

And so, notice verses 1 through 3. 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.

Now, as we read these first three verses, you may notice here that David was writing about playing instruments, playing musical instruments, and they did that under the law of Moses. The singers praised God with musical instruments in the temple, and that was part of their worship in the Old Testament.

In addition to the worship in the Old Testament was also the offering of incense and the offering of burnt offerings and sacrifices. There were other things that they did. And we don’t do these things today because that was part of the Old Testament law.

We learned from the book of Galatians that going back to the law of Moses means leaving Christ. And we don’t want to leave Christ. And so we’re not going to go back to the Law of Moses to justify our worship practices. Today, all of our worship in God’s temple is done in our bodies because the body is the temple of the Lord, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 19 and 20. And we are supposed to glorify God in our bodies today as we worship and praise Him.

So while we don’t use musical instruments today or burn incense or offer animal sacrifices, we still continue to praise God, but we praise God with our words, we praise God with our lips, and that’s what Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 15 tells us to do, and so we don’t do those other things in worship to God, we just praise Him with our bodies.

And that’s the instrument that God has given us today to praise Him. And that’s what we’re going to do now. Now that we’ve discussed that, let’s go on to talk about the praise, the reasons for praise that we have to give to God. Because we praise the Lord for many things. First of all, we want to notice that we praise the Lord for His character. And that is in verses 4 and 5.

So let’s look at Psalm 33, 4, and 5. Notice what the psalmist has already said now. We’re going to praise God here, and now here are the reasons why we’re going to praise God. 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.

And so we praise God because of His character. Notice he says about four things here in regard to the character of God. First of all, His word is right. And when we think about the word of God, we think about the Bible because the Bible is God’s word. And so the Bible is right. And we need to trust it to guide our lives.

Jesus said in Matthew chapter 4, in verse 4, quoting from the book of Deuteronomy, “…Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” And in Psalm 119, in verse 160, the psalmist writes that, “…the sum of thy words are truth.” All of God’s words. The Bible is God’s word, and all of it is God’s word, and we find the truth in the sum of it.

And so we need to live by that word because His word is right. And we praise God for His word being right. But we also notice that His work is in truth here in Psalm 33 and verse 4. God deals in reality, not in falsehoods. Jesus did great works in the name of the Father so that we could believe in Him.

John 14, verse 11, Jesus says, “…Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves.” The works that Jesus did were real, and they were done in a real world, and they were done for real reasons, and we need to trust in God’s world and believe in the reasons that Jesus had to do the things that He did, And recognize that God’s work is in truth. It’s in reality. It’s not fake. It’s not false. And that’s something that we need to consider.

We also note that God loves righteousness and justice here, verse 5. And to prove that, He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross so as to fulfill justice for all mankind. Romans chapter 3 and verse 26 says that God demonstrated at the present time His righteousness or His justice, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. And so God loves justice. And the whole earth is full of His goodness, this Psalm says.

You know, there’s more good in this world than there is evil, and we really need to focus on that each and every day. I know a lot of times we kind of get focused on bad things and trying to prevent bad things, and then we just kind of get spiral into a bad thing mentality. We don’t want to do that. We want to focus on good things and on the good that people are doing around us on a daily basis.

There’s so much more good in this world than there is evil. In Hosea 3 and verse 5, Hosea wrote these words. He said, “…afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days.”

Now, he was talking about the period of the church when God’s people would fear the Lord and His goodness, and you see, that’s what we’re supposed to do as God’s people, recognize the goodness of God and praise Him for it. So, we praise the Lord, first of all, for His great character, and that’s what we have here, God’s great character in verses 4 and 5.

Now secondly, we praise the Lord for His creation. And this is verses 6 through 9. Let’s read those together. 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. God is the Creator, and so by Him all things were made. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1. And Jesus was there in the beginning. In John 1 and verse 1, John wrote, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

And so God and God’s Word, Jesus, were in the beginning together, and together they created the world. By the Word of the Lord, the heavens were made. Just by God’s speaking power, things come into existence. And so the psalmist says we should fear the Lord because of His creation. God made this point to Job in Job 41, 10 through 11. He says, No one is so fierce that he would dare stir him up. That is, this awesome creature that God made. And then he asks this question, Who then is able to stand against Me? Who has preceded Me that I should pay Him? Everything under heaven is Mine.

Because God created all things, we should praise Him for that, and we should fear Him for that. And part of fearing God means praising God, recognizing His supremacy, recognizing His greatness over us. God’s creation was accomplished by His Word, as we said earlier. In Genesis 1, verse 3, and subsequent verses in Genesis chapter 1, it says again and again, And God said, and God said, let there be light. Let the earth bring forth many things. And it happened. Just as He said it, that’s when it happened.

And so, we praise God for His creation. Now, in 10 through 12, we praise God for His counsel. Look at what the psalmist says here. 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.

We praise God for His counsel. You know, first of all, we notice this, that human counsel is nothing compared to God’s counsel. Have you ever thought you ever had an original thought? You know, sometimes people think, oh, I have an original thought, and they rush to the patent office, you know, to file it away so that maybe they can make some money off of it.

But the truth is, there is no such thing as an original thought, because God has had all of those thoughts before us, and no one can out-think God. In 1 Corinthians 1, verse 20, the Apostle Paul wrote these words, Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

God knows everything that there is to be known. Anything that is an object of knowledge, He already has in His mind. And so you can’t out-think God, but some people think that they can get away with doing things that, in truth, they shouldn’t be doing.

But when we think about the counsels of men, men take counsels to do a lot of different things, and a lot of times they leave God out of their counsels. And when they leave God out of their counsels, we see, especially from the lessons we learn in the Old Testament, that a lot of times that turns out to be a bad thing.

Well, we don’t want to leave God out of our counsel, because His counsel endures forever. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, verse 11 says, and the plans of His heart to all generations. God has plans, and He wants us to participate in those plans. And that’s something that we need to take into consideration as we are living our life each and every day.

Peter tells us in 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 25, the word of the Lord endures forever. Now, this is the word by which the gospel was preached to you. And the gospel is ultimately God’s plan for all of mankind. And can we then listen to the message of the gospel? Can we then incorporate it into our lives?

You know, we need to make God’s counsel our counsel in order to be blessed. And that’s what verse 12 says. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He has chosen as His own inheritance. And today, God’s nation is His church. That’s where God’s people is, under the authority and leadership of His Son, Jesus Christ.

How do we make God’s counsel our counsel so that we can be a blessed people? 1 Corinthians 2, verse 16, it says this, “…For who has known the mind of the Lord that He may instruct Him?” And if you just stopped right there, the answer would be, well, no one has known the mind of the Lord that He may instruct Him. But then what does the Apostle Paul say next?

But we have the mind of Christ. We have the mind of Christ so that the mind of Christ may instruct us as to how we are to live our life. And that’s how we make God’s counsel our counsel, by having the mind of Christ.

And so, number three, we praise God for His counsel. But then look at verses 13 through 17. We praise God for His consideration. 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.

Think about God’s consideration for just a moment. The Lord looks from heaven. He sees the sons of men. He considers all their work, verse 15. He considers, notice what it says, His consideration. God sees everything. There’s nothing that is hid from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 13 tells us. What does that mean? It means God is looking down. And you know what? God isn’t like us. Our time is limited. Our focus is limited. You know, there’s only so long that people can focus on one thing and then they have to move on to something else for a while.

And our focus, sometimes even dealing with people, you know, we can only focus upon one thing at a time, one person at a time even. And that takes effort on our part even to do that. But God doesn’t have any of those limitations.

He can focus on you for an infinite amount of time and He can focus on the person sitting next to you for an equally infinite amount of time. And that is a baffling concept, but it is the truth. Proverbs 15, verse 3 says, “…the eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.” God considers everything about us, and He fashions us based on His consideration. Now, the fact that God has He says, infinite time for every single person on the earth means several things. First of all, you’re never taking time away from God. He will never look down and say, I’m sorry, I don’t have time for you right now. I’ve got other things. And you know, that’s how we think. That’s how humans think. We think, well, I don’t want to bother him or I don’t want to bother her because they’re so busy doing things and I really can take care of this thing myself. God’s not like that. We don’t bother God when we go to God in prayer.

We don’t bother God when we call upon Him to help us in time of need. In fact, He wants us to do that. And so, when we think about God’s consideration, it can be a blessing or it can be a curse. You know, it can be a blessing to know if you’re a Christian, a faithful Christian, that God is watching everything you’re doing and that He’s helping us to accomplish the things that He wants to accomplish in this earth and He’s using us for that purpose.

That can be a great blessing if you think about your relationship with God that way. But if one isn’t a Christian or one isn’t given to the purposes of God, one isn’t following God, then that can be a great curse because then it means everything that you do, everything that you think, everything that runs through your mind, God knows.

And He’s going to call you to account for all of those things one day, for living a life that is solely based upon self and not based in His Word. And so God considers everything we do, and He fashions us. Now, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, the Bible tells us, 2 Peter 3, verse 9.

And so He wants everyone to repent, and so He’s working in that direction. And He’s always working for us to refine us and to make us more and more like His Son, Jesus Christ, every day. And He wants everyone in the world to come into that state. But of course, some reject Him and some refuse Him.

And if that’s their choice, then He’s going to let them have that choice. But the bottom line here is that God is the one who is in control of all things, and that’s what these verses are saying here, especially verses 16 and 17.

No king is saved by the multitude of an army. Mighty man is not delivered by great strength. The horse is a vain thing for safety, neither shall it deliver any by its great strength. What is the point here? It’s that it’s not the mighty who control the earth and the things that happen in the earth.

In Daniel chapter 5, verse 21, it says this, The Most High rules in the kingdoms of men, and appoints over it whomever He chooses. God is in control, and He appoints the one that He chooses to run things. And today, He has appointed His Son, Jesus Christ, to rule over all things. 1 Timothy 6 and verse 15 and Revelation 19 and verse 16 say that Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of lords.

Now we praise God for His consideration because He is looking down upon us and He is working to help us at each and every moment. And we can see that in our lives if we will have the eyes of faith to look at what’s happening in the world around us.

But then finally, number five, we praise God for His consolation. And that’s verses 18 through 22. Now listen to these verses. 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, for 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.” So God sees those who fear Him and He delivers them. This is the Lord’s consolation for the faithful. We need to wait on the Lord. This is one of the great messages that we find here in this Psalm. Wait on the Lord and He will deliver you.

It reminds me of Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 31. It says, “…but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.”

Have you ever run a race before? I’ve run a few races. One time I did a half marathon, 13.1 miles. And I tell you what, after I ran that race, I was weary. You want something to eat, and sometimes you don’t think right. There was one time I ran one of those, and I drank some strawberry milk because it was available, and then there was some pickle juice over here, and then I drank the pickle juice after I drank the strawberry milk. Well, that wasn’t a very good combination. But why did I do that? Because I was weary after I had run a race.

But those who wait on the Lord, the Bible says, shall renew their strength. We renew our strength when we wait on God to act, not when we try to solve all things by ourselves. We need to trust in the Lord.

Proverbs chapter 3 verses 5 and 6 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart. And if we trust in the Lord with all our heart, then He will direct our steps. And so when we do this, God’s mercy will be upon us.

We want God’s consolation and we praise God for His consolation. And He consoles those who fear Him. And so let’s wait on the Lord. Let’s let Him console us. Sometimes that takes patience on our part. Sometimes we’ve got to go through some things to understand a few things about our lives and about the direction and course of our lives that we need to take.

Sometimes those messages come easy, and sometimes those messages come hard. And we’ve got to understand that God is there to help us in either way. And so, but He is seeking to console us. He’s seeking to help us. And we need to praise God for His consolation.

Five reasons to praise God in this Psalm. First of all, we praise God for His character, because He is good, He is righteous, and He is holy. Secondly, we praise God for His creation. He made everything. Everything belongs to Him, and we need to recognize that. Third, we praise Him for His counsel. He knows all of our thoughts, and so He can give us the best advice.

We praise Him for His consideration. He sees us. He has infinite time for us. He looks down on us and He wants to help us. And we praise Him for His consolation. His consolation is that He is merciful to us when we fear Him and wait on Him.

Do you need to praise God today? I know I do. I’m glad you’re here praising Him together and we can praise God every day of our life as we think about these great reasons, five great reasons to praise God. Maybe you’re not in a position to praise God because you’re not looking to praise God. You’re just looking to seek after your own things in this life, but maybe that needs to change. Maybe you need to become a child of God so that you can begin to praise Him and think about The things that you need to do to have a good relationship with Him. How does that begin? It begins by hearing His Word and believing it. Remember, the counsel of the Lord is the best counsel that you can have, and so we need to listen to God’s Word.

We need to believe that Word, and we need to believe in His Son, Jesus Christ. We need to repent of our sins, the things that separate us from God and cause us to go astray and not trust in God and put our trust in Him instead.

We need to confess that Jesus is the Lord because He is, as we said, King of Kings and Lord of lords. He’s the one who is ruling right now. He is the one who is in control right now. And we need to be baptized to identify with Jesus Christ, to let everyone know that I am a child of God and I am going to live the life of a Christian.

Maybe you need to follow that simple plan this morning. You’re not going to outsmart God. You’re not going to find some way to get around the plan that He’s made. We just need to submit to it. And maybe this morning, that’s what you need to do. We’d be happy to help you do that. Or maybe you’d like to study more about God’s Word. We’d be happy to sit down with you. We have some resources available if you’d be interested, and we can study with you that way.

Whatever your need may be this morning, we invite you to come and let it be known while together we stand and while we sing.

End of transcript. Thank you for reading along!