Please turn with me in the Word of God to the book of Psalms. That will come as a surprise to many of you that I'm preaching from the Psalm. I want to keep you off balance, just keep you loose. Psalm 33, Psalm 33 this morning, Psalm 33, we'll read the whole Psalm. This is God's own Word.
"Shout for joy in the Lord, O ye righteous. Praise befits the upright. Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre. Make melody to Him with a harp of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song. Play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts. For the word of the Lord is upright, and all His work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap. He puts the deeps 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 came to be. He commanded, and it stood firm. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He frustrates the plans of the peoples. 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 whom He has chosen as His heritage. The Lord looks down from heaven. He sees all the children of man. From where He sits enthroned, He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth. He who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds. The King is not saved by His great army. A warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and shield. Our heart is glad in Him because we trust in His holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you."
So far the reading of God's own word.
Now, we live in turbulent times, and the times have become more turbulent since I wrote this sermon a few days ago. I remember vividly coming to church in the 1960s, and the title of the sermon was "Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem." And just the day or two before, there had been an outbreak of war in the Middle East. And I remember Reverend Petrulia in Alameda coming to the pulpit and saying, "I did not have the spirit of prophecy when I chose the title of this sermon. I was going to preach a sermon on praying for our synod and peace at our synod in Grand Rapids. That at the time many thought was the earthly Jerusalem.
I had a little more spirit of a prophet, I guess, than Reverend Petrullia did, because I wanted to speak a little bit about how we live in times in which there is so much turmoil, in which there are so many things going on that could easily bring us to be people of great worry and great distress. Indeed, events in the world, wars, and rumors of wars, and a great destruction. The horrors of war brought home to us by cameras in a way that words don't always succeed in doing, and the senselessness of the great destruction that goes on to win what? One might ask at times.
And we can be deeply distressed by that. We can be distressed by the divisions in our own country where we see riots in the streets and language of violence from all political sides in this country back and forth in a way that are very distressing. Each of us in our individual lives may have distresses that are known or unknown to the people around us, struggles that we undergo physically or spiritually or mentally. And churches are many places in great distress. I often think of how blessed the life of this congregation has been in so many ways over so many years to have such a great measure of peace and unity and faith and service. But so many churches struggle very profoundly with all sorts of issues.
And so, these are times where distress and difficulty and worry and fretting may well be assailing a number of us, and maybe to some extent all of us, as we reflect on where we are. And I was thinking how the Psalms help us to approach these struggles in various ways. Sometimes the Psalms give us powerful emotional responses to distress. They enable us to pour out our hearts with all of our worries to the Lord. I was thinking of the words that begin Psalm 69: "Save me, O Lord, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me." Here's the cry of a drowning man in deep distress and appealing for the Lord to come and help. The waters are rising. He can't breathe. He has no foothold. This is emotion.
And the Psalms also can speak emotionally about God's response to the situation of the world, how God can be powerfully infuriated by what's going on. And Psalm 18, verses 6 through 9, we read: "In my distress I called upon the Lord, to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. Then the earth reeled and rocked. The foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked because he was angry. Smoke went up from his nostrils and devouring fire from his mouth. Glowing coals flamed forth from him. He bowed the heavens and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet."
Sometimes we feel the Lord is far away and indifferent. And this psalm reminds us that God knows, God cares, God acts. And so, there is a very legitimate role for strong emotion, for strong emotional life in us and in the Lord as we think about the situations that we face.
But Psalm 33 helps us take a slightly different approach, maybe more than slightly different. Psalm 33 says, while there is a place for emotion and even begins with a kind of strong emotion, shout for joy to the Lord. This psalm, taken as a whole, is more reflective. This psalm, taken as a whole, asks us, in effect, to step back. There's a time for strong emotion and there's time for strong reflection. And the psalm asks us to step back and to think and to remember and calls us ultimately to a calm confidence in the purposes of the Lord. Calls us that beyond the emotion and the understandable emotion and the legitimate emotion, we are called to faith and confidence before the Lord. And that's what I want to think with you about today.
This psalm, if we look at it very carefully, is very carefully written. All right, I'll say it: it's a chiasm. If you don't know what that is, you're probably better off. But this is a very carefully constructed psalm with every part resonating with its counterpart. This is a psalm of calm reflection. This is a psalm of careful preparation, reminding us that there are times in our lives when we need to pause and to reflect and to take stock and to have confidence a quiet confidence in our Lord.
And this psalm encourages that confidence in the Lord in three ways, I think. No surprises in this psalm yet, right? Three points. First of all, God's plan gives us confidence. Second of all, God's power gives us confidence. And third of all, God's praise gives us confidence. And we need to see that so that we may see clearly.
A week ago Saturday, I was watching the U.S. Open golf match. I find it much better to watch golf than to play it. Golf may have been developed by Calvinists in Scotland to teach humiliation. I prefer to be entertained, but Scotty Scheffler, if you watched it all, was not having a very good game, and the commentators were saying it was unusual and that his problem was that he wasn't understanding his own problems clearly. And the commentator said, "There is a difference between what you feel and what is real." There is a difference between what you feel and what is real. Scotty Shuffler thought he was hitting the ball well. He felt good about his game, and his game was lousy. And you can feel as good as you want about your game, or about your cooking, or about your working. But if the result is lousy, your feeling is not reflecting reality.
And the Scripture is given to us so that no matter how we feel, we might know what is real. And what is real, Psalm 33 says, is that the Lord has a plan for the world and for His people. That's what's declared here at the center of this psalm, verses 11 and 12. The counsel of the Lord, the plan of the Lord, the thoughts of the Lord, the counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations. Isn't that a wonderful promise?
Those of us who've raised children know that our plans for our children have to constantly be amended. They keep changing. What is the matter with them? Just the time we think maybe we've understood, they change. And we have to amend our plans. How wonderful to know that the plans of the Lord's heart never have to be changed. They continue on from generation to generation, the same. Because He has a plan that is perfect and unchanging, we can trust His promises at all times. The plans of His heart to all generations.
"Blessed is the nation..." And this means His people. In Psalm 33, the nation was Israel. Today, the nation is His church. Blessed is the church whose God is the Lord, the people whom He has chosen for His heritage. What is at the center of God's plan for all of mankind? The center of God's plan for all mankind is that He will have a people. He will have a church. That's where His heart particularly rests. That's at the center of all human history. And no matter how many newspapers we pick up, for those of you who are over 60, or how many, whatever they're called on your cell phone that you look at to get your news, the center of things is not what appears in the papers or in the social media. The center of God's concern is His people. That's where his heart is.
That may not feel right, but it's real. That's why we come together to worship, to be renewed in that confidence in the Lord, the people whom He has chosen as His heritage. That's why we as Reformed people have said it's important to know about the electing purpose of our God. He's a choosing God. He chooses because He has a plan, and He accomplishes that plan, and that's our confidence, that's our assurance. Predestination is not our embarrassment, it's our glory. It's what God reveals about Himself. His plan focuses on His chosen people, the people in whom He delights.
He has a plan. Isn't that wonderful? And that plan is worked out in history. Ephesians 1 celebrates the electing love of God and then goes on to say that in the coming of Jesus Christ, He had a plan. Ephesians 1, verse 10, to unite all things in Him. Jesus, for the church, stands at the center of the plan. This is the promise. He has a plan that He accomplishes. And this stands in such contrast with what goes on in human history.
Verse 10: "The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He frustrates the plans of the peoples." Now, this verse is not meant to tell us never make a plan, never be thoughtful, never think about the future and try to make plans about it. What it's saying is if your plans are not in line with the Lord's plans, they will come to nothing.
Think of all the time that's been spent in recent days and weeks and months and maybe years planning in Washington, D.C., planning in Tel Aviv, planning in Tehran. What are we going to do? What do we do if they do that? Plan, plan, plan. I bet there are, I was going to say files, but that further ages me. There are computer programs full of plans. And yet, if these plans are not in line with the plans of the Lord, they are nothing. They will come to nothing. That's what this psalm is reminding us. It's the Lord who is in charge. It's the Lord who has a plan that will be realized, and will be realized in history, and will be realized by His Word and by His work.
What a wonderful verse that is in verse 4 of our chapter of the Psalms: "For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness." His word and his work are faithful and reliable and upright. What a confidence that should give us. What a confidence that we should be filled with.
He spoke, verse 9, "and it came to be." Made me think of all the words I've spoken through the years that never accomplished a thing. I hope that's not true of the words I've spoken from this pulpit, but so many things we say are just passing, aren't they? I remember talking to someone in this congregation who said one of the verses of the Bible that really troubled him was that at the last day we'd have to give an account for every idle word. He said, "Is that really true?" I'm a good interpreter of the word. I said it has to be true in some way. It's really true, isn't it? So many of our words are idle. Certainly, our words are so often powerless and vain, but this is saying every word of the Lord accomplishes its purpose. Every word of the Lord is faithful and upright. He spoke, and it came to be. He commanded, and it stood firm.
What a confidence that should give us. God is in control, and His works fill the earth with righteousness, verse 5. "He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord." Again, if we check the news, most days we see little of righteousness or of love. And yet that's the reality of what God will accomplish and is accomplishing in this world. And He accomplishes that above all through our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who was perfectly righteous in His own life and came with all the steadfast love of the Lord to save His people.
That's what we're constantly tempted to doubt, isn't it? Is there really righteousness governing this world? Is there really love governing this world? The Scripture comes to tell us, yes, yes, that is the ultimate reality. And as Psalm 2 says, the nations may roar, and the nations may take counsel against the Lord and against His anointed, but they will be frustrated. They will be broken. The righteousness of the Lord and the love of the Lord will conquer and will prevail.
And then, fascinatingly, that work of the Lord in this psalm is described in part as His looking out at things. Look at verse 13 and following: "the Lord looks down from heaven. He sees all the children of man. From where He sits enthroned, He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth. He who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds." The Lord is looking, this text says. The Lord is observing. The Lord is knowing. But I don't think we should read this at all as just a passive endeavor on the Lord's part. He's not just gathering information, but His looking, His knowing, His observing is effective and accomplishing things.
Tried to think of a way to illustrate that. And the best I could come up with is I think we've probably all had a high school teacher who could kill with a look, who could change the mood of a class in a moment by a glance. I don't know why Ms. Spoonstra came to mind. Ms. Spoonstra was for many years at the math teacher across the street, and one Sunday afternoon, long after all of my children were out of high school, they got to talking about shocking instances of misbehavior on the part of high school students. I didn't know such things happened. And how a certain class at high school was terrorizing a certain teacher. And she had completely lost control of the class. And all Ms. Boonster had to do was stick her head in the door and silence. Now she did accompany it with a word: "that will be enough of that." Can you hear the voice? Some of you had the misfortune of not knowing the spoonstraw.
But isn't that the truth? Observing, knowing, seeing, and looking can make a change, and that's what is being said here of the Lord. He's in charge. He's not gathering information. He's not passive. He's fashioning hearts, verse 15 says. He's directing them. That's the confidence we have.
It's interesting, in Revelation chapter 1, our Lord is described there in the heavenly temple in glory, standing amidst the seven lampstands. And one of the things that is said of him there is that his eyes are like a flame of fire. That flame of fire from his eyes is not just seeing and observing. It's accomplishing. It's accomplishing his purpose. And the look of the Lord for his own is saving.
Verse 18: "Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His steadfast love." He sees His own as well as He sees the world, and He's seen what He has worked in our hearts, the hope that we have, the steadfast love of Him that we have. Those are gifts from Him, and He sees them, and He blesses us. That's the plan of the Lord. That's the confidence that we need to have in the midst of all the turmoil of this world.
And then the psalmist wants to make clear to us that the Lord will accomplish His purpose because He has the power to do so. We can have confidence in the plan of the Lord because we can have confidence in the power of the Lord. And he describes that power of the Lord in verses 6 and 7: "by the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap. He puts the deeps in storehouses." It's interesting how often the Word of God returns to the theme of creation to illustrate the power of the Lord. Creation, of course, also illustrates the plan of the Lord, the purpose of the Lord, the organization of the Lord, the structure. But here, the focus is particularly on the power of the Lord.
How did this world come into being? Well, the philosophers and the scientists greatly debate that, don't they? But the Scripture makes it very clear: the world came into being by the Word of God's mouth. He spoke, and it happened. Now, I think sometimes we think, "Well, if God is doing something really big, He must speak a really big word, right? Let there be light. I think most of the time, I imagine he sort of shouted that. But this makes clear he didn't need to shout anything. He may have whispered it. "Let there be light." And there was light. That's, I think, emphasized by that next line: "By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made and the breath of His mouth, all their host, maybe just a little puff created all the stars.
The psalmist wants us to stop and say, "Wow, what power. What a God. What glory." He could take all the oceans of the world and just pile them up. It's no big work. I've told you this before, but I find not all of you remember every one of my words. But I remember several decades ago, we used to go down to the Carlsbad Beach often in the summer, and there was a cliff, and you had to go down, I don't know, three or four stories equivalent downstairs that were built into the side of the cliff. And halfway down, there was a big concrete platform in which there were concrete changing rooms and restrooms there on the beach. And it wasn't a huge building, but it was a sizable building, all of concrete, all on a concrete basis. And there was several big storms one winter. And we went back to the beach the next summer, and the concrete restrooms were gone, just swept away by the ocean. And the concrete platform on which they had rested were gone.
Now, this is not an attack on concrete or its durability, but it is a reminder that the things that we see that look so firm, so fixed, so solid can be just swept away. And yet that sea which we could observe to be so powerful has no power relative to God and His power. Let's see, God can just pile up and put in a storehouse. That's the power of our God. And that's why we can have such confidence in His plan, because we can have confidence in His power.
And this psalm wants to contrast God's power with earthly power. Look at verse 16: "The king is not saved by his great army. What is one of the greatest points of study in history? It's the studies of kings and their armies and their wars and their accomplishments and their nation building and their nation destruction. And here the psalmist contrasts the greatest powers of kings with the power of God. The king is not saved by his great army. A warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might, it cannot rescue." Do you see how the word great is used there three times: the great army, the great strength of the warrior, the great might of the warhorse?
Ultimately, history is not determined by great B-2 bombers. Ultimately, it's the Lord that determines history. And where the plans of the nations are opposed to the Lord, He frustrates those plans. And He wants us to know that. He wants us to believe that. It's not to say kings and armies and warriors are not important. They are. But they're not ultimately determinative. It is the Lord who has a plan for the peoples. And it is the Lord who accomplishes that. It is not in politicians that we'll find salvation. It's in the work of our Lord Jesus Christ that we'll find salvation.
Power belongs to the Lord in all things.
Verse 19 is a great encouragement: "That He may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine." God is a God of body and soul. He's concerned about our bodies and has a plan for them. Maybe not the plan we would like, but He has a plan for them, and He's concerned about our souls, and He has a plan for them.
And the end result of that is that we should praise Him. We should praise Him with a calm confidence that He's accomplishing His purpose. Now, "shout for joy" may not sound as calm as we'd like it to be. "Shout for joy" may not be quite as reformed as it ought to be. It's slightly emotional. It's slightly getting carried away. Tell John Boer, I missed him today, saying, "Amen." But shouting for joy is giving enthusiastic expression to our confidence in the Lord, our gratitude in the Lord. And the way we do it in our worship is particularly by singing.
If you're frustrated at not being able to shout, then sing louder. Do you enter into our singing with joy? Do you enter into our singing with your mind engaged, but also with your mouth open, testifying to the Lord and to His grace? This is a way we can help build up our confidence in the Lord. Singing His praises, singing our thanks, singing our joy in Him.
We are not to be a people characterized by worry and doubt and distress. Even those things are hard to avoid. We are to be a people, as verse 20 says: "our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and shield." If you want to spend Sunday afternoon doing something good, memorize that verse. "Our soul waits for the Lord because He is our help and our shield." You have confidence in that. Then you can, in addition to the emotions of life that come along, you can have a calm confidence in the Lord because of His plan, because of His power, because of His praise.
We love our God because He's in charge and works all things together for good for those who love Him, for those who are the called according to His plan. May God fill us all with calm confidence today. Amen.
Let us pray. Oh, Lord, how thankful we are for Your Word, how thankful we are that it encourages us to see what is truly real, Your plan And Your power, and how You deserve all the praise. And so, receive our thanks, build up our joy, build up our faith and confidence in You, assure us deep in our souls, O Lord, that you have planned good things for us and will bring those good things to fruition, especially when we see the glorious return of our Lord. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.