Reasons to Rejoice!
Psalm 33
Introduction:
Look: v.1 – remember the Psalms are songs. Hymns!
Psalm 33 = Song of joy & praise
Quote: “Joy is the soul of praise.” – CH Spurgeon
A praising heart is a joyful heart. Praise to God is the outflow and the overflow of a heart joy. Praise is nothing more than a ringing out of our joy to God!
Story Behind the Psalm:
Psalm 33 = Anonymous – we don’t know who the human penman was… 50 of these Psalms… often called Orphan Psalms! May not know who the human penman was… sure know the Author of the Psalm – Holy Spirit!
Not only do we not know who the penman of the Psalm was… not told the exact occasion in which it was written.
Believe = Psalm written during a time of national crisis… God’s people rejoicing and praising him for a great national victory.
Setting: 2 Kings 19 – during the reign of Hezekiah… Assyrian invaders had surrounded the city of Jerusalem… outlook bleak…Look (33:19) … we know King Hezekiah cried out to God and God answered with a miraculous victory!
Psalm 33 is 1 of only 4 Psalms in the first Book of Psalms (1-41) – call the Genesis Psalms… that has no superscription or divinely inspired title above it… (Psalms 1,2,10)
Interesting = where Psalm 33 is Providentially placed in the Psalter or Hebrew Hymnbook … follows Psalm 32… although probably written at different times by different writers… organically connected or linked together… Jewish people sang them together.
Psalm 32
1 Mercy of God
2 Grace of God
3 Redeemer
4 Pardon
5 Forgiveness
Psalm 33
1 Majesty of God
2 Greatness of God
3 Creator
4 Power
5 Faithfulness
Psalm 33 – opens with a command!
Rejoicing = not a feeling; it is a choice – don’t always feel like rejoicing. Rejoicing is not an emotion but an act of the will. Choose to rejoice.
Psalmist = looked around… Assyrian invaders encircled the city… fear of famine & death… outlook didn’t look so good… made decision I am just going to praise Him anyhow.
Times we look around and don’t see much to rejoice about. Looking in the wrong direction. Looking out when ought to be looking up!
“Rejoice in the LORD” = theme of the song… rest of the Psalm is why we can rejoice.
Psalm 33 = gives us a list of “Reasons to Rejoice!”
TS: We can rejoice in the Lord because of…
I. HIS PARDON!
Look: v.1 – “O ye righteous… for praise is comely for the upright.”
“Comely” = beautiful – nothing more beautiful than a rejoicing or praising Christian.
Adorn our lives with joy and praise… Gal. = fruit of the Spirit.
Christian = you can’t put on anything more beautiful than a joyful spirit.
Most attractive thing about the Gospel of Jesus Christ – people can see it!
“Righteous & upright” = describes a person who is right with God – saved – know the blessedness of forgiveness in Psalm 32
Disciples… went out on an evangelistic endeavor… returned rejoicing … even the demons were submissive to them.
Jesus = don’t rejoice in the fact that the demons obeyed you… rejoice because your names are written down in heaven!
Rejoice = my sins are gone! Name written in heaven!
II. HIS PERSON!
Look vv.2-3
Psalmist pulls out all the stops… fires up the orchestra (v.2)… brings in the choir (v.3)
“New Song” = a song that has never been sung before – 7 in the OT… 6 of them are found in the Psalms.
Each day brings new heights, victories, new understandings of our God… lead to new songs of praise that have never been sung by us before!
vv.4,5 – times our rejoicing and praise is selfish in nature. Praise God for what He has done for us rather than who He is to us.
When last time that you just rejoiced and praised God for who He is?
A. Right (4-5a)
Righteousness of God flows out His holiness. Our God is a holy God!
Holy God deserves and demands for us to be a holy people!
1 Pet. 1:15
God is right. Word is right. Works are right! Everything about our God is right and holy.
B. Just (5b)
“Judgment” = has to do with God’s justice!
May not see it now but there is a day coming when God’s justice will prevail on the earth. Set the wrongs right!
Revelation 15:3,4 – “And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.”
Gen. 18:25 – “Shall not the judge of the all the earth do right.”
Abraham = not questioning or accusing God of not doing right. He knew God was right and just… saying, I know you God. You are just and your always do what is right.
Confidence = that if there were prescribed number of righteous souls in Sodom that God wouldn’t destroy the city.
C. Good (5c)
v.5c – “the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.”
Whether men see it or not… everywhere we look we see the goodness of our great God.
Matthew 5:45 – “…he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”
Imagine = living in a colorless world… what if there were no flowers, no fragrance, no sound… what if the birds had no voice to sing?
Think about His goodness in your own life!!!
III. HIS POWER!
Look: vv.6-7
Psalmist = describes the Creative genius of our God!
Universe = not product of evolutionary chance; we are not some cosmic accident!
Scientists claim billions of years ago… formless matter in the universe that exploded … out of the chaos came the cosmos or that somehow the universe itself is some sort of nameless living entity that created itself. Nothing more than a fanciful fairy tale dressed up in scientific rhetoric!
Secularist = believes in evolution because he doesn’t want to believe in a Creator God!
No wonder: Ps. 14:1 – “The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.”
Love: v.8
Psalmist = so caught up with God that he calls on the inhabitants of the earth to bow in reverence before Him.
“Awe” = overwhelming feeling of reverence and admiration… produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful.
Stand in awe of our God!
Why? vv.6,9
God = who took nothing and made something! Who said, “Let there be!” and there was!
8x’s God spoke in Gen.1 and a physical creative miracle took place.
v.7 = reference to (Gen.1:9-13) Day 3 of Creation week
Heb. 11:3 – “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
Christian = looks at the beauty of a sunset, listens to the singing of the birds, stands in awe at the grandeur of a mountain waterfall and proclaims my God how great Thou art!
Atheist = looks at the same sunset, listens to the same birds, stands at the same waterfall and has no one to thank!
Think about it!
The same God that is in charge of the universe is the same God that is in charge of our lives!
The same God that cares for the birds and clothes the flowers is the same God that cares and clothes you and me!
IV. HIS PLANS!
Look: v.10
“Heathen” = unbelieving Gentile nations that have rebelled against God… assembled themselves against God’s people – Israel.
“Devices” = war plans … their desire to conquer God’s people will not prosper.
God = bring all their plans to nothing!
v.11 – God’s plan standeth for ever = will not fail!
Reminds = God is not just the Creator of the universe; He is the Governor of the universe!
Speaks = Sovereignty of our God – God doesn’t just rule over all things… rules over all things!
Isaiah 40:15 – “the nations are a drop of a bucket.”
Point = the wicked will not win! They didn’t win in Hezekiah’s day… not going to win in our day!!!
God = He always wins!!!
What God has promised He will perform… nothing can stand before Him or stop Him!
v.12 – Blessed!
vv.13,14 = nothing escapes God’s view! He sees all!!
v.15 – God is every man’s Creator and all are accountable to Him! Accomplish His will!
God = cause even the heathen to praise Him!
vv.16,17 = Israel is powerless to deliver themselves from such a great enemy. But God Can!
That’s what it meant to them… but what do these verses hold for me?
1. The enemy is not going to win.
2. God sees and is at work in our lives.
3. What God has promised He will perform
Phil. 1:6 – “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:”
4. Our God always wins!
V. LORD’S PROVISION!
A. In the Present
Look: vv.18,19
God’s care for His people!
Reminder = God is not finished with His people – Israel.
Help them and deliver them. Miraculously delivered Israel in Hezekiah’s day… still miraculously delivering them in our day!
Illust: Hamas = attacked in a full-scale attempt to overtake Israel in 2014… firing rockets on Jewish cities… not hitting their targets… landing in open uninhabited fields. Couldn’t understand it.
Headline in the Jewish Telegraph Newspaper:
“Their God changes the path of our rockets in mid-air.” – said a Terrorist
Isaiah 54:17 – “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper…”
Same God promised to take care of His earthly people Israel is the God who has promised to take of His heavenly people the church… the saved in our day that make up the body of Christ.
God = has not just promised to help them…promised to help you and me!
More than conquerors through Him that loved us!
B. In the Future
Look: vv.20-22
Psalm ends as it began – with Rejoicing!
Rejoicing = Lord’s faithfulness!
With Jesus there is Hope!!!
Conclusion:
Reasons to Rejoice…
Pardon
Person
- Right
- Just
- Good
Power
Plans
Provision
