April 24, 2005 Psalm 33:12-22
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance. From heaven the LORD looks down and sees all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth— he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do. No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you.
Topeka has been promoting itself as a city of character. On big billboards they have been displaying certain traits that they have felt are worth promoting. One of them was “dependability.” This word basically means to be someone that others can rely on for help. If you say you’re going to help them, you show up. If you call them on the phone, they answer or call you back. They are known as people you can depend on. It’s really nice to have friends in life that are dependable - that you can count on for help - that aren’t just there when it is convenient for them. You need dependability when it comes to having an employee or a spouse. It’s even more important - the most important - when it comes to your God. He can’t just be a nice looking little ornament that hangs in your room, or a cross around your neck. He has to be someone that you not only depend on - but someone that is in fact dependable.
The LORD says, “Depend on Me”
I. Who is the LORD?
The Psalm writer starts out, Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD. Throughout this Psalm he points to a distinct characteristic of God - as seen in his name - the LORD. This description of God was explained to Moses in Exodus 34:6-7. “He passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.” Notice the key phrases throughout the first part of these verses - SLOW to anger, ABOUNDING in love and FAITHFULNESS, MAINTAINING love. A key aspect to the LORD is His CONSISTENCY. He is primarily a God of love and forgiveness. He is not a fair weather God who gives up on people after one sin or one rebellion. The Psalmist calls it an UNFAILING love - in the Hebrew it’s called CHESED - it just keeps going and going and going.
The faithfulness of the LORD is contrasted in the Old Testament Scriptures with the unfaithfulness of the Israelites. The book of Judges is a sad repetition of the same old sins repeated time and again by the unfaithful Israelites. It reads, “the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. Unlike their fathers, they quickly turned from the way in which their fathers had walked, the way of obedience to the LORD’s commands.” (Jdg 2:16-18) God called it “prostitution.” Imagine how you’d feel if your husband or wife decided that you weren’t bringing home enough money or you weren’t sexy enough, so he or she decided to sell his or her body for sex to the highest bidder. So you kick him or her out of the house, they come back and beg for forgiveness - so you let them back. Then, a year later they do the SAME thing! That’s how God described the Israelites. After honestly hundreds of years of this Isaiah wrote, “All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations—a people who continually provoke me to my very face; (65:2-3) Faithfulness on the part of God is that he continued to hold out his hands - ALL DAY LONG in spite of this.
Do you know what really amazes me about this? Psalm 33 says, From heaven the LORD looks down and sees all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth— he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do. The LORD looks - literally gazes at ALL who live on earth. He considers what we do. Think about that. Sometimes we turn on TV and see some really disgusting stuff. We hear on the news how people are committing murder, molesting children, abusing drugs. Imagine if you were given the power of God - and given the ability to see all that everyone does? How long, do you think, it would take you to say, “to HELL with them all. I’ve had enough!” But we aren’t in the position of God. We can turn the TV off. We can shut our doors and sleep without thinking about it. God doesn’t. He sees this stuff happen every day. He’s heard every word you’ve spoken. He’s heard every perverted and judgmental thought you’ve had. He can’t turn the channel. His very nature makes it “impossible” for him not to see it. He has to watch this garbage.
Why doesn’t he just destroy the world then? Because God is FAITHFUL. God says of Himself in 1 Timothy 2:4 that He “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” God knows that He sent His Son to die for all these people - these filthy sinners. God knows that the world has been forgiven. He wants people to believe this and be saved. He continues to love - in spite of who we are. He waits, and waits and waits - knowing that there are still some to be saved - to be brought to repentance and faith. He is patient with us - not wanting to cut us off at a time of rebellion. Instead of destroying us all, He has the patience of God - the willingness to stick with us in spite of our sin. That is faithfulness at it’s core. That’s who God is. He is the LORD, and He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
II. Who is your God?
The Psalmist therefore says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD.” He says you’re blessed if your GOD is the LORD. Luther explained what it means to have a god in his explanation to the 1st Commandment - “A god is that to which we look for all good and in which we find refuge in every time of need. To have a god is nothing else than to trust and believe him with our whole heart.”
In order to encourage this trust in God - the Psalmist tells us what not to trust in. No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. Think of Pharaoh - who had a huge army come to attack the Israelites. It didn’t matter how big his army was as they were standing at the bottom of the Red Sea. When the walls came crashing down - so did they. The word for “warrior” is the same as what is called a “mighty man” in the Old Testament. Some of their exploits are found in 2 Samuel 23. Listen to what it says some of these men -
Josheb-Basshebeth, a Tahkemonite raised his spear against eight hundred men, whom he killed in one encounter. (2 Sanctification 23:8)
Abishai the brother of Joab son of Zeruiah was chief of the Three. He raised his spear against three hundred men, whom he killed.
Benaiah son of Jehoiada was a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, who performed great exploits. He struck down two of Moab’s best men. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear. Such were the exploits of Benaiah son of Jehoiada; he too was as famous as the three mighty men. (2 Sanctification 23:18-22)
Consider - for one moment more - what God’s Word says of the horse. Job 39:19-25 says, “Do you give the horse his strength or clothe his neck with a flowing mane? Do you make him leap like a locust, striking terror with his proud snorting? He paws fiercely, rejoicing in his strength, and charges into the fray. He laughs at fear, afraid of nothing; he does not shy away from the sword. The quiver rattles against his side, along with the flashing spear and lance. In frenzied excitement he eats up the ground; he cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds. At the blast of the trumpet he snorts, ‘Aha!’ He catches the scent of battle from afar, the shout of commanders and the battle cry.
If you were one of these men, who was able to kill eight hundred, or if you had an army behind you, you would naturally think to yourself, “nobody can mess with me!” Yet the LORD says, “despite their strength - they cannot save.” One of the greatest examples might be in Samson. Here this man had all the strength in the world. But he sure didn’t know how to pick his women. So when he decided to break his vow with the Lord - by getting his hair cut - all of his strength was lost. His strength didn’t save him. Again, when Sisera came to fight Barak at the Kishon River with 900 iron chariots, those horses and chariots didn’t do a bit of good when the Lord sent a rainstorm - having them get stuck in the mud.
The LORD says that these things CANNOT save. The difficult thing for us is that they sure appear to save. You’re real nervous about a party coming up, so you have a few drinks to “loosen you up.” It does wonders for you. You relax. You feel more in control. But you also say some things you shouldn’t have said. It doesn’t really end up saving you at all. You have a big interview coming up - so you do a big study on how to do an interview - and you think you’re all ready for it. Yet your nerves get the best of you - and you botch it royally. You worry about what is going to happen to Social Security. It’s going to run out in 50 years, and then what will we do? Come to the realization - Social Security isn’t going to save anyone.
Moses said it this way in Deuteronomy 8:17-18, “You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today.” If you really want to be honest about it, you and I - we commit idolatry every day. Think about it. You rely on your job to pay the bills. You rely on your ability to make the team. But when the job is in jeopardy or the health starts to decline - what do you immediately start to do? Worry! What does this show you? You are relying on your job or your ability! That’s idolatry. It’s no different than the Israelites who began to trust in the ark to win their battles - instead of the GOD who promised to be in the ark. God says in Psalm 33 - DON’T trust in anything but GOD. If you trust in your job, your abilities, your parents, whatever it is to save you from a predicament - sooner or later you will be disappointed. None of these things are eternally dependable. That’s the key thing here, right?
III. Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD
That’s why the Psalmist encourages us to have the LORD be our God. He writes, “the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you.” He writes that the LORD “is our ‘help’.” That word for “help” is “magen” in the Hebrew - and it’s only used 8 times in the Bible. Six of those times it is in reference to the Assyrian crisis in the days of Hezekiah. This is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. A huge army had come to the doorstep of Jerusalem - thousands and thousands of men. The commander - a man by the name of Sennacherib - sent a dirty little letter to King Hezekiah - telling him that God was on his side and he needed to give up. By all rights - he should have. But he took the letter and laid it out in the temple of the Lord - and prayed about it. He didn’t call to the Egyptian army. He didn’t try to muster the troops. He didn’t ask, “what am I going to do about this?” He simply prayed and said, “Lord, what are YOU going to do about this?”
Isaiah came with a message to Hezekiah. In 2 Kings 19 he writes, “He will not enter this city
or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it. By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city, declares the LORD. I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.” That night the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. (2 Ki 19:32-36) The LORD helped. He delivered Jerusalem from a sure defeat.
That’s what the LORD does. He delivers from death and keeps alive - even in famine. But notice one thing - WHO does He especially do this for? Those who HOPE in His unfailing love. The writer of Lamentations wrote it this way - “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23) Just think about how much more we would enjoy life - if we simply learned to make the LORD our God - every morning. The Psalmist writes - “BLESSED ARE THEY.” Remember in your mind - God has an UNFAILING love. Even if I were to hate him with all my might, if I were to live five or ten years trying to be the dirtiest and rottenest person I could be - God would still be the LORD - He would still have an unfailing love. You can’t change that about God. If the LORD could witness a world of sinners and see all of their garbage EVERY DAY - and still send His Son to die for it - you know He has an unfailing love. If He can manage to live in downtown New York, Paris, L.A., and still not destroy the world after a MINUTE of that - you know what He’s made of. This is the LORD that wants to help you - wants you to turn to Him.
Again, not to belabor the point - you need to put your trust in Him. Imagine if - for instance - you had a murderer outside your door - beating it down - carrying a pistol - and he’s going to get in. You hurry up and tell the kids to get in the back bedroom and lock the door. You call 9-1-1, but he’s still coming in. He shoots the lock up, comes barreling inside and starts banging on your bedroom door. The kids are screaming, your wife is yelling - “help, help.” You push the furniture in front of the door, but he still manages to shoot the door open and he’s coming straight at you. Your wife yells, what are we going to do? You say, “I don’t know!” Then your kid reaches under the bed and says, “why don’t just get use this shotgun?” You say, “oh, yeah, good idea.” You see, the shotgun had been under there so long that you forgot all about it. If you would have gotten it right away, you could have kept him from getting in your house in the first place. So you take the shotgun and just as the guy is reaching through the door - you blow him away.” It may not be the prettiest picture - but do you get my point? When our god is our ability, the police department, the lawyers, anything in this world - it’s always a step away - there’s no guarantee it’s going to actually work - at least not forever. But when we trust in the LORD - we have the promise - the track record - the absolute guarantee that He is the ticket. It’s not like He has to take a car to get here. He’s always right there with you. He’s always the most powerful Being we have. Don’t let Him lie there like a sleeping dog. Put him to work. Call on Him. Ask Him for some help.
When you meet someone that’s really dependable - someone that you can count on through the thick and the thin of life - here’s some advice for you - don’t let him or her go! Anyone can be there for you in the good times. But only the true friends stick with you in the bad - offer their help - and stick by your side no matter how you look in the morning - how grumpy you become - how much weight you gain. That’s what I love about marriage. When you take that vow - that person says he or she is going to stick with you for richer or poorer - in sickness and in health - till death do us part! When push comes to shove - there is only one Person that is really dependable - that we KNOW will never desert us - that even death cannot part us from - and that is the LORD. He could even say to the thief on the cross, “today you will be with me in Paradise.” He would even be with him through and after death. Since Jesus died and rose from the dead - you have the same promise from Him. He says, “surely, I am with you ALWAYS - to the very end of the age.” Jesus is dependable. Depend on Him, and be blessed. Amen.
