33:1 You godly ones, shout for joy because of the Lord!
It is appropriate for the morally upright to offer him praise.
33:2 Give thanks to the Lord with the harp!
Sing to him to the accompaniment of a ten-stringed instrument!
33:3 Sing to him a new song! 2
Play skillfully as you shout out your praises to him! 3
33:4 For 4 the Lord’s decrees 5 are just, 6
and everything he does is fair. 7
33:5 The Lord promotes 8 equity and justice;
the Lord’s faithfulness extends throughout the earth. 9
33:6 By the Lord’s decree 10 the heavens were made;
by a mere word from his mouth all the stars in the sky were created. 11
33:7 He piles up the water of the sea; 12
he puts the oceans 13 in storehouses.
1 sn Psalm 33. In this hymn the psalmist praises the Lord as the sovereign creator and just ruler of the world who protects and vindicates those who fear him.
2 sn A new song is appropriate because the Lord is constantly intervening in the lives of his people in fresh and exciting ways.
3 tn Heb “play skillfully with a loud shout.”
4 sn For the
5 tn Heb “word.” In this context, which depicts the
6 tn Or “upright.”
7 tn Heb “and all his work [is] in faithfulness.”
8 tn Heb “loves.” The verb “loves” is here metonymic; the
9 tn Heb “fills the earth.”
10 tn Heb “word.”
11 tn Heb “and by the breath of his mouth all their host.” The words “were created” are added in the translation for stylistic reasons; they are understood by ellipsis (note “were made” in the preceding line). The description is consistent with Gen 1:16, which indicates that God spoke the heavenly luminaries into existence.
12 tn Heb “[he] gathers like a pile the waters of the sea.” Some prefer to emend נֵד (ged, “heap, pile”; cf. NASB) to נֹד (nod, “bottle”; cf. NRSV; NIV “into jars”), but “pile” is used elsewhere to describe water that the
13 tn Or “watery depths.” The form תְּהוֹמוֹת (tÿhomot, “watery depths”) is the plural form of תְּהוֹם (tÿhom, “great deep”; see Gen 1:2).