Psalms 33:1-10

Context

Psalm 33¹

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 For⁴ the Lord’s decrees⁵ are just,⁶

and everything he does is fair.⁷

33:5 The Lord promotes⁸ equity and justice;

the Lord’s faithfulness extends throughout the earth.⁹

33:6 By the Lord’s decree¹⁰ 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 oceans¹³ in storehouses.

33:8 Let the whole earth fear¹⁴ the Lord!

Let all who live in the world stand in awe of him!

33:9 For he spoke, and it¹⁵ came into existence,

he issued the decree,¹⁶ and it stood firm.

33:10 The Lord frustrates¹⁷ the decisions of the nations;

he nullifies the plans¹⁸ of the peoples.

[33:1] ¹sn 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.

[33:3] ²sn A new song is appropriate because the Lord is constantly intervening in the lives of his people in fresh and exciting ways.

[33:3] ³tn Heb “play skillfully with a loud shout.”

[33:4] ⁴sn For the Lord’s decrees are just… After the call to praise (vv. 1-3), the psalmist now gives a series of reasons why the Lord is worthy of praise.

[33:4] ⁵tn Heb “word.” In this context, which depicts the Lord as the sovereign creator and ruler of the world, the Lord’s “word” refers to the decrees whereby he governs his dominion.

[33:4] ⁶tn Or “upright.”

[33:4] ⁷tn Heb “and all his work [is] in faithfulness.”

[33:5] ⁸tn Heb “loves.” The verb “loves” is here metonymic; the Lord’s commitment to principles of equity and justice causes him to actively promote these principles as he governs the world.

[33:5] ⁹tn Heb “fills the earth.”

[33:6] ¹⁰tn Heb “word.”

[33:6] ¹¹tn 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.

[33:7] ¹²tn 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 Lord confines to one place (Exod 15:8; Josh 3:13, 16; Ps 78:13). This verse appears to refer to Gen 1:9, where God decrees that the watery deep be gathered to one place so that dry land might appear. If so, the participles in this and the following line depict this action with special vividness, as if the reader were present on the occasion. Another option is that the participles picture the confinement of the sea to one place as an ongoing divine activity.

[33:7] ¹³tn Or “watery depths.” The form תְּהוֹמוֹת (tÿhomot, “watery depths”) is the plural form of תְּהוֹם (tÿhom, “great deep”; see Gen 1:2).

[33:8] ¹⁴tn In this context “fear” probably means “to demonstrate respect for the Lord’s power and authority by worshiping him and obeying his commandments.”

[33:9] ¹⁵tn That is, “all the earth” in the first line of v. 8. The apparent antecedent of the masculine subject of the verbs in v. 9 (note וַיֶּהִי [vayyehiy] and וַיַּעֲמֹד [vayya’amod]) is “earth” or “world,” both of which are feminine nouns. However, כָּל (kol, “all”) may be the antecedent, or the apparent lack of agreement may be explained by the collective nature of the nouns involved here (see GKC 463 §145.e).

[33:9] ¹⁶tn Heb “he commanded.”

[33:10] ¹⁷tn Heb “breaks” or “destroys.” The Hebrew perfect verbal forms here and in the next line generalize about the Lord’s activity.

[33:10] ¹⁸tn Heb “thoughts.”