Psalm 33:1-22 (NASB)
Praise to the Creator and Protector.
I was reading a book about prayer in which the author, without citing any proof from Scripture, stated that God considers all prayers to be “a 10 on a scale of 1-10.” That is not true for a variety of reasons, but reading that statement caused me to pause and think about prayer. In Luke 11:1 we read, “It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, when He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.’” Rather than believing that all people already are perfect at praying, I see in Scripture that we need to be taught to pray. That must mean we have room for improvement, and that there is some form or method involved in praying, if we want our prayers to be effective. Jesus responds to that request to be taught, by teaching them the prayer we know as The Lord’s Prayer. That, of course, is the perfect place to start when beginning to pray. The other place to turn to is the Book of Psalms. Not all Psalms are obvious prayers, but when we study them, we see clear patterns and examples of how we should approach the Lord in prayer.
Today, I want to look at Psalm 33 and show how, despite not being what we would normally think of as a prayer—it doesn’t contain many requests for assistance or forgiveness—it is actually the ideal illustration of a prayer that, upon closer inspection, can help us learn something more about prayer.
Verses 1-3 say:
1 Sing for joy in the Lord, you righteous ones;
Praise is becoming to the upright.
2 Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre;
Sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings.
3 Sing to Him a new song;
Play skillfully with a shout of joy.
The first thing we should do when we pray is give praise to the Lord. When we praise the Lord, we posture ourselves in humility. We declare that God is the one who is worthy of praise and glory. Reminding ourselves of our place in regard to the Lord’s majesty is good. It helps us have a proper attitude of respect for Him. Praise is a way to align our hearts into a proper position- helping us to approach God with the honor that is due to Him. This place of humility is not one of shame and timidity, though. It is a place of joy and thanksgiving; singing and rejoicing with gladness that God, who is so mighty, is here to hear our thoughts.
Verses 4-7 say:
4 For the word of the Lord is right,
And all His work is done in faithfulness.
5 He loves righteousness and justice;
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
And by the breath of His mouth all their lights.
7 He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;
He puts the depths in storehouses.
Verse 6 is more accurately translated as the ESV translates it: “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.”
I also like how the New Living Translation translates it: “The Lord merely spoke,
and the heavens were created.
He breathed the word,
and all the stars were born.”
God merely had to speak and He created the universe. He didn’t have to toil and sweat or expend all His energy. He only had to speak the words. God spoke everything into existence, everything except for humankind. Scripture doesn’t tell us why God formed man differently from all other creation, only that He did. Genesis 2:7 says, “Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living person.”
This difference testifies to the uniqueness of humans. We are the only creation that is created in the image of God. As Genesis 1:26 says, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness;”.
Last weekend, my family and I attended a presentation given by NASA Astronaut, Col. Jeffrey N. Williams. He completed four trips to the International Space Station (ISS) over the course of 16 years, and while aboard, took millions of photographs from the Space Station. He shared those incredible photos and talked about how the precise way that all of creation is ordered is proof of God’s divine providence in creating the universe. Col. Williams explained how it is evident from the ordered perfection we see in science, time, music, and mathematics that neither evolution nor chance could have produced the flawless systems from which we benefit. Christians who support evolution, even theistic evolution, believe something that is incompatible with, not only Genesis’ account of creation, but the whole Bible. Just as we see in this Psalm, we see all throughout Scripture that God is the creator of the universe.
A benefit of reading Scripture while we pray is that we give the Holy Spirit a great opportunity to right any wrong theology we hold. God can bring to our minds greater understanding of truth as we align our thoughts and beliefs with God’s Word. In Psalm 33’s example, when we consider all that God could do by merely speaking, it reminds us that our world was spoken into existence by God’s awesome power, and that should cause us to be filled with humility. We are right to have fear and respect for the Lord. The more we know of God and His awesome power, the more we see the rightful response is the same as the Psalmist’s.
Verses 8-9 say:
8 Let all the earth fear the Lord;
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.
9 For He spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood firm.
We are to fear the Lord. This is an appropriate response. It doesn’t mean that we are afraid to talk to Him; it means that we respect Him and have reverence for Him. If we don’t fear the Lord, we probably won’t respect Him enough to do what He says. Fearing the Lord means we know He is ever present and so we want to please Him in everything we do. It means that we know our rightful place in relation to Him. We should approach the Lord in prayer with humility, ready to hear what He would say to us. Proverbs 9:10 states, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” When we approach the Lord humbly, we become teachable and moldable.
Next, verses 10-12 say:
10 The Lord nullifies the plan of nations;
He frustrates the plans of peoples.
11 The plan of the Lord stands forever,
The plans of His heart from generation to generation.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
The people He has chosen for His own inheritance.
When we pray using the Psalms as a starting place, we quickly see that we will be led to pray for things beyond our personal needs. By praying different Psalms, we will become intercessors. Here, in verses 10-12, we see statements made about God and how He intervenes in the workings of nations. We could then pray for all the nations of the world that God would indeed nullify people’s plans, so that His will might be done. We could pray for God to frustrate the plans of people who do not line up with His purposes and plans, and pray instead for the plans of God to prevail. Since we see that, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,” we can pray for our nation and all other nations around the world that they would make God their Lord so He could bless them. When we pray with an open heart, we never know just how God will lead us to pray. By using Scripture as a prayer guide, our prayers become more effective, for we can pray them full of faith, knowing they align with God’s expressed will.
Verses 13-15 say:
13 The Lord looks from heaven;
He sees all the sons of mankind;
14 From His dwelling place He looks out
On all the inhabitants of the earth,
15 He who fashions the hearts of them all,
He who understands all their works.
God molds our hearts, shaping us as a potter shapes clay, into better reflections of His image, filling us with us the fruit of His Spirit. Again, remembering that the Lord is mighty and majestic, rightful ruler of Heaven and earth, looking at us from His rightful place high above us, both physically and figuratively- being so much better than us- it causes us to be humble. As Isaiah 45:9 says, “Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker—
A piece of pottery among the other earthenware pottery pieces!
Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’
Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’?”
Instead of being prideful, we should humbly submit to the fashioning of our hearts, allowing the Holy Spirit to mold us. Reading reminders like this helps soften our hearts, allowing them to be transformed.
Verses 16-19 say:
16 The king is not saved by a mighty army;
A warrior is not rescued by great strength.
17 A horse is a false hope for victory;
Nor does it rescue anyone by its great strength.
18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him,
On those who wait for His faithfulness,
19 To rescue their soul from death
And to keep them alive in famine.
For our prayers to be effective, they must be prayed in faith. As Matthew 21:21-22 (ESV) says, “And Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, “Be taken up and thrown into the sea,” it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.’”
By reading about God’s power to rescue, and by being reminded to wait for His faithfulness to help us, that builds faith inside of us. We see that other people trusted in God to help them, and so we are encouraged to look to Him to help us, too. In verse 18, we see that He notices when we are humbly waiting for His help. He hears our prayers, for His eye is on us. Knowing that we have His attention should cause our hearts to swell with faith and hope that He will answer our prayers.
Verses 20-22 say:
20 Our soul waits for the Lord;
He is our help and our shield.
21 For our heart rejoices in Him,
Because we trust in His holy name.
22 Let Your favor, Lord, be upon us,
Just as we have waited for You.
Earlier, the Psalm showed us how we should pray with humility and with proper fear of the Lord. Now, this tells us what our rightful posture should be once we make our requests known to God. There are three verses and three points to note. The first is we should wait in peace. We can be at peace when we know that God is our help and our shield, for that means that He is protecting us. A shield deflects attacks from enemies. We can think of God in that same way. Ephesians 6:16 says, “in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” When we pray in faith, that faith in God becomes a shield to extinguish all the arrows of the devil. Faith can knock down lies of the enemy. Instead of crumbling under attacks of the enemy that would try to get us to stop trusting in God, the shield of faith blocks those arrows. God Himself becomes our shield, protecting us, so we can wait for His answer to our prayers in peace.
The second posture we should take is one of rejoicing. The Psalmist says our hearts rejoice in Him when we trust in His holy name. In other words, we can rejoice and be joyful no matter the circumstances we find ourselves in, if we trust in God’s holy name. I think it’s significant that the Psalm doesn’t simply say that we trust in Him, but that we trust in His holy name. Psalm 20:7 also makes this distinction. It says, “some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” What is the significance of that distinction? There is a lot that could be said about God’s name, but I want to make two points. One is that we do not pray to an unknown God. Many people throw prayers out in the universe, hoping a god will hear them. That is not how we pray. We pray to the God revealed to us in His Word. We know the God to whom we pray. Second, we have access to the One true God only through the name of Jesus. As Romans 12:9,13 says, “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved […] for ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” When we pray, our hearts can rejoice in Him, because we trust in His holy name: because we are praying directly to the One true God, Creator of the Universe.
This last verse is the only direct prayer we see in this particular psalm. All the rest was laying a foundation of true statements about God, but now we see a petition. The Psalmist prays, “Let Your favor, Lord, be upon us, just as we have waited for You.” Interestingly, this last verse gets translated differently by just about every Bible translation. In Hebrew, the word for favor is sometimes translated as mercy, kindness, or love. That is because that is what favor is, isn’t it? And the word for waited is also translated as hope. It is waiting with hope, waiting with anticipation. So, the third posture to take is one of hopeful expectation. It is right to wait in peace and joy, and also with hopeful anticipation that God will answer us. The Psalmist has asked for favor and now anticipates God’s response. We can pray the same: Lord, let Your mercy, kindness and love be upon us, because we have placed our hope in You.
By reading the Psalms, we can learn new ways to pray. By praying through this Psalm, or just about any other Psalm, we create a unique opportunity for the Holy Spirit to direct us in prayer. We can be led to pray beyond our own needs, and intercede for others. Praying Scripture helps us pray better and with greater effectiveness. For by reading His Word, we see the countless ways that God has been faithful to others, and are reminded again of His great love for us. When we pray with humility and a reverent fear of the Lord, trusting in His holy name, then we can joyfully await His response to our prayers with peaceful hearts. So let us not grow weary or lazy in our prayers, but let us pray with renewed enthusiasm, letting the Holy Spirit lead us as we pray, so God will hear our prayers and answer us.
Pray: Heavenly Father, we praise Your Holy name. We rejoice that You have given us a way, through the precious blood of Jesus, to approach You in prayer. We are in awe of You that, You, the Creator of the world, would listen to us and love us so much. We pray for all the nations of the world, that they would turn from their ways and follow You, so You might bless them. We pray for revival, that people everywhere would repent and find salvation, so they too might know You and worship You as we do. In Jesus’ holy name we pray, amen.
Opmerkingen