Psalms for the Soul: Psalm 33: Daily Bible Study, Daily Devotional, Hearing Jesus

Here are your Monday affirmations. I will read the phrase and then you repeat it and then I will tell you the scripture it's from. Take a deep breath. This is a new day filled with God's grace and purpose. You are not defined by your past or your mistakes or the opinions of others. You are defined by the truth of God's word. Let these affirmations fill your heart as you step into today. I am a child of God, chosen and loved. 1 John 3, 1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God and that is what we are. I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139, 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well. I am fully known and loved fully by God. Psalm 139, 1 and 2 You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise, you perceive my thoughts from afar. I have been chosen before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1.4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. I am created in the image of God. Genesis 1.27 So God created mankind in His own image. In the image of God, He created them. Male and female, He created them. I am redeemed and made new in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5.17 If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone. The new is here. I am set apart for God's purpose. 1 Peter 2.9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. I am God's masterpiece created for good works. Ephesians 2.10 For we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. I am loved with an everlasting love. Jeremiah 31.3 I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. I am called by name and belong to God. Isaiah 43.1 Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name. You are mine. I am not my past. I am a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5.17 If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone. The new is here. I have been bought with a price, and I belong to God. 1 Corinthians 6.20 You were bought at a price, therefore honor God with your bodies. I am seated in heavenly places with Christ. Ephesians 2.6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. I am co-heir with Christ. Romans 8, 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings, in order that we may also share in His glory. I am not rejected. I am accepted in Christ. Ephesians 1, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the one he loves. I am never alone. God is always with me. Hebrews 13.5, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. I am valuable and precious in God's sight. Isaiah 43, 4 John 8, 36 so if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I am more than a conqueror through Christ. Romans 8.37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. I am a light in this world shining for Christ. Matthew 5.14 You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. I am God's dwelling place. His Spirit lives within me. 1 Corinthians 3.16 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst? I am forgiven and free from condemnation. Romans 8.1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. I have a divine purpose and calling from God. Jeremiah 29 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future. I am dearly loved and nothing can separate me from God's love. Romans 8, 38 and 39 Father thank you for reminding me who I am in you Help me to walk in confidence today knowing that I am chosen loved and called by you No matter what comes my way let my identity be rooted in your truth In Jesus' name, amen. I hope these affirmations spoke to your heart today. If you want to go deeper, just keep listening. Your full Bible study episode is coming up next. A lot of Christian women quietly wonder if they're really hearing God or just hoping they are. Hearing Jesus was written to help remove that uncertainty. This 365-day devotional walks women through scripture, reflection, and prayer in a way that builds clarity and confidence over time. Right now, when you pre-order through rachelgrohl.com, you'll receive exclusive bonuses as a thank you for ordering early. Those bonuses are only available on my site and won't be offered after release. You can pre-order Hearing Jesus today at rachelgrohl.com or find the link in the show notes. Hey friends, I'm Rachel Grohl and I'm your host for the Hearing Jesus podcast, where I help you to know God and to make Him known. As believers, we should live differently than the world does. But how do we practically do that when every news cycle is enough to give you anxiety, enough anxiety to keep you up all night. Today, we're going to look at Psalm 33, where David is overwhelmed with praise because of who God is and his unfailing love, even in the midst of the chaos that is war and rumor of wars. And not much has changed since David wrote those words. But the comfort there is the other thing that didn't change is God's unfailing love. And from creation to redemption, we see the creator, God in his presence, holding things together. So I pray that today is not just a blessing to you, but it helps alleviate some of the anxiety that comes from living in today's world. Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous. It is fitting for the upright to praise him. Praise the Lord with the harp. Make music to him on the 10-stringed liar. Sing to him a new song, play skillfully, and shout for joy. For the word of the Lord is right and true. He is faithful in all he does. The Lord loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of his unfailing love. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars. He puts the deep into storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the people of the world revere him. For he spoke, and it came to be. He commanded, and it stood firm. The Lord foils the plans of the nations. He thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. 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 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. This psalm is one that I think is important to point out to help us remember about who David was. David, we've heard a lot. We've been studying a lot about him being a man of war and the wartime imagery and metaphors that he uses and victory and battle and all those kinds of things. And not that we don't see that here, but the emphasis on today's Psalm is really on David as a musician, because David at his heart was a musician. This Psalm was written as a hymn. And I wish we could hear the music. I don't know about you guys, but sometimes I wish like we didn't just have the words, what we could hear the music that was put to this. But I love this hymn, this Psalm 33 hymn, because it's really a story of humanity. really we see from creation to redemption. And we see how it's tied together with this thread of God's unfailing love. What we see is that God's spoken word not only orders the created universe, but it also regulates all that humanity does and plans. And it's a good example of being a hymn because it represents this purest form of praise to God, expressing who he is and what he does. And it's really an overflow of David's heart. So not only is he praising God for who he is, but this thread of unfailing love that we see woven throughout all of Psalm 33. I think it's important to point out that Psalm 32 and Psalm 33, most scholars believe are connected. And there's a couple of reasons why. If you didn't listen to Psalm 32 yesterday, you might want to go back and listen to it. But in Psalm 32, it talks about unfailing love. In verse five, it says the earth is full of his unfailing love. And then in verse 10, it says unfailing love surrounds those who trust in him. And then here in chapter 33, in verse 18, it talks about how there's an affirmation of God's watchful care of those whose hope is in unfailing love. And then there's a concluding prayer that unites God's unfailing love with the hope of God's people, which has now become the medium of love's expression. And so because we see that pattern starting in chapter 32, going into chapter 33, we can recognize that these are connected together. At least 33 was aware of 32. And so both of them, both Psalms are really an expression of God's love, but through the terms of covenant, God's covenant with God's people. And they share a lot of vocabulary. I'm not going to go through everything, but I'll show a couple of things just to help you understand the connection between the two. In Psalm 32, we see the word asher, A-S-H-R-E, a lot, meaning blessed. And then we see it in 1 and 2. And then we see it in this psalm in verse 12, blessed. We see references to the Lord's eye or the eyes of the Lord in both psalms. We see reference to trust. like I said before, unfailing love, rejoicing, singing, righteousness, being upright in heart. And so all of these same parallel words show us that these two were probably written together, sung together Maybe one was read one was sung But I think that important to recognize that we see a lot of this when David is the author of these psalms a lot of these beginning psalms we can recognize kind of his heart and the overflow of his heart because it comes out in the language. So essentially, as an outline for this psalm, what we would see in the beginning is this call to praise in verses one through three. And then going into verse four, about four to seven, we would see the reasons why we should praise. And then there's like an intermediate call to praise in verse eight, and then some more reasons to praise from nine to 19. And then it concludes with a prayer. And I think what we see is the psalmist, David, is doing a beautiful thing in this poem as he's connecting the creation of the world in verse six. Let me read it. It says, by the word of the Lord were the heavens made. their starry host by the breath of his mouth. So that's talking about the creation of the world. So he's connecting that with Israel's redemption from the Egyptian bondage at the Red Sea. And so that's in verse seven, it says he gathers the waters of the sea into jars, and he puts the deep into storehouses. So what we're seeing is in verse six and verse seven, He is connecting creation to redemption. And the description of the Red Sea and the Jordan River is when the Lord rolled back those waters so that the Israelites could pass over on dry land. And the Exodus and the Red Sea story are really Old Testament symbols of redemption. And so as Psalm 33 brings them together, it's connecting this God of creation and the God of redemption. And so God is the Redeemer precisely because he is the creator. And so we don't have this situation where God found like some alien world that had gone bad and then he just stepped in as the Redeemer. No, that's not what's happening. Rather, what we're seeing is that God himself, who created this world, he had every right to redeem it. Luther once said, let me see if I'm going to, I wrote down the quote just so I didn't get it wrong. He said, if I were as our Lord God and he committed the government to my son as he to his son and these vile people were as disobedient as they now be, I would knock the world in pieces. But God did not do that. And of course, Luther celebrated that grace, as do we. But God's strategy is one of love. And the Psalm says that over and over again. in verses, let me read it, verses 13 and 13 through 15. I think it's important to point some things out. It 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. In these couple of verses, we have four verbs that all describe God's omniscience. We see the words looks down, sees, watches, and considers. And that word that connects them, that word all that's in these three verses, all, all, everything, hearts of all, that echo of all, It reinforces this idea of divine omniscience. And that's a big word. I want to explain that in a second. And it extends to all of humanity. And so this idea of omniscience and omnipresence, omniscience and omnipresence, it means that God sees everything and God knows everything. And I think sometimes this is where we get tripped up as believers, because we tend to think that the enemy sees everything and knows everything, but that's not the case. It's God who sees everything and knows everything. The enemy only knows what you allow him to know. He knows what you see. He knows what you hear. He knows what you're putting into your heart and your brain through media. He knows the words that come out of your mouth. The only power he has is the evidence you give him. And so he will use your own spoken insecurity to plant thoughts in your mind. He will use your own behavior to remind you of your sin or to remind you of your guilt or your shame. He only knows what you reveal to him. But God is omniscient. He's omnipresent. He's in us. He's through us. He hears our heart. He hears our mind. He hears our prayers. He knows his plans for us before we even know them. And so I love that reminder that we see here in this Psalm, that it's God and his unfailing love that we can rest in because we know that he knows. So first, what we see is the Lord really surrounding those who trust him with unfailing love in verse 18. Let me read it. But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love. What that means is that he has this special relationship with those who trust him. And so rather than kicking this crazy, chaotic world to pieces, he says, I love you. And he sets up this special relationship with Israel. We see that back in verse 12. And then second, he's filling the earth, the earth that he made full of his unfailing love. And you go back to verse five. It says the Lord loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of his unfailing love. He not only fills the earth, but he's constantly looking down from heaven on all of mankind, watching over them, forming their hearts, aware of our activities. And it's not in an accusatory way, but in a way that is full of love because that's how he is. He's the father of God. He's a good father. And it's not that God's looking down and saying, Oh, got you. Instead, it's like, let me help. And I think that's the disconnect that we get. A lot of times we are fearful of this relationship, this intimate relationship with God, because we think that he's just going to be looking for us to catch us in our sin. And instead it's this understanding that he's a good father that's saying to us, let me help you. Last night, my daughter, she had a bloody nose in the middle of the night, like four o'clock in the morning. And she didn't tell me anything about it. And this isn't sin. This is just an example of something as a parent. And so when I went to wake her up in the morning, she was already awake and she had tears in her eyes. And she said, I've been up since four o'clock in the morning. I couldn't go back to sleep. I had a bloody nose. It got all over my bed, all over my pillow, all over my body. And I just haven't been able to sleep. I was so worked up about it. And I said, why didn't you tell me? And she said, well, I don't want to bother you with it I just wanted to clean up the mess myself And yet here she is brokenhearted and just at the mess that she made all over her room and the mess that she made on the washcloth trying to clean it up the mess she made in the bathroom and she's doing it alone. And as a parent, I said to her, why didn't you wake me up? And she said, well, I don't want to bother you. I didn't want you to be mad at me. And I said, it is my job as your mom, as your parent to help you clean up the messes that you make. And this wasn't even a fault of her own. This was just, you know, dry air because we live in Pennsylvania. We have the fire going. But how much more does God as a good father long to intervene on our behalf and restore our relationship and help us clean up those messes that we make? And me yearning as her mom to step in and help her, I have to understand that God as a good parent yearns to help us. And it's not, I see you and I gotcha. It's, I see you and let me help you out of that. And I think too many times we try to hide from him, which is ridiculous because he can see everything. He knows everything, but we try to hide parts of our mess, parts of our lives from him because we don't want to feel the guilt that we think is going to happen. But instead, if we could just understand that God wants to help us clean up our mess, I think that would change our perspective. And then lastly, let me read verse 10 and 11. It says, the Lord foils the plans of the nations. He thwarts the purposes of the peoples, but the plans of the Lord stand firm forever and the purposes of his heart through all generations. That same spirit of love. God defeats the plans of the nations and he puts his own plans into effect because the plans of the nations cause us human beings a lot of anxiety. I mean, think about the news right now. I don't know about you, but it causes me a lot of anxiety. I can't even watch it most of the time. But they don't cause the Lord even one anxious moment. Think about that. The plans of the nations, the chaos that's going on from the time that David wrote this, even till now, nothing has changed. the plans of the nations can cause us as humans lots of anxiety, but they do not even cause one anxious moment for the Lord because he has plans for the world that he created and the world that he redeemed and the world that he loves and the world that he put plans into place into motion for. And so what we can do is we can take confidence from that and it renews our hope because we have the assurance that God as the creator and the redeemer holds things all together in his hands for his purposes and for his good. I love that aspect. And I think if we could view history through God's eyes, it would take away some of the anxiety we feel today in a world that is full of trouble and it's combative and there's chaos. And while it won't really remove the threat or the reality of war or chaos or whatever's going on at the moment, it would give us peace to know that God is in control. And more so that the God who controls this world is a loving God. Our human resources are fickle and unreliable and our governments are, sometimes they're trustworthy, sometimes they're not. I mean, depending on where you live. But the one who is reliable is the God who we see in the pages of scripture, whose love is unfailing. And so what we see at the end of Psalm 33 verses 20 through 22 is a prayer that should really be a constant prayer of the church, of us, of our heart. It says, we wait in the 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. The hope of Israel and the hope of the church as the body of Christ is found in the presence of God's unfailing love. And that's what ties everything together. And it gives us a sense of the redeeming purposes of God, that he has not just for our own lives, but for the whole world. And so may that be our prayer. As we put our hope in him, sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous. It is fitting for the upright to praise him. Praise the Lord with the harp. Make music to him on the 10 string wire. Sing to him a new song. Play skillfully and shout for joy for the word of the Lord is right and true. He is faithful in all he does. The Lord loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of his unfailing love. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made. There's starry hosts by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars. He puts the deep into storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the people of the world revere him. For he spoke and it came to be. He commanded and it stood firm. The Lord foils the plans of the nations. He thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance. From the 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 in 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 the hope for the Lord, for 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. Father God, we thank you for Psalm 33 and may the response of our understanding of you as the creator and the redeemer and your unfailing love evoke in us. Praise God. We praise you that we can have our hope in you that despite what is going on in the world around us, wars and rumors of wars and everything else, Lord God, that we can rest in knowing that you have a plan and you have a purpose for our lives. God, those words ring too. We wait in hope for the Lord, for 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. Help us to constantly put our hope in you. In our name we pray. Amen. Thank you.