Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord

Psalm 33 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Sing for joy in the Lord, O 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.
⁴ For the word of the Lord is upright, And all His work is done in faithfulness.
⁵ He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the Lord.

⁶ By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And by the breath of His mouth all their host.
⁷ He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deeps in storehouses.
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 fast.
¹⁰ The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations; He frustrates the plans of the peoples.
¹¹ The counsel 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 whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.

¹³ The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men;
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.
¹⁶ The king is not saved by a mighty army; A warrior is not delivered by great strength.
¹⁷ A horse is a false hope for victory; Nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength.

¹⁸ Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, On those who hope for His lovingkindness, ¹⁹ To deliver their soul from death And to keep them alive in famine.
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 lovingkindness, O Lord, be upon us, According as we have hoped in You.

Our nation and our culture arrogantly act as if we have achieved some level of greatness. Great nations and great societies have risen and fallen throughout history. The U.S. has existed for only a twinkling in the entire history of man and while it is true that advances in technology in the past 100 years have changed the world, we still have to marvel at the accomplishments of those who lived thousands of years ago. Some of the structures they built are still here today and it baffles even today’s great minds how they were able to do what they did. Without the aid of technology they were able to build massive structures, they were able to execute plans of war in order to dominate and rule over large portions of the world. Without the aid of GPS devices, they sailed around the world and back.  Still these great nations have risen and fallen throughout history. The psalmist says:    Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.  For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.  The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations; He frustrates the plans of the peoples.  The counsel of the Lord stands forever, The plans of His heart from generation to generation.

It doesn’t matter whether we as a nation acknowledge God or not. Some of the past great nations and cultures have and others have not. Our acknowledgement or lack of will not change the fact that His counsel stands forever. The plans of His heart are from generation to generation. God’s plan for man has not changed. He did indeed create man to be great and to rule and have dominion over the earth and all of creation.         God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”  God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.  God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”  (Genesis 1:26-28)   It is hard to understand then why man fell to the deception of the devil. Genesis 3:4-5 says:  The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die!  For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”       They were already like God, created in His image. The opening of their eyes, the knowing of good and evil presented them and all mankind with a choice, knowing good and evil people now must choose between good and evil.  

The psalmist says:    Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.     Romans 8:28-30 says:  And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.  For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;  and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.     Throughout history God has used the rising and falling of many nations for His purposes. He foreknew each one of us. His plan is and always has been to redeem and restore man to the way He created us, to be like Him, conformed to the image of Jesus, His Son. Because man chose to try to be great and like God, through knowledge rather than through acknowledging, it was necessary that Jesus come to redeem and restore us to what God always intended, His likeness.     Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.    

Everything else we trust in and put our faith in passes, like the many nations before. The psalmist says:  The king is not saved by a mighty army; A warrior is not delivered by great strength.  A horse is a false hope for victory; Nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength.   Even all of our great knowledge and technology cannot save or deliver us. Our military might and our great weapons are of no more value for our salvation than the horse.      The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men;  From His dwelling place He looks out On all the inhabitants of the earth,  He who fashions the hearts of them all, He who understands all their works.      The psalmist concludes:    Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, On those who hope for His lovingkindness,  To deliver their soul from death And to keep them alive in famine.
 Our soul waits for the Lord; He is our help and our shield.  For our heart rejoices in Him, Because we trust in His holy name.  Let Your lovingkindness, O Lord, be upon us, According as we have hoped in You.

May his conclusion be ours and we too, like him say:     Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones; Praise is becoming to the upright.  Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre; Sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings.  Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a shout of joy.  For the word of the Lord is upright, And all His work is done in faithfulness.  He loves righteousness and justice; The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the Lord.     Thank You Lord.      Amen