Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones

Psalm 33:1-11 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Praise to the Creator and Preserver.

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.

The psalmist says:   Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones; Praise is becoming to the upright. Give thanks to the Lord… Sing praises to Him…Sing to Him a new song.    There are many today who argue and fight for the right to pray, to speak of God and Christ; to praise God, but do they themselves truly praise Him? Do they give thanks to God and sing His praises?  The psalmist exhorts the righteous ones to praise the Lord. We should not expect that the ungodly or the unbeliever will praise God. But more important than fighting for the right to praise God, is to actually praise Him, to give thanks to Him. If we fight for our right are we really fighting for God or ourselves?  Often people are more willing to live for a cause, than to live for Christ.

The psalmist says:   By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And by the breath of His mouth all their host… 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.    If we believe, as the psalmist declares, that God created the heavens and the earth by His breath; by commanding it to be; if we believe that He is able to stand against and nullify the counsel of the nations, then do we really think that God needs us to fight for Him? For those of us who live in a free country, we should be able to praise God and speak His name in public. We should be able to pray to Him and to bless others in His name. We should, if we are free, be free to celebrate the birth of Christ, to acknowledge His death on the cross and again to celebrate His resurrection. We who are believers should praise Him. But do we? Do we fight for the right to acknowledge God in public but fail to honor Him in private? Do we fight to have Him in our schools and our workplaces, where certainly He should be, but fail to have Him in our homes?

The psalmist says:  The plans of His heart from generation to generation. In Jeremiah 29:11-13 God says:  I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.     First and foremost, before fighting for God, we should seek Him with all of our hearts. Rather than focusing on the plans the world has to hinder us, we should focus on God’s plans for our good and prosperity. Daniel 2:20-21 says:  “Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, For wisdom and power belong to Him. It is He who changes the times and the epochs;
He removes kings and establishes kings.”    If we believe, as Daniel declares, that God is truly, fully in control, then we should not fight our battles with the world in the places where they have authority, but rather we should call on God to release His authority, His plan and His will. The prayer that Jesus taught us to pray is:   Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

In Psalm 150, the psalmist says:  Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty expanse. Praise Him for His mighty deeds; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with trumpet sound; Praise Him with harp and lyre. Praise Him with timbrel and dancing; Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe. Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!    Again, we cannot expect that those who do not believe God will praise Him. But the first exhortation of the psalmist is to praise God in His sanctuary. 1 Corinthians 3:16 says:   Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?  Let our praise and worship; our thanksgiving to God, begin there, in the temple and sanctuary of God.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit; Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven and regardless of what others may do, may it begin in and through my life. Praise You, thank You, bless Your name.   Amen.