Ps 33

god is the gospel

(Psalm 33)

Jason Procopio

I’m going to be completely honest with you: I’ve preached this message (or a version of it) before, six years ago. I had planned on preaching this message today in order to save preparation time, because I was supposed to be in Spain all weekend at Steve and Maia’s wedding, at which I was meant to preach. In the end, even though that didn’t happen, I decided to go ahead and preach it anyway; I’ll explain why.

This past Wednesday (the day before I was supposed to drive down to Spain) was just about the worst day in recent memory. In the morning, Zadie—our three-year-old daughter—lost her footing coming down the stairs. She tumbled down several stairs before hitting her head on a sharp corner of the runner underneath the banister. I was in the other room, but I heard the noise it made, then her screams afterward. When I ran in and saw her, I had that moment that every parent dreads: the moment when you see that your child has hurt him- or herself, potentially badly. She had a cut on her forehead, and a knot that already was rising up two or three centimeters off of her skin. Jack hit his head like that once when he was little, and it was the same feeling.

We took her to the E.R. to be safe, but she’s fine. (Although if you see her this morning you’ll see her forehead—if you have a weak stomach, make sure her hair’s covering it up before you look at her too closely.) 

We finally came home after a couple hours at the hospital, had lunch and a lazy afternoon. Then, in the evening, Loanne started acting a little strange. She was unable to say something really simple (in this case, the word “diacre”). She got confused while we were playing a board game. And the left side of her face and body started to feel numb and heavy. 

So we called our neighbors over to keep the kids, and once again we rushed off to the E.R. She was there all night and the next morning, where they ran all kinds of tests. Loanne had what’s called an “T.I.A.,” short for transient ischaemic attack—also known as a mini stroke. It’s essentially the same as a normal stroke, except it clears up on its own after an hour or so, and it causes no lesions in the brain. (Thank the Lord.)

Obviously, I didn’t go to the wedding (as much as I hated to miss it).

So in less than twenty-four hours, I was confronted with the uncertainty of this kind of accident—the kind where you know damage has been done, and someone you love is potentially in danger…but you don’t know how bad the danger is, or what will happen. 

When you find yourself in this kind of situation—and you will—you need something solid to hold on to: solid promises from God’s Word on which you can lean. And at least in my experience, the best kind of promises from the Bible on which you can lean aren’t the promises of healing, or of anything material or temporal. Because although the Bible does promise healing, it doesn’t necessarily promise healing now; although the Bible promises provision, it doesn’t necessarily promise the kind of provision we’re looking for at that particular time. Often these are promises that God fulfills later rather than right now.

The best promises to turn to in uncertainty, I’ve found, are promises that have nothing to do with what God will do FOR us, but which rather speak simply about who God IS. Because these are the promises you can lean on at any time, at any situation, and say, “This is true for me right now. I’ve got the fulfillment of this promise right now.”

Psalm 33 is, from beginning to end, all about God himself. It is a pretty extensive list of who God is, what he does, and what he is like. So what I’d like to do is go through the psalm (a little more quickly than usual) and try to identify these attributes of God that are listed, then afterward I’d like to take a step back to see how this presentation of God is, in fact, the heart of the gospel itself. 

1) God is…

Firstly, God is deserving of praise.

1 Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright. 2 Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings! 3 Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.

One of the most common complaints of employees in companies is lack of recognition. We all agree that if someone is deserving of accolades, then accolades should be given to them—we get angry if we feel we deserve recognition and don’t get it. The Bible says that God is infinitely deserving of our praise, so it’s entirely normal and logical that it commands us to praise him: it only asks us to do for God what we wish people would do for us (except in his case, he always perfectly and completely deserves it). Praise befits the upright.

Secondly, God is truthful and faithful.

4 For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.

God never lies. If he says something, it is by definition the truth, because he is the truth. If he says he will do something, he will always be faithful to keep his promises.

Next, God is righteous, just and loving.

5 He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

When the psalmist says that God is “righteous,” he means that God is morally perfect. Everything he does is exactly what he should do in any given moment. 

Moreover, he is just: God is so often depicted (by us) as being too harsh in his judgments of man. But the truth of the Bible is that God’s justice, the “righteousness” that he loves, is proof of his steadfast love. Thankfully, God is not an all-powerful being who doesn’t love justice, who doesn’t love righteousness, who is fine with letting injustice go unpunished! His steadfast love fills the earth, and one of the best proofs we have of that fact is his unfailing justice.

Next: God is infinitely powerful.

6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.

It would already be enough to know that God created the world; but he made it all with a word. He spoke, and light appeared. He spoke, and suddenly there were oceans. He spoke, and everything that exists came into being. He didn’t take previously existing materials and miraculously form them into something coherent and wonderful. Out of nothing, God spoke, and made everything. And not only is he powerful enough to do that, he continues to exercise control over his creation.

7 He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses.

Have you ever played with clay? It’s an easy thing to take the clay in your hands, gather it all together, and make it into a heap. God can do this with the sea: he is capable of controlling its molecules and putting it where he wants it to go. Every wave that lands on every beach; every drop that falls from the sky when it rains; every underwater valley and cavern. God controls it all.

And so, God is very rightly not just deserving of praise, but of awe.

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 came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.

God’s status as Creator of all things means that faced with the knowledge of who he is, we should all fall down on our knees in reverent awe and fear of him. We see this on multiple occasions in the Bible. Anytime anyone comes face to face with even one of God’s angels, they are undone; they quake with fear of the awesome power in front of them. 

I’ve given this example before (that I borrowed from someone else). When Jack was little, we took him to the petting zoo at the Parc de la Villette. They had sheep and goats and rabbits and little teacup pigs. It was adorable. Kids and their parents stepped into the pen and (with no fear) came close to pet the animals. But if there had been a lion in that pen, we wouldn’t have gone near it. When you’re near a lion’s pen, even if you know it can’t get to you, you don’t get too close to the barrier. Because a lion can devour you. Our God is not a sheep; he is not a cute little rabbit. Our God is a lion. The knowledge of his power over all that exists should fill us with the deepest awe and reverence and fear. 

And it just keeps getting better and better: not only is God sovereign over the earth that he created, but he is completely sovereign over the plans of man, whom he also created.

10 The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. 11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.

The image he’s giving here is one that we (as so-called self-sufficient, autonomous adults) have a difficult time with. God created this world with a plan in mind. His plan has a beginning, a middle, and an end, and at this point of human history, we are now in the middle. Most of us are either unaware of or indifferent to his plan, and so we—as individuals and as national and global societies—make our own plans. And the psalmist is saying that all of our plans are absolutely inconsequential to God: his plan will be accomplished. When God decides to do something, he does it, and nothing can stand in his way. As much as we want to believe the contrary, we are not the rulers of the world; this earth does not obey the whims of man. This is his world, and it is his will that will be accomplished. 

We balk at this idea, saying, “Who is God to impose his will on mine? Do I not have a right to choose? Do I not have a say in this?” And the answer is, yes, we do choose—it’s the choice between aligning ourselves with God’s plan and being eternally blessed, or rebelling against God’s plan and being eternally excluded from its blessing. You see, what we in our pride have a hard time seeing is that God’s invitation to recognize his power and sovereignty over the world is just that: an invitation. It’s not the cruel demand of a dictator, but the loving invitation of a gracious Father who wants us to benefit from his vastly superior knowledge and wisdom. Which is why the psalmist affirms,

12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!

None of us has any right to lay claim on a part of the blessing of God, but God in his grace chooses to give that blessing to his children. His sovereignty over our world is beautiful news: God’s plan will be accomplished, and his plan is perfect.

Now, when we talk about God’s plan in this way, we take it so far up that sometimes we have a hard time seeing what if anything this has to do with me. We think of these lofty truths and the immensity of God’s power and rule over this earth, and we feel tiny. We think, His view is so massive, why would he ever consider me? How could he even know I’m here? And we forget what he told us in his Word: that the Creator of the entire universe created us too, and he created us in his image. 

Which is why the psalmist now turns to his regard toward his children in verse 13: he is all-seeing and profoundly devoted to protecting his own. 13 The Lord looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man; 14from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, 15 he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds. 16 The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. 17 The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue. 18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, 19 that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine.

We put so much pressure on ourselves to be competent and capable enough to take care of ourselves. We imagine that the outcome of our lives is entirely in our own hands, and we are nearly crippled by our fear of failure—every decision we make is determined by our need to protect ourselves. But the king isn’t saved by his army; the warrior isn’t delivered by his strength, or the amazing horse he rides. The only sure hope of protection and security is God himself, and he is not too high and lofty to care about the needs of his children. 

Because his eyes are constantly on his children, he sees our needs before we do. He may not respond to those needs like we would, but he is absolutely and fervently devoted to protecting and providing for his own. Because he loves his children, he puts his infinite power and might to work in protecting us, so that we might rejoice in him alone. Which is where the psalmist ends, in v. 20-22:

20 Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. 21 For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. 22 Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you. 

2) God Is the Gospel

So if we briefly summarize, this is what we see in Psalm 33: God is deserving of our praise. God is truthful. God is faithful. God is righteous. God is just. God is loving. God is infinitely powerful. God is deserving of awe. God is sovereign over the plans of man. God is all-seeing. God is devoted to protecting his own. God is our reason for joy, and God is worthy of our trust. And all of these things are at the foundation of what we mean when we talk about “the gospel.”

When we talk about the gospel, we always talk about the work of Jesus Christ on the cross—as well we should. But that is not all we could talk about, nor is it all we should talk about. Think of how different people in the Bible talked about the good news of the gospel. Isaiah says this in Isaiah 52.7:

7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings GOOD NEWS [in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the same word as “good news” or “gospel” in the New Testament], who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “YOUR GOD REIGNS.”

The good news of happiness and salvation can be summarized by these three words: “Your God reigns!” (Words that perfectly echo Psalm 33.)

After Paul healed a crippled man in the town of Lystra, the people wanted to worship him, along with Barnabas. But Paul rebukes them for it, saying (Acts 14.15-17),

Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you GOOD NEWS, that you should turn from these vain things to A LIVING GOD, WHO MADE THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA AND ALL THAT IS IN THEM. 16 In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. 17 Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.

Paul could see that the people would have no other way to grasp the gospel, so he synthesized it to its very core and proclaimed that at the heart of the gospel is the existence of a living God who created all things and who is perpetually good to the people and the world he created.

Jesus described the good news of the gospel in this way in Mark 1.14:

“The time is fulfilled, and THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND; repent and believe in the GOSPEL.”

Jesus consistently framed the gospel as being the good news of the kingdom of God. Our God has a plan, and as king he will execute his plan; and Christ’s coming was the next massive step forward in this plan—its accomplishment isn’t far off but near: the kingdom of God is at hand.

You see, telling someone that the gospel is all about what God can do for them, is not good news. It’s idolatrous news, because it makes the gospel all about us—we become the reason for the gospel. Now of course, what God promises to do for us is good news. But compared to the essence of the gospel—the real good news—it’s merely the icing on the cake.

We are not the center of the gospel; we are not the center of why God does anything that he does. Everything that God does, he does for his own glory; the gospel of the Bible is the good news that God is. Until we have understood that God is who he says he is, we will never understand why God does what he does. Until we understand the root of the gospel, we will never understand how the fruit of the gospel: how the gospel worked itself out in human history. The good news is that GOD IS—that he created all things, and that he reigns over all things, and that his kingdom is coming—and this good news is explained and proven by what God does. The gospel is not about us, but about God himself.

When Philip was explaining the gospel to the people of Samaria, this is how he did it—he explained the reign of God and then proceeded to speak of how God fleshed out his reign on earth. Luke telle us in Acts 8.12:

12 But when they believed Philip as he preached GOOD NEWS about THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST, they were baptized, both men and women.

The good news of the gospel is that our God reigns; he created all things and sustains all things; he has a plan for the world he created, and he has now proven the execution of his plan by sending his Son Jesus Christ.

Think of it this way: if you were God, and you had been living forever in the glory of perfect joy and love and admiration of who you were, and you wanted to show that glory to others so that it may be enjoyed by them, how would you go about it? We would probably show ourselves to be powerful—we would create the world and then come down to earth as a warrior or a king, and establish our reign through might. But there are other facets to who God is: he is not just powerful and mighty; he is also faithful, and abounding in steadfast love. How could you show that? 

Well, you may choose to simply pardon the sins of people who have rebelled against you—“I have the power to judge you, but now I grant a full pardon to everyone!” But if you did that, you would be unjust! Think of the families of the people who have been hurt by those whom you’ve pardoned. What would they say to this kind of blanket get-out-of-jail-free card? Would they not want justice? If you wanted to display the fullness of who you are, you would need to be powerful, and loving, and just. You would be in a predicament.

And so this is how God showed that he truly is God: in his perfect wisdom, he found a way to display all of those things. And he did it by creating the world, and showing himself to be sovereign and powerful, showing people their need for his provision and forgiveness… Then, in order to give that to them, he did something wholly unexpected: he became a baby. In the person of Jesus Christ, God became a man, born as a weak, helpless infant, who had to grow up like anyone else. Rather than demanding man reach God, God came down to man; Jesus was born, and grew up, and lived among us, and as he lived, he never once sinned. He never once betrayed his own character and righteousness. And this perfect man was condemned to die for sins he had never committed, and took on himself the sins of all of his children, and was punished in their place. 

It was the ultimate act of love, but it did not betray his justice, for sin was dealt with there. It was the ultimate act of weakness, but it did not betray his power, for it was his own plan. God’s judgment of our sin was the ultimate act of power, but it did not betray his love, for he poured out his wrath on Christ instead of us. You see, in the gospel, we see everything the psalmist proclaims to us in Psalm 33—his power, his reign, his authority, his justice, his righteousness, his love—in a very unexpected way. We see that God is a God we never would have imagined on our own. We definitely benefit from the gospel, but the message of the gospel is not primarily a message for our benefit. It is a display of God’s glory. 

So to conclude today, I’d like to ask you a couple of questions. How are you feeling today? Are you feeling fearful and uncertain? Are you feeling warm, loving feelings toward God, the way you’d feel toward a close friend? Are you hesitant to come near his throne? Are you feeling simply…nothing? Indifferent? Is coming before God to worship him is no more exciting or intimidating than going to the store to pick up some milk?

We could be feeling one or several of these things, and for every one, Psalm 33 gives us a counterweight.

If you’re feeling fearful and uncertain, remember that God is perfectly sovereign over the earth he created; that he will accomplish his plan: 10 The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. 11 The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.

If you’re feeling warm and sentimental feelings of love toward God, you may well be missing his power: 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 came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. And if you’re feeling fearful of his might and judgment, you may well be doubting his love: 5 …the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

If you’re feeling hesitant to come near his throne, you need to remind yourself of his tenderness toward his children: 18 Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love… And if you’re not feeling much of anything—if you imagine that because “God is love,” it’s no big deal to stand before him and sing or repent—you need to remind yourself of his awesome power, his perfect justice. 5 He loves righteousness and justice… 8 Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! 

Lastly, there may be some of you here who don’t know him at all—who haven’t come to him in fear and thankfulness, recognizing who he is and repenting of your sin. If you haven’t, I’d invite you to come: 12 But when they BELIEVED Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were BAPTIZED, both men and women. They believed…and were baptized. They believed…and were welcomed in. Believe in him. Repent of your sins; turn to him in faith. And know, perhaps for the first time and once and for all, that your God reigns.