Ps 33

Leader: Explain the overall structure of this psalm,
vv1-3: Our calling; vv4-7: God’s word; vv8-15: God’s will; vv16-22 God’s salvation

1) Who is called to worship God? 

• v1: Who are ‘the righteous’? —>
  • Ps 32:1.5.6ff righteous = forgiven; cf Ps 1:1-3
• What problem face the unrighteous when they try to worship? cf Ps 5:5-7

2) How should the righteous do it? [Joy, fervor, music, words, skill, freshness…]

• What enables the righteous to praise God in this way? v4: “For….” (cf: Ps 22:25)
• What can get into the way so that worship will become dull?
• How do you deal with your own heart when you are not in the mood to sing and worship?

• What do the attributes of God’s word say about God’s character?
• According to Jn 1, the word that created everything is the second person of the Trinity (read Jn 1:1-3.14.18): What convinced John of this conclusion? v14

4) v5: v4 describes God as one who speaks. According to v5, he also loves. Why can the psalmist say that “the world is full of God’s steadfast love”, v5?

• In Hebrew, God’s ‘steadfast love’ is called hesed – his faithful, never-ending love towards his people, that rests on his covenant faithfulness. Throughout the Bible, it is a major theme. In fact, at one level, the story of salvation in the Bible could be described as the outworking of God’s hesed. What does the psalmist say about it here in v5?
•  Do you think he may have romanticized things simply because existentialist or nihilistic thoughts did not exist in his time? Why or why not?

5) vv6-7 describe God as the one who creates and sustains. What will happen to a religion (and its songs) that does not view God as creator and sustainer, but only as a force or ‘immanent’ part of nature?

• Pagan religions often worship Eros: Is this what also happened to our culture? Why/how?

6) vv8-15 describe God as ruler, planner, and even as the sovereign who elects a people (v12). In what sense does God foil the plans of the nations and thwart their purposes, v10? cf Ps 2

• v15: What does it mean that God ‘forms the heart of all?
  • What is the “heart” according to the Bible? [e.g. Prov 3:5 seat of trust; 12:25 seat of fears; 15:28 seat of reasoning; 16:9 seat of decision making; 18:12 seat of pride….]
• v15, “…who considers everything they do”: Does this mean that God frames our heart according to what he finds in our works? [cf Ro 9:11-12] => the believer prays to God (!) “do not let my heart incline to evil” Ps 141:4 => God’s work of salvation in us is summed up as the “giving of a new heart” Ez 36:26
• How then can He still hold them accountable as impartial judge?

7) By contrast, what are the plans of the Lord that stand firm forever? cf Ps 2:6-7

• Who is this son? [Heb 1 (v5) states that Ps 2:7 speaks of Jesus]
• In the NT, believers are said to be “in Christ”: Does this mean that they are included in God’s plan about the Son as decreed e.g. in Ps 2 (and Ps 33)?
  • Who is the nation or people that God chose in this way for his inheritance? cf 1Pet 2:9 (literal or spiritual Israel?); Eph 1:11
• When you think of God’s sovereignty, does that incite you to praise?
  • Should it? Why or why not?

• What is the “deliverance from death”, and being “kept alive in famine”? v19
• v18: Who is eligible to be rescued?
• vv20-21 How can you have assurance that you have indeed been rescued?