Shout for joy in the LORD, O you righteous!
Praise befits the upright.
Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre;
make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!
Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
Like songbirds, we are creatures who are inclined to sing. We were created with this proclivity to sing out praises and God’s people have it in their new nature to sing out praises to the God who rescued them. To tell God’s people that they cannot sing is to deny them their new nature and their consummate joy. C.S. Lewis asserts that “...we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment.” (Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms) Praise is becoming of the righteous, and we are all declared righteous in Christ. That means there is no such thing as a miserable Christian! We are all to be filled with gratitude, rejoicing in all things and at all times (1 Thess. 5:16). Further yet, we are to sing to him new songs - for his mercies are new every morning! (Lamentations 3:22-23)
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 steadfast love of the LORD.
By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,
and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap;
He puts the deeps in storehouses.
Let all the earth fear the LORD;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
For he spoke, and it came to be;
He commanded, and it stood firm.
The rest of the Psalm consists of a song of praise - a veritable guide on “How To Praise God Like the Upright”. The Psalmist begins by showing that it is the duty of the singer to re-proclaim the good works of our Lord. To remember all that he has done and is still doing. Like Moses and Miriam in Exodus 15 rejoicing that the Lord had rescued them from the horse and rider, we should frequently remember what he has done and is still doing. By his word, the fundamental forces of nature are sustained. By his word he creates and guides and supports us.
The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
The counsel of the LORD stands forever,
the plans of his heart to all generations.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!
The LORD looks down from heaven;
he sees all the children of man;
from where he sits enthroned he looks out
on all the inhabitants of the earth,
he who fashions the hearts of them all
and observes all their deeds.
The king is not saved by his great army;
a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
The war horse is a false hope for salvation,
and by its great might it cannot rescue.
The singer cannot be distracted from his chief duty to praise God by the current happenings, world events, cataclysms, or great revolutions of man. The Lord’s counsel alone will stand. All that he wills shall come to fruition. Any inclination to praise man, woman, or mankind should be properly redirected to praise Him who is imaged in them. Any despairing or fear of man, woman, or humankind should be properly redirected to praise Him who controls all things and works all things out for our good and His glory.
The reminder that God ‘looks down from heaven’ (13) does not diminish the truth that he is Emmanuel, the God who is with us. It does not take away from the truth that he bent his knee and made himself knowable to us. No - the statement that he looks down from the heavens is simply to remind us that he transcends us, that he is above us and beyond us in many tangible ways. The knowledge that he is knowable by us is complemented by the proper knowledge of his incomprehensibility. When we properly understand that he didn’t have to bend his knee and speak to us in a comprehensible way makes the fact that he did it that much more worthy of our praise!
His transcension is also a comfort for us - to know that great fear provoking warriors and armies are, for him, akin to the ants gathering for battle; this gives us proper perspective. All the world’s scariness and uncertainty is nothing in comparison to the power of our rescuer!
Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him,
on those who hope in his steadfast love,
that he may deliver their soul from death
and keep them alive in famine.
Our soul waits for the LORD;
He is our help and our shield.
For our heart is glad in him,
because we trust in his holy name.
Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,
even as we hope in you.
Furthering on the theme of transcendence and immanence, we see the singer rejoice in the personal nature of our great and holy God. God has fixed his gaze on each of his people - he has set his affections on every one of us individually. He sustains us, he rescues us, he brings us to himself fully reconciled, justified, and continues his work of sanctification in us by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Our response should be to wait in gladness for him, to rest in his promises, to hope in him. Let the people of God sing now and forevermore:
I'm sitting in His presence, the sunshine of His face,
While with adoring wonder His blessings I retrace.
It seems as if eternal days are far too short to sound His praise.
Oh, the love that sought me!
Oh, the blood that bought me!
Oh, the grace that brought me to the fold,
Wondrous grace that brought me to the fold.