Exult, ye righteous, in Jehovah praise is comely for the upright.
Psalm 33 opens with a command, not a report: it calls the righteous to be glad in the Lord and says praise suits the upright. So who are "the righteous," and why does praise suit them as it suits no one else?
The psalm before this one describes a man God has forgiven. That forgiveness is where this song starts.
Psalm 33 follows on the last verse of Psalm 32. The thought of forgiveness has put a new song in his mouth. So he can look out with clearer confidence on the principles men should act by, as he looks to the word and works of God.
The word "righteous" here does not mean people who are simply good. It means people God has dealt with — first convicted of sin, then saved.
So the call may well be now, "Shout for joy in the LORD, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright" — for those delivered from deceit by the grace that has brought conviction of sin, and has met the convicted sinner with salvation.
Where the ESV says praise "befits" the upright, an older translation says praise from the upright is "beautiful." What makes it beautiful is not how it sounds but the heart it comes from.
Praise from the deceitful is empty flattery, but from one whom God's grace has made upright, praise comes from the heart, and God counts it beautiful.
Praise is not an extra. Like prayer, we owe it to God:
"The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me" (Ps. 50:23). If prayer suits us — expressing our dependence as creatures of God, children of the Father and servants of Christ — then praise befits us too. And so does giving of thanks, since it is due to God as the source from which all blessings flow.
You cannot order a heart to be glad in nothing. So the psalm shows what God is like.
The righteous are commanded to rejoice in the Lord. So the great moral purpose of this Psalm is to give such views of the Lord as may move them to rejoice. It shows Him as One of whom it may be said, "Blessed is the nation whose God" He is. It is not enough to be commanded to love or rejoice. The object suited to these affections must be set before us — as here. Oh that our hearts could take it in willingly!
There is a plain reason to sing: rescue comes from God.
(vv. 1-3) Since deliverance comes from the Lord, the righteous are called to "Shout for joy in the LORD," to "praise the LORD," and "sing to Him a new song."
The call to praise leads into a "new song." That word means a new order of things, not just a new tune.
The "new song" means an entirely new state of things is to be established on earth. It celebrates that "the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD." And all this depends on the word of the Lord. "For the word of the LORD is upright, and all His work is done in faithfulness." His own character is to be made good in it. "He loves righteousness and justice."
That new state on earth is still future. The song is not waiting for it:
The new song will be sung in heaven before that time (Rev. 5:9), because a great number from all nations have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. It will be sung in heaven as something new. Yet believers on earth sing it even now — members of the body of Christ, who delight in singing the song of redemption (Col. 3:16). In heaven angels had never sung that song, for they needed no redemption.
- Forgiven first. The call to shout for joy stands on the ground of Psalm 32 — sin covered, and forgiveness putting a new song in the mouth.
- Made upright. "The righteous" are not simply good people. They are sinners convicted of sin, then met by grace and freed from deceit.
- Fitting, not flattering. Praise from the deceitful is empty flattery. From a heart grace has made upright, God calls it beautiful.
- Given an object. A heart cannot rejoice in nothing. So the psalm shows what God is like — His word, His works, His love of righteousness.
- A song that spreads. One forgiven man's joy widens into a new song for a renewed earth. Heaven's redeemed sing it, and believers sing it now.
Give thanks unto Jehovah with the harp; sing psalms unto him with the ten-stringed lute.
Psalm 33 opens with a burst of song, and the second verse hands the singers their instruments. Why does a psalm about God's word and works begin with strings?
The psalm picks up where the one before it left off:
Psalm 33 follows on the last verse of Psalm 32. The thought of forgiveness had put a new song in his mouth. So he can look out with clearer confidence on the principles on which men should act, looking to the word and works of God.
So the music is the sound a forgiven person makes.
The ESV names a lyre and a harp of ten strings. Older versions call them the harp and the psaltery. Even careful students are unsure what the second one was.
The main word used is nebel, and it is thought to refer to some unknown form of stringed instrument used to accompany the voice. It is at times mentioned along with the harp.
One writer explains why the harp led Israel's praise:
In the direct praise and worship of Jehovah of old, the harp seems to be used more often than any other musical instrument. The reason is its rare combination of solemn, grand notes with soft and tender strains under the hand of a skilful player.
Commentators differ on what the ten strings signify. One takes the full span of notes as a picture of praise that reaches every part of life:
Why is the harp mentioned here, or an instrument of ten strings? Because praise has a wide range of harmonious melody. The low notes are necessary to accompany the high ones. Even in the lowest places of sorrow and distress there may be true, heartfelt joy.
Another is more cautious, and reads the two instruments as sounding two different notes:
If we knew better what these instruments were — which is disputed — we should no doubt be able to see a distinct meaning in them. All we can say now is that the harp was certainly connected in a special way with strains of joy. The "ten strings" of the lyre or psaltery seem to link it with the more solemn strains of recompense and judgment. All of these must praise Him too.
One writer lines up the three psalms where this instrument appears:
Three Psalms in the inspired song book of God's earthly people speak of "an instrument of ten strings" used for His praise (Ps. 33:2; 92:3; 144:9). In the first of these His "word" is the main theme. In the second it is His "work." In the third it is the Lord Himself, ending, "Blessed are the people whose God is the LORD!" It is clear that man, by the design of God's love, is to be for His own pleasure, with all his powers used for His praise. This can only be through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.
Israel's instruments came from rock, wood and animal gut, and they served one purpose.
Israel, God's chosen people for earth, needed a way to express their thanksgiving, praise and worship to God. So minerals came from quarries in the hills, wood from the forests, and strings from animals that had been killed. All this became cymbals, cornets, trumpets, psalteries and harps... but this cannot be stressed too earnestly — the music of praise was TO GOD, and not for the mere entertainment OF MEN!
One writer sets this call to praise beside what the New Testament asks for:
An exhortation like "Praise him with lute and harp!" is beautifully in place in the Psalms. But in the New Testament order it is, "singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart," and "I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also." "Those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."
Another writer describes what took their place:
The old order had lifeless instruments. A new creation in Christ has provided living instruments instead, with the living melodies of redemption rising up in the heart. It is true that they were quarried from the hills of a world of sin. They were taken from the forests of darkness and unbelief, and brought out of death into life. Born again, and having proved the Lord's goodness and pardoning grace, they are fitted to offer up spiritual praise that God accepts through Jesus Christ.
- Cause. Forgiveness in Psalm 32 puts a new song in the mouth in Psalm 33. Praise here is the sound of a pardoned man looking at God's word and works with confidence.
- Range. The ten strings cover high notes and low. One writer hears real praise rising even out of sorrow; another hears the solemn strains of recompense and judgment.
- Theme. Wherever the ten-stringed instrument appears, the subject is God: His word here, His work in Psalm 92, and Himself in Psalm 144.
- Direction. Israel quarried, cut and strung its music for one aim: praise to God, never entertainment for men.
- Fulfilment. The lifeless harp gives way to living instruments. Hearts brought out of death into life now make melody to the Lord in spirit and truth.
Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud sound.
Psalm 33 opens by calling the righteous to rejoice, and by verse 3 that call has a name: the new song. What makes a song new, and why does praise need skill as well as volume?
Psalm 32 described the happiness of a forgiven man. Psalm 33 widens the view to the world he lives in, and asks whether God's purpose for that world can fail.
Is God's purpose going to be frustrated? Never. We get the answer to this in Psalm 33. Psalm 32 had already described the blessedness of a forgiven man. Now in Psalm 33 we get "the new song" for the first time. … The "new song" means that an entirely new state of things is to be set up on earth. It celebrates that "the earth is filled with the goodness of the Lord."
Earlier the songs were about deliverance. Here the song has a different object.
Psalm 33 takes up this joy. It is not joy in self, or in circumstances, but in the Lord (compare Phil. 4). … The Lord had surrounded the believer with songs of deliverance. But now God Himself has become the object of rejoicing and song.
Verse 1 calls the singers "the righteous." One writer says where that righteousness comes from.
The first verses here simply expand the closing verse of the previous psalm. There we found that the righteous are righteous only by redemption. And Jehovah is the name of God as the Redeemer. It is the special name under which He takes up the people in the book of Exodus, and so the covenant Name of blessing for the redeemed.
Another writer draws from this a rule for Christian singing:
So only redeemed ones can sing. From this we learn the true character of Christian song. It should express the joy of salvation. It should carry the notes of praise and gladness that the knowledge of redemption produces in the soul.
The older translation these writers used reads simply "play skilfully with a loud sound," and names no instrument. One writer takes that silence as a clue to what the song is.
No special instrument goes with the "new song" of the third verse. For both Israel and the earth it will surely be what the number three probably suggests: a resurrection song. And resurrection of this higher kind is not a mere return to the original condition. That would almost certainly mean the wheel simply turning again, the start of the old cycle of change and decay. It is a new and higher and settled condition reached. In it the thought of God will now be realised, and His purpose from the beginning attained. No wonder the accompaniment now needs skilful playing with loud sound!
One writer sets the song in three places at once: heaven, believers on earth now, and Israel's future.
This looks ahead to the millennium, when Israel will find reason far beyond the Old Testament for singing. But the new song will be sung in heaven before that time (Rev. 5:9). There a great number from all nations have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. … Believers on earth sing it even now. In heaven angels had never sung that song, for they needed no redemption.
Another writer explains what makes the theme itself new.
The old song was sung by the morning stars over the foundations of the earth. It was not a conqueror's song. It did not celebrate a divine victory to redeem or to avenge God's chosen. There was no theme of victory then, for no battle had been fought and won. But sin has entered since then. A great counter-force has been at work, and the Lord has had to go out as "a man of war," the God of battles. So at the end a new song, a song with a new theme, must be awakened to celebrate Him in this new glory. … The song over creation must give place in range and melody to the song over the triumphs of Jesus.
Is anything lost by singing now, while the world around us is out of tune?
But is there no song now? Yes — the choicest of songs, which more than anticipates the one to come. When that future song is heard, everything around it will be in harmony with it. Now we sing surrounded by evil, by things out of tune, by the discords of sin and sorrow and death. But our song is the melody of the heart that knows redemption, a present redemption through His blood.
- New cause. The theme is new: not creation, but a victory won after sin entered.
- New singers. Only the redeemed have this song. The righteous of verse 1 are righteous by redemption, and angels never needed it.
- New object. Earlier psalms sang about deliverance; here God Himself becomes the object of the song.
- New skill. No instrument is named with the new song. The higher, settled state it celebrates is what calls for skilful playing and loud sound.
- New reach. The song runs from believers on earth now, to heaven, to Israel's future — sung today amid discord, from a heart that knows redemption.