Jehovah looketh from the heavens; he beholdeth all the sons of men
Psalm 33 praises God as Creator and as ruler of the nations. At verse 13 the psalm turns to us: is this look a distant glance, a close inspection, or the gaze of One who already knows every heart?
The psalm has just called a nation happy because the LORD is its God. Verse 13 grounds that happiness. The God who chose them also surveys everyone else.
Psalm 33 celebrates the full result of deliverance. It calls the upright to rejoice. Jehovah makes His character, His word and His works plain, and the earth is now full of His goodness. He is the glorious Creator. The earth is to fear Him. All that man devises and plans comes to nothing before Him; His counsel stands. How blessed is the nation whose God is Jehovah, the people He has chosen for His inheritance. It is Jehovah who has looked down on men and ordered everything; but His eye is on those who fear Him and hope in His mercy.
This is not casual noticing. One writer presses how closely God looks, and who it is that looks.
From this safe harbor the world of living men is now reviewed. Jehovah Himself looks at them. He does not only see them; He examines them closely. And He is the One who formed them, the One who knows perfectly everything they do. But the result is only this: man's nothingness is seen once more. The army around a king cannot save him, and neither can a hero's strength.
How far does this sight reach? One writer answers that nothing can hide from it, and that earlier writers had already said so.
This range of vision has no bounds. It is so penetrating and clear-sighted that no object can be hidden from it. Earlier inspired writers had already pointed to it, and credited it to Him "who sits in the heavens."
The next verses say He fashions every heart and weighs every deed. One writer holds the two together: each heart is His own work, and each deed is the person's own responsibility.
In His counsels God brings His own to a place of highest blessing. Yet He also looks down from heaven. He sees and takes full account of the condition and needs of the people on earth. That condition is one of utter weakness and of dependence on power high above the earth (vv. 13-14). But it is He Himself who fashions their hearts, everyone in a different way (v. 15), yet all utterly dependent. For the very activities of people's hearts are just as diverse as the appearance of their faces. But all their works too, which are their own responsibility, He fully considers.
For a nation with enemies, this verse settles who is in control. God sees those who oppose His people, and they do not decide the outcome.
How blessed then the nation whose God is the LORD. They may have failed badly, but God has chosen Israel, and He will carry out "the plans of his heart" for the nation. Men may oppose but God has seen all the sons of men. He knows their hearts: He considers their works. Men trust in their kings, their armies, and their "great strength," but the Lord orders everything according to His counsels.
The survey of all people ends by resting on one group. What began as inspection ends as care.
As He looked down from heaven, He took notice of all that was going on among men. He saw where they put their confidence. But His eye was resting on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy. Not only do they know Him, but He knows them. They are the objects of His care.
The same look can carry a heavier weight. One writer draws a line between God's constant sight and a look that comes just before He acts.
It is not simply that all is under the eye of God, which is ever true, but this is the look that precedes judgment.
- Looks — This is a survey from heaven, not a glance. He examines closely, and He is the One who made what He examines.
- Sees — Nothing falls outside that sight. No place and no person can hide.
- Knows — He fashions each heart in its own way. He also weighs each person's works, and those works stay their own responsibility.
- Rules — He has seen every person. So kings, armies and human strength decide nothing. His counsel orders everything.
- Rests — The same eye that scans everyone settles on those who fear Him and hope in His mercy. They know Him, and He knows them.
From the place of his habitation he looketh forth upon all the inhabitants of the earth;
The psalm has just said that God's counsel stands and His chosen people are blessed. Now it turns from His throne to the crowded earth below — and the question is what this look is, and what it means to live under it.
God looks out from safety, and He takes in every living person. The look is closer than a glance.
From this safe harbour the world of living men is now reviewed. Jehovah Himself regards them: He not only beholds, He examines them closely; and He is the One who fashioned them, who has perfect knowledge of all they do. But the result is only that man's nothingness is realised once more. The army that surrounds a king cannot save him, nor can the strength of a hero.
"All the inhabitants of the earth" leaves no one out. Geography sets no limit to what He sees, and the One who sees is the One who governs.
His "eyes" run to and fro through the whole earth, beholding the evil and the good. Nothing can possibly escape His notice, whether it is done in the far east or the extreme west, at either of the poles or at the equator. He has shown Himself strong again and again for those whose heart is perfect toward Him. He is the One who controls the destinies of the nations and of the whole earth.
What does He see when He looks out? One writer finds two things: what people need, and what people do.
In His counsels God brings His own to a place of highest blessing. Yet He also looks down from heaven to see and take full account of the condition and needs of the inhabitants of the earth. That condition is one of complete weakness. People depend on a power high above the earth (vv. 13-14)… But all their works too, which are their own responsibility, He fully considers. In fact, even unbelievers will give account for their works at the Great White Throne (Rev. 20:11-12).
In Psalms 14 and 53 the same look finds only corruption. One writer says the survey here carries a different note.
This leads into a meditation on the state of the sons of men as Jehovah sees them (vv. 13-15). It is not like Psalms 14 and 53, which look at their corruptions. Here it is according to His own loving-kindness (vv. 18, 19).
Mercy does not cancel God's government. The verse says He looks out from where He lives on high, and one writer traces that look in two directions.
From the place where He lives on high He looks down on the sons of men and chastens them in this way. But it is also true that "the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him… that he may deliver their soul from death". His holy government acts in both directions, not only against the ungodly but also for His people.
So where does this leave the person being looked at? Human strength has already proved worthless, and the psalm points to fear and hope instead.
It is Jehovah who has looked down on men and disposed of all; but His eye is on those who fear Him and hope in His mercy. So the great result of Jehovah's intervention is set before the faith of the remnant, sung as if it had all already come.
- He looks from the throne. God looks out from a settled place: His counsel stands and His chosen people are secure. The look begins from a safe harbour.
- He looks at everyone. East or west, pole or equator — no act is out of range. The eye that runs through the whole earth is the eye that controls the destinies of nations.
- He looks closely. This is not a glance. He examines closely, He fashioned the people He watches, and He fully considers their works.
- He looks in loving-kindness. Psalms 14 and 53 expose only corruption; here loving-kindness sets the tone. The same government still chastens, and it acts for His people as well as against the ungodly.
- So look back. Fear Him and hope in His mercy. No army and no hero's strength can save the man who trusts them instead.
He who fashioneth the hearts of them all, who considereth all their works.
Psalm 33 has just shown the Lord looking down from heaven on every person alive. This verse says why nothing escapes Him: He made the very hearts He is watching, and He keeps account of what they do.
The psalm moves from creation to the Creator's inspection of living people. One writer points out that this is no casual glance. The One looking closely is the One who made them.
From this safe harbour the world of living men is now reviewed. The Lord Himself regards them: He not only beholds, He scrutinises closely; and He is the One who fashioned them, who has perfect knowledge of all they do. But the result only shows man's nothingness once more.
"Them all" does not mean a mass. One writer reads this fashioning as individual work. God makes each heart, and the person still answers for what he does with it.
But it is He Himself who fashions their hearts, everyone in a different way (v. 15), yet all utterly dependent. For the very activities of people's hearts are just as diverse as the appearance of their faces. But all their works too, which are their own responsibility, He fully considers. Indeed, even unbelievers will have to give account for their works at the Great White Throne (Rev. 20:11-12).
Another writer draws the same connection in a later psalm. What God knows about a person, He knows as that person's Maker.
Now the psalmist considers God's works in the details of his own existence. Because God is Creator, He therefore reaches into those details fully and perfectly. Nothing is hidden from Him, including the very thoughts of the heart.
To "observe all their deeds" is more than counting them. God's measure of an action is its quality. Only the One who reaches the heart behind the act can measure that way.
God will remember everything and assess it Himself. "The LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed" (1 Sam. 2:3). Not "counted," as if quantity were everything with God, but "weighed"; quality is the chief thing with Him. "Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart" (Prov. 21:2).
That weighing also unsettles our own confident view of a good deed.
On the outside they may often seem good and beautiful. But if the motive behind them came to light, it might completely change how we judge them. The Father's eye rests on the deepest sources of our conduct. So He is never deceived.
Nothing arranged on the outside changes what He sees. That is bad news for pretending, and good news for honesty.
On the other hand, no attractive appearance, no mere profession, no religious front deceives Him. "All are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." And the upright heart that truly knows His love would not want it otherwise. It gives great comfort and rest to such a heart that He knows and discerns everything perfectly.
The searching never stops, so the question is how to live under it. A commentator links the greatest blessing a person can receive to a heart kept right before the God who knows hearts.
I am speaking of God's knowledge of us. He searches the hidden depths within us perfectly, laying bare our secret motives. I am speaking too of our own awareness that God's eyes in heaven are always on us — not only on our outward appearance, which people also see, but on the heart, which people do not see. The man whose heart is kept right before the heart-knowing God receives the greatest blessing from God.
- Fashioned — God did not only look at human hearts. He formed each one, every person differently, and all alike dependent on Him.
- Known — because He is the Maker, He reaches into every detail of our lives. Nothing is hidden from Him, not even the thoughts of the heart.
- Weighed — He does not glance, He examines. He does not count actions, He weighs them: quality, not quantity, counts with Him.
- Exposed — no appearance, profession or religious front deceives Him. The motive behind a fine-looking deed can overturn our whole view of it.
- Answered — unbelievers will give account for these same deeds at the Great White Throne. For the upright heart, His perfect knowledge is comfort and rest, and the heart kept right before Him receives the fullest blessing.