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.
The king is not saved by the multitude of [his] forces; a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.
The psalm has just described God reviewing every person alive and weighing what they do. Now it says where safety is not found — not in armies, not in muscle — and leaves one question: if strength cannot save, what can?
The verse is not a stray proverb. It is the conclusion of a survey, and one writer traces where that survey lands:
From this safe harbour the world of living men is now reviewed. Jehovah Himself takes notice of them. He does not only see them; He examines them closely. He is the One who made them, and He knows everything they do. But the result only shows once more that man is nothing. The host that surrounds a king cannot save him, nor the strength of a hero. Nor can the strength of a horse be enough to deliver him, even to escape. But this is only the necessary prelude to another witness to God Himself.
History proves it. Ben-hadad, king of Syria, brought a huge army against an Israel that looked tiny:
The Syrians "filled the country," while Israel encamped "like two little flocks of goats" (1 Kings 20:27). The Lord told Israel He would deliver the great army into their hand (v. 28). Israel killed 100,000 foot soldiers. So his own great army did not save Ben Hadad, king of Syria — far from it. He went into an inner room to hide (v. 30). This is only one of many occasions that prove the truth of this verse.
A king can also trust his horses. Solomon wrote the truth about that in Proverbs, then forgot it:
In Proverbs 21:31 Solomon himself says, "The horse is made ready for the day of battle." Then he adds what he later forgot completely: "but the victory belongs to the LORD." So horses were used for war in his time... but David wrote before Solomon began to reign, "The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue" (Psalm 33:17).
The verse denies that numbers save. It does not say that few are holier than many. That correction matters, because a small group can be just as proud as a large one:
We must not despise numbers. Pride may lurk in the hearts of a few, as well as among the many.
Jonathan showed the opposite. He went up against the Philistines because numbers do not limit God:
He goes up against the Philistines in the power of that word: "nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few." It was "the Lord" who filled his soul. Having Him, "many or few" made no difference. Faith does not reckon on circumstances, but on God.
The danger is rarely a loud rejection of God. It is a slow shift of confidence toward something visible. One writer measures it precisely:
Nothing is more certain than this. When a believer puts any degree of confidence in man, or in himself, he takes that much of his trust away from "the living God."... But faith alone can use the weapons of our warfare, and when faith fails, we always turn in practice to the world and its strength and wisdom for help.
One writer reads the verse forward to the end. When the nations finally gather against Israel, this psalm gets its closing proof:
Then the final lesson will appear. No king is saved by the size of his army. No mighty man is delivered by great strength. No horse can give safety. Israel at last are poor in spirit, and Jehovah brings the counsel of the nations to nothing, while His counsel stands for ever.
- Weighed. The verse follows God's survey of every person alive. He made them and knows all they do, and the result shows that man is nothing.
- Not saved. The biggest army cannot save a king. The strongest man cannot deliver himself. The horse cannot rescue by its might.
- Proved. Ben-hadad's huge army left him hiding in an inner room. Solomon filled his stables and forgot his own proverb.
- Not numbers. Pride can hide in a few as well as in a crowd. Faith does not count circumstances; it counts on God, so "many or few" makes no difference.
- Transferred. Confidence put in man is trust taken away from the living God. At the end, the nations' plan comes to nothing and His counsel stands for ever.
The horse is a vain thing for safety; neither doth he deliver by his great power.
Psalm 33 praises a God whose word made the heavens and whose plan outlasts every human one. Then it looks at what people lean on instead. Verse 17 names the strongest weapon an ancient army could own and says it cannot rescue anyone. So what can?
In the world of the psalm, the horse meant military power. One writer shows what God told His people about it:
Especially in those ancient days, and in the East, people used the horse mainly in war. God warned His people not to put their trust in this mighty instrument of war: "The war horse is a false hope for salvation." "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God" (Ps. 20:7). It is He who "has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider He has thrown into the sea" (Ex. 15:1). Jehovah is infinitely exalted above all His creatures… Deliverance must come, not from horses, but from the Lord on high.
David wrote this psalm before Solomon became king. Solomon repeated the same lesson in one of his proverbs, and then forgot it.
Solomon himself tells us in Proverbs 21:31 that "The horse is made ready for the day of battle." Then he adds what he afterwards completely forgot: "but the victory belongs to the LORD."… But David wrote before Solomon began to reign, "The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue" (Psalm 33:17). And again, Jehovah's "delight is not in the strength of the horse" (Psalm 147:10). In days of danger Jehovah is worth more to His people than regiments of cavalry.
(Older translations read "safety is of Jehovah" in Proverbs 21:31 and "a vain thing for safety" in this verse. That shared word is why Fereday links them.)
The horse has gone; the instinct behind it has not. One writer puts the war horse beside a man's own strength, and beside every other defence people choose:
A mighty man trusts his own strength, and in the long run it fails him. He may trust the strength of a war horse in the same way. But this is a vain hope. In the end he will find even the great strength of the horse failing him. So people choose many methods of self-defence. These prove useless to protect them, because they are not depending on their Creator. But we all seem very slow to learn this most basic lesson. The strength of the creature, in any form, is pathetically weak. We need the strength of God to keep us safe.
One writer sees the same lesson taught one last time, when God brings the plans of the nations to nothing:
Then one final lesson will appear. No king is saved by the size of his army. A mighty man is not delivered by much strength. And the war horse is a false hope for salvation. Israel at last are poor in spirit. Jehovah brings the counsel of the nations to nothing, while His counsel stands for ever.
The psalm does not stop at this dead end. One writer shows what changes at verse 18, and why:
Though no deliverance is found in verses 16 and 17, how blessed is the change in the verses that follow. Why? Because "the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him" (v. 18). This is the fear that drives them into His presence. His eye of perfect discernment both inspires and approves them. Their hope is not in His justice, but in His mercy… He delights in the confessed weakness and failure of a believing heart, and He extends His mercy to them in full.
One writer names what a nation's weapons cannot reach, and what does reach it:
The sword is in the hands of the governing authorities, to punish the one who does evil. But the sword is no protection against spiritual powers… Yes, we may, we must pray. Prayer brings God in. It is the recognition of His supremacy and of our dependence upon Him; it is the right attitude of man towards God.
- Strength named. The horse was the strongest weapon of its day. God warned His people not to trust it.
- Strength forgotten. Solomon wrote that victory belongs to the LORD, and then forgot his own words. The warning is easy to quote and hard to keep.
- Strength exposed. Every kind of created strength fails in the end, and we are slow to learn it.
- Strength surrendered. Verses 16–17 find no rescue at all. Verse 18 finds the eye of the LORD on those who hope in His mercy, not on those who deserve His justice.
- Strength replaced. No weapon reaches spiritual powers. Prayer does, because it recognises His supremacy and our dependence on Him.
Behold, the eye of Jehovah is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his loving-kindness,
Psalm 33 has just stripped away every visible source of safety: armies, strength, war horses. Then it says "Behold," and God's eye settles on people marked out by fear and hope, not power.
Verses 16 and 17 leave nothing standing. One writer follows the psalm's survey of people to its end, and says what it prepares for:
From this safe harbour the world of living men is now reviewed. The LORD Himself regards them. He does not only see them; He looks closely. He is the One who formed them, and He has perfect knowledge of all they do. But the result is only that man's nothingness is once more realised. The host that surrounds a king cannot save him, nor the strength of a hero. Nor can the strength of a horse be enough even to let him escape. But this is only the necessary prelude to another witness to God Himself.
The verse marks its people twice: they fear God, and they hope in His mercy. Older translations read "mercy" where the ESV has "steadfast love." One writer explains each half:
Though no deliverance is found in verses 16 and 17, how blessed is the change in these following verses. Why? Because "the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him" (v. 18). This is the fear that drives them into His presence. His eye of perfect discernment both inspires and approves them. For their hope is not in His justice, but in His mercy... He delights in the confessed weakness and failure of a believing heart. He extends His mercy to them in full.
Earlier in the psalm God looks down on all people. Here His look becomes personal, and it teaches His people to wait:
He took notice of all that was going on among men as He looked down from heaven. 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. For a time He allows men to use His creation according to their own plans. Meanwhile His people learn to wait for the Lord as well as to trust in Him — their help and shield.
This is not watching from a distance. One writer lists the ordinary ways that care shows itself:
By His watchful care God shields His people from danger. He sets a bodyguard of angels around them (Ps. 34:7). That same care keeps the very bones of the saints (Ps. 34:20). It bottles their tears (Ps. 56:8). It strengthens the saints in their weakness (Heb. 11:34). It supplies all their needs out of its own basket of gifts (Ps. 23:5)... If God will give His people a kingdom when they die, He will not deny them daily bread while they live.
The same verse worked itself out in one man's life. A writer contrasts King Ahab with the prophet Elijah:
God was against Ahab, so He would make the king feel the full effects of the judicial rod. God was for Elijah, so He would sustain His servant. He would meet his needs by the care of His favour, outside of His own governmental order. One of the Psalms states this principle: "Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His steadfast love, to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine."
People mean very different things by hoping in God's mercy. One writer marks off the psalm's hope from a false one:
What the world calls mercy, when people speak of hoping in the mercy of God, is nothing but indifference to good and evil. It is the hope that God will think as little about sin as I do.
Writers have argued over which future period the psalm's closing verses describe. One of them refuses to fence the verse off from ordinary believers:
Meanwhile let those who love the Lord remember that it is all their own. The practical value of such songs to the believer does not depend on working out exactly which period of God's dealings they belong to.
- Nothing — kings, heroes and horses all prove empty, and that emptiness sets up what comes next.
- Behold — the eye that examines every person on earth rests, with care, on a particular people.
- Fear — not dread that runs away, but the fear that drives a person into His presence.
- Mercy — they hope in His mercy, not His justice. And mercy is not the world's idea that God thinks as little of sin as we do.
- Kept — the care is practical: God sustained Elijah under judgment, and gives His people daily bread while they live.
To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
This verse tells us what the watching eye of God in verse 18 is for. An army cannot save a king. A horse cannot rescue him. God does two things no one else can: He holds a life back from death, and He carries it through hunger.
The verse comes after a list of the things people trust for safety. One writer runs through that list and shows what it is leading up to.
Not even the army that surrounds a king can save him, nor the strength of a hero. The strength of a horse is not enough to deliver him, even to escape. But this is only the necessary lead-up to another witness to God Himself.
Another writer reads the whole psalm the same way, and names who the deliverance is for.
The psalm celebrates the full deliverance of Israel from every enemy. It makes clear that this deliverance will not come by the plans of man, by victorious armies, or by human strength, but by the Lord Himself.
Two marks describe the people God watches over: they fear Him, and their hope rests on His mercy. One commentator explains both, and says what such a person can expect when he prays.
This is the kind of fear that drives them into His presence. His eye of perfect discernment both inspires and approves them. For their hope is not in His justice, but in His mercy. This is what Jacob depended on when he prayed, "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant" (Gen. 32:10). Can God possibly ignore such a prayer? No: He delights in the confessed weakness and failure of a believing heart, and His mercy is fully extended to them.
The verse joins a great deliverance to a daily one. The same writer names each half, and says what it means for a person who admits he has no strength of his own.
It is He alone who delivers their soul from death and keeps them alive when they have no visible means of support (v. 19). So He is both our Saviour and our Preserver. So a person may realise his own utter weakness and depend instead on the strength of God. He may then rightly use the language of the apostle Paul: "For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:10).
One writer lists the ways God's care reaches His people day by day, and ends with an argument from the greater gift to the smaller.
In His providential care God keeps dangers away from His people. He sets a bodyguard of angels around them (Ps. 34:7)… It strengthens the saints in their weakness (Heb. 11:34). It supplies all their wants out of its basket of provision (Ps. 23:5). If God will give His people a kingdom when they die, He will not deny them daily bread while they live.
God keeps His people alive in famine. He does not lift them out of the hard times their nation goes through. Elijah lived under the same drought as the wicked king Ahab, and one writer uses this verse to explain the difference between the two men.
When God disciplines His people in public, even those with no part in the sins that caused it share in the results. So Elijah is subject to the hardships that followed the drought, just as Ahab is. There is, however, an immense difference. God was against Ahab, so He would let the king feel the full weight of the rod of judgment. But God was for Elijah. So He would support His servant and supply his needs by acts of His own favour, outside His usual way of governing.
Naomi's family left the land during a famine and went to Moab. One writer weighs her later complaint against this verse and calls her witness false.
It was false of her to declare that the hand of the Lord was against her. His hand had not led the family to Moab. They turned away by their own choice — away from the land where His hand would have kept their souls alive through the days of famine (see Ps. 33:18-19).
Writers differ over where this psalm sits in prophecy. One of them says that debate does not put its comfort out of reach.
Meanwhile let those who love the Lord remember that it is all their own. The practical value of such songs to the believer does not depend on pinning down exactly which age they describe.
- Nothing — armies, strength and horses all fail first, so the only deliverer left standing is God Himself.
- Notice — His eye rests on those who fear Him and hope in His mercy: fear that runs toward God, hope that appeals to mercy, not justice.
- Rescue — He delivers from death; He is Saviour.
- Ration — He keeps them alive in famine. He is Preserver: the God who gives a kingdom at death will not hold back bread before it.
- Place — God kept Elijah inside the drought. Naomi's family lost the promise by leaving the land where God's hand would have kept them.