Joy in the Face of Chaos: Psalm 33 (Part 1)

by on December 6, 2025 | 2 Comments

Control versus chaos—which is winning? If you scan the world and your life, which one seems to be prevailing? Control is generally the team we want to win; it is the good, and chaos is not. But in this contest or battle with no obvious score board, it is not easy to determine who is in the lead. The stock-market feels dominated by chaos. In international relations, no one seems to be in the driver’s seat, though not without trying. At work, does your boss have a good handle on things, or does disorganization rule the office? Then there is your own life. Are you in control? Do you control your feelings and thoughts? Is your daily routine all put together or does drama have you on the brink at any given moment? Whether we look at home or abroad, life seems to be a constant struggle between chaos and control, with the odds favoring chaos. And few things trouble us more that chaos; losing control inflames anxiety and fear. Therefore, our Lord gives us his Word, and this psalm particularly to provide us with a firm anchor upon turbulent waters.

There is no doubt about the tune to which this psalm is set. We do not know the actual musical notes, but Psalm 33 was played to happy music. The notes were set to the key of joy; the tempo was upbeat and merry. The volume was not diminuendo, but fortissimo. And the musicality harmonizes with the lyrics, for right out of the gate we are wooed to shout. “Shout for joy; praise the Lord.” And to accompany the congregational choir, the symphony joins in. The melody of the voice dances with the cords of the harp and the lyre. The ancestors of the guitar, violin and dulcimer come together to fashion sweet music. The trained musicians with magic in their fingers create beautiful sounds in gratitude for the Lord.

And the enlistment of instruments has the definite intention to amplify the joy and thankfulness in the Lord. There are those times when love refuses to be faint and calm, but it has to be yelled from the rooftops, so here, love and glory for God must be exhaled with all vigor and vim. When the time is right, to adequately praise and thank Yahweh for all his superlative glories you have to crank up the amperage of joy; and this is one of those times.

Moreover, as the congregation erupts with praise for God, note it clarifies this as fitting, or beautiful: “For the upright to praise is lovely” (v. 1). In this world, there is no dearth of beautiful things: a bright tulip, a majestic stag, the sun setting over the Pacific. But, amid earth’s many gems, one shines particularly exquisite—the congregation singing to the Lord. The saints in grateful and reverent harmony to God is a beauty that is quite literally, heavenly.

With the choir and symphony warmed up and playing, now we hear the content of their thankfulness. They praise the Lord, for his Word is upright. All his deeds are true and faithful. Yahweh is the great lover of righteousness and justice, and his steadfast love fills the earth—what a list of our God’s perfections. An upright word is speech that is free from blemishes, error, and exaggeration; it is pristinely pure and accurate. We surely cannot speak like this, for even when we honestly say the truth, we make mistakes and accent the wrong syllables. Then, the times are too frequent when our words are slippery, twisted, harmful. But not our God; his words are supremely upright, and his actions match the same bar of perfection.

Faithful are his deeds; everything our Lord does is sincere, effective, and reliable. The Almighty is the lover of justice and righteousness, which is the ideal pair of royal attributes. In the ancient world, the perfect king was the lover of justice and righteousness. Finally, the earth is full of Yahweh’s steadfast love. This sticks out a bit, for steadfast love is normally only for God’s covenant people—his demerited grace to save and preserve his redeemed saints. Here, though, this loving grace fills creation. This, then, includes common grace along with special grace.

God’s loyal kindness to all the earth is being magnified. And this eye to creation flows seamlessly into the next wonder of our God. By his word, the heavens were made; by the breath of his mouth, the stars were fashioned. Clearly, the marvels of Genesis 1 are echoed here. By the word of his power, God made all things. Through the Spirit of his mouth, the Lord fashioned the cosmos in its glorious entirety, “he spoke, and it came to be” (v. 9). We hear the drum beat of Genesis keeping the base line: God spoke, and it was good.

Ponder this for a moment. With focused effort and no government involvement, it takes a few months to construct a medium house with nothing fancy. Some of the great monuments of history took ages: over one-thousand years for the Great Wall of China, six-hundred years for the Cologne Cathedral, forty-plus years for Herod to finish the Second Temple, and thirty-three years for the Panama Canal. And we do not even know the time span of the pyramids. Construction costs humans much sweat, blood, and money, but at the movement of God’s vocal cords masterpieces appear. To our Lord, the massive and mysterious oceans, teaming with the terrifying and the beautiful, are like water in a cup.

With the breath-taking majesty of God revealed in creation, the only proper response is for us to fear, to stand in awe of him. We are to gaze at the wonders of his hands, the marvels of his word, and we should honor and venerate the Lord. So awesome and overwhelming is our Creator, we can but marvel and adore him. Filled with fear and awe is how we, the puny, ought to be before our great and glorious God. The happy music of Psalm 33 is rejoicing in the grandeur of our Creator.

This song’s theme, however, does not stay on creation but moves to more of our God’s marvels; there is a shift from creation to providence: “He spoke and it came to be; he commanded and it stood firm” (v. 9). The stability of this mortal ball encompasses the sustaining provision of our Lord’s providence. Our Lord is the almighty Creator and master of history. Yahweh both set this world up and keeps it running smoothly. He is the maker and controller of the cosmos. Of course, once history is introduced, things get messy. Creation took place in the primordial past; no human was there to witness it. We can only guess at the details behind Genesis 1, but history is something we are more than familiar with; it is the plain on which we live.

If anything is evident about history, at least to the human eye, it is that it is untamed and wild. Like a feral cat refusing domestication are the annals of history. It is a story of competing desires for power and survival. The “great ones” vie for pomp and dominion, while the little guy scratches out a life between thorns and drought. One mother experiences miscarriages, while another has ten kids easily. The good ruler is assassinated one month into his term, but the despot reigns for six decades. Every age is one empire falling and another rising. How is history nothing but bedlam and entropy? Yet, behind all these foiled plans and shipwrecked nations lies the hand of God. He foils the counsels of nations; he frustrates the vision boards of the peoples. Folks make plans and God cancels the reservations. Humans design control machines, but the Lord drops in a wrench to gum up the gears.

Yet, where our plans are made to be frustrated, the Lord’s counsels never fail; the plans and purposes of the Almighty stand forever (v. 11). You know how amazing it is when you plan out the day and everything goes without a hitch or hiccup. For us, this is more the exception than the rule, but for the Lord, this seamless control is 100%. Our God has never had a foiled plan, an oops moment, an “I didn’t see that coming.” Yahweh has every detail in its proper place. Even though this can be hard for us to wrap our minds around, this is great news for us. As it says, happy is the nation whose God is the Lord; blessed are his chosen people (v. 12). And in the next installment on Psalm 33, we will be treated to the good news that is the source of true joy.

©Zach Keele. All Rights Reserved.

You can find the whole series here.

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  • Zach Keele
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    Rev. Zachary Keele grew up on a ranch in a small town named Crawford, Colorado. He attended Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania and received his Master of Divinity from Westminster Seminary California. He has served as the pastor of Escondido OPC since 2006.

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