Psalm 33: Why We Praise the Lord

Psalm 33:18-19 "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."

Why do you praise the Lord? Why do you sing in church? Why do you tithe? Why do you go to Bible study? Why do you pray? Why do you read the Bible? These are all good questions that we need an answer for, are they not? So often, we get caught up in the "Christianeze" answers to these questions. "I read my Bible to know God better," and "I sing in church because I'm expressing my heart to God." Now, don't get me wrong, both of those answers are perfectly acceptable. But what I want to get across this morning is this: do we really know what they mean? Do we really know why we praise the Lord, or do we just do it without thinking because we know its what we ought to do?

Psalm 33 is one of my favorite psalms because, like many other psalms, it gives us the reasoning behind why we ought to praise the Lord. It starts out with a general command to praise God (1-3), then gives us reasoning behind why we ought to praise him (4-19) and then concludes with a petition to God (20-22). This morning, we are going to take a look at that middle section and learn why we ought to praise our God.

Firstly, this Psalm tells us that we ought to praise God for his character, specifically his uprightness (4-5). Praising God for his character is truly the grounding for all of our praise to him. If God did not have upright character, why would we be praising him? In other words, if God was not God, why would we sing? Surely we would not. However, he is God, and therefore we sing. We praise him becaus ehe is upright, faithful, righteous, and just, unlike any other thing on this earth. We praise him because he is over and above all that we have ever known. We praise him for his character.

Secondly, this Psalm tells us that we ought to praise God for his works. God's works flow out of his upright character, and we therefore ought to praise him for them. God is a God who creates (6-9), frustrates [that is, brings to ruin all that stands against him] (10-12), observes [that is, is powerful enough to be above everything and see everything] (13-17), and gives steadfast love and hope (18-19). And surely, there are many more things that we can sing that the Lord has done. God is a good God who does good things, thus we ought to praise him for his works.

So, have you ever thought about why you praise the Lord? If not, I encourage you to this morning. I encourage you to ask yourself what charateristics of the Lord you can praise him for, and what works of the Lord you can praise him more. If you do, I promise that your praise would be all the more wonderful to our God. Amen.