The Soundtrack of Righteousness Text: Psalm 33:1-3
Introduction: The Fitting Garment of Praise
We live in an age that has lost its voice because it has lost its reason to sing. Our culture is awash in noise, in clamor, in the desperate shouting of self-expression, but it is profoundly lacking in genuine praise. This is because true praise, the kind of joyful noise that shakes the foundations of Heaven, is not something that can be manufactured by marketing teams or generated by emotional hype. It is the necessary, logical, and beautiful consequence of a right relationship with the living God. It is, as our text says, "becoming to the upright."
The modern church, in its misguided quest for relevance, has often treated worship as a consumer product. The music must be tailored to the felt needs of the seeker, the lyrics must be sufficiently generic so as not to offend, and the emotional temperature must be carefully managed. But this is to get the whole thing backwards. Worship is not about us. It is not about our feelings, our preferences, or our comfort. Worship is a glorious obligation. It is the central duty of all creation, and it is the highest privilege of the redeemed. It is warfare. Every time we gather to sing psalms and hymns to the triune God, we are not engaging in a holy hobby; we are prosecuting a war against the gates of Hell.
The world becomes like what it worships. When a society worships deaf, dumb, and blind idols, it becomes deaf, dumb, and blind itself. But when the people of God worship the living God, they are transformed from one degree of glory to another. Our worship is not an escape from the world; it is the engine of its transformation. We ascend into the heavenly places in our worship, not to hide, but to receive our marching orders and to throw down fire from the altar onto the earth.
This psalm calls us to a particular kind of worship. It is joyful, it is vocal, it is skillful, and it is new. It is the kind of worship that is fitting for those who have been made right with God. It is the sound of a people who know their God, who trust His Word, and who rejoice in His sovereign goodness. This is not the mumbling of a defeated remnant, but the triumphant shout of the army of the living God.
The Text
Sing for joy in Yahweh, O righteous ones;
Praise is becoming to the upright.
Give thanks to Yahweh with the lyre;
Sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings.
Sing to Him a new song;
Play skillfully with a loud shout.
(Psalm 33:1-3 LSB)
The Prerequisite for Praise (v. 1)
We begin with the summons and the reason for it in verse 1:
"Sing for joy in Yahweh, O righteous ones; Praise is becoming to the upright." (Psalm 33:1)
The first thing to notice is who is being addressed. The call to sing for joy is not issued to everyone indiscriminately. It is directed to the "righteous ones." The reason praise is "becoming" is because it is offered by the "upright." The word for becoming here is fitting, or appropriate. Praise is like a well-tailored garment that looks right on the person wearing it. On the unrighteous, praise is an absurdity. It is like a tuxedo on a pig. An unregenerate man attempting to praise God is a hypocrite, because his heart is in rebellion against the very one his lips are honoring.
So who are the righteous? In our therapeutic age, we are tempted to think of them as nice people, or sincere people. But biblically, the righteous are those who have been declared righteous by God. This is not a righteousness we have earned; it is a righteousness that has been imputed to us by faith in Jesus Christ. We are found in Him, "not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith" (Phil. 3:9). Because God has made us upright in His Son, it is now fitting for us to praise Him. In fact, it is our chief end. You were created to be a worshiper of God. This is your assigned purpose.
The command is to "sing for joy in Yahweh." The source of our joy is not our circumstances, not our feelings, and not even our righteousness. The source of our joy is Yahweh Himself. We are to rejoice in the Lord. This is a robust, theological joy. It is a joy that is grounded in the character and works of God, which the rest of this psalm goes on to celebrate. This is why our worship must be saturated with Scripture. We sing about God as He has revealed Himself, not as we have imagined Him to be. This joy is not a flighty emotion; it is a deep-seated gladness that comes from knowing who God is and what He has done.
The Instruments of Thanksgiving (v. 2)
Verse 2 moves from the prerequisite of the worshiper to the particulars of the worship itself.
"Give thanks to Yahweh with the lyre; Sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings." (Psalm 33:2 LSB)
Here we see that our worship is to be accompanied. The regulative principle of worship, rightly understood, does not forbid instruments, but rather directs us to do all that the Word commands. And here, the Word commands the use of instruments. The lyre and the ten-stringed harp were common instruments of the day, and their inclusion here tells us that our material culture, our technology, our artistry, is to be brought into the service of worship. We are not disembodied spirits; we are physical beings, and God wants our worship to engage our whole person, including our hands that make and play instruments.
This is a direct refutation of any Gnostic tendency to spiritualize worship to the point of despising the physical. God made stuff, He called it good, and He wants us to use the stuff He made to praise Him. The strings of the harp are to vibrate with the truth of God. The wood of the lyre is to resonate with His glory. This sanctifies our artistry. A Christian musician is not just making pleasant sounds; he is offering a sacrifice of praise, bringing his craft and laying it on the altar.
Notice the content of this musical worship: "Give thanks" and "Sing praises." Gratitude is the bedrock of Christian piety. We are not coming to God to demand things, but to thank Him for who He is and for all He has given us, chief of which is His Son. And our praise is directed "to Him." Our worship must be God-centered. Much of what passes for worship music today is man-centered. It is about my experience, my feelings, my journey. But biblical worship is resolutely focused on God. It is an objective declaration of His worth, not a subjective exploration of my emotions.
The Quality of Our Offering (v. 3)
Verse 3 gives us three crucial characteristics of the kind of worship that pleases God.
"Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a loud shout." (Psalm 33:3 LSB)
First, we are to sing a "new song." This does not primarily mean a song that was composed last Tuesday. As I have said elsewhere, the word refers to the quality, the freshness, of the singing. When the Spirit of God moves, an ancient psalm can be sung with a startling newness. And when He does not, a song written last week can be as dead and old as a doornail. A new song is one that is sung from a heart that has been made new by the gospel. It is a song that is not sung by rote, but with a fresh appreciation for the magnificent truths it contains. Every Lord's Day, as we confess our sins and are assured of our pardon, we are renewed. And from that renewal, we ought to sing a new song.
Second, we are to "play skillfully." God is not honored by sloppy, lazy, or half-hearted offerings. He is worthy of our very best. This command for skill is a rebuke to the false piety that thinks sincerity is all that matters. Sincerity is essential, but it is not enough. If you are a musician, you have an obligation to practice, to hone your craft, so that you can offer God something that is not just heartfelt, but excellent. This applies to the whole congregation as well. Learning to sing in parts, to read music, to lift our voices together in harmony, these are acts of discipleship. It is a way of loving God with all our mind and all our strength. Musical harmony is a glorious picture of the Trinity, of unity in diversity, and we should strive to embody that truth in our singing.
Third, this is to be done with a "loud shout." The Hebrew word here is teruah, a battle cry, a triumphant shout of joy. This is not the quiet, respectable, mumbling of a people who are slightly embarrassed to be in church. This is the exuberant roar of a victorious army. It is the sound of a people who know that their God reigns and that His enemies are being put under His feet. Our worship should have a certain masculine robustness to it. It should be full-throated. This is solemnity mixed with gladness, reverence mixed with riotous joy. We are before the throne of the universe, and we have been given access by the blood of the Son. This is no time for timidity.
Conclusion: The Sound of Victory
So what does this look like? It looks like a church that takes its worship as seriously as it takes its preaching. It looks like a congregation that sings with gusto, that fills the room with a joyful noise. It looks like musicians who practice their craft for the glory of God. And it sounds like the army of God on the march.
These three verses are a call to arms. They are a call to take up the instruments of praise and to engage in the central battle of our time. The culture war is a worship war. The world is falling apart because it worships false gods, and worships the true God falsely. The solution is not first political, but liturgical. The way we reform the world is by first reforming the worship of the church.
We must become a people who are defined by this kind of praise. We are the righteous, made right by the blood of Christ. Therefore, praise is the garment that fits us. Let us put it on. We have been given instruments, our voices, our hands, our skills. Let us dedicate them to Him. We have been given a new song, the song of the redeemed. Let us sing it with all our might, skillfully, and with a loud shout. For our God is in our midst, and He inhabits the praises of His people. And when God takes His seat on the throne of our praise, His enemies scatter.