Good morning! All of today’s psalms (33-36) underscore a central theme: God protects the righteous, and no enemy will be able to withstand God’s power. Some of these psalms make one suspect that Job’s friends would say the same thing, but unlike them the psalmist gives no hint of being “better than” or “holier-than-thou”. While David (or perhaps another author) does wish harm on his foes, the psalms point instead to God as a most righteous and merciful deliverer.

Psalm 33 describes God’s watchfulness over all the earth—but not in a mass-surveillance sense. Rather, God’s ever-presence means that nothing is outside of God’s concern. God will deliver and show mercy (Psalm 34); God will protect the righteous against the enemy (Psalm 35). There is no better guarantee of victory and success than God. Truthfully, relying on anything else would be foolish. This is the point that 33:17 makes, “The war horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its great might it cannot save.” Those who would seek to guarantee safety through military force or weapons of violence do so in vain. All that is needed—and the only thing ultimately successful—is to trust in God’s salvation alone.

Psalm 36 offers beautiful, classic poetry that restates the attributes of God as the opposite of human sinfulness. Verses 5-9 are a deeply loving and caring passage about God’s mercy for the world. Savor those verses especially, and the promise of the final verses that ungodliness will be unable to prevail against God’s beloved. Happy reading!

Read Psalms 33-36.

Please join discussion of this passage at the Daily Bible Facebook group, or comment below. The passage for tomorrow is Psalms 37-41. Thanks for reading!