We’ve chosen Psalm 33 verses 20 and 21 as our text for 2025:
We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield.
In Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name.
We all started 2025 with good wishes, good intentions and resolutions. I must say I miss those who went to be with the Lord and those who stopped worshipping with us. The question now is: how will we finish the year? What will happen? Who do we trust for it?
The whole Psalm focuses our attention on the Lord and on Him alone:
- His word, the Bible, is right and true; He is faithful in all He does. He loves righteousness and justice (4-5).
- He is the creator and sustainer of our world (6-9).
- He is Lord over history and over the nations (10). Trust in humans (weapons, possessions, idols, nobles) always leads to disappointment (11, 16). The other nations may have their deities, but they are unreliable.
- We sang the songs ‘Faithful One’, ‘Standing on the promises’ and ‘God is our strength and refuge’. Let’s hold fast to what they tell us about God.
- When the psalm speaks about ‘his name’ (21b) it means He himself. He is the one who was, who is and who comes, as the Old Testament teaches us.
So the question in the psalm is not what you get, but who you get. There is no guarantee of a perfect outcome, there is no prosperity gospel, but we know who is with us at all times: the Lord!
‘To wait’ means that He goes ahead. It’s his future, He will reveal it. It’s safe with Him. This waiting does not mean passivity but trust and faithful following. One of my commentaries drew my attention to the fact that there are no obligations on humans in this psalm. It is all about God, not about what we do.
‘Our hearts rejoice’ means that we can have joy, so we can sing. In order to enable us to sing God’s praises, it will help to switch off that TV or to mute that phone, so we can hear ourselves singing. In this psalm praising God increases the faith and trust of the poet. It is good not only to praise God when we feel like it, but at any moment, also when we feel low.
We know this God even better in Jesus Christ. Knowing about Jesus’ life, death and resurrection only increases our confidence in Him. He is the one through whom God acts! So this psalm leaves no room for pessimism about the year. We can’t influence the weather and we don’t know what the future holds, but we know the One who is in control and who loves us.