I emailed this to the church that I pastor.
I thought it would be good to spend
a little time pondering a Psalm and then send you what I come up with. I’m going
to work through Psalm 33, bit by bit.
Shout for joy in the Lord, O you
righteous!
Praise befits the upright. Psalms
33:1
Who are the righteous being
called to shout and praise? Many of the Psalms are about the differences
between the righteous and the wicked. Psalm 1 is a good example of this. As
I've recently discovered, the wicked are not primarily unbelievers outside of
Israel who are persecuting the saints. The wicked are themselves members of the
covenant community, Israel. Or to say it differently, these are Church members.
But they are not being faithful to their vows to God. This is helpful because
it explains who the righteous are. They are also members of the Church, but
they are working at being faithful to those vows. When the Father views
these He sees them as righteous because of Jesus.
What this means, then, is that as
you work at being faithful to Jesus, you are 'the righteous'. So, when you read
about 'the righteous' in the Psalms, apply that label to yourself. That may
feel strange when you do it, but it's the right way to understand those Psalms.
After all, the only alternative to being one of the righteous is being one of
the wicked.