THE JOY OF THE SINGING SAINT

Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones;
Praise is becoming to the upright.

The Psalms, which are the prayers, testimonies and songs of the elect, are replete with theology proper.  This song is a striking illustration of this fact.

In Psalm 33:1 the hearers are addressed as “righteous” and described as “upright.” Calvin states, “Here the inspired writer addresses believers or the righteous by his name.”  Calvin, Psalms, pg 537.

But an Old Testament scholar and great 19^th century teacher at Princeton Seminary finds a difficulty with this.  He writes on the same passage, “In Jehovah, ie in the knowledge and possession of him, with particular reference to the covenant relation between him and His peculiar people, who are here called the ‘righteous’ and the ‘upright’, by way of eminence…not because they were actually so, but because they ought to have been so.”  Psalms, Alexander, pg 141.

The understanding of Alexander is that of many Reformed scholars on their opinion of “righteousness” in the Psalms.  This is a problem for Calvin which is to be mentioned later.

It seems as if this ignores two points that are important to our understanding of the Psalms.

First is those described as “blessed” in Psalms.  This person is the inhabitant of the Psalms.  He, and only he, is the person who is known of God.  The man in Psalm 1, the “blessed” is the same as the “righteous” in Psalm 33.

Secondly, we have the answer given us as a certain fact to be used in any problem such as this.  Paul writing to the Romans in chapter 2:28-29 gives the answer as to who the “righteous” are.  It is the ones who have “circumcision of the heart.”

²⁸ For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; ²⁹ but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.

This difficulty confronts us again in Psalm 44:17-22.  The Psalmist, after a descriptive complaint and plea to God to withdraw His judgment and give Israel’s armies victory, states the justification for his complaint that he is innocent of the failings and grievous faults that brought God’s judgment on Israel.

Even the casual reader of Israel’s history and the prophets’ scathing admonishment of Israel for their sins, and particularly idolatry, have to wonder at this which looks to be irresponsible dissembling.

So at this point Calvin has his ever interesting and learned opinion.  “’All this has come upon us’; as they have already attributed to God all the afflictions which they endured, if they should say they were undeservedly afflicted, it would be the same thing as to accuse God of injustice.”  Calvin, Psalms Vol. V, pg 163.

But any fair reading of the text in Psalm 44 finds that it is what the oppressed are claiming. They are experiencing, terrible, unexplainable, and unjust suffering.  And they are asking for relief based on their innocence.  But how can they do this? 

They are the “true Israel.”  Though they were caught up in the national sin they were not guilty of the sins which were being so severely visited.  Therefore their seemingly impious complaint.

They are those who have a “circumcised heart”.  They are not guilty.  They are righteous.

The “righteous” in Psalm 33:1 are those who are described in Psalm 1, “the blessed” and of whom Paul says in Romans 9:6.

⁶ But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel,

This is the vocation that becomes us.  We are to “industriously pursue” this direction to praise God, for it is beautiful to God.