Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 33:15
He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works.
15. Even he who formeth the hearts of them all,
Who considereth all their works.
He Who created man must know man’s heart (Psa 94:9). As God ‘formed’ man originally (Gen 2:7-8), so He continues to ‘form the hearts’ of individuals and of races (Zec 12:1). All are in some sense subservient to His plan and purpose.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
He fashioneth their hearts alike – That is, one as well as another; or, one as really as another. No one is exempt from his control, or from all that is implied in the word fashioneth. The meaning is not that their hearts are made to resemble each other, or to be like each other, whether in goodness or in wickedness – but that all alike are made by him. The idea in the word fashioneth here is not that of creating, in the sense that He makes the heart by his own power what it is, whether good or bad; but that, as he has formed the hearts of all people, he must see what is in the heart, or must behold all the purposes and thoughts of people. The Maker of the human heart must understand what is in it; and, therefore, He must have a clear understanding of the purposes and designs of human beings. This idea is carried out in the latter member of the sentence, he considereth all their works, and is substantially the same as in the expression Psa 94:9, He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see?
He considereth all their works – He understands all that they do; he marks, or attends to, all that is done by them. The purpose here is to state the universal sovereignty of God. He made all things; He presides over all things; He sees all things; He is the source of safety and protection to all.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 33:15
He fashioneth their hearts alike.
The moral identity of human hearts
He fashioneth their hearts alike. All have certain instincts, passions, emotions with which conventional differences have nothing to do. One touch of Nature makes the whole world kin.
I. God hath fashioned our hearts alike in respect of this, that we are all self-conscious, I can think of myself as myself and no other–as one individual unit. I am myself a world, into which the great world cannot penetrate; and, in the light of my own consciousness, i am as effectually hidden as though I did not exist at all. And this does not break up the race. It unifies it. For it is the same with all.
II. In close connection with this we must take the moral sense, that is, the conviction that some things are right and some wrong. Take the rudest savage, one whose ideas as to what is right and what is wrong are all jumbled together; still he feels that there is a difference. In this also God fashioneth our hearts alike. Its universality makes it the foundation of law, the approver of right, and the avenger of wrong, even when human law fails to detect the criminal.
III. God has made us all for friendship, affection, mutual dependence and mutual help. God setteth us in families. None of us, king or subject, prince or peasant, is sufficient for himself. The whole civilization and beneficence of the world have sprung from this objective character of man. Give a man nothing to do, and he is miserable. Give a man nothing to love, and he is miserable.
IV. this outward seeking can never be fully satisfied with anything created. In order to full satisfaction it must go forward and upward to God. It calls for the infinite. In this sense, too, God hath fashioned our hearts alike. He has so made us that He Himself is necessary to us. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, and not all the resources of this manifold world can fill the void in the human heart, and lead it to say–It is enough. There is something unanswered still, and there ever will be till we rest in God. (A. L. Simpson, D. D)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 15. He fashioneth their hearts alike] He forms their hearts in unity; he has formed them alike; they are all the works of his hands: and he has formed them with the same powers, faculties, passions, c. body and spirit having the same essential properties in every human being.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Fashioneth, or fashioned, or made, or formeth. For this may relate either,
1. To the work of creation. So he proves what he said Psa 33:13,14, that God beheld all men, because he made them; yea, even their hearts, the most secret piece of them. Or,
2. To the works of his providence. Having said that God sees and observes all men, he now adds that he rules and governs them; yea, even their hearts, which are most masterless and unmanageable, and yet he frameth and disposeth and inclineth them, this way or that, according to the counsel of his will: see Exo 34:24; Psa 105:25.
Alike; or, equally, one as well as another; whether they be Jews or Gentiles, bond or free, princes or peasants; all are alike subject to his jurisdiction.
All their works, both outward and inward; all the workings of their minds and affections, and all their endeavours and actions.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. fashionethor, “forms,”and hence knows and controls (Pr21:1).
alikewithoutexception.
considerethor,”understands”; God knows men’s motives.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He fashioneth their hearts alike,…. The Lord is the former and fashioner of the heart, spirit, or soul of man, even of all hearts and spirits; whence he is called the Father of spirits, Heb 12:9; see
Zec 12:1; and he is the former of them alike; which seems to intimate as if all seals were alike, as they are made by the Lord; and it may be the difference there appears to be between them afterwards, nay be owing to the make and constitution of their bodies, to their education, and different situation, circumstances, and advantages in life, whereby the hearts of some may be more opened and enlarged than others. Some render it “together”, or “altogether” g; which must not be understood of time, as if they were all made at once, but of equality; the one was made by him as well as the other; he is the fashioner of one and all of them, every whit of them; they are wholly fashioned by him, and all that is in them, all the powers and faculties of the soul; and by him only, and not by the instrumentality of another; for souls are created, not generated; they are produced out of nothing, and not out of pre-existent matter, as bodies; parents contribute somewhat to the bodies of their children, but not anything to their souls. God only “is the God of the spirits of all flesh”, Nu 16:22; some translate the word “singly” h; one by one, one after another in the several ages of time; for he continues to fashion them, and is always doing it; see
Zec 12:1. And he forms the hearts of his own people anew for himself, for his own glory; he forms Christ in them, and every grace of his Spirit; he forms them into one, and knits and unites them together in love, and makes them like to one another; for as face answers to face in water, so do the hearts and experiences of the saints one to another, Pr 27:19; all which he does wholly and alone; and since he fashions the hearts of all men in every sense, he must know them, which is the design of this expression; he knows the hearts of wicked men, and all the wickedness that is in them; he knows the hearts of good men, the worst that is in them, and also the best, which he himself has put there;
he considereth all their works; the works of evil men, not only their more open ones, but their more secret ones, and will bring them into judgment; and the works of good men, even their good works, which he will remember and reward in a way of grace.
g “simul”, Musculus, Gejerus; so Ainsworth. h Sept. “sigillatim”, V. L.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
15. He who fashioned their hearts altogether. It appears that this is added for the express purpose of assuredly persuading believers, that, however the wicked might craftily, deceitfully, and by secret stratagems, attempt to withdraw themselves from God’s sight, and hide themselves in caverns, yet his eyes would penetrate into their dark hiding-places. And the Psalmist argues from the very creation that God cannot but bring men’s devices and doings into reckoning and judgment; because, though each man has intricate recesses concealed in his bosom, so that there is a wonderful diversity of different minds in this respect, and this great variety creates a most confounding obscurity; yet the eyes of God cannot be dazzled and darkened, so that he may not be a competent judge and take cognisance of his own work. By the adverb together, therefore, he does not mean that the hearts of men were formed at the same moment of time; but that all of them were fashioned even to one, and without a single exception; so that those manifest great folly who attempt to hide, or to withdraw the knowledge of their hearts from him who framed them. The discourse may also be understood as meaning, that men cannot, by the erring devices of their own thoughts, diminish the authority of God over them, so that he may not govern by his secret providence the events which seem to them to happen by chance. We see, indeed, he in forming their vain hopes, they despoil God of his power, and transfer it to the creatures, at one time to this object, and at another time to that, conceiving that they have no need of his aid, so long as they are furnished with outward means and helps to protect themselves.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(15) He fashioneth.Better,
Moulding their hearts for all,
Observing all their deeds.
The Hebrew word rendered fashion is that used of a potter moulding clay.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 33:15. He fashioneth their hearts alike He formed their hearts, one and all, and consequently must know what are their thoughts and intentions. Mudge.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 33:15 He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works.
Ver. 15. He fashioneth their hearts alike ] i.e. One’s as well as another’s. Unum pariter ac aliud (Kimchi). The Arabic hath it, Format sigillatim, he fashioneth them severally one after another; and not all souls together, as the Origenists and some Jewish doctors held.
He considereth all their works
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 33:15
Psa 33:15
“He that fashioneth the hearts of them all,
That considereth all their works.”
This completes the thought of the previous three verses, namely, that God created all men, he looks upon all men continually, and he considereth (and judges) “all their works.” There is no one who is not under the responsibility and accountability to Almighty God, whether or not he may be willing to acknowledge it.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 33:15. God is the maker of all the hearts of men. The one who makes a piece of mechanism would certainly understand all about its working. If it did not perform in the way he expected he should understand what was wrong. On that basis the Lord understands the failures of the hearts of men since he fashioned all of them.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
fashioneth: Pro 22:2, Pro 27:19, Ecc 7:29, Isa 64:8, Act 17:26
considereth: Psa 44:21, Job 11:11, Job 34:21, Job 34:22, Pro 24:12, Jer 32:19, Hos 7:2, 1Co 4:5
Reciprocal: Job 34:25 – he knoweth Luk 11:40 – did
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
33:15 He {k} fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works.
(k) Therefore he knows their wicked enterprises.