Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 33:20
Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he [is] our help and our shield.
20. waiteth ] R.V. hath waited; a different word from that in Psa 33:18 ; Psa 33:22; found in the Psalter again only in Psa 106:13; but used in Isa 8:17; Isa 30:18; Isa 64:4; &c.
our help and our shield ] Cp. again Deu 33:29, “the shield of thy help”; Psa 3:3; Psa 28:7; and Psa 115:9-11.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
20 22. The people’s concluding profession of patient trust and hope, corresponding to the introductory invitation of Psa 33:1-3, and springing naturally out of the consideration of Jehovah’s character in Psa 33:12-19.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Our soul waiteth for the Lord – This and the subsequent verses to the end of the psalm refer to the people of God, expressing their faith in him in view of the considerations suggested in the former part of the psalm. The language is expressive of the general character of piety. True piety leads people to wait on the Lord; to depend on Him; to look to His interposition in danger, sickness, poverty, want; to rely upon Him for all that is hoped for in this life, and for salvation in the life to come. Compare Psa 62:1; Psa 25:3.
He is our help – Our aid; our helper. Compare Psa 10:14; Psa 22:11; Psa 30:10.
And our shield – See the notes at Psa 5:12. That is, He will defend us from our enemies, as if He threw His shield between us and them.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 33:20-22
Our soul waiteth for the Lord: He is our help and our shield.
Waiting for the Lord
I. the subject of the exercise–our soul. Not our souls, but our soul. Believers are said to be of one soul. Drops of water brought into contact will run into one. So with the souls of Gods people.
II. the exercise itself–waiting for the Lord. It includes conviction, desire, hope, patience.
III. the encouragement given–He is our help and our shield.
1. Their help. They need aid, and know their need.
2. Their shield, to defend from all the power of the adversary both from without and within. (W. Jay.)
A description of true worship
I. waiting on the Lord for a good reason (Psa 33:20).
1. Waiting upon Him implies faith–faith in His existence; desire, a craving after some good; patience, biding His own good time. But how are you to wait on Him?
(1) Wholly. He must be waited upon in every event, purpose, action, and place. True worship is an all-pervading spirit, not an occasional feeling or service.
(2) Lovingly. It cannot be done perfunctorily or formally.
(3) Constantly. It is spirit running through the life, giving unity, meaning, and worth to existence.
2. Such is the waiting but what is the good reason? He is our help and our shield. A shield. If He be for us, who can be against us? God is our refuge and strength. A help. Lifes labours are arduous, lifes trials are heavy: He is the only effective helper in both. We will wait, therefore, on Him.
II. rejoicing in the lord for a good reason (Psa 33:21).
1. True worship is joy–the only satisfactory and lasting joy of a moral intelligence. It is a rejoicing in His–
(1) Works.
(2) Government.
(3) Character.
(4) Fatherhood.
(5) Promises.
What is the good reason for rejoicing? Because we have trusted in His holy name. All joy is the fruit of that tree that is rooted in an unbounded confidence in God. All the streams that make glad the city of our God rise out of a settled faith in Him.
III. praying to the Lord for a good reason (Psa 33:22).
1. Were we innocent sufferers, we should pray for justice, not mercy; but we are sinful, and mercy is what we require: mercy to pardon, to cleanse, and to qualify us for the high service and fellowship of the Holy One.
2. What is the good reason for this prayer? According as we hope in Thee. We pray because our confidence is in Thee, and our expectation is from Thee. Men would never pray without this hope in God, and the compass of the prayer is measured by the expanse of this hope. We ask for little because our faith and hope are feeble. (Homilist.)
.
Psa 34:1-22
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 20. Our soul waiteth] Our whole life is employed in this blessed work; we trust in nothing but him; neither in multitudes of armed men, nor in natural strength, nor in the fleetest animals, nor in any thing human: we trust in Him alone “who is our help and our shield.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The help of us Israelites, to whom he hath made many promises and glorious discoveries of his goodness.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
20-22. waitethin earnestexpectation.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Our soul waiteth for the Lord,…. This, and what follows, are the words of the church, expressing her expectation, faith, and joy, by reason of what is suggested in the preceding verses. She signifies her expectation of good by waiting for the Lord; either for his coming in the flesh, and salvation by him; for which the patriarchs, prophets, and all the Old Testament saints, waited,
Ge 49:18; and so the Targum paraphrases it, “our soul waiteth for the redemption of the Lord”; or for his spiritual coming, his appearance to them, and gracious presence with them, he having been for some time absent; and it is right and good so to do, and in the issue proves advantageous, Isa 8:17; and this being soul waiting, it denotes the heartiness, sincerity, and earnestness of it;
he [is] our help and our shield; the Lord is the help of his people in time of trouble, when none else is or can be; and he is a present one, and helps right early, and at the best season: and he is their shield, who encompasses them about with his love and favour, and keeps them by his power in the greatest safety; all which encourages their waiting upon him, and expectation of good things from him.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Accordingly, in this closing hexastich, the church acknowledges Him as its help, its shield, and its source of joy. Besides the passage before us, occurs in only one other instance in the Psalter, viz., Psa 106:13. This word, which belongs to the group of words signifying hoping and waiting, is perhaps from the root (Arab. hk’ , hka , firmiter constringere sc. nodum), to be firm, compact, like from , to pull tight or fast, cf. the German harren (to wait) and hart (hard, compact). In Psa 33:20 we still hear the echo of the primary passage Deu 33:29 (cf. Deu 33:26). The emphasis, as in Psa 115:9-11, rests upon , into which , in Psa 33:21, puts this thought, viz., He is the unlimited sphere, the inexhaustible matter, the perennial spring of our joy. The second confirms this subjectively. His holy Name is His church’s ground of faith, of love, and of hope; for from thence comes its salvation. It can boldly pray that the mercy of the Lord may be upon it, for it waits upon Him, and man’s waiting or hoping and God’s giving are reciprocally conditioned. This is the meaning of the . God is true to His word. The Te Deum laudamus of Ambrose closes in the same way.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
20. Our soul waiteth upon Jehovah. What the Psalmist has hitherto spoken concerning God’s providence, and particularly concerning that faithful guardianship by which he protects his people, he has spoken not so much from himself as from the mouth of the Holy Spirit. He now, therefore, in the name of the whole Church, raises his song to declare that there is nothing better than to commit our welfare to God. Thus we see that the fruit of the preceding doctrine is set forth to all true believers, that they may unhesitatingly cast themselves with confidence, and with a cheerful heart, upon the paternal care of God. In this matter, the Psalmist declares nothing concerning himself in particular, but unites the whole of the godly with him in the acknowledgement of the same faith. There is an emphasis in the word soul which should be attended to; for, although this is a common mode of speech among the Hebrews, yet it expresses earnest affection; as if believers should say, We sincerely rely upon God with our whole heart, accounting him our shield and help.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(20-22) Hopewaittrust.The Hebrew language was naturally rich in words expressive of that attitude of expectancy which was characteristic of a nation whose golden age was not in the past, but in the futurea nation for which its great ancestor left in his dying words so suitable a motto
I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord,
and which, while itself held back outside the promised land of the hope of immortality, was to be the birth-race of the great and consoling doctrine that alone could satisfy the natural craving expressed by the moralist in the well-known line
Man never is, but always to be, blest;
and by the Christian apostle
For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
20-22. From the retrospections already given the psalmist renews the national profession of trust in Jehovah as their only protector, and of joyful fealty to his holy name. The last verse may be taken either as a petition, or a declaration that mercy shall abide upon Israel because of their trust in God.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
4). Final Words. The People Wait On YHWH And Hope In Him (20-22).
Psa 33:20-22
‘Our soul has waited for YHWH,
He is our help and our shield.
For our heart will rejoice in him,
Because we have trusted in his holy name.
‘Let your covenant love, O YHWH, be upon us,
According as we have hoped in you.
The Psalm approaches the end of the Psalm with a declaration that His people have ‘waited’ for Him. They have looked to Him in confident expectation, both as their help and their shield, the One Who gives them powerful assistance, and the one who protects them from all that their adversaries can throw at them. And they have done this both by rejoicing in Him with their whole beings (their hearts), and by trusting in Him for what He is (trusting in His holy Name). So in view of this they pray that His covenant love, that love which caused Him to choose them and set His Name on them, may truly rest upon them in accordance with their hope in Him.
‘Our soul has waited on YHWH.’ The word for ‘wait’ is not the one often translated as ‘wait’, but also occurs in Psa 106:13; Isa 8:17; Isa 30:18; Isa 64:4 etc. The idea is the same.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
And do not these verses give back the answer of the Church, and of every individual believer, as if they cried out with one response, Amen, to so much proffered mercy? Yes! the Lord is both a sun and a shield. He that now gives grace, will by and by give glory. And observe, Reader, the joy of the believer is because he trusteth in the holy name of God in Christ. Our safety is in Jesus; and our joy is when we have a believing trust in Jesus. And, indeed, if this would not bring joy, nothing would. This makes the soul of the believer not only assured that heaven is his own, because Jesus is his own: but he rejoiceth now in the hope of, and anticipates by present possession, the glory that shall be revealed , because Jesus is his portion. And this, no doubt, is what Paul the apostle meant, when he prayed for the Church, that the God of hope might fill them with all joy and peace in believing, that they might abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. Rom 15:13 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 33:20 Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he [is] our help and our shield.
Ver. 20. Our soul waiteth for the Lord ] i.e. Patiently tarrieth the Lord’s leisure. We can both wait and want for a need.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Our soul = we ourselves. for emphasis.
shield. Hebrew. magen. See note on Psa 5:12.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 33:20-22
Psa 33:20-22
THE CONCLUSION
“Our soul hath waited for Jehovah:
He is our help and our shield.
For our heart shall rejoice in him,
Because we have trusted in his holy name.
Let thy lovingkindness, O Jehovah, be upon us,
According as we have hoped in thee.”
“In Psa 33:20, we still hear the echo of Deu 33:29, that basic promise, in which God pronounced the perpetual blessing upon Israel.
The nation, as did Israel, or any individual who really belongs to God need have no fear of anything whatsoever. That passage from Deuteronomy is this:
“Happy art thou, O Israel,
Who is like unto thee, a people saved by Jehovah,
The shield of thy help,
And the sword of thy excellency!
And thine enemies shall submit themselves unto thee;
And thou shalt tread upon their high places.” – Deu 33:29.
These glorious promises once belonged to Racial Israel; but today God has a New Israel, the Church of Our Lord; and all of the glorious promises that once pertained to Racial Israel are today the exclusive property of the Holy Church of Jesus Christ. This excludes no racial Jew; but, at the same time, it includes no one whomsoever merely upon the basis of his racial origin. The New Israel is composed of “The one New Man in Christ Jesus.”
“Lovingkindness” (Psa 33:22). We have already noted that this is one of David’s favorite words, adding another link to the chain of evidence that points to the harpist of Israel as the author of this psalm.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 33:20. In the Old Testament soul comes from NEPHESH and its first definition in Strong’s lexicon is, “a breathing creature.” It could be used for the entire creature or for only the inner part of him, and the connection will determine how it is used in given cases. Since the present verse speaks of an action requiring an intelligent attitude toward the Lord, the inner man is evidently meant. To wait for the Lord means to rely on the Lord for help.
Psa 33:21. The word for heart has some of the same meaning as that for soul, but has more special reference to the emotional part of man. That explains why the heart would; rejoice in Him.
Psa 33:22. Mercy often has the idea of leniency toward those deserving stern treatment because of evil conduct. It also means kindness and pity in times of distress or other need and is so used here.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
soul: Psa 27:14, Psa 62:1, Psa 62:2, Psa 62:5, Psa 62:6, Psa 130:5, Psa 130:6, Isa 40:31
he is: Psa 115:9-12, Psa 144:1, Psa 144:2, 1Ch 5:20
Reciprocal: Psa 25:3 – wait Isa 8:17 – I will Hos 13:9 – but Zec 4:6 – might Heb 13:6 – The Lord
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 33:20-22. He is our help The help of his true Israel, to whom he hath made many promises and glorious discoveries of his goodness. For our heart shall rejoice in him Or, therefore it shall rejoice, for this seems to have been an inference, either from the foregoing or following sentence.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
33:20 {n} Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he [is] our help and our shield.
(n) Thus he speaks in the name of the whole Church which only depends on God’s providence.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
3. A fresh commitment to trust in the Lord 33:20-22
The psalmist saw the faith of God’s elect in three activities in this section.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The righteous wait for God to deliver them and regard Him as their help and protector.