The Eye of the Lord is on Those Who Fear Him

The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

August 10, 2025

Psalm 33:12-22

 “Summer in the Psalms: The Eye of the Lord is on Those Who Fear Him”

 In less than a year, our nation will celebrate its 250^th anniversary on July 4, 2026. Across the country, in big cities and small towns, plans are in the works to mark this milestone event. Does anyone know what you call a 250^th anniversary celebration? It’s called a “semiquincentennial,” which is quite a mouthful. Some may remember the bicentennial celebration of our nation nearly fifty years ago in 1976 when we celebrated our 200^th anniversary. Those who do remember this are, like me, starting to get a little long in the tooth, as they say. One of the things that I remember from the bicentennial celebration of 1976 was that on the Fourth of July, all the churches in my little hometown rang their bells at an appointed time to mark this occasion. And yours-truly was the one who rang the bell of my home church. I think about this with the psalm that is before us today, especially its opening words: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!” (Psalm 33:12). Our summer preaching series, “Summer in the Psalms,” continues today as we look at the appointed psalm (Psalm 33:12-22), focusing on this verse: “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love” (Psalm 33:18). That becomes the theme for preaching today. May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word for Jesus’ sake.

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!” There are some, perhaps many, in our country today who view this nation as the modern-day Israel; chosen by the Lord as his heritage. This is nothing new in our national life; such thinking has been around for a very long time. Although we love our nation, Scripture does not support such a notion. The thinking that we as a nation have a privileged place in God’s plan of salvation needs to be watched very carefully. Patriotism and nationalism can be hijacked for nefarious purposes. This can lead to other, even more troubling things such as white supremacy and white nationalism, which even now are on the rise in our nation. These ideas teach that white people are inherently superior to other races and ethnic groups; that segregation is good; that white people should have special legal protections and receive preferential treatment. How can God bless any nation that espouses such twisted thinking? Our own church body, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), along with other church bodies, has condemned such ideologies (President Harrison denounces disturbing ideologies). These undermine the clear teaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The good news that God in Christ has broken into our sin-filled world to redeem and restore all things in Christ is for all people in all places for all time. Ideas of superiority or inferiority have no place within the Church, or within our nation.

The psalmist’s words are a good corrective for inflated opinions about ourselves and our nation. It goes without saying that we love our country. We pray for it as well as its leaders, and we want what is best for our nation and its people. But listen again to what Psalm 33 says: “The Lord looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man; from where he sits enthroned he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth, he who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds. The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue” (Psalm 33:13-17). This passage puts things into perspective. Our nation has been, and continues to be, richly blessed by the men and women who serve in the Armed Forces; who protect our nation and put their lives on the line in our defense. We owe those who have served and who are now serving a debt of gratitude. Even so, the Word of God here in Psalm 33 is a call to repentance; to see ourselves and our nation in the greater light and truth of Almighty God, who made heaven and earth, who holds all things in his hand. It is the Lord, and not we ourselves, who rules over the destiny of this and every nation. We can only come before the Lord on bended knee and with humble hearts to seek his face and ask for his guidance and blessing upon this beloved land that has been entrusted to our care. Our calling is to manage and steward this beloved land for the blessing and benefit of all. We will be judged by how we care for those who are most vulnerable among us: the poor and impoverished; the homeless and the hungry; the widow, orphan and stranger at the gate; the refugee, immigrant and displaced person; the downtrodden, destitute and deprived. Jesus tells us that he himself comes to us now in “distressing disguise.” He comes to us in the face of the hungry and thirsty; the naked and unclothed; the stranger, the sick and imprisoned (Matthew 25:31-46). Do we see him? The love of Christ calls us to see Christ in our neighbor and be Christ to our neighbor.

The psalmist goes on to point out what is good and pleasing to the Lord: “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.
For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you” (Psalm 33:18-22). To fear the Lord is to let go of self-trust and put our trust in the Lord. This holy fear, this sacred trust, is rooted in the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3; Deuteronomy 5:7). It is, as Luther wrote in his explanation of the First Commandment: “We should fear, love and trust in God above all things.” Love of nation can,  like anything else, become idolatrous; a false god. This is what the Lord God is saying to us here through the psalmist. This same Lord calls us to fear him; to wait for him; to trust and hope in his holy Name.

Look at the catalogue of the saints in today’s Epistle lesson (Hebrews 11:1-16); the listing of those who feared, trusted, and hoped in the Lord: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Jacob. Many others are listed in the verses which follow in Hebrews 11. They looked to the Lord, and so do we who follow in their footsteps. Within this nation that we love, we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, in whom we have forgiveness of sins, life and salvation through his atoning death upon the cross and his glorious resurrection. This is our treasure, and as Jesus teaches us: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:34).

“Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you” (Psalm 33:12a, 22). Amen.