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Across the Pastor’s Desk by Nancy Overgaard

 

As we look through the beatitudes (statements of blessing) scattered throughout the Bible, we come to Psalm 33:12. There, the Psalmist declares, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance.”

In Psalm 33:12, the Psalmist chose to use a name for God that was considered so sacred, many religious people would not even say it out loud. It is important that we identify it, because that name clarifies exactly who the Psalmist was speaking of.

“Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh,” the God of Israel. The God with a centuries-long history of being present with his people and faithful to his promises. The

Psalmist makes clear he was speaking of the God who is all powerful and sovereign over all. The God we can read about throughout the Bible.

The Psalmist also describes the God he was speaking of right within Psalm 33. In doing so, he lets us know why any nation with this God as their God is so incredibly blessed. In verse 4 the Psalmist lets us know the God he is speaking of is the God whose word is right and true; the God who is faithful in all he does. In verse 5 the Psalmist is speaking of the God who loves righteousness and justice and the God who has filled the earth with his unfailing love.

The Psalmist is speaking of the God who not only created the heavens and the earth, but who also sustains the heavens and earth. In verse 10 the Psalmist tells us he is speaking of the only God who is able to thwart the plans and purposes of both people and nations who oppose him, and in verse 11, the God whose own plans stand firm forever and whose purposes endure through all generations.

In verse 12 the Psalmist is speaking of the only God who can rescue and save; the only God capable of saving and protecting a nation from its enemies, both foreign and domestic.

In verse 18 the Psalmist was speaking of the God whose eyes are on those who respect him and hope in his unfailing love.

In verse 19 the Psalmist tells us he is speaking of the only God who is able to deliver us from death; the God who is able to keep his people alive in famine.

The nation that has this God as their God is blessed, and it is easy to see why.

But can this God also be our God as a people and as a nation?

Or is this blessedness only for Biblical Israel when the Psalmist says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord (Yahweh), the nation he chose for his inheritance”?

The Psalmist answers that question in verse 8. There, he invites all people and all nations to make this God their God:

“Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him.” All who do will be blessed.

As our nation approaches the 250th anniversary of its founding, it is a good time to reflect on how greatly we have been blessed as a nation whose God is the Lord. It is a good time to pray that we would never cease to be a nation whose God is the Lord — the Creator and Sustainer of Heaven and Earth, Protector and Savior and so much more.

For if we ever cease to be a nation whose God is the Lord, we will lose the incredible blessings we have enjoyed as a nation.

Nancy Overgaard is a member of the Freeborn County Ministerial Association.