Psalms 33:12

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,....

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Israel was happy in the worship of the only true God. It was the blessedness of the chosen nation to have received a revelation from Jehovah. While others grovelled before their idols, the chosen people were elevated by a spiritual religion which introduced them to the invisible God, and led them to trust in him. All who confide in the Lord are blessed in the largest and deepest sense, and none can reverse the blessing. And the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance. Election is at the bottom of it all. The divine choice rules the day; none take Jehovah to be their God till he takes them to be his people. What an ennobling choice this is! We are selected to no mean estate, and for no ignoble purpose: we are made the peculiar domain and delight of the Lord our God. Being so blessed, let us rejoice in our portion, and show the world by our lives that we serve a glorious Master.

Blessed is the nation - O how happy is that nation which has יהוה Jehovah for its אלהים Elohim; the self-existent and eternal Lord for its covenant God; one who should unite himself to it by connections and ties the most powerful and endearing! The word אלהים Elohim, which we translate God, refers to that economy in which God is manifested in the flesh. The people whom he hath chosen - The Jews, who were elected to be his heritage, whom he preserved as such for two thousand years, and whom he has reprobated because of their unbelief and rebellion, and elected the Gentiles in their place.

Blessed is the nation - For the meaning of the word “blessed,” see the notes at Psa 1:1. The idea here is, that the nation referred to is happy, or that its condition is desirable. What is true of a nation is also as true of an individual. Whose God is the Lord - Whose God is Yahweh - for so this is in the original Hebrew. That is, the nation which worships Yahweh, and is under his protection. This is evidently said to distinguish such a nation from those which worshipped false gods or idols. Such a nation is blessed or happy, because: (a) He is a real God, the true God, and not an imagination or fiction; (b) because His laws are just and good, and their observance will always tend to promote the public welfare and prosperity; (c) because His protection will be vouchsafed to such a nation; and (d) because His worship, and the influence of His religion, will tend to diffuse virtue, intelligence, purity, and truth, over a land, and thus will promote its welfare. And the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance - Chosen to be “His;” or, His portion. The primary reference here is undoubtedly to the Hebrew people, called his “inheritance:” Deu 4:20; Deu 9:26; Deu 32:9; Psa 74:2; Psa 78:62, Psa 78:71; or “heritage,” Psa 94:5; Jer 12:7, Jer 12:9; but what is here affirmed of that people is true also of all other people who worship the true God.