Psalms 33:5
in Psalms 33The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of His loving devotion.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
He loveth righteousness and justice: The earth is full of the lovingkindness of Jehovah.
KJV
He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
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This verse in Psalms 33
Commentary
16 notes on this verseThe Judge wishes to have mercy on you and to share his own compassion.… But if he sees your heart unrepentant, your mind proud, your disbelief of the future life and your fearlessness of the judgment, then he desires the judgment for you, just as a reasonable and kind doctor tries at first with hot applications and soft poultices to reduce a tumor, but, when he sees that the mass is rigidly and obstinately resisting, casting away the olive oil and the gentle method of treatment, he prefers henceforth the use of the knife.
This site's exposition
For the word of the LORD
on Psalms 33:4-5
Verse 4 sets what God says beside what God does, and both are sound. Verse 5 names what He loves, righteousness and justice, and then fills the whole earth with His loving devotion. Praise in this psalm rests on the character named here.
This site's exposition
the earth is full of His loving devotion
Augustine took mercy and judgment as a sequence, mercy shown first and judgment afterward asking an account of what mercy gave. Basil of Caesarea pictured a kind doctor who tries soft poultices before he takes up the knife. Adam Clarke found mercy marked on everything God made.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
"He loves Mercy and Judgment:" for He loves Mercy, which now He shows first; and Judgment, wherewith He exacts that which He has first shown. "The earth is full of the Mercy of the Lord" [Psalm 33:5]: throughout the whole world are sins forgiven unto men by the Mercy of the Lord.
He places kindness before judgment because God uses kindness, then judgment against those who continue in sin.
He describes the Lord by telling what he has done or what he does every day. We say that we love the things in which we are often engaged. So here the Lord's love of mercy is celebrated in song … because he often imparts …
This is typical of God, both to show lovingkindness and to judge—to show lovingkindness for those who hope in him and to condemn those who trust in themselves.
Grace and righteousness are characteristic of what is done by God. In other words, he said that loving is characteristic of him, speaking perhaps excessively and meaning that not only does what has been done in the past have these two characteristics, but also he …
8 more voices on this verse
The Medieval Church1 voice
Second, when he says, "Because," he assigns the reason for joy and praise. The reason for praise and joy is twofold. One is on the part of God, in whom we are to exult. The second is on the part of his effects, at "By …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
The copy in all God's works agrees exactly with the great original, the plan laid in the Eternal Mind, and varies not in the least jot. God has made it to appear in his works, (1.) That he is a God of inflexible justice: He loveth righteousness and judgment. There is nothing but righteousness in the sentence he passes and judgment in the execution of it.
He loveth righteousness and judgment,....
The Nineteenth Century5 voices
He loveth righteousness and judgment. The theory and practice of right he intensely loves. He doth not only approve the true and the just, but his inmost soul delights therein. The character of God is a sea, every drop of which should become a wellhead of praise for his people. The righteousness of Jesus is peculiarly dear to the Father, and for its sake he takes pleasure in those to whom it is imputed.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Reasons for praise: first, God's truth, faithfulness, and mercy, generally; then, His creative power which all must honor.
He loveth righteousness and judgment. The theory and practice of right he intensely loves. He doth not only approve the true and the just, but his inmost soul delights therein. The character of God is a sea, every drop of which should become a wellhead of praise for his people. The righteousness of Jesus is peculiarly dear to the Father, and for its sake he takes pleasure in those to whom it is imputed. Sin, on the other hand, is infinitely abhorrent to the Lord, and woe unto those who die in it; if he sees no righteousness in them, he will deal righteously with them, and judgment stern and final will be the result. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. Come hither, astronomers, geologists, naturalists, botanists, chemists, miners, yea, all of you who study the works of God, for all your truthful stories confirm this declaration. From the midge in the sunbeam to leviathan in the ocean all creatures own the bounty of the Creator. Even the pathless desert blazes with some undiscovered mercy, and the caverns of ocean conceal the treasures of love. Earth might have been as full of terror as of grace, but instead thereof it teems and overflows with kindness. He who cannot see it, and yet lives in it as the fish lives in the water, deserves to die. If earth be full of mercy, what must heaven be where goodness concentrates its beams?
He loveth righteousness - What he delights in himself, he loves to see in his followers. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord - To hear its worthless inhabitants complain, one would think that God dispensed evil, not good. To examine the operation of his hand, every thing is marked with mercy and there is no place where his goodness does not appear. The overflowing kindness of God fills the earth. Even the iniquities of men are rarely a bar to his goodness: he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends his rain upon the just and the unjust.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
He loveth righteousness - See Psa 11:7. And judgment - justice. The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord - Margin, “mercy.” So the Hebrew. That is, his mercy or goodness is manifest everywhere. Every part of the earth bears witness that he is good.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אֹ֭הֵב | ʾohev | [he is] loving | H157 → | 211 times |
| צְדָקָ֣ה | tzedakah | righteousness | H6666 → | 157 times |
| וּמִשְׁפָּ֑ט | umishpat | and justice | H4941 → | 422 times |
| חֶ֥סֶד | chesed | [the] covenant loyalty of | H2617 → | 247 times |
| יְ֝הוָ֗ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| מָלְאָ֥ה | malah | it is full | H4390 → | 249 times |
| הָאָֽרֶץ׃ | haaretz | the earth | H776 → | 2504 times |
אֹ֭הֵב[he is] loving
ʾohevH157 →211 times
צְדָקָ֣הrighteousness
tzedakahH6666 →157 times
וּמִשְׁפָּ֑טand justice
umishpatH4941 →422 times
חֶ֥סֶד[the] covenant loyalty of
chesedH2617 →247 times
יְ֝הוָ֗הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
מָלְאָ֥הit is full
malahH4390 →249 times
הָאָֽרֶץ׃the earth
haaretzH776 →2504 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Matthew 5:45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
it leads to
- Psalms 145:9
The LORD is good to all; His compassion rests on all He has made.
- Luke 6:35
But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is…
- Acts 14:17
Yet He has not left Himself without testimony to His goodness: He gives you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness.”
- Job 25:3
Can His troops be numbered? On whom does His light not rise?
- Psalms 145:9
Through
Psalms 45:7You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you above your companions with the oil of joy.
it leads to
- Hebrews 1:9
You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You above Your companions with the oil of joy.”
- Psalms 21:6
For You grant him blessings forever; You cheer him with joy in Your presence.
- Isaiah 61:1–3
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty…
- Hebrews 1:9
Through
Psalms 11:7For the LORD is righteous; He loves justice. The upright will see His face.
it leads to
- Revelation 22:4
They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.
- Revelation 22:4
Where this verse is studied
About Psalms

This page draws on 15 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 33; Basil of Caesarea, HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 15:3 (PS 33); Basil of Caesarea, Homilies on the Psalms; Cassiodorus, EXPLANATION OF THE PSALMS 33:5; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 2; Diodorus of Tarsus, COMMENTARY ON PSALM 33; Hesychius of Jerusalem, LARGE COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 33:5; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Theodore of Mopsuestia, COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 33:5A and Thomas Aquinas, Exposition on the Psalms of David.
