Ps. 33.1-3 (a 'new song')

Exult in Yhwh / you who are righteous – O you upright ones / praise is fitting. – Praise Yhwh / with a lyre – make music / for him / with a ten-stringed harp – Sing to him / a new song; - play beautifully / with a joyful sound.” The exuberance in these opening lines is overflowing. In every single line, the psalmist calls on two parties in particular to praise Yhwh: “Exult….praise…praise with a lyre…make music…play beautifully.” Those who are called upon to engage in this activity are “the righteous” and the “upright ones”; these first two lines are acrostic ( A: Exult in Yhwh – B: you who are righteous – B1: O you upright ones – A1: praise is fitting). For them, such liturgy is “fitting”. It is key to realize that the remainder of the psalm is sung by these two parties; they are the ones given the exclusive direction to join the psalmist. As will become apparent later, these represent those who are in full covenantal relationship with Yhwh (hence, they are ‘righteous’). These people represent, in many ways, those who were called out of Egypt in order to ‘offer sacrifices’ (i.e., worship) Yhwh; just as they were ‘called out of Egypt’ they were later called out of the world and into Yhwh’s own sphere to become his very own nation of priests. This dynamic is important: to be called ‘out’ (of the world) and ‘into’ (Yhwh) is to taken over by him for praise, sacrifice and liturgy. (One could dwell more along these lines: about how the nation of light must first become extracted and a nation in Yhwh, in praise; about how worship and covenantal solidarity are conjoined; about how worship is a politically subversive act; ….  And note too (this will become important later) that the first thing done after Egypt has been successfully destroyed is a hymn of praise to Yhwh.) The point is that these are their words of praise and, we might say, something (many?) stand outside of but aspire toward. In a sense, these are heavenly words for they are spoken by those who do Yhwh’s “will on earth”. After introducing the dramatis personae, the psalm then shifts to how the praise will be enacted: musically and vocally. Musically, the psalmist calls for a ‘lyre’ and a ‘ten-stringed harp’.  Vocally, these ‘righteous ones’ are to sing a ‘new song’. This ‘new song’ has deep resonances throughout the Scriptures. It can refer to a song that expresses, in an ever-fresh manner, the victorious kingship of Yhwh (much like the song after the Reed Sea). It can also, however, have connotations of the song that will be sung when Yhwh establishes his kingdom, or when he fully ends Israel’s exile (as in Isaiah). But aren’t these much of the same? Do we need to say that this not eschatological? What seems important is that to this psalmist, everything else in comparison is ‘old’. He stands at that point where he is looking, entirely, toward the future, toward newness and (re)newal. He is standing on a boundary and has been ‘caught up’. None of the old categories or forms can supply him with what he sees as the ‘fitting’ expression of Yhwh’s creative power. Can it be that to fully perceive Yhwh’s creative activity is to sense this ‘ever-new’ power of creation? That it is not something subject to ever being ‘old’? That it is always-already a surprise?  One final concluding remark: all of this is to Yhwh (“Exult in Yhwh…; Praise Yhwh…; make music for him…; sing to him…”). Yhwh obviously delights in hearing his ‘righteous ones’ and ‘holy ones’ praise him. As we said, it was the reason for Israel’s deliverance/exodus.