"The eye of the LORD is on those who fear him"
A closer look at Psalm 33:18.
18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him,
on those who hope in his steadfast love. - Psalm 33:18 (ESV)
Introduction
In our last article, we discussed Isaiah 59:2:
2 But your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not hear. - Isaiah 59:2 (ESV)
Sin, as we discussed, can be defined as “falling short of God’s glory.” This means we miss the mark and either don’t do what we are supposed to do, or do something that we should not. We also noted that we can sin in word, deed, or thought. Iniquity is similar to sin, but it is more intense in nature, and refers to situations where we sin on purpose, or with a purpose. It refers to our hearts being set on sinning.
This passage reminds us that our sins and iniquities have an effect on our relationship with God. The verse tells us plainly that our iniquities make a separation between us and God and that because of our sins, God has “hidden his face from you.”
Of course, God always sees everything and He always knows everything. Our sin does not have the effect of somehow limiting God’s character or who He is. But our sin does affect our relationship with Him and this is described by the idea of God’s face being hidden. God is always doing the right things and He always goes the right way. And this is always the direction of His face. If we can’t see God’s face - if His face is hidden from us - then this means we are not going the right way and it means we are not doing the right things.
On the other hand, today’s verse gives us a specific reminder of when the eye of the Lord is directly on us. Let’s take a look at it together.
“Behold”
“Behold” is not a word that is used often in today’s American vocabulary. So when we see or hear it, we will generally pause and place our attention in the direction where we are called. And that is what this word means. It means to “look upon” or “see.”
In this case, we are called to stop and see what God is doing.
The previous couple of verses in this chapter remind us that kings are not saved by their great armies and that “war horses” - i.e. military resources - provide false hope. In any time and in any culture, these are the types of things that provide comfort to rulers and their people. If something attacks or if something bad happens, they are able to comfort themselves with their own resources or might.
However, these things mean nothing in God’s economy and the next few words in verse 18 help us to understand this better.
“The eye of the LORD is on those who fear him”
The direction of God’s face and where His eyes gaze is important.
As we gathered from our review of Isaiah 59:2, when we are sinning and opposed to God, His face is hidden from us. However, as we see in today’s verse, His “eye…is on those who fear him.”
The reality is, though, that the direction of God’s face never changes. God is always the same. There is no shadow created when God turns because God never turns (James 1:17). What is actually happening when God’s face is hidden from us is that our sin and rebellious hearts have caused us to turn away from Him. From our perspective, it seems that God has turned away. But from an eternal perspective we know that God is still the same.
When the psalmist reminds us that “the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him,” this describes a healthy relationship with God. Typically, when fear is a regular part of a relationship, that relationship is not described as healthy. Usually, fear describes being afraid of something and when that is part of a relationship we try to find a way out of the relationship.
But the fear of the Lord is something different.
Healthy fear of God is based on knowing who He is - the perfect and thrice holy King of the universe who has the authority and power to sentence us to eternal separation away from Him - and is based on knowing who we are - sinners against Him who are in need of His grace and mercy.
Fear of the Lord means that we have a healthy respect for who God is and we act accordingly. In the context of this verse, “those who fear him” can describe having a healthy relationship with God Almighty.
“On those who hope in his steadfast love”
“Those who fear him” are also described by the psalmist as “those who hope in his steadfast love.” And we know that “those who fear him” describes those having a relationship with the Lord, the latter phrase uses language that may be more closely associated with a relationship.
Those who are “hoping” are placing all of their faith, hope, and trust in the One who is providing “steadfast love” and God’s steadfast love is indeed something special.
As we have discussed previously, the ESV Study Bible notes that the transliterated Hebrew word “steadfast love” is ḥas•də•ḵā. The meaning of this word (also known as the lemma) is ḥe•seḏ.
To cut to the chase, “hesed” is a fascinating word and its meaning is mind blowing. Here’s a passage from gotquestions.org that helps explain:
Many biblical words such as mercy, compassion, love, grace, and faithfulness relate to the Hebrew word hesed (חֶסֶד), but none of these completely summarize the concept. Hesed is not merely an emotion or feeling but involves action on behalf of someone who is in need. Hesed describes a sense of love and loyalty that inspires merciful and compassionate behavior toward another person.
Hesed, found some 250 times in the Old Testament, expresses an essential part of God’s character. When God appeared to Moses to give the Law a second time, He described Himself as “abounding in” or “filled with” hesed, which is translated “love and faithfulness,” “unfailing love,” “faithful love,” “steadfast love,” and “loyal love,” depending on the Bible version (Exodus 34:6–7). The core idea of this term communicates loyalty or faithfulness within a relationship. Thus, hesed is closely related to God’s covenant with His people, Israel. As it relates to the concept of love, hesed expresses God’s faithfulness to His people.
“A sense of love and loyalty that inspires merciful and compassionate behavior.” This is God’s steadfast love toward those whose faith, hope, and trust have been placed in Him. When we place all of our faith, hope, and trust in the Lord and His steadfast love, we have nowhere else to turn. We have decided to follow Jesus and we know that there is no other way.
Application
Our takeaway from this week’s verse (and last week’s) is that sin matters.
God hates sin.
If we are not in a relationship with Him through His Son Jesus, our sin leads to our eternal damnation.
If we do know Him, our sin leads to a strained relationship with the Lord because when we sin we are turning away from Him, His ways and what pleases Him.
So whether our sinning comes outside of a relationship with Him or as one of His children, the stress caused by sin creates an environment where God’s face is turned away from us.
On the other hand, when we are reconciled to God through Jesus His Son, our relationship status changes. We go from His eyes turning away from us to a condition described as His eyes being “on those who fear him.” The same thing also happens to those who know Him after we sin and repent. Sin strains the relationship, but repentance allows us to return to a state of being under His gaze.
