8 Let all the earth fear the LORD;
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
9 For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.
10 The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
he frustrates the plans of the peoples.
11 The counsel of the LORD stands forever,
the plans of his heart to all generations.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!
13 The LORD looks down from heaven;
he sees all the children of man;
14 from where he sits enthroned he looks out
on all the inhabitants of the earth,
15 he who fashions the hearts of them all
and observes all their deeds.
16 The king is not saved by his great army;
a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.
17 The war horse is a false hope for salvation,
and by its great might it cannot rescue.
18 Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him,
on those who hope in his steadfast love,
19 that he may deliver their soul from death
and keep them alive in famine.
— Psalm 33:8-19, ESV

I have lived in eight places in my lifetime.  If I’m a cat with nine lives, I’ve got one more to go, perhaps a retirement home on some forgotten coast.  So far, every place I’ve lived claimed to be “God’s Country.”  The only exception is Memphis, Tennessee, which is Elvis’ Country.  At least the name “Graceland” gives a nod to God.

These verses in Psalm 33 provide a map that reads and leads to the actual, exclusive location of “God’s Country.”  To find it, you first have to have a proper relationship with the “God” who owns the “Country.”  Then, it becomes easy to find, although you might be surprised how close it is right now.  When you do find it, you want to get there and take up permanent residence.  So, with the excitement of a kid in the back seat of the family car saying over and over, “Are we there yet?,” Let’s go and find “God’s Country.”  

Which God?

If I were to say to you, “Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother’s house we go!”  You’d have to ask, “Whose grandmother? Yours, mine, or someone else’s?  There are two grandmothers for every person on the planet, which would be about sixteen billion women, if they all were still alive.

It is the same way with God, god, or gods.  Everybody has got one, two, many, or none.  Agnostics abound, and atheists are increasing.  Polytheists are all over the world.  Deists still exist, 250 years after some of them founded the greatest country on earth.  Monotheists stake claim to the three largest religions in the world, two of which are stagnant or declining.  Christianity appears stagnant, Judaism is in decline, only Islam is growing, mostly due to higher birth rates than Christians and Jews.  

At the end of the day, however, I think most people in the world, and especially in America, reject all of those concepts of God.  They are their own God.  This is especially true with the “spiritual but not religious” crowd.  I agree with them that religion without spirituality is dead.  But, spirituality without religion is deformed, dangerous, and eventually just as deadly.  

Real religion gives order and accountability to the search for the true and living God.  The right religion defines the terms it takes to know God, gain a relationship with Him, and receive His blessings and benefits.  True religion offers the structure and rules God requires to worship and serve Him, both personally and corporately.  The right religion unites you with the right, one and only, true and living, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, almighty God.  

Let me introduce Him to you.  His proper, personal name is YHWH, which is found six times in these twelve verses.  In English it is translated “LORD” in all caps (ref. vs. 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 18).  This is the name God chose for Himself when He began to inspire man to write Holy Scripture.  YHWH means “I Am,” or more perfectly, I always was, I always am, and I always will be, the one, the only, the everlasting God, who bestows everlasting life upon those I choose, who choose Me.      

God also is know by many other names.

You can call Him, Creator (vs. 9, 15).  He made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them, including human beings.  He fashioned our hearts in His image, so that we can make free, willing, and consequential choices, the best of which is to worship and serve the Lord.

You can call Him, Counselor (vs. 11).  He is trustworthy.  His word is absolutely true.  He has given us the map, written down in the word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You can call Him, King (vs. 12).  He is sovereign.  He chooses the people He wants to live with Him in His country, with grace.  Subsequently, with faith, they choose to follow Him into His country and live with Him forever more (vs. 15).  

You can call Him, Love (vs. 18).  God is love (ref. 1 John 4:8).  Everything He does He does with unconditional, unfathomable, unending love.  

You can call Him, Savior (vs. 16-19).  Physical safety here is a metaphor for eternal security, which can only be provided by our great God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.  God alone rescues from death and grants eternal life.  

You can call Him, Jesus.  The entire Gospel of John is dedicated to this fact, especially 8:58, 10:30, and the seven “I Am” statements, “I Am the bread of life” (6:35,41,48,51); “I Am the light of the world” (8:12); “I Am the door of the sheep” (10:7,9); “I Am the good shepherd” (10:11,14); “I Am the resurrection and the life” (11:25); “I Am the way, the truth, and the life” (14:6); and, “I Am the true vine (15:1,5).

You can call Him, LORD, “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved” (ref. Joel 2:32; ref. also Acts 2:21, Romans 10:13).  Jesus is LORD!  So, where does He live?  Where is “God’s Country?”

Where is His Country?

Asking for directions to “God’s Country” is like asking for directions to your favorite chain restaurant.  If I were to say to you, “Let’s go to Popeye’s,” you’d have to ask, “Which one?”  There’s one on Central Avenue, one on Albert Pike Road, and one on Grand Avenue.  It is one place in many places.  

“God’s Country” is one place in many places.  “Let all the earth fear the LORD;” therefore, the LORD can be found and feared everywhere on earth, available to “all the inhabitants of the world” (vs. 8).  But the world is, well, the world, made up of nearly 200 nations.  Which nation is “God’s Country?”

The Psalmist narrows it down without naming it.  “The nation” (vs. 12) could be one, which rules out a single state within a nation.  Sorry, Arkansas, even though we are “The Natural State,” we are not exclusively “God’s Country.”  The same could be said for my native Georgia, “Georgia, Georgia, just the thought of you …” (a song made famous by fellow Georgian Ray Charles, but ironically written by two Yankees).  No, states are not nations.

What about our entire nation, the good ol’ USA?  We’re 250 years old this weekend, happy birthday!  We have a church on every corner and send missionaries to every country.  Surely we are “God’s Country.”  But, though our founding documents were infused with faith, they are secular in scope and affirm no certainties about who God is nor where God lives.  

The nation of Israel, surely, is “God’s Country.”  I love Israel.  I’ve been there.  It changed my life.  But while I was there I worshipped on Sunday at The First Baptist Church of Jerusalem, with only a small handful of souls.  Less than two percent of the population of Israel accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  It seems that in the very birthplace of God, God hardly lives anymore.  

Let’s go back verse 12 and look at a clue.  “Nation” is the Hebrew word “goy,” which is better translated “people,” especially a certain group of people.  Specifically it refers to “Abraham’s Seed,” or offspring, and not of the flesh, but of faith.  Those with the faith of Abraham, devout Old Testament  Jews, and committed New Testament Christians, form the “Blessed … nation whose God is the LORD.”  

It is not a place.  It is a people.  We, the truly saved people of Christ’s New Covenant church, joined with the true saints of the Old Covenant, we are “God’s Country!”  

How Do You Get There?

Look for the signs in this very Psalm.  Do you “fear” and “stand in awe” of God (vs. 8)?  Do you keep the words “He commanded” (vs. 9)?  Have you been “blessed” and “chosen” by God (vs. 12)?  Do you “love” Him, and put Him first and foremost above anyone or anything in your life (vs. 18)?  

Or, go to your New Testament.  There you will find the two steps it takes to enter into “God’s Country,” otherwise known as “The Kingdom of God.”  They are exhaustively and exclusively “repentance” and “faith,” two sides of the same coin, received as a grace gift from God, spent by faithfully turning your life over to God, and rewarded by abundant and everlasting life with God.  

Finally, consider these two encounters in the New Testament which bring us to the very city limits of “God’s Country.”

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”
— Mark 12:28-34, ESV

Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
— Luke 17:20-21, ESV

It seems we are in “God’s Country” right now, right here, for the kingdom of God exists wherever and in whomever Jesus Christ is Lord.  You are either “not far” or “in the midsts.”  It all depends upon what you have done, are doing, and will do with the great “I Am,” the Lord Jesus Christ.  Repent, believe the gospel, and gain assurance through baptism, responsible church membership, and obedience to the word of God.  Then, the next time someone asks you where you live, tell them “God’s Country.”