Psalm 33:6

Context

Psalm 33 is a hymn in praise of God. The Hebrew text has no superscription, but the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, is reported to attribute it to David.

The psalm opens by calling the righteous to praise the LORD with "a new song" (vv. 1–3). Verses 4–5 then declare that the word of the LORD is right and that all His works are done in truth. Verses 6–9 present this word as the very power by which the world was made, and verse 6 stands at the head of this section. Verse 9, "For he spake, and it was done," restates the same idea. Verses 10–12 declare that the counsel of the nations comes to nothing while the counsel of the LORD stands forever, extending the Creator's sovereignty into history.

Verse 6 is built on parallelism, in which two lines express the same meaning in different words: "By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth" (KJV). "Word" is paired with "breath of his mouth," and "heavens" with "host." The Hebrew ruach, rendered "breath," can mean breath, wind, or spirit. "Host" refers to the army of heaven, that is, celestial bodies such as the sun, moon, and stars.

Interpretation

• As a confession of creation faith: Many commentators read this verse alongside "And God said, Let there be…" in Genesis 1. They see it as a confession that God made the world by His word alone, without struggling against preexisting material. Some also note a contrast with ancient Near Eastern creation myths, which depict battles among the gods.
• As a polemic against astral worship: On this reading, the stars (the host) that surrounding peoples worshiped as gods are merely creatures made by the breath of God.
• As a Trinitarian text: Some of the early church fathers, including Irenaeus, read "word" as God the Son, Jesus Christ, and "breath of his mouth" as the Holy Spirit. They cited the verse as evidence that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit participated together in creation. Linked with the "Word" of John 1, this reading is still cited today in explanations of the doctrine of the Trinity.

Debates and Issues

Some scholars who emphasize grammatical-historical interpretation are cautious about the Trinitarian reading. In their view, the primary sense is that the poet, using parallelism, expressed a single idea—God's speaking—twice. They therefore argue that it is difficult to establish a doctrine from this verse alone. By contrast, those who favor the traditional practice of rereading the Old Testament in the light of the New regard the two readings as not mutually exclusive.

The verse is also cited in discussions of creation out of nothing and of creation and evolution. Young-earth creationists cite it, together with verse 9, as support for instantaneous creation by the word. Theistic evolutionists hold that the verse speaks of the agent and authority of creation but not of its method or duration.

Among Korean translations, some modern versions render the term for "breath" (giun) more concretely as ipgim ("breath of the mouth") and paraphrase "host" (mansang) as "stars."

Related Passages

• Genesis 1:3 — the first creation account, in which light is made by the word
• John 1:3, part of John 1:1-3 — the confession that all things were made by the Word
• Hebrews 11:3 — through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God
• Genesis 2:7 — the breath of God makes man a living soul
• Colossians 1:16 — the confession that all things were created by Christ