John Calvin Commentary Psalms 33:13

"Jehovah looketh from heaven; He beholdeth all the sons of men;" — Psalms 33:13 (ASV)

Jehovah looked down from heaven. The Psalmist still proceeds with the same doctrine: namely, that human affairs are not tossed to and fro by chance, but that God secretly guides and directs all that we see taking place. Here he commends God’s inspection of all things, so that we, on our part, may learn to perceive and to contemplate with the eye of faith, his invisible providence.

There are, no doubt, evident proofs of it continually before our eyes; but the great majority of people, nevertheless, see nothing of them and, in their blindness, imagine that all things are under the control of blind fortune. Indeed, the more plentifully and abundantly he sheds his goodness upon us, the less we raise our thoughts to him, but absurdly fix them immovably on the external circumstances that surround us.

The prophet here rebukes this despicable conduct, because no greater insult can be offered to God than to confine him to heaven in a state of idleness. This is the same as if he were to lie buried in a grave. What kind of life would God’s life be if he neither saw nor took care of anything?

Using the term throne, the sacred writer also shows, from what is implied in it, what an absurd infatuation it is to strip God of thought and understanding. By this word, he makes us understand that heaven is not a palace where God remains idle and indulges in pleasures, as the Epicureans dream, but a royal court from which he exercises his government over all parts of the world. If he has erected his throne, therefore, in the sanctuary of heaven to govern the universe, it follows that he by no means neglects the affairs of earth, but governs them with the highest reason and wisdom.