Psalms 33:19 - Exposition

To deliver their soul from death . The protection and deliverance, which a man's own strength cannot give, which no host, however numerous, can afford ( Psalms 33:16 ), which are not to be obtained from the largest chariot or cavalry force ( Psalms 33:17 ), can he and will be furnished freely by God, who alone keeps souls from death, and "delivers" those who are in peril. And to keep them alive in famine . Famine was a calamity from which Palestine often suffered (see Genesis 12:10 ; Genesis 26:1 ; Genesis 42:5 ; Ruth 1:1 ; 2 Samuel 21:1 ; 1 Kings 18:5 ; 2 Kings 8:1 , etc.). The righteous were sometimes "kept alive" through a time of famine by miraculous means ( 1 Kings 17:6 , 1 Kings 17:16 ).