Psalm 66
Praise God!
I am sat writing this on a train. A train delayed by nearly fifty minutes. People have stood in the dreich weather, waiting as the delayed time got later and later. If people are going to Aberdeen, the last stop, they won’t be home for another few hours still.
I don’t know if there were any other Christians on the platform at Haymarket waiting with me. But I wonder how we might have responded if someone called on us to “Praise God!”
Sometimes as we gather together on a Sunday morning, our own souls can feel pretty dreich. Something we have been waiting for has been delayed yet again. We have been disappointed once more. And then the Minister stands up and calls us to worship God, and a quiet voice whispers deep down in your soul, “Why?”
The Psalmist here invites us to “Come and see what God has done”, reminding us of his power and grace and sovereignty and faithfulness.
For the director of music. A song. A psalm.
1 Shout for joy to God, all the earth!
2 Sing the glory of his name;
make his praise glorious.
3 Say to God, ‘How awesome are your deeds!
So great is your power
that your enemies cringe before you.
4 All the earth bows down to you;
they sing praise to you,
they sing the praises of your name.’5 Come and see what God has done,
his awesome deeds for mankind!
6 He turned the sea into dry land,
they passed through the waters on foot –
come, let us rejoice in him.
7 He rules for ever by his power,
his eyes watch the nations –
let not the rebellious rise up against him.8 Praise our God, all peoples,
let the sound of his praise be heard;
9 he has preserved our lives
and kept our feet from slipping.
10 For you, God, tested us;
you refined us like silver.
11 You brought us into prison
and laid burdens on our backs.
12 You let people ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water,
but you brought us to a place of abundance.13 I will come to your temple with burnt offerings
and fulfil my vows to you –
14 vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke
when I was in trouble.
15 I will sacrifice fat animals to you
and an offering of rams;
I will offer bulls and goats.16 Come and hear, all you who fear God;
let me tell you what he has done for me.
17 I cried out to him with my mouth;
his praise was on my tongue.
18 If I had cherished sin in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened;
19 but God has surely listened
and has heard my prayer.
20 Praise be to God,
who has not rejected my prayer
or withheld his love from me!
This is a call to global praise because God is King over all!
The words given to us here in 3-4 remind us that, fundamentally and ultimately, God has no equal or peer. The earth will bow down before him ultimately.
Jesus is the name above and beyond every other name. At one point in the future, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord (Philippians 2.9-11). Let’s not be the enemies who will be brought cringing before him but those who come gladly having already given themselves in worship to him.
We are then invited to step onto the banks of the Red Sea (5-7). To see it drawn back and up. To look on the liberated slaves traversing the sea’s floor and staying dry. To remember God’s kindness to his people, who delivered them from the hand of a cruel tyrant. To recall the joy of God’s great power over the rebellious.
And so we are invited to rejoice in him. He is the One who is faithful to his covenant. He is the One who rules and reigns with all power. These events in history are glimmers of his awesome might. That’s right, mere glimmers. He is the one who heats the furnace of the sun and every other star in the universe. And all those added together do not compare with his radiant glory. And he is the One who entered into history and redeemed his people.
In the same way, Philip invited Nathanael to “Come and see” (John 1.46). Nathanael saw the one who turned water into wine, healed a lame man, fed five thousand with just five loaves and two fish, gave sight to a blind man and raised Lazarus from the dead. He saw Jesus, who entered into history, and redeemed his people from their sins through his death on the cross.
We are called to keep up our praise as we keep walking with the people of God. For we are invited here to remember how God kept his people during their wanderings in the wilderness (8-12).
Do you notice the change in v10? Up this point, we have been singing about God, but we shift to talking directly to him. I think this is because it gets more intense and personal. The time in the wilderness for the people was a time of testing. God used it in the same manner as silver is refined. Under the great heat of the furnace, the dross is melted away and only the pure remains. God allowed for them, for a moment, to dragged into prison, and have the feet of their enemies drag their feet over their heads.
So often, in God’s inscrutable wisdom, affliction and suffering are his tools to refine us (1 Peter 1.7). The worldly dross in our hearts must be sweated out. In his providence, God oversees this work as our Heavenly Father. It might seem painful, rather than pleasant in the moment, but God uses it to yield fruitfulness in our lives to the praise of his glorious grace (Hebrews 12.11).
The Psalmist commits to bring his sacrificial offerings to the temple (13-15). We are not required to bring animals to sacrifice to God anymore. Instead, we commit to offer our own bodies “as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship” (Romans 12.1).
The Psalmist closes with his own personal testimony to God’s kindness (16-20). He recounts how God bent his ear towards his beloved and heard his prayer, not closing the heavenly reservoir of love.
And so often this is the way we encourage one another. We recount how God has heard and answered our prayers, and invite one other not just to persevere but join us as we praise the God who works all things together for the good of those who love him.
Glory be to God the Father, who has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me.
Glory be to God the Son, whose deeds are awesome and worthy of great praise.
Glory be to God the Spirit, who keeps our feet from stumbling and keeps us on the path of life.
Ever three and ever One.