To the chief musician, a song, a psalm
66
📚Shout joyfully to God, all you lands. 2 📚Sing out the honour of his name,
make his praise glorious.
3 📚Say to God, “How awe-inspiring
you are in your works!
Through the greatness of your power
your enemies will submit
themselves to you.
4 📚The whole earth will worship you
and sing to you;
they will sing to your name”. Selah
5 📚Come and see the works of God.
He is awe-inspiring in his
deeds toward the children of men.
6 📚He turned the sea into dry ground.
They went through the river
on foot.
There we rejoiced in him.
7 📚He rules by his power forever.
His eyes see the nations.
Let not the rebellious exalt
themselves. Selah
66:7 God ruled in the days of Moses and Joshua. He rules now (Ps 47:2). He will rule forever. He knows what is going on and how to control events to work out His purposes (Gen 50:20). All sin is rebellion against the mighty ruler of the universe. Is not sin, then, madness rather than a cause of boasting or self exaltation? Do the rebellious vainly imagine that the Creator cannot bring them down?⚜
8 📚O praise our God, you people,
and make the sound of his praise
to be heard.
66:8 Why does he call on all people to praise the God of Israel? Because He is the Creator, the only God there is, and He has a high purpose for all nations and eventually will manifest Himself as the God of all nations.⚜
9 📚He keeps our soul among
the living,
and does not let our feet be moved.
66:9 If we live it is because of Him. If we do not fall, if we still stand, still maintain our position, it is His grace. Praise Him.⚜
10 📚For you, O God, have tested us.
You have refined us, as silver is refined.
66:10 Great care and skill are required in refining silver. The fire must be just right, neither too much nor too little. God will exercise great care and patience in the trying of His children. Parents who do not love their children let them grow up without discipline except perhaps for an occasional thoughtless slap. God loves His own, and so He disciplines them carefully. If we refuse trials we are saying we don’t wish to be refined and made pure.⚜
11 📚You brought us into the net 📖,
you laid affliction on our backs.
12 📚You caused men to ride over
our heads.
We went through fire and through
water;
but you brought us out into
overflowing abundance.
66:10-12 God will test, try, and discipline every child of His. He will test and prove all that we are, all that we think, believe, and do. This world is a testing ground for His believers. It is a furnace where God’s silver is tried and purged, that is, where their faith and character are refined and developed. It is a wilderness where they are captured, loaded with heavy burdens, and where men arrogantly ride over them, trampling them in the dirt – all to some good purpose of God. It is a place where God’s metal is tempered, first plunged into fire and then into water. This is the way the saints are made strong.
Thus it happened in David’s personal life. Thus it will happen to some extent in the lives of all God’s true people – John 16:33; Heb 12:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 4:1, 12. Observe in these verses that though the agents may have been men, the One behind their activities was God. See Gen 45:5; 50:20; Acts 2:23. See other notes on testing at Gen 22:1; Jud 2:22.⚜
66:12 See the result of these trials. When God had accomplished His purpose in them He said “enough”, and brought His people into great blessing. Even while we are on this earth trials do not go on continually. God knows just how long to keep us in the heat (1 Pet 1:7; 5:10; Jam 1:3-4; Heb 12:11; 2 Cor 4:17; Rom 8:17-18; Ps 18:16-19; 71:20; 103:13-14).⚜
13 📚I will go into your house
with burnt offerings.
I will fulfil my vows to you,
14 📚Which my lips have uttered
and my mouth
has spoken, when I was
in trouble.
15 📚I will offer to you burnt sacrifices
of fat animals, with the fragrant
aroma of rams.
I will offer bulls with goats. Selah
66:13-15 Trials successfully endured are a cause of great thanksgiving. We should see the loving hand of God in them working for our good and bring the gifts we think will please Him. Let us give Him our hearts and our bodies a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1-2). These are the offerings He desires.⚜
16 📚Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will declare what he has done
for my soul.
17 📚I cried out to him with my mouth,
and he was extolled with my tongue.
18 📚If I regard sin in my heart,
the Lord will not hear me.
66:18 The meaning here seems to be this: if in any way he saw evil in his heart and permitted it to remain, if there was sin consciously kept there, unconfessed and unforsaken, or if any evil motives or desires were in his prayers, then God would not hear (Prov 15:29; Isa 1:15; 59:2; John 9:31; 1 John 3:21-22). Nothing hinders prayer more than sin cherished in the heart. God does not encourage evil or hypocrisy.⚜
19 📚But God has certainly heard me.
He has listened to the voice
of my prayer.
20 📚Blessed be God who
has not turned
away my prayer,
or his mercy from me.
66:16-20 He has spoken to God, now he will speak to men also. It is right and fitting to declare to others what God has done for us (Ps 71:15-16; 107:2; Matt 10:32). The substance of his testimony is this: God has been gracious and loving and has heard his prayers. Note at 65:2-3.⚜