Introduction
Like Psalm 65, Psalm 66 is a psalm of thanksgiving to the Lord. In both psalms, God is to praised. In both psalms, he’s to be praised in the temple. And in both psalms he’s to be praised in the temple for his awesome deeds. However, whereas the focus of Psalm 65 is on how God made and sustains all things, the focus in Psalm 66 is on how God saves and rescues his people.
Our God is a God who acts. He works. He does things. In Psalm 65 the psalmist praised God because he made the world, establishing the mountains; and he rules over the world, controlling the waves of the sea and the rise and fall of the nations; and he cares for the earth, watering the ground with rain. He’s always at work in the world. And in Psalm 66 the psalmist praises God because he rescues his people when they’re in trouble. He acts to save them.
And, of course, the whole of the Bible is about what God has done. It’s the record and the interpretation of the things he has done and how he made and sustains all things and how he sent his Son to deliver his people from our sin and misery. Our God is a God who acts. He works. He does things. And he does things in particular for his people.
The psalm can be divided into two main parts. In verses 1 to 12 all the earth is summoned to praise God for what he has done to rescue his people. But verses 13 to 20 are more personal. The psalmist says ‘I will come’ and ‘I will sacrifice’ and ‘let me tell you what he has done for me.’ The second half of the psalm is much more personal and it’s about praising God for what he has done for the psalmist. And, of course, every believer can praise God for what he has done for all his people by sending his Son to give up his life for his church; but every believer can praise God for what he has done for me personally, because not only has he saved us, but he has saved me.
Verses 1 to 4
The first half of the psalm begins with four imperatives or commands: ‘Shout with joy to God’; ‘Sing the glory of his name’; ‘make his praise glorious’ or ‘give to him glorious praise’; and ‘say to God, “How awesome are your deeds”‘. Shout. Sing. Give to him. Say to him. These four commands are addressed to ‘all the earth’. So, the psalmist is calling on all people everywhere to praise the Lord.
One of the commentators suggests that these four commands can also be taken as advice. The psalmist is advising all people everywhere to praise the Lord: you would be wise to praise him, because our God is a great God who does awesome deeds. So great is God’s power — which he has displayed by what he has done — that his enemies cringe before him. So, whereas your enemy or my enemy might stand up to us and we’re powerless to do anything about them, because we don’t have the power to subdue them, the Lord is all-powerful and almighty, so that his enemies cannot stand up to him, but will eventually cringe before him in submission.
And, of course, in Philippians 2 we read of the day when everyone will bow before Christ the Saviour and acknowledge him; and in Revelation 6 we read of a day when the kings of the earth, the princes, and generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man will hide for fear because of the coming of the Lord; and on that day, they will ask the mountains to fall on them in order to hide them from God’s wrath. In Revelation, God’s enemies are depicted as cringing before God, when he comes to judge the living and the dead. And the psalmist anticipates that day in this psalm.
And then, in verse 4 the psalmist pictures a time when all the earth will bow before God and they will sing praise to him. And what he was picturing has been fulfilled in part, because after the Lord’s resurrection, he sent the apostles — who represented the church — to go into all the world to make disciples of all nations. He sent them out to tell people everywhere about God and the awesome things he has done. And so, around the world today, men and women and boys and girls are praising his name, because they heard about him and how great he is. And the day is coming, when Christ returns, when his enemies will be punished, and his people will fill the new heavens and earth and will praise his name forever, declaring his might and power and glory.
Verses 5 to 12
In verse 5, the psalmist summons all people everywhere to see what God has done. And then he proceeds to tell them about the awesome thing God did when he rescued the Israelites from Egypt and brought them through the Red Sea. However, when the psalmist goes on to refer to ‘the waters’ in the second line of verse 6, he might be referring to the crossing of the River Jordan. So, not only did God bring his people through the Red Sea, but he brought them through the Jordan and into the Promised Land. And on both occasions, the Lord demonstrated his great power and might, not only to the people of Israel who experienced it for themselves, but to all those who now hear about it. And therefore, the psalmist summons all people everywhere to rejoice in God. Up to now, you have disregarded him. Up to now, you have not acknowledged him or given him glory. Up to now, you have worshipped false gods. But now, you should rejoice in our God, because he is the true God who rules forever by his power and he watches over the nations. And so, they would be wise not to rebel against him, but to bow before him.
In verse 8 he once again summons all people everywhere to praise our God. And they should praise him for preserving the lives of his people. Perhaps he’s still thinking of the time when the Lord rescued the people of Israel from Egypt and brought them through the wilderness and into the Promised Land, because their time in the wilderness was a time of testing, when the Lord tested them to see whether they would trust and obey him. Remember the manna and the instructions about collecting it every day apart from the Sabbath Day? The Lord was testing them to see if they would believe his word and obey his command. And he tested them by causing them to hunger and thirst in the wilderness. Would they learn to trust in him? Would they learn that man lives not by bread, but by the word of God? But perhaps the psalmist is referring to some other occasion when his people faced trials and troubles and when they were afflicted in some way. But God was testing them and refining them like silver. In order to purify metal, you heat it up to remove the impurities. And in a similar way, the Lord sent affliction on his people to refine them and to purify them, to purge away their sins so that they would be more obedient to him.
And who knows? Maybe that’s what the Lord is doing in our day with the coronavirus crisis. Perhaps the Lord is using this crisis to refine his people in order to purge away our sins and to make us holy. In that case, we should pray that we will be refined and that our sins will be purged from us so that we will become more obedient to him.
The psalmist likens their affliction to being in a prison. And the thing about a prison is that you can’t get out. So, whatever experience they were going through — whether he’s referring to the wilderness wanderings or to some other trial — they were trapped and couldn’t get out of it themselves. And it was as if the Lord had laid a burden on their backs to crush them. It was as if men were riding over their heads and were trampling them underfoot. Fire and water symbolise persecution and peril. The Lord was afflicting them, but it was in order to test them and to refine them, to purge away their sin.
And though he afflicted them, he also preserved them and kept them from being destroyed. And in the end, after he afflicted them, he brought them to a place of abundance. The word translated ‘abundance’ means saturate. After afflicting them, he saturated them, he soaked them with his blessings.
That’s what the Lord did for his people. He afflicted them for their good. But he preserved them and ultimately he blessed them. And so, the psalmist is proclaiming these things to the world; and he’s calling on all people everywhere to praise the Lord who has done these great things for his people.
Verses 13 to 20
As I’ve said, verses 13 to 20 are more personal. The psalmist says that he will come to God’s temple with burnt offerings to fulfil his vows. In Old Testament times, when the people were in trouble or in need, they would make a vow to the Lord to offer him a sacrifice if he delivered them from their trouble. And so, the psalmist is saying that he will fulfil his vow to the Lord, and will bring the promised offerings to the temple. And he intends to fulfil his vow because the Lord has helped him. He says in verse 16:
Come and listen …
let me tell you what God has done for me.
‘I cried out to him with my mouth’, he says in verse 17. And then he says in verse 19:
God has surely listened
and heard my voice in prayer.
Interestingly, he says that if he had cherished sin in his heart, then God would not have listened to him. All of us are sinners, but one person loves his sin and wants to keep it, whereas another person hates his sin and wants rid of it. Well, the Lord will not listen to the person who loves his sin and wants to keep it. But the Lord will listen to the one who hates his sins and weeps and mourns over it and wants rid of it. The Lord sends the proud away with nothing, but he will hear the cry of his humble and penitent people.
And the Lord heard the psalmist; he did not reject his prayer, but he accepted it. And he did not withhold his love from the psalmist. And the psalmist is using that special name for love, which refers to God’s covenant love, his steadfast love. He binds himself to his people with a promise to be their God and to care for them. And so, because of the Lord’s commitment to his people, he was willing to help the psalmist. And as a response to God’s kindness, the psalmist declares what God has dome for him and he calls on the people around him to praise the Lord for what he has done. I was in trouble, and the Lord helped me. I was in trouble, and the Lord saved me. Therefore praise the Lord.
Conclusion
We believe in a God who acts. He works. He does things. And the psalmist responded to God’s awesome deeds by praising the Lord and by calling on others to praise the Lord with him. And the Lord is the one who acted not only in the Exodus to deliver his people from Egypt, but he acted in the person of his Son to deliver his people in every generation from our sin and misery so that we could cross from death to life. What awesome things he has done, because he sent his Son to save us; and he raised him from the dead; and he promises forgiveness and eternal life to all who believe in his Son.
And then, when the time was right, he sent his Spirit into your life to enable you personally to repent and to believe: to raise you from spiritual death and to give you new life in Christ. And throughout your life in this world, when you were in trouble, he heard your cries and he helped you. And though sometimes he afflicts you, he does it for your good.
We believe in a God who acts. Who works. Who worked in the world by his Son; and who works in us by his Spirit. And the proper response to what he has done is to praise him: to declare his awesome deeds to one another; to tell one another what God has done for his people and what he has done for me. And so, we declare his praises to one another and we call on others to praise him too.
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