Hobart Devotional – Psalms 66
This Psalm is a song of Thanksgiving and praise for all that God has done for His nation Israel and for us individually. The first 12 verses use plural pronouns like “us” and “our”, while verse 13-20 change to the singular of “I”, “me”, “my”. We have just come through the season of celebrating our nation on the 4th of July and hopefully we are celebrating all that God has done for me and you. We have all seen the celebrations of fireworks celebrating how God has brought our nation into being and given it many blessings. However, I hear very little celebration of what God has done for me.
We sing a chorus, “Shout to the Lord all the earth let us sing, power and majesty praise to the King”. Sometimes I think we celebrate what He has done more than celebrating Who He Is! We are reminded continually throughout this Psalm that we are to “Sing the glory of His name and make His praise glorious!”(vs.2) It is easy to sing praise to God for what He has done when everything is going great, but unless we learn to sing praise and glory to God for Who He is, we will go through tremendous ups and downs. God is good and worthy to be praised not because of what is happening around me, but because God is good all the time! Then we can shout out verse 5, “Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works in man’s behalf!”
(NIV) We can then lead people in the praises of our God and let the sound be heard.
I have recently been challenged by the decree of the Governor of California that the churches should not sing because of the virus. I was reading many of the comments that said that we don’t have to sing out loud, after all can’t God hear the voice of our hearts. As I contemplated these thoughts I came to the conclusion that for us not to sing with our voices would be going against the command of the Lord to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.(Col. 3:16-17) This is to be done with our voices and our hearts together. We may need to do this with a mask on or in an outdoor service, but we need to express our hearts with our voices to the Lord and bring Him praise and glory before the people. Psalms 66:8 “Praise our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard”.(NIV)
There is a testimony that comes through our songs of praise and the testimony of our words. We are to tell others about what the Lord has done. Psalms 66:16-17, 16
Come and listen, 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.(NIV) Part of that testimony is the fact that I have found forgiveness for my sin by praying and asking the Lord to forgive me. Psalms 66:18-20, 18 If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; 19 but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer. 20 Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!(NIV) The testimony of what the Lord has done for me starts with the praise of His salvation and love for me.
Father, today I want to be used to bring our nation back to the worship and praise of our God. Please use me to remind our nation of all that the Lord has done for us. I know that in order to do that I need to start with the singing and telling of what the Lord has done for me. May I be about letting people hear the words and songs of my mouth and heart as I celebrate all you have done for me. In Jesus name, Amen! Pastor Rob