{"id":3576,"date":"2020-07-07T15:15:54","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T22:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/?p=3576"},"modified":"2020-07-07T15:16:15","modified_gmt":"2020-07-07T22:16:15","slug":"hobart-herd-devotional-psalms-66","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/?p=3576","title":{"rendered":"Hobart Herd Devotional – Psalms 66"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hobart Devotional \u2013 Psalms 66<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   This Psalm is a song of Thanksgiving and\npraise for all that God has done for His nation Israel and for us\nindividually.  The first 12 verses use\nplural pronouns like \u201cus\u201d and \u201cour\u201d, while verse 13-20 change to the singular\nof \u201cI\u201d, \u201cme\u201d, \u201cmy\u201d.  We have just come\nthrough the season of celebrating our nation on the 4th<\/sup> of July and\nhopefully we are celebrating all that God has done for me and you.  We have all seen the celebrations of\nfireworks celebrating how God has brought our nation into being and given it\nmany blessings.  However, I hear very\nlittle celebration of what God has done for me. \n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   We sing a chorus, \u201cShout to the Lord all the\nearth let us sing, power and majesty praise to the King\u201d.  Sometimes I think we celebrate what He has\ndone more than celebrating Who He Is!  We\nare reminded continually throughout this Psalm that we are to \u201cSing the glory\nof His name and make His praise glorious!\u201d(vs.2)  It is easy to sing praise to God for what He\nhas done when everything is going great, but unless we learn to sing praise and\nglory to God for Who He is, we will go through tremendous ups and downs.  God is good and worthy to be praised not\nbecause of what is happening around me, but because God is good all the time!  Then we can shout out verse 5, \u201cCome and see\nwhat God has done, how awesome his works in man’s behalf!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(NIV)  We can then lead people in the praises of our\nGod and let the sound be heard.  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   I have recently been challenged by the\ndecree of the Governor of California that the churches should not sing because\nof the virus.  I was reading many of the\ncomments that said that we don\u2019t have to sing out loud, after all can\u2019t God\nhear the voice of our hearts.  As I\ncontemplated these thoughts I came to the conclusion that for us not to sing\nwith our voices would be going against the command of the Lord to sing psalms,\nhymns, and spiritual songs.(Col. 3:16-17) \nThis is to be done with our voices and our hearts together.  We may need to do this with a mask on or in\nan outdoor service, but we need to express our hearts with our voices to the\nLord and bring Him praise and glory before the people.  Psalms 66:8  \n\u201cPraise our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard\u201d.(NIV)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   There is a testimony that comes through our\nsongs of praise and the testimony of our words. \nWe are to tell others about what the Lord has done.  Psalms 66:16-17,  16<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Come and listen, all you\nwho fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me.  17<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I cried out to him with\nmy mouth; his praise was on my tongue.(NIV) \nPart of that testimony is the fact that I have found forgiveness for my\nsin 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\nlistened; 19   but God has surely listened\nand heard my voice in prayer. 20  Praise\nbe to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!(NIV)  The testimony of what the Lord has done for\nme starts with the praise of His salvation and love for me.  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Father, today I want to be used to bring our\nnation back to the worship and praise of our God.  Please use me to remind our nation of all\nthat the Lord has done for us.  I know\nthat in order to do that I need to start with the singing and telling of what\nthe Lord has done for me.  May I be about\nletting people hear the words and songs of my mouth and heart as I celebrate\nall you have done for me.  In Jesus name,\nAmen!  Pastor Rob<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hobart Devotional \u2013 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 \u201cus\u201d and \u201cour\u201d, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[142],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3576"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3576"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3577,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3576\/revisions\/3577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hobart-community-church.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}