Shout for joy to God, all the earth;
2 sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise!
3 Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.
4 All the earth worships you
and sings praises to you;
they sing praises to your name.” Selah
5 Come and see what God has done:
he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.
6 He turned the sea into dry land;
they passed through the river on foot.
There did we rejoice in him,
7 who rules by his might forever,
whose eyes keep watch on the nations—
let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah
8 Bless our God, O peoples;
let the sound of his praise be heard,
9 who has kept our soul among the living
and has not let our feet slip.
10 For you, O God, have tested us;
you have tried us as silver is tried.
11 You brought us into the net;
you laid a crushing burden on our backs;
12 you let men ride over our heads;
we went through fire and through water;
yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.
13 I will come into your house with burnt offerings;
I will perform my vows to you,
14 that which my lips uttered
and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
15 I will offer to you burnt offerings of fattened animals,
with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams;
I will make an offering of bulls and goats. Selah
16 Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will tell what he has done for my soul.
17 I cried to him with my mouth,
and high praise was on my tongue.
18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
19 But truly God has listened;
he has attended to the voice of my prayer.
20 Blessed be God,
because he has not rejected my prayer
or removed his steadfast love from me! Psalm 66 ESV
A Psalm and song to the chief musician.
All the earth - It is He that has made us and not we ourselves. There is no one on earth of their own doing, creation, life and everything that any of us enjoys or even suffers is good enough reason to praise God, Who is above all these things. God is not God of the Jews only, He is God only, period, the word of God is His revelation to us about who and why we are, and Christ is the reconciliation, the Word promised and among us.
Glory of His name - Quoted from Spurgeon Treasury of David
- The honour of God should be our subject, and to honour him our object when we sing. To give glory to God is but to restore to him his own. It is our glory to be able to give God glory; and all our true glory should be ascribed unto God, for it is his glory. "All worship be to God only, "should be the motto of all true believers. The name, nature, and person of God are worthy of the highest honour. Make his praise glorious. Let not his praise be mean and grovelling: let it arise with grandeur and solemnity before him. The pomp of the ancient festivals is not to be imitated by us, under this dispensation of the Spirit, but we are to throw so much of heart and holy reverence into all our worship that it shall be the best we can render. Heart worship and spiritual joy render praise more glorious than vestments, incense, and music could do. -C. H. Spurgeon
Your enemies come cringing - Fear is only the beginning of knowledge, those that come to love God have known the fear of God, yet by faith have received the gift of salvation. They, that never come to love Him, will one day come only to the fear of Him.
Why, then, do you judge your brother? Or why do you belittle your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11 It is written: “As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before Me; every tongue will confess to God.” 12 So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.… Romans 14: 10-12
Come and see what God has done - The Psalmist describes something from the history of Israel's past, that they walked through the sea as on dry land. Standing at the Red Sea, they were not warriors, they were blocked in, and were being approached as prey. It is only a shadow of salvation, and draws upon the deeps of the great flood, there is safety on the opposite shore, but what can bring this many people safely to the other side? It is a shadow of something even more inconceivable, it escapes the minds of every complaining heart, God has to make the Way. If you believe this really happened, then why not trust Him today, it is the same God as then, whether through the sea or the storm, He is able.
"What ailed thee, O thou mighty sea?
Why rolled thy waves in dread?
What bade thy tide, O Jordan, flee
And bare its deepest bed?"
"O earth, before the Lord, the God
Of Jacob, tremble still;
Who makes the waste a watered sod,
The flint a gushing rill." - poem from Treasury possibly by Spurgeon, but I am not certain.
The rebellious exalt themselves - Selah, pause, reflect on this, and I scream at myself, for there is no logical foundation for pride, to exalt myself before God, to choose my way over His.
Has not let our feet slip - Even more reason not to be proud, God hath chastened us yet held us, refined us by His Spirit, not our stoic resolve, not with the might of men.
- Blessed be God, who, having put our souls into possession of life, has been pleased to preserve that heaven given life from the destroying power of the enemy. And suffereth not our feet to be moved. This is another and precious boon. If God has enabled us not only to keep our life, but our position, we are bound to give him double praise. Living and standing is the saint's condition through divine grace. Immortal and immoveable are those whom God preserves. Satan is put to shame, for instead of being able to slay the saints, as he hoped, he is not even able to trip them up. God is able to make the weakest to stand fast, and he will do so. C. H. Spurgeon
You have brought us into the net - Oddly, but most human in it's reasoning, that we are in the net, that we are tested or that we experience any suffering, is the excuse of so many a heart, their argument against God. There is Christ though, walking willingly to Calvary, yet we only want prosperity, the place where we say we will acknowledge there is a God, the place where men say they have no need of God. In prosperous times we should be all the more guarded against the vanity of our hearts.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.…Romans 8: 35-37
When I was in trouble - "Oh God, if you just get me out of this." This will never be enough for the grateful, for those lost that are found, for those sick that were healed. Those that understand the mercy they have received will magnify God even more, and still wish they could give the more.
- We should magnify the Lord with the great and the little. None of his ordinances should be disregarded; we must not omit either the bullocks or the goats. In these three verses we have gratitude in action, not content with words, but proving its own sincerity by deeds of obedient sacrifice. Selah. It is most fit that we should suspend the song while the smoke of the victims ascends the heavens; let the burnt offerings stand for praises while we meditate upon the infinitely greater sacrifice of Calvary. C. H. Spurgeon
What He has done for my soul - This is your testimony, He has tried you, exposed the wantonness of a heart born to be at enmity with Him. He did not come to save the righteous and so I must know that I am not righteous, that no man can be, without the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ. He has not only showed me my wretched state, but brought me to the foot of the Cross.
Cherished iniquity in my heart - The prayer of those that deny sin in their life, hold that idol up upon the mantle of their heart, and yet wonder why God will not answer, we pray not to the God of the Bible, but to the one we fashioned that does not hate sin.
If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send a plague among My people, 14 and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. 15 Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.… 2 Chronicles 7: 13-15
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