October 4, 2024 Praise the Lord! | Psalm 66

Today we will give thanks to God for all his blessing through the year, and for the blessing of his presence during the difficult times. We will be reflecting on Psalm 66, Praise the Lord! In Psalm 66 we join the psalmist and all the earth in shouting for joy to the Lord for all the Lord has done for us, his people. As part of our service, we will be giving you opportunities to share some of what the Lord has done for you or who the Lord is to you. We will give thanks for God who hears our prayers and never withholds his love from us.

Transcript

Praise the Lord

Psalm 66

Today we slow down and take a moment to concentrate on God’s faithfulness; a faithfulness that remains constant even in our times of faithlessness. Psalm 66 is a hymn of praise, calling us to “Shout for joy to God, all the earth! Sing the glory of his name; make his praise glorious.” All the earth is called to shout for joy to God, not just his people. We can sometimes fall into thinking that we’re the center of all God’s attention. Pastor Stan Mast reminds us, “it is helpful to be reminded that God’s reign extends far beyond Israel. Yes, God has acted for Israel in marvelous ways, but ultimately he will use them to bless the whole world. In anticipation of that worldwide salvation, Psalm 66 calls the whole world to praise God now.”

Psalm 66 is not simply an invitation to praise God, this psalm is filled with the command to “shout for joy, to sing the glory of his name, to make his praise glorious.” This is the Lord’s expectation of us, to not simply take him and his gifts for granted, but to respond with hearts filled with joy and gratitude at who he is and his commitment to us. The psalmist calls us to remember that God is active in the life of his people, “How awesome are your deeds,” so that even God’s enemies can see just how powerful he is. Telling the stories of God is important for our faith. The Jewish people often talk about themselves as People of the Story, referring to the long history of God’s presence with them.

He remembers the Exodus and how God saved them out of slavery and lead them through the sea on dry ground. The psalmist seems to be a later king and reminds the people to praise God for refining them like silver when other nations defeated them and took them into slavery. He describes these times in terms of purifying them through fire and water, but always God brought them back to a place of abundance. He looks back at those difficult times and he thanks God for them because they have shaped the people into who they are; a people whose relationship with God is rooted in thankfulness and trust. 

The psalms are clear that life is filled with times of abundance, but with also times of struggle. Yet we live in trust that our God is a God who acts to restore his people, to lift them up again to experience his presence and blessings. These difficult times bring us to a place when we turn back to God, where we remember God’s faithfulness to us, and this gives us the courage to come back to him and rededicate ourselves to being his people. God hears our cries, our prayers, and he acts. Pastor Mast calls us to remember that God acts not only for Israel, God cares for the entire world, “God heard the cries of his people and answered their prayers by becoming one of us, a human, a Son of Adam, and an Israelite, the Son of David. The Incarnation, the Atonement, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, for us individually, for the people of God as a whole, and for the nations of the world—those are the awesome deeds of God that call the whole world to “make his praise glorious.”

It's good to take time as a church family to remember God’s blessings to us, as we share our stories of how God has been with us, restored us, forgiven us, and provided for us. as we hear others’ stories of God’s blessings and presence, our memories are stirred and we’re reminded of even more times when God was with us, walked with us, and acted for us. For those of us who are going through harder times right now, hearing how God is working in and through our church family, gives us the courage, strength, and reassurance that we can come to God with our own prayers and needs with hope and confidence, knowing that he’s with us. Faith shared in community grows stronger and builds the community, yet our faith also has to be personal. We hear the stories of God’s amazing deeds in Israel’s history; these are told to help us recognize God working in our lives, giving us eyes to see him at work around us and in us, and our stories help others to see God at work in their own lives, giving them hope.

In verse 13, the psalmist moves from talking all the earth, and from talking about God’s people, to making this psalm personal, using “I” and “me” language. All this praise and worship of God, all this remembering of what God has done in the past now becomes personal to him.  “I will come to your temple with burnt offerings and fulfill my vows to you—vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble.” We learn the psalmist had been in trouble and turned to the Lord. We don’t know what the trouble was that made the psalmist turn to the Lord, but it was big enough that he made vows to God to show that he is deeply serious about his need, it’s not a simple request, but a deep cry for help. 

This was not an attempt to manipulate God into answering his prayer. The psalmist knows that God cannot be manipulated to do our will instead of his will. Vows in Scripture show that the person’s need is great. It was a way of saying, “if this is your will to answer this prayer, then I will respond with gratitude to your will, but if it is not your will, I will still trust in you.” Vows showed that the person making the vow was serious about their request, caring enough to promise God something in return when he answers. But the response comes out of gratitude, not to manipulate God as was common among the relationships of the nations around Israel with their gods. 

The psalmist understands this as we see in Verse 18, “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.” The psalmist is reassured that his prayer was honouring God and was according to God’s will. We hear him give thanks, “Come and hear, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me. I cried to out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue…. God has surely listened and has heard my prayer.” When we read through the Old Testament stories of God and Israel, one thing stands out: praise and prayer go hand in hand with each other. They both often flow out of remembering and telling the stories of how God responds to his people, how he hears their cries and acts on his people’s behalf. 

Jesus tells us to bring everything to him in prayer, there’s nothing too small to bring to him. I know I’ve probably told this story before, but one Sunday morning in Second CRC of Allendale, a small girl came up to me to ask me to pray for her lost cat. It's a small thing to many of us, but it was big for her, so I prayed for her lost cat in the congregational prayer. The cat never did come back, but she was thankful that we prayed for it, it gave her some peace that day. This girl understands what the psalmist is getting at when he says, “Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!” Just knowing that God listens, that he hears our prayers and doesn’t reject them, gives us the permission to truly bring everything to him in prayer, leading us into a spirit of thanksgiving and trust, even if the answers are not what we desire, because we know he cares for us as a Father and will never withhold his love from us. As we gather as families and friends for Thanksgiving, take time to give thanks to God for who he is and for Jesus.