Make A Joyful Noise To God, All The Earth
Devotional
Companion to the Psalter
A Devotional Guide to the Psalms
Object:
Come and see what God has done;
he is awesome in his deeds among mortals ...
For you, O God, have tested us;
you have tried us as silver is tried ...
yet you have brought us out to a spacious place ...
Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will tell what he has done for me ...
If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
But truly God has listened ...
-- Psalm 66:5, 10, 12b, 16, 18, 19a
Theme: Israel calls the world to praise God
Outline
1-4 -- All people! Praise God!
5-7 -- Come and see his works and his sovereignty.
8-12 -- He brought us through fire and water to a spacious place.
13-15 -- I will gratefully pay vows I made in distress.
16-20 -- Come and hear what God has done for me. Blessed be God!
Notes
• Thanksgiving
• This is a good missions psalm. Note the evangelical appeal to all people.
• Isaiah 36-38 tells a great story that could well be the background of this psalm, and the psalmist could be devout King Hezekiah.
For Reflection
• This is a good prayer for one who has been through a lot of suffering and lives to tell of it. Looking back, the psalmist sees God's care through it all. Pray for God to bring you to this point. It reminds us of Revelation 7:13-17.
• Verses 17-20 provide an insight into one's prayer-life. While this is not the whole explanation of answered prayer, it is a part (v. 20). Grace and forgiveness were the bottom-line experience of the psalmist.
Prayer
Lord God, through all trials and testing, like silver tried in the fire, bring us forth refined in our faith and our loyal commitment to you and to your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Lead us to say with the love no experience can destroy, "Blessed be God forever! Blessed be Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." Amen.
he is awesome in his deeds among mortals ...
For you, O God, have tested us;
you have tried us as silver is tried ...
yet you have brought us out to a spacious place ...
Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will tell what he has done for me ...
If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
But truly God has listened ...
-- Psalm 66:5, 10, 12b, 16, 18, 19a
Theme: Israel calls the world to praise God
Outline
1-4 -- All people! Praise God!
5-7 -- Come and see his works and his sovereignty.
8-12 -- He brought us through fire and water to a spacious place.
13-15 -- I will gratefully pay vows I made in distress.
16-20 -- Come and hear what God has done for me. Blessed be God!
Notes
• Thanksgiving
• This is a good missions psalm. Note the evangelical appeal to all people.
• Isaiah 36-38 tells a great story that could well be the background of this psalm, and the psalmist could be devout King Hezekiah.
For Reflection
• This is a good prayer for one who has been through a lot of suffering and lives to tell of it. Looking back, the psalmist sees God's care through it all. Pray for God to bring you to this point. It reminds us of Revelation 7:13-17.
• Verses 17-20 provide an insight into one's prayer-life. While this is not the whole explanation of answered prayer, it is a part (v. 20). Grace and forgiveness were the bottom-line experience of the psalmist.
Prayer
Lord God, through all trials and testing, like silver tried in the fire, bring us forth refined in our faith and our loyal commitment to you and to your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Lead us to say with the love no experience can destroy, "Blessed be God forever! Blessed be Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." Amen.
