Lessons From the Psalms - Psalm 66

[00:00:07] Welcome to Lessons From the Psalms. This is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. On this podcast we will be going over the book of Psalms.

[00:00:22] Father God, I thank you for anyone listening to this psalm today. Lord, I pray that you would reveal to everyone listening how much you truly love each and every one of them. I ask this in Jesus' name.

[00:00:35] Friends, this is your host Bill Kelley and I'm going to ask that if you have the ability to do so that you sit down in an easy chair and relax and simply close your eyes as we meditate on this wonderful, wonderful psalm.

[00:00:55] Psalm 66 is a delightful psalm. It is a psalm of praise and we are basically giving shout out to God for His goodness.

[00:01:06] So if you have the ability, just meditate and be quiet as I read this psalm.

[00:01:14] Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth. Sing out the honor of His name. Make His praise glorious. Say to God how awesome are Your works!

[00:01:29] Through the greatness of your power, your enemies shall submit themselves to you.

[00:01:35] All the earth shall worship you and sing praises to you.

[00:01:41] They shall sing praises to your name, Selah.

[00:01:45] Come and see the works of God.

[00:01:49] He is awesome in his doing toward the sons of men.

[00:01:54] He turned the sea into dry land.

[00:01:57] They went through the river on foot.

[00:02:00] There we will rejoice in him.

[00:02:03] He rules by his power forever.

[00:02:07] His eyes observe the nations.

[00:02:10] Do not let the rebellious exalt themselves.

[00:02:14] Selah.

[00:02:16] Oh, bless our God, you peoples, and make the voice of his praise to be heard,

[00:02:23] who keeps our soul among the living and does not allow our feet to be moved.

[00:02:30] For you, O God, have tested us.

[00:02:33] You have refined us as silver is refined.

[00:02:37] You brought us into the net.

[00:02:40] You laid affliction on our backs.

[00:02:43] You have caused men to ride over our heads.

[00:02:47] We went through fire and through water.

[00:02:51] But you brought us out to rich fulfillment.

[00:02:56] I will go into your house with burnt offerings.

[00:03:00] I will pay you my vows, which my lips have uttered,

[00:03:04] and my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble.

[00:03:08] I will offer you burnt sacrifices of fat animals with a sweet aroma of rams.

[00:03:16] I will offer bulls with goats.

[00:03:20] Selah.

[00:03:21] Come and hear all you who fear God,

[00:03:25] and I will declare what he has done for my soul.

[00:03:29] I cried to him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue.

[00:03:34] If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.

[00:03:40] But certainly God has heard me.

[00:03:43] He has attended to the voice of my prayer.

[00:03:47] Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer,

[00:03:53] nor his mercy from me.

[00:03:56] Now, friends, Psalm 66 is an anonymous psalm.

[00:04:02] Now, it sounds very much like King David wrote this.

[00:04:08] But if King David had written it, it would have said a psalm of David.

[00:04:15] So it isn't, and there is no author that is mentioned.

[00:04:19] But one thing about psalms,

[00:04:21] it's basically the tone of the entire book of psalms.

[00:04:27] It's very comforting to read psalms.

[00:04:29] So what I'd like to do is go over a couple of these verses,

[00:04:34] maybe more than a couple,

[00:04:36] but I want to talk about how this psalm can apply into our lives today.

[00:04:45] So let's bring this psalm as though we are in the year 2024.

[00:04:51] Let's begin in verse 1.

[00:05:03] Now, friends, in this present-day world,

[00:05:17] this is God's desire for us.

[00:05:21] He wants us to shout out and give praise to him.

[00:05:26] There's a verse in the Bible that says,

[00:05:28] God inhabits the praises of his people.

[00:05:32] So if people on earth are praising him,

[00:05:36] he is going to come and join the party,

[00:05:39] and you will sense his presence.

[00:05:41] Now, verses 4 and 5 actually make Psalm 66 a prophetic psalm,

[00:05:48] because verses 4 and 5 have not yet happened.

[00:05:53] But let's read them.

[00:05:55] It says,

[00:05:55] All the earth shall worship you.

[00:05:59] Not that they are worshiping you,

[00:06:01] but that in the future they will worship you

[00:06:06] and sing praises to you.

[00:06:08] They shall sing praises to your name,

[00:06:12] Selah.

[00:06:13] Now, whenever you see the word Selah,

[00:06:15] it says meditate on this.

[00:06:17] So friends, this is something we have to look forward to.

[00:06:21] I praise God all the time,

[00:06:24] that there are a number of people on earth

[00:06:26] that do not praise God.

[00:06:29] Actually, there are many people on earth

[00:06:31] that don't even believe that there is a God

[00:06:35] and that he exists.

[00:06:36] Let's look at verse 5.

[00:06:37] Come and see the works of God.

[00:06:41] He is awesome in his doing toward the sons of men.

[00:06:46] And friends, this verse is simply telling us

[00:06:49] that God basically is awesome.

[00:06:51] God does so many things to us,

[00:06:55] and a lot of times we don't give credit

[00:06:57] for what God does in our lives.

[00:07:01] A lot of times we like to take the credit for ourselves.

[00:07:04] But everything that comes in our life that is good,

[00:07:10] God has given us the ability to do it.

[00:07:15] So if you're earning money from work,

[00:07:17] he has given you the intelligence

[00:07:20] to do the particular job that you have.

[00:07:24] Let's look at verse 6.

[00:07:25] He turned the sea into dry land.

[00:07:29] They went through the river on foot.

[00:07:32] Here we are going back to the Exodus

[00:07:35] and how the country of Israel

[00:07:37] and probably over a million people

[00:07:40] escaped from Pharaoh, the king of Egypt,

[00:07:44] and he parted the Red Sea.

[00:07:47] And here we are going through the river on foot.

[00:07:53] And he enabled them to do it.

[00:07:56] He rules by his power forever.

[00:08:00] His eyes observe the nations.

[00:08:02] Do not let the rebellious exalt themselves.

[00:08:06] So verse 7 is basically telling us

[00:08:09] that God is in control.

[00:08:12] He knows what is going on.

[00:08:14] And he is watching to see what the world is doing.

[00:08:19] And it may sound that this is over 2,000 years ago

[00:08:23] that this was written.

[00:08:24] And that is true.

[00:08:25] It was over 2,000 years.

[00:08:28] But God is still watching everything

[00:08:30] that's going on on earth today.

[00:08:32] And verse 8,

[00:08:34] O bless our God, you peoples,

[00:08:37] and make the voice of his praise to be heard.

[00:08:41] So friends, that is how we basically

[00:08:43] are to live our life every day.

[00:08:46] God is blessing us if we are living

[00:08:49] according to what he has told us to do.

[00:08:52] And we are going to be a blessed people.

[00:08:54] So we, in turn, should bless God

[00:08:58] and thank him for what we have.

[00:09:00] Who keeps our soul among the living

[00:09:03] and does not allow our feet to be moved.

[00:09:07] And basically here,

[00:09:08] he's actually referring to the fact

[00:09:11] that we will not go to hell if we die.

[00:09:13] That we have salvation

[00:09:15] through Jesus Christ our Lord.

[00:09:18] For you, O God, have tested us.

[00:09:21] You have refined us as silver is refined.

[00:09:25] You brought us into the net.

[00:09:27] You laid affliction on our backs.

[00:09:29] And these verses simply tell us

[00:09:31] that God is going to chastise us

[00:09:34] and rebuke us if we do wrong.

[00:09:37] We simply have to have our ears open to it.

[00:09:41] But if God tells you,

[00:09:43] hey, I don't want you to do this anymore,

[00:09:45] we need to be obedient to what he tells us.

[00:09:48] Let's go to verse 16.

[00:09:50] Come and hear all you who fear God.

[00:09:55] And friends, I talk about this often on this podcast.

[00:09:59] But here, when they talk about fearing God,

[00:10:02] they're not talking about we're afraid of God.

[00:10:05] Here, we're simply talking about the awesomeness of God

[00:10:09] and basically how we should revere God

[00:10:13] for who he is in our lives.

[00:10:16] And it says,

[00:10:18] And I will declare what he has done for my soul.

[00:10:22] I cried to him with my mouth,

[00:10:25] and he was extolled with my tongue.

[00:10:28] And basically, this is a verse of praise.

[00:10:31] And we're basically to give praise to God

[00:10:35] and give our testimony.

[00:10:38] That is referring to Revelation chapter 12, verse 11.

[00:10:42] We overcome by the blood of the Lamb of Jesus

[00:10:46] and what he did on the cross for us.

[00:10:48] And we're basically to share our testimony

[00:10:51] about the goodness of God

[00:10:53] and how he has changed our life.

[00:10:56] If I regard iniquity in my heart,

[00:10:59] the Lord will not hear.

[00:11:00] God doesn't want us to think about evil things.

[00:11:03] He wants us to think about things above,

[00:11:06] things that have eternal value

[00:11:09] and will be important to God

[00:11:14] as far as eternity goes.

[00:11:16] And finally, let's close with verses 19 and 20.

[00:11:20] But certainly, God has heard me.

[00:11:23] He has attended to the voice of my prayer.

[00:11:26] And this verse is telling us

[00:11:28] that God wants us to reach out to him

[00:11:31] when we have a need.

[00:11:34] And verse 20 is beautiful.

[00:11:36] Blessed be God who has not turned away to my prayer

[00:11:41] nor his mercy from me.

[00:11:44] Friends, God hears our prayer

[00:11:48] and he answers our prayer.

[00:11:51] Sometimes yes, sometimes no, sometimes maybe.

[00:11:56] But God knows what we need more than we do.

[00:12:01] And we need to keep that in the back of our mind

[00:12:05] that God will always hear our prayer.

[00:12:09] And we close with the fact that God

[00:12:11] is merciful toward us.

[00:12:15] He always showers us with his mercy.

[00:12:19] Friends, please join me again soon

[00:12:22] as we take a closer look at Psalm 67.

[00:12:25] Psalm 67.