Psalm 66
There is always a reason to praise God. We praise Him for what He has done. We extol Him for Who He is. We magnify Him for what He is doing and for what He has told us He will do. God is great, He is awesome, mighty, tremendous, faithful, splendid, merciful, and loving. Verses 1-4 incite the entire earth to praise Almighty God.
“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”
Praise to The Lord is glorious. God becomes known to the world, He is made famous to all those who hear the praise of the saints. His name is exalted, His works are celebrated, and He is lauded by our praise and worship. There will be a day when every person will come before The Lord for judgement. On that day the every person will bow to Jesus, and that includes His enemies. The people whose hearts are hard and filled with rage at the idea of The King of kings, who are to prideful to acknowledge Him will bend their knees to Him and proclaim that Jesus is the Lord of lords, King of kings, and God of the Universe. (Isaiah 45:22-25, Philippians 2:1-11). They will wince and shudder, because they will see the Truth, and it will be too late, too late to choose Him and too late to know Him.
What has God done? How has The Almighty God shown His love to His children? Verses 5-12 read,
“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.”
God brought Israel into Egypt where their numbers grew from 70 people to a strong and mighty numerous, and were eventually made slaves. (Genesis 46:26-27, Exodus 1:7-8). But the Lord brought them out of Egypt, divided the Red Sea so Israel walked safely through it, brought them through the wilderness, brought them into The Promised Land, and made them a nation.
The Lord has done the same for us today. We were slaves to sin, we were in the chains of the enemy. God loved us so much He sent His Son Jesus to us. He stepped out of Heaven, He lived, died and rose from the dead for us. Holy Perfect Jesus who never sinned was made sin so that we who were the slaves of sin were made to be righteous and holy. (2 Corinthians 5:16-21). Now we are a nation. 1 Peter 2:9-10 reads,
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
Our response is to rightly worship, praise, and glorify Him to magnify His Holy Name to every nation and person. Our response is to obey Him, to love Him above all with everything we have and are, and to love the people He made as He loves them. Verses 13-15 say,
“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”
Our response in that love and in love others as He loves is to tell the world what God has done and who He is, the Savior Jesus, our Lord. Verses 16-20 read,
“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!”
The Gospel is so simple that it is too simple for some. They just cannot accept that all we have to do is repent from our sins by asking the Lord God to forgive us and that He does. We do not have to earn His favor, he already chose us. We do not have to work for His reward, He gives us eternal life just by our faith.
There is no magic in the words of the sinner’s prayer. If we simply repeated the words yet treasured sin and never planned to obey the Lord then the prayer meant nothing, just as if it had never been said. God hears and knows our sincerity. He knows our hearts. When we pray with remorse for our wrongs and with faith that Jesus is the Christ, He hears, He listens, He attends, and He saves.
We have so much reason to praise the Lord! He has done great things. He created the world. He chose to love us and save us. He brought us from slavery to freedom. He wants to save every person in every nation. They can know the awesome Love of God by that praise.
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