May 1, 2016

Tom Lowe

 

PSALM 66

 

Title: Come and See What God Has Done

(To the chief Musician, a Psalm and Song)

 

Theme: A hymn of praise which summons men to worship the Lord God of Israel.

 

Psalm 66 (KJV)

1 Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands:

Sing forth the honour of his name: make his praise glorious.

Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee.

All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name. Selah.

Come and see the works of God: he is terrible in his doing toward the children of men.

He turned the sea into dry land: they went through the flood on foot: there did we rejoice in him.

He ruleth by his power for ever; his eyes behold the nations: let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah.

O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard:

Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved.

10 For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.

11 Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst affliction upon our loins.

12 Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.

13 I will go into thy house with burnt offerings: I will pay thee my vows,

14 Which my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble.

15 I will offer unto thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings, with the incense of rams; I will offer bullocks with goats. Selah.

16 Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.

17 I cried unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue.

18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:

19 But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer.

20 Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.

 

Introduction

After 15 straight psalms of David, Psalm 66 is not dedicated to him, although the psalmist may well have been a king.  This psalm is anonymous.  Yet there are good reasons for thinking that it was written by godly †King Hezekiah after the final overthrow of Sennacherib before the gates of Jerusalem.  But there is more to it than that.  This song or psalm, designed to be sung as well as spoken, celebrates the great deeds of God on behalf of His people and calls upon all nations to rejoice with them.  If the psalm has its roots in history, it has its realization in prophecy.  It looks forward in time to the coming millennial reign of Christ.  It thus stands shoulder to shoulder with the psalm which precedes it and the two which follow it. The four psalms—65, 66, 67, and 68—form a quartet of prophetic utterance extolling the coming golden age. We shall see this constant mingling of Israel’s yesterdays and bright tomorrows as we read this happy Hebrew hymn.  Perhaps you will notice as I have that this psalm is strongly “evangelical.” Some of the old expositors (at 74, I would be in this group) speak of this Psalm as the Lord’s Prayer of the Old Testament.  It is both nationalistic and individualistic in its presentation of thanksgiving.  Verses 1-12 relate to the nation but also reach out to the world, while verses 13-20 refer to the personal life of the psalmist.  Some commentators see here two distinct psalms which have been joined.  However, the corporate experience of the nation forms an excellent background for the individual experience of the author.

All people must praise God, whether he accomplishes awe-inspiring works of creation, disciplines people, or answers prayers. Evidently man, the creature, is not meant to keep his praise of God tucked up in his heart.  There is a missionary element in his praise.  The shouting can become a form of attack against the powers of evil. It is like a Maori haka which a rugby team can use to scare the opposing team out of its wits before the game begins.

Three times the word ☼selah rings out in this psalm, once marking a major break in the psalm and twice marking minor changes in its structure. Again and again the psalmist, overwhelmed with thoughts of the past or thoughts filled with hope, cries out,

 

†Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz (2 Kings 18:1; 2 Chronicles 29:1), whom he succeeded on the throne of the kingdom of Judah, reigned twenty-nine years (B.C. 726-697). The history of this king is contained in 2 Kings 18:20, Isaiah 36-39and 2 Chronicles 29-32. He is spoken of as a great and good king. In public life he followed the example of his great-grandfather Uzziah. He was determined to abolish idolatry from his kingdom, and among other things which he did to accomplish this goal, he destroyed the "brazen serpent," which had been relocated to Jerusalem, and had become an object of idolatrous worship (Numbers 21:9). A great reformation took place in the kingdom of Judah during his reign (2 Kings 18:4; 2 Chronicles 29:3-36).

Following the death of Sargon and the accession of his son Sennacherib to the throne of Assyria, Hezekiah refused to pay the tribute which his father had paid, and "rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not," but entered into an alliance with Egypt (Isaiah 30; 31; 36:6-9). This led to the invasion of Judah by Sennacherib (2 Kings 18:13-16), who took forty cities, and besieged Jerusalem. Hezekiah yielded to the demands of the Assyrian king, and agreed to pay him three hundred talents of silver ($582,000.00) and thirty talents of gold ($872,550.00).

But Sennacherib dealt treacherously with Hezekiah (Isaiah 33:1), and for the second time within two years invaded his kingdom (2 Kings 18:17; 2 Chronicles 32:9; Isaiah 36). This invasion ended in the destruction of Sennacherib's army. Hezekiah prayed to God, and "that night the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000 men." Sennacherib fled with the shattered remnant of his forces to Nineveh, where, seventeen years after, he was assassinated by his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer (2 Kings 19:37).

Selah: A word frequently found in the Book of Psalms, and also in Habakkuk 3:9, 13, about seventy-four times in all in Scripture. Its meaning is uncertain. Some interpret it as meaning "silence" or "pause;" others, "end," "a louder strain," but it is now generally believed, that it was a direction for a meditative pause in the singing of a psalm, during which perhaps there was an instrumental interlude.

 

Commentary

1 Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands:

2 Sing forth the honour of his name: make his praise glorious.

Any person would be happy to see the kind of national and personal deliverances which had come Hezekiah’s way.  As a person he had been saved from a dreadful illness; as a prince he had been saved from a disastrous invasion by Sennacherib.  No wonder he was a happy man!  The fear of death was removed; he had God’s word that an extra 15 years had been added to his life.  The fear of defeat was removed: the Assyrian hosts had been so spectacularly and supernaturally smitten before the walls of Jerusalem that never again would they return to hound the holy city.  The happy man’s soul was ablaze with two visions—one political (vs.1-2), and one prophetic (vs. 3-4).

The psalmist invited all the Gentile nations (everyone on earth) to praise God for what He had done for Israel!  Why?  Because through Israel, the Lord brought truth and salvation to the Gentiles.  “Salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22). All the earth is summoned to sing!  They are to make a “joyful noise”; a joyful noise is a shout of joy (81:1; 95:1; 98:4; 100:1).  People of all nations, who have seen the wonderful power, and wisdom, and fidelity, and goodness of God in Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, ought to acknowledge it with admiration and rejoicing.  But there is not much real singing in the world today, because it faces oppression, war, hunger, and false religion.

As each day dawns the world is faced with an additional two hundred and three thousand people to feed; every year seventy-four million more.  Two-thirds of the world’s population—over four billion people—live in the world’s poorest countries, those least able to supply their people’s needs.  The population of those countries is expected to double within three decades.  Nearly all the world’s plowable land, over three and a half billion acres, is already under cultivation.

Think of it: every second two more human beings populate this planet and to millions life simply means an unending battle with starvation.  We cannot fathom what hunger means to so many.

It is no use telling people in a land like that to sing.  Famine is only part of the problem; war, disease, false religion, and downright wickedness all add to the misery.  No!  The psalmist’s vision—political—is not enough. It never is! We look for something more.

 

3 Say unto God, How terrible (awesome) art thou in thy works! through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee.

In verses three and four there is a vision (prophetical) of the coming day when Jesus will reign.  Even the delirious delight of the Jewish people in their emancipation from the horrifying Assyrian menace will be nothing compared to the deliverance which will be theirs in that day. “How terrible (awesome) art thou in thy works!” is said in reference to His works of redemption.

There will not be much fight left in the anti-Semitic world powers after Armageddon.  The nations will “submit themselves” (A forced subjection produced by terror; Psalm 18:44.), like whipped dogs. Still, as the millennium rolls on, and as more and more people are born into a world which has long since forgotten the significance of war and famine, pestilence, and oppression, people will become glory hardened just as nowdays children born into blessed Christian lands often grow up to be gospel hardened.  The psalmist does not see the end of the millennial age.  That vision is reserved for John in the closing chapters of the Apocalypse.  Yet already some of these ancient sinners sense something wrong; their ears detect a sour note even amid the general rejoicing of the dawning of the coming glory age.

The psalmist injects a warning.  He tells the nations who in that day will come cringing, out of fear of His great power,  before Jehovah-Jesus, the Lord God of Israel, that they had best not feign obedience, but should offer sincere praise instead: “How awesome and fearfully glorious are Your works!” It is something they had better not forget, for God’s grace is the only thing that can change a heart.

It’s tragic that the nations today attack and persecute Israel instead of thanking God for her spiritual contribution to them.  But the nations don’t know the Lord and Israel has been blinded and hardened by her unbelief (Romans 11:25).  When Israel sees her Messiah and trusts Him, then the world situation will change (Zechariah 13-14), and all the nations will worship the Lord.  One day there shall be universal praise for Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:10-11; Revelation 11:15-18).

 

4 All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name. ☼Selah.

“All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name. ☼Selah.”What do you think of that!  This is not an option for the nations, as it is in the gospel age, with millions upon millions simply ignoring God’s command to worship Him.  This is what God has predetermined is to be done: “All the earth shall worship Thee, and shall sing unto Thee; they shall sing to Thy name.  Selah.” Dear believer, this is serious business: Nothing stands in God’s presence: Enemies cower and all the earth acknowledges His sovereignty.

What do you think of that?  Simply this, it looks forward to the millennium!  God is yet to be universally worshipped by the nations on this planet where the nations once united to murderer His Son.  Poetic justice which forms such an inherent factor in God’s dealings with man requires it just as prophetic truth reveals it. 

 

5 Come and see the works of God: he is terrible (awesome) in his doing toward the children of men.

In verses 5-7, we can do little more than sketch in the great millennial theme of the psalmist.  Each statement, of course, could be greatly expanded.  But let us at least get the drift of what he is saying as he sees the humbled peoples of the earth acknowledging the might and mastery of Israel’s living God.  “Come and see the works of God”; consider them wisely and seriously, for God’s glory, and for your own good. The awe struck nations are summoned to Jerusalem with the invitation to “come and see” for themselves something of God’s invincible might. He wants his people to see what God has done (“the works of God”) for His people in the past.  [“Come and see” may refer to symbolic acts performed in the temple during the recital of the salvation-history (46:8), or indicate that the worshippers regard themselves as present in imagination at the events being recalled (v. 6).]

But of course we do not and cannot know the essence of God.  “No man can see the God and live.” But we can know and we can see what God has done.  The deeds He has done are “terrible,” because they are performed by Him to whom all power belongs.  Those who oppose Him find that he opposes them.  So they feign submission, or cringe before thee.  But those who willingly submit to Him are glad to “bow with their face to the ground” before Him.

“Children of men” is how he refers to all his enemies. He uses the phrase partly to show his contempt, to show how unable they are either to avoid or resist the great God; and partly in opposition to his own people, who are frequently called the “children of God”We know from Matthew 25 that one of the first acts of Christ will be to hold a judgment of the nations in the valley of Jehoshaphat.  Those who are spared will not soon forget the terror of it.

 

6 He turned the sea into dry land: they went through the flood on foot: there did we rejoice in him.

With confidence in the inerrancy of Scripture, in the infallibility and inspiration of the Word of God, the psalmist goes back to two mighty events in Hebrew history.  “He turned the sea into dry land” (the Red Sea) and “they went through the river on foot” (the Jordon).  In other words, God brought the people of Israel out of Egypt by His power and He brought them into Canaan by His power.  The Exodus in particular became for Israel the central fact of faith.  “There,” he adds, “we did rejoice in Him.”

The nation of Israel did pass “through the Flood!” the Red sea and the Jordan River. Isn’t this always true of the Church; God’s people are passing through obstacles which must discourage them, were it not for their Divine companion (Isaiah 43:2).  Our God turns the place of trial into one of joy.  “Isaiah 11:11-15 leads us to anticipate a repetition of the miracle of the divided waters.”

There in those historical moments of crisis “did we rejoice in him”—without seeing him; remember, without arguing about His existence, for all we saw was what God had done.  So we can now take the next three steps of faith: (a) We can declare that “God rules by his might”; (b) that “God rules for ever,” and we can declare that (c) “God rules over all nations.” So then, warns the psalmist, you who rebel against His rule—watch out!

 

7 He ruleth by his power for ever; his eyes behold the nations: let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah.

Now, what do you think of that!  The psalmist knows very well the nature of man’s unregenerate heart.  He knows what a rebellious thing it is.  He warns the millennial nations not even to consider rebellion against the Lord’s anointed.  He is still the God who can dry up seas and divide Rivers.

“His eyes behold the nations,” that is, He sees all of their secret and subtle devices, and can and will defeat them, when He sees fit.  Nothing can be hidden from Him, so don’t even try because he even knows our thoughts and intentions. 

“Let not the rebellious (i.e., those people which rebel against this almighty God and His laws) exalt themselves,” as they vainly hope and plan to do; but shall be brought down and destroyed, which is what seems to be implied.  Neither shall they lift up their hands against God, or against His people.  Therefore, people should realize that He rules for ever by His power, putting down rebels and delivering His people. 

 

8 O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard:

9 Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved.

Israel is a nation scattered and damaged, hated and hunted, and impossible either to assimilate or exterminate.  They are called to praise Him and proclaim Him as the One who kept His people alive and held them steady in days of great stress.  Down through the centuries the word has held true: God “holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our foot to be moved.” For thousands of years the history of the Jewish people has demonstrated that.  But nationally this people have remained a gulf stream in the ocean of mankind.  They have stood in some slippery places, but their national identity has been preserved and now they are back in the land, a nation among the nations awaiting their date with disaster in the great tribulation and then with destiny at the return of Christ.

The people reveled in their God whose mighty dominion never ends and whose eyes keep close watch on the nations.  It’s foolish for anyone to rebel against a God like this. While the psalmist’s exultant shout has a personal application, the context is clearly national.  He wants all nations to see God protecting Israel.  If any nation has reason to praise the Lord, it is Israel; for He rescued them from slavery, guided them through the wilderness, took them into their land, and enabled them to defeat their enemies and claim their inheritance.  He gave them His law, His sanctuary, and His prophets, and He blessed them with all they needed.  When they disobeyed, He disciplined them, thus preventing them from prematurely slipping into the realm of the dead.  The praise of God should be glorious because the Subject is glorious.

The Gentiles should also “bless God” for the miraculous way in which He preserved the people of Israel.  In a rapidly changing succession of metaphors Israel is pictured as:

  • being “refined” like “silver” when it is subjected to intense heat by the smelter (v. 10).
  • being imprisoned as if in a “net” (v. 11a).
  • being forced to perform slave labor (v. 11b).
  • being downtrodden by wretched men (v. 12a).
  • being exposed to frightful dangers, as if going “through fire and through water” (v. 12b).

Yet God did not allow them to be overthrown in the end.  Rather He brought them into “rich fulfillment”—a reference to Israel’s superabundant prosperity in the millennium.

 

10 For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.

11 Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst affliction upon our loins.

12 Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.

Verses 10-12 describe what it means to “pass through the river,” and so to be tested and tried by God.  The psalmist uses several metaphors to describe Israel’s suffering and its intensity; they are like captives thrown into prison, prisoners of war turned into slaves, defeated troops overrun by chariots.

These words were literally true in the days of Hezekiah when, for its own sins, God allowed Judah to be invaded by the Assyrian hordes and brought to the verge of despair.  Even Hezekiah had to be taught a lesson.  After a miraculous recovery from sickness he received a delegation from far-off Babylon which allegedly had come to congratulate Hezekiah on his recovery.  But, as suspected they had an ulterior motive.  They were fishing for a Judeo-Babylon alliance against Assyria.  Hezekiah was flattered.  He had forgotten that as a Hebrew king he had no right to act independently of God.  He went too far and Isaiah had to rebuke him.  God allowed him to be brought into the net set by his enemies, laid affliction upon him, and caused the Assyrians to ride roughshod through the land—A picture of a hostile army riding in victory over Israel’s defeated troops.  We fell into the trap, but they could never have taken and held us except by Thy permission and the disposal of Thy providence, which gave us into their hands.  So Hezekiah’s words in this psalm ring out from a full heart.

But the Assyrian invasion, dreadful as it was, does not exhaust the significance of this utterance.  It leaps ahead to the great tribulation.

“Thou laidst affliction upon our loins” sounds a lot like complaining.  A better reading replaces “loins” with “hips”; carrying loads on the hip was customary.  “Affliction”—lit., “pressure,” or, as in Psalm 55:3, oppression, which, laid on the—“loins”—the seat of strength (Deuteronomy 33:11), weakens the frame.

Then God will put Israel into the refiner’s fire.  He will prove (test) this ancient people of His.  He will try them.  The words are common to the work of refining gold and silver. His people had been through some difficult times, including prison, defeat, and other trials.  But rather than being brought down by such experiences, the psalmist realizes that they have merely been refined; like when precious metal is treated with intense heat in order to remove any impurities.    The great tribulation will burn the dross out of Israel.  What will be left will be the pure metal, a nation at last fit to fulfill its role among the nations which God had planned from the beginning.  He imposed suffering on his people on purpose, they were tested for quality and refined for purity; he appoints all our experiences however dreadful.  When life hems us in (prison), when pressures mount (ride roughshod), when one threatening circumstance follows hard on another (fire . . .  water, have often been symbols of extreme danger; Isaiah 43:2)—it is all His personal act: we are never anywhere other than in our Father’s hand (John 10:29; 1 Corinthians 10:13), the God of ultimate abundance (2 Corinthians 4:16-5:1; Revelation 7:9-17).

When they turned to the Lord, He transformed their sufferings into blessings and enlarged them (v.12; see 4:1; 18:19, 36; 25:17).  So it has been with the church.  When the Lord has permitted persecution, this has invariably led to growth and blessing.  We can go through fire and water and be better for it (Isaiah 43:2).  Sin, suffering, and deliverance form the pattern of their history as conveyed in Deuteronomy, and 1and 2Chronicles.

The psalmist calls on the nations to be humbled by the marvelous ways of God in protecting and in proving Israel. God is to be praised because He preserved His people through the trying times and eventually led them to an abundant land. “We went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place.” (v. 12b)  “A wealthy place” is where the cup runs over!  That will be Israel’s portion in the coming day.  This nation which has always had such a talent for accumulating wealth will not only prosper but will run over with blessings for all mankind.  As God blesses Israel, other nations will take notice and learn of salvation as well (67:1-2). Hezekiah, calls upon the Gentile nations to learn the lessons of Israel’s history both in the past and in the future.

 

13 I will go into thy house with burnt offerings: I will pay thee my vows,

Everyone agrees that beginning with verse 13 and continuing to the end of the psalm there is a distinct change—a change from plural (“we/our”) to singular (“I/my”) personal pronouns—that marks a different emphasis in the psalm.  It is the expression of one coming to God’s house to worship with burnt offerings and to pay . . . vows made while in trouble.  An individual steps upon the stage.  In the historical context this individual is undoubtedly Hezekiah (if he is indeed the author of this psalm).  He takes his place as the representative head of the nation.  He makes his way to the house of God to make good on the promises and pledges he had made to God in the nation’s desperate hours.  The prophetic overtones are still there, but it seems to be the historic deliverance from Assyria which provides the real inspiration for this section of the song.

The psalmist wants to instruct us in the right way to behave once God, in His grace, gives us a resounding victory over threatening circumstances. It is not everyone whom God can trust with a great victory.  In our desperate moments we are cast fully upon Him, but the tendency of the human heart is to turn aside to his own selfish interests as soon as the crisis is past.  We have all experienced that.  We are like dogs which have to be kept on a leash because the moment they are given freedom to run loose they go off in complete disregard of the master’s word and will.

“I will go into thy house with burnt offerings: I will pay thee my vows.” Vows do not affect God’s action in the slightest.  It is a prayer that does that, not vows.  We can make all the pledges and promises we like to God but this will not alter His mind in any way.  God is not to be bribed.  Vows are voluntary.  God does not ask for them, but once they are made they become binding.  The need to keep them is taught in Leviticus 27.  To fail to keep our promises, whether to God or to man, always results in the deterioration of character.  The “burnt offerings” constitute the payment of vows (Leviticus 22:18-23).  You may recall that the “burnt offerings” were, unlike the compulsory sacrifices for sin, a voluntary acknowledgment of one’s personal sense of gratitude.  Often at feasts, accompanied by the sound of trumpets, such an offering gave a dramatic public exhibition of a man’s inner motivation to thanksgiving.

“I will pay my vows,” said the psalmist.  Jonah quoted this verse in the dreadful prison in which he found himself in the dark depths of the sea: “I will pay my vows.” Jonah proved himself trustworthy with the result a million souls were brought to God.

 

14 Which my lips have uttered, and my mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble.

One of the worst sins is that of ingratitude, a sin which seems to be native to the human heart.  “Were there not 10 cleansed?” Asked the Lord Jesus when, after He had cleansed the lepers, only one Samaritan stranger came back to thank Him.  The psalmist mentions his recollection.  He did not forget.  He remembered what God had done for him and how he thanked God with burnt offerings and vows from his own lips, at a time when he was in great distress.

 

15 I will offer unto thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings, with the incense of rams; I will offer bullocks with goats. Selah.

There in the inner court of the Temple, with throngs of worshippers around him, stands this individual worshipper, most likely a wealthy man and one of the leaders of the congregation.  He has come bringing with him sacrificial animals to use as whole burnt offerings to the Lord, and as a peace offering for the sacrificial feast in which probably the whole congregation will share. 

“Fatlings” (fat, healthy lambs), rams, bullocks, and goats were all acceptable for peace offerings,” that is, those expressing thanksgiving and love for God or in the payment of vows (Leviticus 3:1-17). Rams were never offered as burnt offerings by the common people.  They were offered only by the high priest, acting in a representative capacity for the people, or by a Nazarite.  The psalmist reckons himself able to make this kind of offering—evidence that he was one of the nation’s leaders.  He reckoned himself responsible, in his position of leadership, to gather the people of God together and lead them to Calvary.

“With the incense of rams” means “with the fat of rams,” which in these peace-offerings was burned upon the alter, and so vanished into smoke like incense, and which is no less pleasing to God than incense.

 

16 Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.

The psalmist praised God for hearing him when He had every reason not to listen.  It was a wonderful testimony!  God has done something wonderful, spectacular, and miraculous for him, and he wants the world to know!  “Come and hear,” he said, “all ye that fear God.”“All ye that fear God” refers to those who respond to the Lord in awe and wonder.

So far as our Old Testament history books go, we know that in the matter of his illness God did something for Hezekiah’s body, and in the matter of the invasion God did something for Hezekiah’s kingdom.  But at the same time He did something for Hezekiah’s soul!  He had strengthened his faith, broaden his hopes, deepened his love, revitalized his joy, and given him a peace that passes all understanding.  Every crisis is intended to do that!  God allows the problems to come so that we can see Him solve them and so we grow in grace and increase in the knowledge of God.  In every critical situation of our life God wants to do something for our soul!  It is a point well worth underlining: “I will declare what He hath done for my soul.” Along with the offering there was a public testimony to what “God has done for my soul.”  There may have been a detailed statement of particulars, but all is summarized in praise for answered prayer (17-20).

 

17 I cried unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue.

In this hour of desperate need, Hezekiah did not pout, he prayed.  He did not criticize God, he cried-out to God, and God delivered him.  However, it would not have happened that way if he had clung to sin (Proverbs 28:9; Isaiah 59:2).  Our first reaction in a time of trouble is: “Why me?  Haven’t I been faithful in coming to church, in teaching my class, in giving to the Lord’s work?” That attitude leads to defeating self-pity and to a slanderous questioning of God’s wisdom, love, and power.

We today obey Romans 12:1-2 and present ourselves as living sacrifices.  When the Lord does something wonderful for us, we are to share this with other believers and help to strengthen their faith.  The entire Bible is a record of God’s gracious dealings with His people, and while our words are not inspired, our witness can bring glory to the Lord.  Prayer and praise go together

 

18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:

Looking back over his recent experiences, the psalmist discovered three basic principles of prayer.  What he discovered is: (1) Guilt hinders prayer (v. 18); (2) God hears prayer (v. 19); (3) Grace helps prayer (v.  20).

The verb “regard,” as used here, means “to recognize and to cherish, to be unwilling to confess and forsake known sins.” It means approving that which God condemns.  Among the things that can block effective prayer is ongoing sin in a believer’s life (Psalm 32).  “If I regard iniquity” means taking pleasure in inequity (sin). When we recognize sin in our hearts, we must immediately judge it, confess it, and forsake it (1 John 1:5-10); otherwise, the Lord can’t work on our behalf (Isaiah 59:1-2).  To cover sin is to invite trouble and discipline (Proverbs 28:13; Joshua 7). If God has convicted me about some sin in my life, if that sin remains treasured, indulged in, unconfessed—then my prayers are in vain.  God does not even hear them.  This is the truth stated in a number of  ways elsewhere in Scripture (Job 27:9; 31:27; Proverbs 15:29; 28:9). 

 

19 But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer.

Once the roadblocks are removed, once prayer is no longer hindered by hypocrisy and petition has an open roadway to the throne, why then of course God hears!  He is always more ready to here than we are to come to Him.

 

20 Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.

“Mercy” is the usual Old Testament word for “loving-kindness” or “grace.” In all God’s dealings with mankind governmentally He takes into account, as one of the basic laws by which he administers human affairs, the fact of His grace.  Thank Him for that.  “Blessed be God.” Despite the sin in my heart (for though redeemed, I am still a sinner) which I myself have noticed, He has chosen neither to reject “my prayer,” nor to take away his steadfast love from me.

“There,” says the psalmist, “send that to the chief Musician.” It is “on Neginoth.” That is, it has to do with smitings.  God is well able to smite all our fears and foes!