For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Psalm 66

1 Shout for joy to God, all the earth!
2     Sing the glory of his name;
    make his praise glorious.
3 Say to God, ‘How awesome are your deeds!
    So great is your power
    that your enemies cringe before you.
4 All the earth bows down to you;
    they sing praise to you,
    they sing the praises of your name.’

5 Come and see what God has done,
    his awesome deeds for mankind!
6 He turned the sea into dry land,
    they passed through the waters on foot –
    come, let us rejoice in him.
7 He rules for ever by his power,
    his eyes watch the nations –
    let not the rebellious rise up against him.

8 Praise our God, all peoples,
    let the sound of his praise be heard;
9 he has preserved our lives
    and kept our feet from slipping.
10 For you, God, tested us;
    you refined us like silver.
11 You brought us into prison
    and laid burdens on our backs.
12 You let people ride over our heads;
    we went through fire and water,
    but you brought us to a place of abundance.

13 I will come to your temple with burnt offerings
    and fulfil my vows to you –
14 vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke
    when I was in trouble.
15 I will sacrifice fat animals to you
    and an offering of rams;
    I will offer bulls and goats.

16 Come and hear, all you who fear God;
    let me tell you what he has done for me.
17 I cried out to him with my mouth;
    his praise was on my tongue.
18 If I had cherished sin in my heart,
    the Lord would not have listened;
19 but God has surely listened
    and has heard my prayer.
20 Praise be to God,
    who has not rejected my prayer
    or withheld his love from me!

A. Find Out:

1. What is the Psalmist’s initial intention? v.1-4
2. What does he remember that the Lord had done? v.5,6
3. What does the Lord do generally? v.7-9
4. What had He done specifically? v.10-12
5. So what did the Psalmist say he would do in response? v.13-15
6. Why was he doing all this? v.16-20

B. Think:

1. What hardship had the Psalmist been through?
2. What had he done?
3. And what response had he got?

C. Comment:

This is a psalm that many Christians can identify with. It is essentially a psalm of praise (v.1-4) and the praise comes because of what God has done (v.5).

First of all there was DELIVERANCE, the time when God led Israel through the waters (v.6) after the Exodus. (see Ex 14:21 ,22), so be warned world, don’t rebel against Him! (v.7). Then there was TESTING, when the Lord kept them (v.9), and tested them (v.10) and disciplined them (v.11,12). This happened time and time again in the time of the judges and also a number of times through the period of the kings, but the Lord always brought them through to blessing (v.12c)

Then comes the Psalmist’s response to that understanding; he will worship the Lord in the Temple (v.13-15). Now he testifies to all this (v.16). He had cried to the Lord (v.17), he had ensured he had a clean heart (v.18) and God heard and responded (v.19,20)

He is quite clear that the deliverance from the pressures of the enemy is an act of the Lord on their behalf and he is filled with praise. The order here is crisis, prayer, deliverance and then praise.

D. Application:

1. Are we able to identify difficult times as times of testing, times when we  have an ‘exam’ to pass?
2. Is our natural response to cry out to the Lord for deliverance? Is prayer the natural response that rises in us in these times?