Psalm 66:1–20 To the Chief Musician. A Song. A Psalm.

 ¹Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth!

²Sing out the honor of His name;

Make His praise glorious.

³Say to God, “How awesome are Your works!

Through the greatness of Your power

Your enemies shall submit themselves to You.

⁴All the earth shall worship You

And sing praises to You;

They shall sing praises to Your name.” Selah

⁵Come and see the works of God;

He is awesome in His doing toward the sons of men.

⁶He turned the sea into dry land;

They went through the river on foot.

There we will rejoice in Him.

⁷He rules by His power forever;

His eyes observe the nations;

Do not let the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah

⁸Oh, bless our God, you peoples!

And make the voice of His praise to be heard,

⁹Who keeps our soul among the living,

And does not allow our feet to be moved.

¹⁰For You, O God, have tested us;

You have refined us as silver is refined.

¹¹You brought us into the net;

You laid affliction on our backs.

¹²You have caused men to ride over our heads;

 We went through fire and through water;

But You brought us out to rich fulfillment.

¹³I will go into Your house with burnt offerings;

I will pay You my vows,

¹⁴Which my lips have uttered

And my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble.

¹⁵I will offer You burnt sacrifices of fat animals,

With the sweet aroma of rams;

I will offer bulls with goats. Selah

¹⁶Come and hear, all you who fear God,

And I will declare what He has done for my soul.

¹⁷I cried to Him with my mouth,

And He was extolled with my tongue.

¹⁸If I regard iniquity in my heart,

The Lord will not hear.

¹⁹But certainly God has heard me;

He has attended to the voice of my prayer.

²⁰Blessed be God,

Who has not turned away my prayer,

Nor His mercy from me!

Commentary

Vs. 1-2¹Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth!

²Sing out the honor of His name;

Make His praise glorious.

Both now and forever let us all make a joyful shout to God, for worship of God is not to be restrained but heartfelt in our praise of Him. Sing then to the honor of His Name, for His Name is above all Names, and in this His Son’s Name, Jesus Christ’s Name He now takes the Pre-eminence above every name that is named! Therefore, make His praise glorious by whatever means possible, technological or otherwise, for if it can be used to glorify God in worship then use it!

Vs. 3 “Say to God, “How awesome are Your works!

Through the greatness of Your power

Your enemies shall submit themselves to You.”

Worshiping God must entail declaring His awesome works in the earth, for truly He is at work everywhere! Therefore declare openly that in the greatness of His power His enemies shall submit themselves to Him. This will be so clear on His Day when all will see it and fear. Thus, this song is being sung in anticipation of that Day, and may very well be sung on that Day!

Vs. 4 All the earth shall worship You

And sing praises to You;

They shall sing praises to Your name.” Selah

On that Day then all the earth shall worship God, for they (we) shall sing praises to Him, to Him alone who saved us and delivered us we shall sing praises to Your Name!

Vs. 5-7 ⁵Come and see the works of God;

He is awesome in His doing toward the sons of men.

⁶He turned the sea into dry land;

They went through the river on foot.

There we will rejoice in Him.

⁷He rules by His power forever;

His eyes observe the nations;

Do not let the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah

This psalm now invites all to come and see the glorious works of God, to see how awesome He is towards all the sons of men, and in this it looks both forward and backward by first retelling His powerful works in the past towards His people Israel while looking forward to the future, recalling then both His salvation and deliverance of individuals, as well as Israel as a nation, and dare I add the entire Body of Christ made up of Jews and Gentiles when our Lord returns! It is there then that we will rejoice in Him when He comes again for us all who believe in Him! For truly He rules by His power, for His eyes observe the nations, nations which He raises up and brings down according to His own Designs. Therefore, when He comes again, He will submit all nations to Himself, no longer then will the rebellious exalt themselves, or the wicked rule, for He will rule all nations with a rod of iron.

Vs. 8-9 ⁸Oh, bless our God, you peoples!

And make the voice of His praise to be heard,

⁹Who keeps our soul among the living,

And does not allow our feet to be moved.

Therefore all peoples come and bless our God, make the voice of His praise to be heard. For no longer shall this burden of subduing the wicked fall to the sons of men, but to our God and Savior and King who keeps our soul among the living and does not allow our feet to be moved, therefore we will remain with Him forever, “firm in the faith!” Listen then to Scott Krippayne’s song titled the same on Spotify for some inspiration.

Vs. 10-12 ¹⁰For You, O God, have tested us;

You have refined us as silver is refined.

¹¹You brought us into the net;

You laid affliction on our backs.

¹²You have caused men to ride over our heads;

We went through fire and through water;

But You brought us out to rich fulfillment.

The psalmist now recalls that on our journey with Him God has both tested us and refined us. For by His doing so He reveals to us our own short comings, so as to remove from us that which is disagreeable, just like silver is refined to remove the metallurgic slag, so our God refines us to purify us from all that offends. Verses eleven and twelve then recalls Israel’s own chastening to purge their rebellion from them, for they were made to be subservient to their enemies so that they might long to be subservient to Him (consider 2 Chr. 12:7-8; Isaiah 26:13 etc.). Thus, they went through fire and through water, both judgment and a sort of baptism (i.e., a cleansing from sin) just as some of us will have to go through before entering the Kingdom (1 Cor. 3:9-15; 1 Peter 1:7). Nonetheless God Himself brought them out to rich fulfillment, just as He does for all who repent and believe in Him (consider Psalm 107).

Vs. 13-15 ¹³I will go into Your house with burnt offerings;

I will pay You my vows,

¹⁴Which my lips have uttered

And my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble.

¹⁵I will offer You burnt sacrifices of fat animals,

With the sweet aroma of rams;

I will offer bulls with goats. Selah

The Psalm now moves from a collective thought to a personal one, indicating their desire to be faithful to the Lord, to never again mix the worship of God with pagan ritual, or make it hypocritical by not keeping ones vows to Him. For having experienced the deliverance of the Lord they (we) want to keep what they have spoken to Him in their trouble. Now some commentators see the Lord Jesus Christ as this individual, but that is clearly wrong since He does not vow to God, He is the Sinless Son of God who obeys God. As well any notion that He would vow to God the Father to offer up sacrifices of bulls and goats is untenable. For He once and all for all time fulfilled every sacrificial requirement when He offered Himself up on the Cross as the finial sacrifice for all our sins (Heb. 9:11-10:25). These passages then are not to be applied to Him as if He were going to be making vows to God and offering the blood of bulls and goats when He came and gave His own Life for us all. For the Lord Jesus Christ has never vowed to God the Father to do this, for God the Father asks Him and He as the Son of God obeys Him.

Vs. 16-17 ¹⁶Come and hear, all you who fear God,

And I will declare what He has done for my soul.

¹⁷I cried to Him with my mouth,

And He was extolled with my tongue.

Having then experienced the deliverance of the Lord, the psalmist wants to give an open testimony, a public declaration of just what the Lord has done for Him. This then is the desire of everyone who experiences the Lord Jesus Christ’s salvation for themselves, or His mighty work in their lives. And when believers are collectively gathered together there can be nothing more edifying than to do this, to here of the mighty and merciful works of the Lord in peoples lives.

Vs. 18 “If I regard iniquity in my heart,

The Lord will not hear.”

Obviously if the psalmist had regarded iniquity in their heart, the Lord would not have heard his prayer, since the Lord does not hear the proud, or unbelieving, or unrepentant (Heb. 11:6), therefore the first step in being heard by the Lord is to see your need for Him, wanting to forsake your sins  (consider Jesus' own disposition in prayer, see Heb. 5:7).

Vs. 19-20 ¹⁹But certainly God has heard me;

He has attended to the voice of my prayer.

²⁰Blessed be God,

Who has not turned away my prayer,

Nor His mercy from me!

Because of their Godly fear the psalmist was heard by God; for he feared God and kept what he vowed to God, therefore God heard him and attended to his prayer (in this consider Ecc. 5:1-5). And because God has heard him the psalmist now concludes this psalm in joyous worship to our God who in His faithfulness has heard his prayer and not turned away His mercy from Him, just as He will hear yours when you repent and believe in Him. 

Scripture Quotations

New King James (1982): Thomas Nelson.