Daily Psalm Reading – Psalm 66-70
Shout for joy to God, all the earth!
Psalm 66:1-2 NIV
Sing the glory of his name;
make his praise glorious.
I love Psalm 66. It is a wonderful song of praise, but different than you might expect. You see, we tend to praise God for the good times. The psalmist here praises God for the good times, and praises God for causing the bad times!
For you, God, tested us;
Psalm 66:10-12 NIV
you refined us like silver.
You brought us into prison
and laid burdens on our backs.
You let people ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water,
but you brought us to a place of abundance.
Notice that the psalmist says it was God who “brought us” into some terribly painful situations. These led to refining (removing all the impurities), and eventually to a place of abundance.
We love to praise God for the mountaintops, but we rarely praise him for the valleys. The psalmist tells us to not only praise him for the valleys, but praise him while we’re in the valleys!
I will come to your temple with burnt offerings
Psalm 66:13-14 NIV
and fulfill my vows to you —
vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke
when I was in trouble.
Even in the darkest moments of trouble, we should be committing to worship. Even when we don’t know how the situation will turn out, we commit ourselves to praising our God. No matter the highest highs or the lowest lows, we commit ourselves to our God.
Praise be to God!
Living in the Word 