Psalm 66

At all times and in all things, God is glorious and faithfully working for our good,
therefore right worship requires wholehearted gratitude and whole-life obedience.

You might be asking, how did I land on Psalm 66 to preach from? Well, here’s the story
behind it. I’m a 45-year-old man. I totally know that "age is just a number", " you’re only
as old as you feel" and "45 is the new 28" and whatever other cutesy sayings you want
to quote. I get that. But there was something weird that happened when I hit 40. So I
started practicing having mini mid-life crisis. I had already grown my hair out and I can’t
afford a sports car. But I started to worry. I started to doubt that the life God has given
we was good enough. I started dwelling on unfulfilled dreams and life goals. I got
jealous of those around me who I thought had what I wanted or even "what I deserved".
But thankfully God has blessed me with an amazing wife and an amazing church family.
Lynelle had no choice but to talk to me about it because as you know we live together
and talk often. But I also reached out to trusted friends for godly council as well. They
encouraged me in a many amazing ways, the most important of which is to stay in the
Word. I’m not a systematic Bible reader. I tend to hop around, and this spring was a
time I needed to turn my heart to worship. I needed the Word to preach to me the right
attitude of my heart. So I opened the book of Psalms in search of inspiring praise. When
my eyes hit the beginning of psalm 66 "Shout praises to God all the earth, sing the
praises of His name, tell the world how glorious He is" I knew that’ s what I need to be
doing! And as I read further, I loved how this psalm seems to lay out ways to direct our
hearts to right worship.

The Psalm is broken up into 5 sections, each one showing us a different aspect of right
worship. The overarching theme is this - At all times and in all things, God is
glorious and faithfully working for our good, therefore right worship requires
wholehearted gratitude and whole-life obedience.

Right worship acknowledges and proclaims the glory of God

(vs 1-4)

I love the verbs used at the beginning here! Shout, Sing! Make known, or Tell the world!
For those of us who love God, when we acknowledge God’s glory and His position as
God the Most High, or the God of the Universe - these reactions of singing, shouting
and proclaiming should be natural responses. I love the name God of the Universe. It
shows both His creative power and His mighty sovereignty over His creation. I’m an
artist, and I can make some pretty neat things out of steel. We have lots of talented
artists in our congregation here, but every one of us needs supplies. I need steel, a
welder, electricity, but God created everything from nothing! He spoke and it was. Now
that’s power that is worthy of worship! I’m reminded of the words from Psalm 19 The
heavens are telling of the glory of God: and their expanse is declaring the work of His
hands. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. And for
those of us who love God, we should have overwhelming gratitude that He is our God
and that He is on our side.

But that response is reserved for those who love God. Look at the end of verse 3. The
NAS reads "Because of the greatness of Your power, Your enemies will give feigned
obedience to you." I’m sure that not many of you use the word feigned very often or
ever. It means to fake a reaction or pretend as though something were affecting you.
Like a possum fakes being dead you could say he is feigning death. Looking back to the
verse now it seems like it says that God’s enemies will give fake obedience. This didn’t
seem right, so I looked at a few other translations. The ESV reads - "So great is Your
power that your enemies come cringing to You." And the NLT reads "Your enemies
cringe before your mighty power". This act of cringing seemed more reasonable, so I
thought maybe there’s some difficulty in the translation of the Hebrew words there. So I
called my Hebrew scholar friend Nicholas Wilson and indeed that was the issue. As it
says in Philippians 2:10-11 at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are
in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So these enemies of God are going
to bow. The cringing or feigned obedience in verse 3 is trying to capture the hardness of
heart of God’s enemies - make no mistake, they are not pulling one over on God -
they’re not fooling Him with fake obedience. The fact is that in their hearts they won’t
want to bow, but in the face of God’s power they will. They will have no choice.
Obedience will happen. So the take away is this - don’t be an enemy of God! Right
worship acknowledges and proclaims the glory of God!

Right worship remembers what God has done

(vs 5-7)

Life can throw a lot of difficult situations our way. It’s all too easy to take our eyes off of
God and look only to our circumstances. But it’s really hard to worship God rightly if we
are anxious or worried. These are both signs of doubt in God’s sovereignty or that He’s
out for our good. But there is power in remembering and recounting what God has done
in your life. Pastor Ty has said that "often we need to stop listening to ourselves and
start preaching to ourselves." Verses 5-7 show the value of using the memories of
God’s past faithfulness to align our hearts to right worship in the present. This section is
clearly recalling the crossing of the Red Sea in Exodus. Now I’m pretty sure you all
know what the hearts of the Israelites did shortly after this miraculous crossing. What
did they do? They grumbled right? Well, I wanted to see how long it was between the
crossing and the grumbling so I flipped back to Exodus. I found the crossing and then
Moses’ song. Then it says they went three days into the wilderness and they found no
water. Then they complained. To be honest, I’m pretty sure I’d complain without water
too. But three days ago, God divided an extremely large body of water, let them pass
through, then released the waters onto their pursuers. I wonder if anyone in the
hundreds of thousands of people said as they were getting thirsty "You know, this
stinks, but our God just did some pretty miraculous things a couple days ago. I’m sure
He’s got a plan for us." Their eyes were focused so hard on their current circumstances
that they didn’t think back even three days to the miraculous faithfulness of God. Do you
see the power of remembering? Do you see how recalling God’s faithfulness can realign
us? You see, in that moment when they forgot about God’s faithfulness and power, they
turned to sinful grumbling. So verses 5 and 6 are helping us remember so that we can
rightly worship God with wholehearted gratitude for what He’s done. Look how Paul
does it in the end of Romans 11. He states some amazing truths about God - "Oh the
depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are
His judgments and how unfathomable His ways. Now Paul looks back to the Old
Testament and remembers Isaiah (Thursday morning at 6) He quotes some questions
from Isaiah "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?
Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to Him again? He’s painting the
picture of the character of God! Saying "look how wise He is, look how powerful He is,
He owns and is in charge of everything! Then look where that takes Paul’s heart he
says "For" All of these characteristics of God are true because - from Him and through
Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever Amen! That’s praising God
through remembering! Did you notice that Paul quoted Isaiah and Psalm 66 refers to
Exodus, and Jesus quotes scripture all the time? We need to preach the Word to
ourselves, but to do that we need to be in the Word and memorize the Word so that we
can recall it when we need to hear it.

One of my wife’s favorite verses to bring up in times of need is "God owns the cattle on
1000 hills". The smart alec in me says "then let Him bring one over and we’ll cook it up!"
She’ll say it when one of us is tempted to worry about finances. It brings us back to
God’s provision and His faithfulness. It realigns our vision. There’s another saying we
use for realignment. For example, say we spent too much on something. Like this past
winter we had a toilet that would keep running because the plunger thingy would get
stuck. So if you forgot to jiggle the handle the water would keep running. Well the brass
pully loopy thingy that pulls the plunger do-dad finally broke off, so I replaced it and low
and behold the plunger started working. Stopped the water every time. The next water
bill came and it was like $25 cheaper, which meant that I literally flushed $75 down the
toilet. Lynelle could see I was frustrated so she said, "God is bigger than $75". It’s a
simple phrase, in those words "God is bigger than.." she was reminding me of God’s
power, His provision and His faithfulness. It seems obvious that God is bigger than $75,
but what about bigger things like the need for a car? Don’t even get us or the Spensts
going on God’s provision through automotive needs. You will be here all day. Unless
you need to hear it, then get us started! God is bigger than a car, Amen?! But what
about the loss of a job, or the need for next month’s mortgage, or huge medical bills? I
know these are real needs, but our God is real, He’s powerful and He’s faithful. And this
section of Psalm 66 recounts God’s miracle working power because we need to hear it!

Now I don’t want to draw any conclusions that aren’t in the text, but there’s a little word
at the end of verse 6 that I think makes a big point. "There let us rejoice in Him". Do you
see that word "us" in there? I loved Psalm 66 because it helped me to realign my heart.
We all need it! I think that’s why the us is there - we’re in this life together people! One
of the greatest gifts God has given the church is the church. Romans 12:15 says we’re
to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Hebrews 10:24-25
reads, "let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not
forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one
another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. Psalm 66 shows us that one
way to encourage each other is to recount God’s faithfulness to each other. Right
worship remembers what God has done and praises Him for it. And a solid church will
encourage each other in that and will praise God together.

Right worship praises God for His work in our hearts

- even when it’s hard (vs 8-12)

All right folks. So far it’s been pretty easy to see why this is a worship leader’s kind of
psalm. Lots of praise and glorious language! Here comes some more amazing but this
time weighty stuff. Let’s look at verses 8 -12. Verse 8 looks a lot like the first 4 verses -
praising God and proclaiming it everywhere. Verse 9 looks good too. That’s great stuff!
The God of the Universe sustains us and guides us! It sounds like Provers 3:4-5 Trust in
the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways
acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight. Or Psalm 119:105 Your word is
a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. But then things take what seems like a huge
turn. Look at verse10. Praise Him because He has tried us! Because He has refined us
like silver? Thanks, but no thanks. Can we maybe go back to the whole crushing my
enemies bit? Or maybe a little more of the provision and keeping my feet from stumbling
please? Right? How can we possibly praise God for trying us or testing us? Let’s have a
look, shall we? I said a while back, I work with metal. I learned about metalworking at
Drake University is Des Moines. At the sculpture studio they had a small foundry or
furnace for casting softer metals like aluminum. So there’s a container called a crucible
that you put the raw metal hunks in. Then you put that into a furnace and crank up the
heat. As the metal melts any impurities rise to top. You then take a semicircular metal
scraper (on a long handle, mind you) and you pull out the impurities or slag and you
dump them into a slag bucket. It’s a really cool process. Now lets get back to the
Scripture. The Psalmist is praising God for refining them like silver. The melting point of
silver 1763 degrees. I don’t know about you, but I whine like a baby when it’s 89 and
humid. I don’t want any part of 1763 degrees! But think back to how the melting process
worked. When the heat came and the softening started, the impurities rose to the
surface. Let’s ask ourselves "when the hard things in life "the heat" comes our way,
what comes to the surface in our lives, in our words, in our actions, in our attitude?"
How do you respond when your spouse is giving you driving suggestions, when your
Mom asks you to unload the dishwasher for the 3rd time, when your boss tells you to do
something "below your paygrade", when you lose your job, when a friend says
something hurtful, or when you give into that same old temptation again. What sinful
attitude comes up when the heat from life’s trials is on - pride, self-reliance, anger,
impatience, pride, conceit, pride? We all have sin inside of us, but what are your triggers
that bring it out? This is why the metal purification process is a good analogy. When the
heat’s on, the impurities come out. This fact stinks, but guess what guys, we are
completely in charge of our reactions. We can never say "the devil made me do it" "she
hit me first" "you made me mad" "You deserved that comment" "they had it coming". We
are responsible for every word we speak and every action we do. Now I know what
you’re saying, "Thanks Doug for the verbal beat down, but why on earth should we
praise God for trials?" Because the God of the Universe is after your heart. He wants
what’s best for you which is to shape you into the image of His Son! He was sinless! So
God’s trying to root that sin out of you so that you can live like a redeemed person and
so you can best represent Him to the world. That’s certainly worthy of some
praise! Right worship praises God for His work in our hearts - even when it’s hard.
This sounds an awful lot like James 1:2-4 Consider it all joy brothers and sisters when
you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete,
lacking nothing. Or 1 Peter 1:6-7 In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little
while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your
faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire,
may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
God knows Proverbs 14:12 that says, "there is a way that seems right to a man and that
way leads to death." We’ve all got sin inside us, and when left to our own choices we’re
just going to have all those negative actions and reactions I mentioned earlier. God
knows what we need way better than we do. He knows the kind of person He created
you and I to be. And He knows that the only way to clean us up is to get that sin out.
He’s raising the heat in our life so our junk, our heart’s impurities will rise to the surface
so that hopefully we will see them for what they are (sin separating us from God) and
ask for forgiveness and ask the Holy Spirit to help us live a life that pleases God.
Proverbs 3:11-12 reads "My child, don’t reject the Lord’s discipline and don’t be upset
when He corrects you, for the Lord corrects those He loves, just as a father corrects a
child in whom he delights". God loves us so much guys! He loves us way too much to
let us stay full of impurities and living average lives of daily sin. Thoughts like "well, I’m
not that bad, or at least I’m not doing what they’re doing" just hold us imprisoned to sin.
Jesus said in John 10:10 the thief comes only to kill and steal and destroy but I have
come that they may have life and have it abundantly." Look at the end of verse 12 Yet
you brought us into the place of abundance. That’s the goal of God’s testing guys - to
rid your lives of sin and give you an abundant life! I’m not talking about prosperity,
money or fame, so don’t go that route. We’re talking about a life lived to glorify God, free
from habitual sin - that’s an abundant life. Colin Smith who wrote the Keys to Unlocking
the Bible" says this "Jesus will take you as you are but never leave you as you were.
He’s in the business of changing lives." Christ-likeness is God’s goal for us. He knows
that sin will only lead to destruction and pain so that’s why He’s working to get that out
of us. 1 John 1:9 reads "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." That’s a beautiful thing! But God does
even more, not only can He take our sins away because of the cross and resurrection,
but He gives us the Holy Spirit to lead us and to sanctify us through the rest of life.
That’s why we can praise God for the trials. Right worship praises God for His work in
our hearts - even when - or especially when it’s hard.

Right worship is whole-life obedience as a sacrifice to God

Praise God for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ so that we no longer have to follow the
animal sacrificial system! I remember a long time ago I was reading through the Bible
with My daughter Cecily when she was like 5 or something and we were in Leviticus
going through all the rights and regulations of the high priest for doing the sacrifices.
And after a while of reading Cecily turned to me and said, "the altar was sure a bloody
place." Umm yes! So again praise God for Jesus, His work on the cross, and for the
empty tomb! But how can we apply these verses here to our lives with no sacrificial
system. A couple key scriptures point this out pretty clearly. Shameless plug - at
Ironmen Thursday mornings we’re going through Isaiah. Right away in chapter one God
says some pretty amazing things about the traditions and sacrifices. Listen to verses 13
to 15 "bring your worthless offerings no longer. Incense is an abomination to me. New
moon and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies - I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn
assembly. I hate your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts, they have become
a burden to me: I am weary of bearing them." Those are the words of God talking about
the religious rites He set up or ceremonies that were designed as acts of worship. So
right worship is clearly not about the sacrifices themselves. Verse 17 starts explaining
what right worship looks like. 17 Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean: remove the
evil of your deeds from My sight. (that’s repentance) Cease to do evil, learn to do good:
seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. (that’s
worshiping God with your life) God’s not looking for animal sacrifice or even corporate
gathering specifically. He’s after your heart. The answer is in what Chris Callahan
preached a few weeks ago in Psalm 51:16-17 Where David says "For You do not
delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not please with burnt offering. The
sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not
despise." Now God did initiate the sacrificial system. The wages of sin has always been
death. What God was trying to teach Israel through the sacrificial system was how
serious sin was. But the sinful human heart has the ability to turn even amazing acts of
worship into mindless and heartless routine. This is what was happening in Isaiah’s day.
This is what David was talking about in psalm 51. God wants no part of mindless
routine. He wants a remorseful and broken heart that’s crushed by the filth of the sins
it’s committed. A heart ready to return to Him, ask for forgiveness, turn from the sin and
live a life that glorifies God. That’s the sacrifice He wanted then, and that’s the sacrifice
we need to offer now. Right worship is whole-life obedience as a sacrifice to
God. Look what Paul says in Romans 12: 1-2 "Therefore I urge you brothers and
sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice,
acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship." Well how do we do that? "
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable
and perfect." So we no longer have to kill any animals, praise God, but the sacrifice is
one of our wills, our selfish, sinful desires. And then we renew our minds with God’s
word so we know what right living looks like. Jesus tells us what it looks like when He
said, "If anyone wishes to be my disciple, He must deny himself, take up his cross and
follow me." The way we worship God with our whole lives is by submitting to His
authority in all areas of our lives - our words, our actions, and our thoughts. Jesus’
command was to deny ourselves, what He means is to not give in to our selfish sinful
desires. The world tells us over and over, do what feels right to you, do whatever makes
you happy, you do you. So is our own human version of right the one to be trusted? The
same human minds that came up with murder, war, slavery, abortion and abuse? Are
these the guides to be trusted? Absolutely not! But Paul said, "don’t be conformed to
this world". Remember Proverbs 14:12 "there’s a way that seems right to a man, and
that way leads to death." Denying ourselves means the we don’t follow our hearts, but
rather we lead our hearts according to God’s word. Proverbs 119:9 reads "how can a
young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to your word." Well, can we
trust God’s word? Does it give us what we need for whole-life obedience? 2 Timothy
3:16-17 All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, for training and righteousness, so that the man, or woman, or teenager or
child of God may be adequate for every good work. Well I’d say that covers it! This is an
all ages, all situations formula for success! Is it going to be easy? Nope. Remember that
"take up your cross and follow me" bit from Jesus? Yeah, it’s going to be hard, but the
payoff of a godly life of obedience is worth it. A life that is a spiritual act of worship is
worth it. So kids, when your parents ask you to do your chores you respond by doing it
right away, all the way and with a good attitude. Teens, remember in 180 when Nick
talked about doing hard things? So when your teacher gives you an assignment full of
material "you will never use", you buck up and work hard without complaining!
Everyone, do your jobs as if you’re working for the Lord and not men. Honor your
bosses even when it’s difficult so that you can show Jesus to your workplace. Spouses,
encourage each other with scripture and words of affirmation, serving one another with
humility and love. Right worship is whole-life obedience as a sacrifice to God

Right worship praises God for answered prayers

(vs 16-20)

I’m sure we all think praising God for answered prayer seems pretty easy and obvious.
But look at the first thing the psalmist is ready to tell his fellow believers about - what
God has done for my soul. He’s not thankful for things, or safety, or victory in battle, but
for God working in His soul. He’s praising God for being faithful in hearing his plea for
purity and shaping his heart. It’s good to praise God for answering prayers exactly the
way we wanted. If you’ve had God answer a prayer need, even if it was in a different
way than you thought He would, If God has ever given you a specific answer to prayer
raise your hands. That’s awesome! That’s our God at work! It is good and right to praise
God for meeting our needs. But what all of Psalm 66 points to is that we can and should
praise God most for meeting our need to be purified, forgiven and restored. Look at
verse 13 "If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear." This is not saying
that If I sin at all, God won’t hear me. We’d all be sunk if that were the case. God
wouldn’t hear anyone. The ESV said "If I had Cherished iniquity." So what the Psalmist
is getting at is habitual sin or unconfessed ongoing sin. All the stuff we were talking
about before that God’s trying to burn out of us. So it’s important to follow 1 John 1:9
and confess our sins so God can forgive us and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Then look at verses 19 and 20. But certainly God has heard; He has given heed to the
voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer nor His loving
Kindness from me. Right worship praises God for answered prayers

Psalm 66 teaches us a lot about right worship doesn’t it? To worship God rightly we
need to acknowledge and proclaim His glory. We need to remember what God has
done and remind others of it too. We do this when we remember the Lord’s day together
or celebrate the Lords supper and remember Christ’s work on the cross. We need to
praise God for His work in hearts, even when it’s hard. We need to praise God with our
lives of obedience. And we need to Praise God for answered prayer. In one sentence
- At all times and in all things, God is glorious and faithfully working for our
good, therefore right worship requires wholehearted gratitude and whole-life
obedience.