Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path. (Psalm 119:105)
Psalm 66 (NIV)
For the director of music. A song. A psalm.
1 Shout with 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 praise to your name." Selah
5 Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works in man's behalf! 6 He turned the sea into dry land, they passed through the waters on foot – come, let us rejoice in him. 7 He rules forever by his power, his eyes watch the nations – let not the rebellious rise up against him. Selah
8 Praise our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard; 9 he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping. 10 For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver. 11 You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. 12 You let men 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. Selah
16 Come and listen, 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 heard my voice in prayer. 20 Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!
Notes
1. This psalm appears to be entirely about praise and thanksgiving that starts with a call to ‘all the earth’ (1) to praise God. ‘Earth’ refers to the physical world but here it is used metaphorically for earth-dwellers, the people who lived in the world he knew or had heard of. The psalmist seems to assume that all will respond readily and positively for already ‘all the earth bows down,’ and ‘they sing praise’ (4).
2. He provides evidence for what God has done to warrant this worship (5-7) by referring to the exodus from Egypt especially the miraculous escape through the ‘the sea’ that undoubtedly refers to the Red Sea/Sea of Reeds, (Exodus 14:15-31) and then across ‘the waters.’ Nahar is usually translated as river or stream so this refers to the crossing of the River Jordan (Joshua 3:14-17).
3. A second call is made to the ‘peoples’ (plural) in verse 8, who seem to be distinct from ‘all the earth’ of verse 1. The details provided suggest it refers to the conditions in the land after the Assyrian exile of the northern kingdom (Israel) that occurred in 722 BC (2 Kings 17:5-41). On that occasion people from other parts of the Assyrian Empire were forcibly brought in and attempts were made to introduce them to the Jewish knowledge about God and their style of worship.
4. Communicating with the different ethnic groups was not a problem. Each would have their own language but since the 9th century BC, Aramaic, the language of Assyria was widely used in trade and international communication throughout the Middle East. That would be widely known at the time Psalm 66 appears to be set. [1]
5. This second section, unlike the first (1-7), is not addressed to ‘you’ (which is unwritten in English grammar) who are the people in the world, but is about ‘us,’ ‘we’ and ‘our.’ That implies that the psalmist is one of those who was living in this era. The plurality of ‘peoples’ suggests it refers to the multiethnic communities that then occupied the land.
6. Verses 9-12, therefore describe, probably metaphorically, the peoples’ varied traumatising experiences that led to their immigration.
7. The final section (13-20) changes again as this section is personal as ‘I,’ ‘me’ and ‘my’ are used. That is understandable, as in this section, the psalmist describes his response to the awesome God that is the focus of worship of the ‘earth’ and the ‘peoples.’ Such a God rightfully demands individual commitment from his worshippers.
8. My working title/theme, therefore, is, ‘A world-wide call to worship that requires a personal response.’
9. Before analysing it further it is necessary to clarify the original poetic structure that is as essential to the meaning of the psalm as the actual words used.
10. Hebrew poetry is arranged in lines which usually have 2 or 3 parts that are shown in modern Bibles by insetting the second and subsequent parts (though ‘free’ translations like The Message that are more interpretive, do not keep at all close to this structure).
11. Lines are then grouped into strophes (equivalent to paragraphs in prose) according to the idea that is promoted in the strophe.
12. Strophes are invariably paired with other strophes and in this parallelism they repeat, build on or contrast their respective ideas.
13. The idea in each strophe is an aspect of the theme of the psalm.
14. These features are all part of the psalmist’s creation so it helps understanding of the words of the psalm if these are identified. See ‘Introduction to Hebrew Poetry’ for more details of this structure.
15. In longer psalms, such as Psalm 66, there are further divisions as the psalm is divided into stanzas. Each of these has its own theme that is part of the overall theme of the psalm.
16. Because these poetic styles are not language dependant it is possible to discern them even when translated from Hebrew into other languages.
17. The psalm subdivisions in English translations (shown by a line separation) that sometimes are referred to as ‘stanzas,’ do not necessarily follow the Hebrew pattern.
18. The poetic structure of Psalm 66 has not been easy to identify as it is irregular but what follows seems to be a valid interpretation primarily because it enhances the meaning of the words used and explains how these apparently disparate parts are linked together.
19. Initially, verses 13-20, about the psalmist’s personal response, looked as if it ought to be a discrete stanza but no internal pattern could be distinguished. However, a pattern did emerge when the final verse was excluded. It then featured a chiastic structure with verse 16, a call to worship, in the centre. Verses 13-15 describe the public expression of his worship and that parallels his personal, inner commitment in verses 17-19.
20. Could the final verse then be a standalone stanza? If it were it would likely be paralleled with the beginning of the psalm, that is, verses 1-2. These are about the public praise of God that is loud and vigorous while the last verse is personal and refers to God’s reception of the psalmist’s approach. So it seems some parallel ideas are there and are about contrasts rather than similarities.
21. That leaves verses 3-12 and they neatly divide into two unequal parts. Verses 3-7 are addressed to ‘all the earth’ using verbs in the second person (you) while verses 8-12 are addressed to ‘peoples’ using the first person (we, us).
22. This all appears to be messy and disjointed and is not neat and orderly, as we tend to expect in English poetry. But that messiness could be a feature of the poetry for the layout and line structure of Hebrew poetry is an aspect of understanding the words and their meaning.
23. To assess this further we need to explore how the details of line structure and choice of words develop our understanding.
24. Here is a provisional working model of how Psalm 66 might be understood in the light of the demonstrable features of Hebrew poetry.
Provisional analysis
Psalm 66 (NIV)
For the director of music. A song. A psalm.
Worldwide call to worship that requires a personal response
| Stanza 1 | Introductory praise | |
| A | 1 Shout with joy to God, all the earth! 2 Sing the glory of his name; make his praise glorious! | Introductory call to the whole earth to praise God. |
| Stanza 2 | Call for worldwide responsive worship | |
| B | 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 praise to your name.” Selah | Call to worship that assumes the whole world is ready to join in. |
| C | 5 Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works in man’s behalf! 6 He turned the sea into dry land, they passed through the waters on foot – come, let us rejoice in him. 7 He rules forever by his power, his eyes watch the nations – let not the rebellious rise up against him. Selah | Historical and expectational reasons to worship. |
| Stanza 3 | Call for local communal responsive worship | |
| B1 | 8 Praise our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard; | Call to worship to the local community. |
| C1 | 9 he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping. 10 For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver. 11 You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. 12 You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance. | ‘Our’ reason to worship relates to our personal experiences of God’s help. |
| Stanza 4 | Personal responsive worship | |
| D | 13 I will come to your temple with burnt offerings and fulfil my vows to you – | My personal commitment that is expressed publicly. |
| E | 14 vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble. | My verbal commitment. |
| F | 15 I will sacrifice fat animals to you and an offering of rams; I will offer bulls and goats. Selah | I will express my worship and commitment expansively and publicly. |
| X | 16 Come and listen, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me | Appeal to others to join in worship. |
| F1 | 17 I cried out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue. | I shouted out my worship. |
| E1 | 18 If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; | My personal commitment is expressed in godly living. |
| D1 | 19 but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer. | I sense that God has accepted me. |
| Stanza 5 | Concluding praise | |
| A1 | 20 Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me! | Concluding personal praise. |
25. The psalm begins and ends with praise (stanzas 1 and 5). It starts with a call to the whole world to join in, loudly and vigorously, and that parallels the psalmist’s personal commitment expressed in the final stanza where he senses that God accepts his worship and responds with expressions of his love. And that ‘love’ (hesed) is more accurately expressed as its core meaning, ‘loving kindness,’ particularly in our world where ‘love’ often has connotations of self-centred indulgence whether that be related to sex, romance or cake.
26. Stanza 2 repeats the call to the whole world to worship and its two strophes parallel those in stanza 3 where the call is to his local community.
27. The psalmist confidently assumes that the ‘the whole earth’ will be aware of God’s awesome power that causes ‘enemies to cringe’ and everyone expresses their appreciation in worship that is shown in obeisance and communal sung praise (strophe B). This is hyperbole, not a statement of fact. It is poetic not scientific language. He has not done a worldwide survey to ‘prove’ his claim. Instead, he speaks poetically, using a figure of speech that we are familiar with to promote the point that belief in an overarching power in the world is a common, even ‘universal’ feature of humankind’s understanding of the world.
28. ‘Cringe,’ has the sense that ‘they will bow in worship even if reluctantly.’ The same thought is expressed elsewhere in a phrase such as, ‘every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess’ (Isaiah 45:23 and Philippians 2:10).[2]
29. ‘All the earth bows down – if only that were true! What wishful thinking,’ might be our response, even if we do not say it out loud, but we need to be careful here as such a negative response can be based on the assumption that anyone who does not worship God as he is revealed in Scripture must be worshipping false gods whether they be stone idols, personalities or material possessions. But that is not necessarily true, then or now.
30. In ancient times everybody worshipped ‘God.’ There was a general understanding that there was a power over and beyond what they could see and experience, that was understood to be in control. This is akin to the sense many people, and not just Christians, have, when they spend time in the natural world, out in the countryside or at sea. The beauty! The grandeur! The immensity! The power! There has to be a cause behind it all! So, a belief in God as the ultimate reason is very common – both in ancient times and in the present – even though it may be vague and unreasoned.
31. The psalmist speaks into that situation. He ignores the overlays of alternative religious beliefs and builds on that innate belief in a higher power as he shares (strophe C) the revelations that have come to him from his status as a member of God’s chosen people who were given the task of sharing what they knew with the rest of humanity.
32. This is not a major feature in Scripture but it is there nevertheless. This is how Yahweh spoke to Israel via Moses:
‘Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites (Exodus 19:5-6).
Yahweh’s intention for Israel was that every member of the nation were to be priests, to enable ‘the whole earth,’ meaning all humankind, to worship Yahweh and learn about him. They would be his human representatives, as the church has been since Pentecost.
33. Peter picks up on this concept in the New Testament referring to God’s people, the church:
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light (1 Peter 2:9).
Again, this is not a concept that seems to carry much weight in our modern church life but it is there in Scripture.
34. We have a task, according to Peter, to declare God’s praises and to base that on our testimony of God’s rescue of us from ‘darkness into his wonderful light.’ We call that evangelism – could that be what Psalm 66 is about too? The psalmist calls the world and his immediate neighbours to join in worship and he provides reasons for this as he shares the evidence of what God had done for his nation in rescuing them from slavery in Egypt: ‘he turned the sea into dry land’ and gave them a new land to settle in: ‘they passed through the waters on foot.’
35. My hypothesis now is that the psalmist wants the ‘peoples’ to know personally the God whom the Jews worship and is building up a body of evidence to support his call. His evidence is based on his interpretation of their innate beliefs, his own people’s experience of God and, still to come, their personal life experiences.
36. The psalmist takes this as evidence that God ‘rules forever’ and ‘watch[es] the nations’ so all should take note and respond appropriately. He expresses this negatively in, ‘let not the rebellious rise up against him (verse 7).’
37. The psalmist addresses the nations he knew of and assumes they would know what he was talking about. The escape from Egypt had taken place about 500 years previously. That seems a long, long time for us in our modern world but we are overwhelmed with news and information from the media and there is a limit to the amount of information our memory banks can cope with. But that is a new phenomenon that has developed only in the last few hundred years. Previously, virtually everywhere in the world, life changed inordinately slowly. Communities tended to be small and there was little news of the outside world so people retold their family and community stories.[3] Besides, Israel was at the crossroads between Africa, Asia and Europe so their stories could spread in all directions. Of any ancient culture theirs was in a good position to spread widely.
38. He claims this as evidence of God’s power and his awareness of what goes on in all the nations – God was not a tribal god! He believed this was a warning to the nations to respect God and not rebel against him.
39. In stanza 3 the psalmist makes a similar worship call to the ‘peoples’ and that word refers to distinct ethnic or familial groups.[4] He refers to God as ‘our God’ and the evidence given for this in strophe C1 is all about ‘our’, ‘us’ and ’we,’ suggesting he acknowledges their part in the community and is referring to the traumatic experiences of them all and not only of his own Jewish culture (see note 3).
40. Psalm 66 therefore appears to be set in the period described in 2 Kings 17:1-6, 24-40. After Assyria, the dominant nation of the time, overran the northern kingdom, Israel, in 732-3 BC, the people were forcibly driven out and despatched to other parts of the Empire. They were replaced with people who also were forcibly made to leave their own homeland. This is presumed to be to reduce the risk of rebellion. It was a feature of the Assyrian captivity of the northern Kingdom of Israel but not of the Babylonian captivity of Judah in 507 BC. After that captivity the land was left fallow (2 Chronicles 36:20-21), which was a fulfilment of the prophecy in Leviticus 26:33-35.
41. It is interesting that the Assyrians encouraged the immigrants to adopt Jewish religious practices but were apparently not very successful (2 Kings 17:28, 40). That is not surprising as the Jews were already compromising their faith by worshipping other gods.
42. But that may not be the whole story. Perhaps the Assyrian king’s order was inspired by Yahweh:
… the king of Assyria gave this order: “Have one of the priests you took captive from Samaria go back to live there and teach the people what the god of the land requires.” So one of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria came to live in Bethel and taught them how to worship Yahweh (2 Kings 17:27-28).
Perhaps that priest was the author of Psalm 66!
43. Consider too, the possibility that among those apostate Jews in neighbouring Judah (2 Kings 17:19) there were some who remained faithful to God’s truth, they worshipped God as directed and studied and practised the Law. Perhaps they were a group something similar to the 7,000 godly people that existed in Elijah’s day apparently unknown to him (1 Kings 19:18).
44. Psalm 66 may have been part of the plan those godly followers of Yahweh developed to help the immigrants go further than the king intended and become true worshippers of Yahweh.
45. Strophe C1 parallels strophe C in stanza 2 with a description of how they went about this task. Again the idea promoted is about the reasons for his call to worship. This time, though, it is about their mutual personal experiences in which they had survived suffering that is described, probably metaphorically, at least in parts. The psalmist speaks about experiences that both his own people had experienced in leaving the land and the immigrants had experienced before and during their journey to the land.
46. He sensed that God had ‘preserved’ all parties from something that was like being on a journey on a dangerous path on which God ‘kept our feet from slipping.’
47. He regarded this experience as an occasion when God ‘tested’ them and felt it was something like the way silver is refined (see Psalm 12, notes 19-21 where this analogy is explored further).
48. It was as if they had been in ‘prison’ where their guards ‘laid burdens on our backs’ which suggests they experienced forced manual labour. The development of specially designed ‘prisons’ where people are confined as a punishment is a relatively modern invention. In ancient times prisons were for the temporary restraint of those who had incurred the wrath of society or the ruler. They were then released, possibly with a fine, killed or exiled. The link with having ‘burdens on our backs’ suggests they were used in forced labour so would be kept in a special compound or even would still live in the local community but would have their daily occupation strictly controlled. In that case ‘prison’ would be a metaphor. However, the main point is that he recognised that God was overseeing what was happening. But even more, God himself was the cause of their suffering!
49. This is one of many occasions when Scripture states that God is responsible for our suffering. This does not sit comfortably with beliefs that God is compassionate, loving and our Saviour. However, this is phenomenological language. It is not about cause and effect but about how it appears. When we speak of the sun setting and rising we are using phenomenological language – we describe what we see and that is perfectly understandable and acceptable even though we know in scientific language that what we observe is caused by the earth’s rotation. Similarly, when the psalmist says that God caused their suffering he is only describing how life appears. After all, if God is God, so is the ultimate authority and power, logically, he has to be ultimately responsible. Rather than giving rise to cries of anguish, shock or disgust this should engender peace of mind, relief and comfort for if God is in control bad things happening are not random events nor due to rampant evil. God is God and he is in control. We do not know and do not have the capacity to understand why God allows bad things to happen to good people. However, we can rest in the assurance that God’s promise is, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’ (Hebrews 13:5). God is compassionate and caring. God joins us in our suffering and hardship with his grace, mercy and presence and sometimes with rescue. We need to focus on that and not on our sufferings, for that is when God can appear to be distant and uncaring.
50. The psalmist continues with a metaphor that seems to refer to wounded men lying helpless on a battlefield while horsemen ride over them. A second metaphor about going through ‘fire and water’ also emphasises the overwhelming forces they had survived.
51. There is no clue about what exactly is referred to. They could be real experiences that some of the peoples had actually experienced but the minimal details mean that equally they could be metaphors that singers/readers would recognise as descriptions of their sufferings with caveat, ‘it felt as if …’
52. This is how metaphors work. They create images in our minds that link both with our experiences and our emotional and behavioural reactions to them. See Window 3 – Metaphors in Introduction to ‘Psalm Insights’ for more information about metaphors.
53. Now, through this psalm, the individual people groups with their diverse experiences were linked as they were living together in the land either as forced refugees or those who had survived the devastation of being conquered.
54. The psalmist uses this communication technique to introduce his community to a richer awareness of the God he worshipped.
55. Notice that in strophe C1 the psalmist continues from strophe B1 to address his multi-ethnic community uniting them on the basis of their similar experiences but after the first line he changes to addressing God on their behalf! In a few carefully chosen words he pulls them together and unites them in accepting God’s role in their lives.
56. There is no intellectual argument! Instead, the psalmist builds on their innate belief in God, reminds them of God’s role in international affairs and then speaks about their personal experience of suffering and God’s role in bringing them through. That leads to the final line about their current situation – they were living in a ‘place of abundance!’
57. Exactly what that refers to is not explained. However, the land was fertile. There were vacant homes, farms and vineyards to occupy and even towns that were, at best, sparsely populated. A ‘place of abundance’ sounds like a good description of what they were experiencing.
58. We now can appreciate another reason why the psalmist referred to the nation of Israel’s rescue from Egypt (note 38) as an illustration of Yahweh’s power and interest in his people. It was to prepare them for the focus in stanza 3 about the role Yahweh had in their own experiences and how that relationship would continue if they became his people and recognised his authority in their lives. Yahweh had an impressive track record!
59. Stanza 4 is about the psalmist’s personal response to these calls to worship and is arranged chiastically with the main point in the centre, strophe X, in which he appeals to his listeners to hear his personal testimony with the implication that he wants them to follow his example.
60. But this time he addresses his audience as, ‘all you who fear God.’ Fear translates yare that can mean an expression of both terror and reverence. It is the context that guides the translator’s choice[5] though a combination of both meanings seems entirely appropriate especially when the positive aspects of fear such as an awareness of the risk of personal harm are borne in mind.[6] The use of this descriptor suggests the psalmist has narrowed his remarks to those who have responded to his call to the peoples.
61. However, though his call is to listen to, ‘what he has done for me,’ the rest of the stanza is about his personal response and it is only in stanza 5 that he brings the psalm to its conclusion with his final comment about what God ‘has done for me.’
62. The psalmist still has something to teach his new ‘converts’ and to remind his group of established believers.
63. It is as if he has led this group of new believers to faith in Yahweh, though that name is not mentioned, and they have asked something like, ‘What now? Where do we go from here?’
64. Could this psalm possibly have been a forerunner of the ‘Day of Pentecost’ experience? On that occasion, ‘When the people heard this they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”’ (Acts 2:37)
65. With that in mind, consider how the psalmist responded with a description of how he expressed his devotion to God.
66. In strophes D, E and F he describes how he outwardly and publicly expressed his worship and in the parallel strophes, D1, E1, and F1 he describes his inner private response.
67. In strophe D he expresses his thankfulness and commitment to God in attending the Temple to make ‘burnt offerings’ (Leviticus 1:1-17). This was not a part of the daily or feast sacrifices on behalf of the nation but a personal choice that would ‘fulfil my vows.’ The idea of expressing worship in the use of animal sacrifices would be familiar to those he was addressing as this was the invariable practice of all religions and some even sacrificed children (2 Kings 17:17, 31). That is awful to imagine but the point is that all religions of the day accepted that the gods expected and deserved the best. Perhaps that was why children were sacrificed. The Torah, in contrast, provided strict rules so sacrifices were limited to animals but they had to be the best – perfectly formed and the first born – so sacrifices had to be made perhaps even before a second birth was accomplished to enable the farmer to develop his herd.
Lesson 1: worship is a priority, costly and rather more than singing worship songs!
68. In strophe E he reflects on his vow to live for God when he was in trouble. That was a vow he had made publicly and such vows have to be kept whatever the cost.
Lesson 2: This is serious business. No one messes about with Yahweh (though that name is still unspoken).
69. In strophe F he discloses his plan to express his worship expansively and publicly by offering numerous animals. Only one animal was ever required in the fulfilment of a vow (Leviticus 1:2, 7:7-16) so this is hyperbole in which he expresses his thankfulness exuberantly.
Lesson 3: Worshipping Yahweh is not a chore or an optional extra and it is always a communal activity (though that would be readily understood so it is only in our day we need reminders about this).
70. Those three points are paralleled by another three points that develop the first ones but address them from an inner and personal perspective with the key strophe X in the centre. This chiastic structure is quite common in Hebrew poetry.
71. In scripture, praise is invariably expressed verbally – there is rarely any praying silently or praying in your mind[7] – so when the psalmist says he ‘cried out’ and mentions his mouth and tongue in strophe F1 (as also in strophe E) he wants us to know his verbal expression is more than ordinary speech – it is loud, exuberant and expansive to match his animal offerings. But it does come from within, from the heart.
Lesson 4: Yahweh knows our hearts. We cannot deceive him. Though worship is a communal activity it means little unless we are all participating from our own inner convictions.
72. In strophe E1 he confesses how he expressed his commitment not only verbally as in Strophe E but by living a godly life. This is not about sinning in itself, we all do that, but is about ‘cherishing’ sin; which seems an apt choice. The verb translated ‘cherished’ is a common word that is usually translated as ‘seen.’ It is as if the psalmist has been examining his heart to see if sin was lurking there ready to be fed and developed into openly sinful behaviour – hence the translators have chosen ‘cherish’ to express this.
Lesson 5: Our behaviour must express our worship as well as our words. Verbal worship and the public expression of worship has to be matched by godly behaviour that reflects a godly attitude.
73. The aspects of living by faith featured in stanza 4 are introduced in strophe D with an approach to God in his Temple and are concluded in strophe D1 in which he expresses his sense of assurance that God has accepted him. That is as crucial for Old Testament believers as it is for followers of Jesus. ‘How can we ever know that our worship has been accepted?’ is the worry for worshippers of any god. The best most can have is a vague ‘hope’ but many live in despair and either give up religious practices, go through the motions or devote their lives to any means they are told by their leaders that will achieve their goals of nirvana, karma, paradise or heaven with no thought for anyone else.
74. He does not explain how he knows that. He just does! And he is confident that others can experience that assurance too. That is so like what it is for us. We sense a change in our innermost being. We want to worship, we want to live God-honouring lives, we are distressed if we ‘let God down’ by sinning and we desperately want to put right whatever wrong we have done. We have no problem, therefore, in accepting the psalmist’s claim that, ‘God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer,’ as that is our experience.
Lesson 6: ‘Assurance’ is the secret strength of believers and as we grow in our knowledge of God and his ways we may also grow in confidence and determination to follow in God’s ways ever more closely.
75. You may be wondering at the reference to the ‘Temple’ as that was in Jerusalem in Judah which, at this time was still an independent kingdom though was partly controlled by Assyria. When the nation divided, Jeroboam, the first King of the breakaway Israel recognised the risk that visiting the Temple could be a step toward the failure of his own plans so he set up alternative worship places in the north (1 Kings 12:26-33). That would deceive the gullible and half-hearted Yahweh-worshippers but indubitably the godly followers of Yahweh who would be shocked and horrified at this apostacy would not be deceived or deterred from continuing to see the Temple as at the heart of their worship. We can safely assume the Psalm 66 psalmist is counted in that number even though he lived 200 years later.
76. The psalm ends with stanza 5, a single line, that praises God for answered prayer that he takes to be a feature of his ‘love.’ That translates hesed, that Mounce says is ‘one of the richest, most theologically insightful terms in the OT. It denotes kindness, love, loyalty, mercy.’[8]
77. Stanza 5 is expressed personally but it is not an expression of selfishness for as well as bringing the psalm to its conclusion and paralleling stanza 1, it also is linked with stanza 4 where he shares his personal experience of Yahweh as an example for his new converts to follow.
Concluding observations
78. Studying psalms in their poetic structure and their original setting reveals many new insights but Psalm 66 has been an exceptionally rich experience.
79. It is one of the few examples in OT of how God’s people went about their missionary task of evangelising the nations.
80. I have proposed in these notes that Psalm 66 was used to reach and teach the neighbouring peoples about Yahweh’s revelations of himself and how his people were expected to live and express their worship. It is too brief to be the details of the teaching. It is, therefore, better seen as a summary that was arranged poetically so it could be used as a follow up reminder of what had been learned.
81. It is interesting to speculate about what happened next. How and why might Psalm 66 have become widely known and appreciated so it was adopted into the national ‘hymnbook’ that became the Bible’s book of Psalms?
82. There are some features of Psalm 66 that stand out to me that might help this speculation. It is a joyous and positive song of worship of an Almighty God who takes a personal interest in people, it tells a story of surviving trauma that many people throughout the following generations would identify with and it summarises the key features of living a God-honouring life that the peoples’ spiritual guides will have wanted them to learn and put into practice.
83. I imagine farmers singing this psalm as they ploughed their fields, their wives while they cooked, their sons as they watched over the sheep and goats and their daughters as they drew water and collected firewood. I see a role for this psalm to be something like what happened in eighteenth century UK and North America during the revival in which the Methodist Church was founded. John Wesley was the key leader but his brother Charles was a hymn writer whose hymns are still widely used nearly 300 years later. His hymns were a means of teaching Christian truth to hearts as well as minds so even the illiterate (and there were many) understood their faith. I wonder if Psalm 66, and probably other psalms too, had that same role 2,400 years earlier in the Middle East!
84. I drew attention to the possible link with Pentecost (note 63) and as my understanding of the possible function of stanza 4 developed I sense there might be even more links with the way the apostles went about evangelising and nurturing new believers. Might they have used Psalm 66 as their model? They would not have needed a long dissertation and detailed examination like this article, for Hebrew poetry was an innate part of their language, culture and daily life and worship. I suspect too, that Jesus in his lifetime would have taken them through biblical studies that they would not understand until after Pentecost.
85. It is interesting that God’s name, Yahweh, is not mentioned in Psalm 66. That is true of a number of other Psalms and there may be reasons for this of which I am unaware. However, in the context of the psalm itself it could be the deliberate choice of the psalmist so his non-Jewish hearers would know for sure that the psalmist was not promoting a new tribal god but was relating to the God of creation they knew of but did not know intimately as the psalmist claimed to.
86. Nevertheless, I felt it appropriate to introduce the name Yahweh in my later notes as it seems inevitable that at some point the psalmist would want to introduce the personal name of the God they were worshipping. It does not appear in Psalm 66 but I now wonder if there is another psalm that continues the task of Psalm 66 and does fill that gap.
87. To conclude I append the final version of this Psalm 66 analysis that now has a new title, ‘A model for interethnic evangelism.’
Final version
Psalm 66 (NIV)
For the director of music. A song. A psalm.
A model for interethnic evangelism
| | Stanza 1 | Introductory praise |
| A | 1 Shout with joy to God, all the earth! 2 Sing the glory of his name; make his praise glorious! | Introductory call to the whole earth to praise God. |
| | Stanza 2 | Acknowledges that already there is worldwide worship of God |
| B | 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 praise to your name.” Selah | Call to worship that assumes the whole world is ready to join in. |
| C | 5 Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works in man’s behalf! 6 He turned the sea into dry land, they passed through the waters on foot – come, let us rejoice in him. 7 He rules forever by his power, his eyes watch the nations – let not the rebellious rise up against him. Selah | Historical and expectational reasons to worship. |
| | Stanza 3 | Call for the local community to worship God as they recognise his role in their rescue from traumatic experiences |
| B1 | 8 Praise our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard; | Call to worship to the local community. |
| C1 | 9 he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping. 10 For you, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver. 11 You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. 12 You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance. | ‘Our’ reason to worship relates to our personal experiences of God’s help. |
| | Stanza 4 | Lessons in training in godliness based on the psalmist’s experience |
| D | 13 I will come to your temple with burnt offerings and fulfil my vows to you – | My personal commitment is expressed publicly. |
| E | 14 vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble. | My personal commitment is expressed verbally. |
| F | 15 I will sacrifice fat animals to you and an offering of rams; I will offer bulls and goats. Selah | I express my worship and commitment expansively and publicly. |
| X | 16 Come and listen, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me | Appeal to God-fearers to hear more about the awesome God they worshipped. |
| F1 | 17 I cried out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue. | I express my commitment in shouted out worship. |
| E1 | 18 If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; | My personal commitment is expressed in godly living. |
| D1 | 19 but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer. | God has responded to my commitment and has accepted me. |
| | Stanza 5 | Concluding praise |
| A1 | 20 Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me! | The assurance of knowing God and being known by him is a further reason for praise. |
After-thought – Modern examples of the application of lessons from Psalm 66
88. In ‘Christianity Rediscovered,’ Vincent Donovan[9] describes his missionary endeavours in the 1960-70s among the Masai tribespeople in East Africa. His mission had worked among the Masai for over 100 years. They had built hospitals and schools and were an essential part of the community. However, their only converts were a handful of men who staffed the hospitals and schools. No one, literally no one, from the tribal communities had ever been converted. Donovan was given permission to try a new approach. He obtained the agreement of the elders of six villages to spend a few hours with each at weekly intervals (one day/village, Monday to Saturday) learning about their beliefs and teaching them about Christianity. He learned about their belief in the ‘High God’ so built on that belief to introduce Christian concepts. At the end of the year whole village communities were converted and indigenous churches with local leadership developed. In this programme he was following the example of Psalm 66 by learning about the Masai’s beliefs and building on the similarities.
89. The peoples who lived in the land, as described in Psalm 66, we’re deeply traumatised. They had been through intense suffering that would have led to deep emotional and spiritual wounds. The Psalmist did not have a counselling programme but he introduced them to Yahweh so they could appreciate his compassion, care and presence. Around the world in 2023 trauma is a ubiquitous. There is a significant amount of counselling, both secular and Christian, that is able to help but, worldwide, only a handful of people have access to such services. But what about the masses, the thousands in the developing world, the poor and disadvantaged in every country? Well, God can help them and he has inspired a programme churches around the world are using through those who are gifted in pastoral work. The programme can be used evangelistically as well, just as in Psalm 66. This programme was developed in the last 20 years and now thousands of believers are trained in its use. Information about this is found at the Trauma Healing Institute website, https://traumahealinginstitute.org/. A description about its development is available at https://wycliffe.org.uk/story/healing-the-brokenhearted. Even with such a programme it is impossible to meet the worldwide demand so in 2020 (in God’s grace, just in time for Covid) a self-help programme was developed. This can be found at https://beyonddisaster.bible/. This programme is not evangelistic but users are encouraged to bring their troubles and cares to God. Hopefully hearts are softened and minds and spirits are opened to God’s ministry. The broken, hurting world in which we live needs a Saviour God who is interested, cares and is able to help. We have that in Jesus. Diane Langberg, who has had years of experience in Christian trauma healing ministry in a number of countries proposes in her book, Suffering and the Heart of God: How Trauma Destroys and Christ Restores, that, ‘trauma is perhaps the greatest mission field of the twenty-first century.’[10]
If that is true, trauma healing ought to have a role in evangelism, outreach and missions of all types in our day just like what happened when Psalm 66 was written.
90. I anticipate adding reference to other such activities as I learn about them.
Endnotes
[1] W. J. Martin and K. A. Kitchen, ‘Language (OT), II Aramaic,’ in J. D. Douglas and others, (Ed.) The Illustrated Bible Dictionary, (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1980), p. 876.
[2] Derek Kidner, Psalms 1-72 (Aylesbury: IVP Academic, 2008), p. 113, footnote.
[3] I have personal experience of this phenomenon as I have met people from the Middle East and in Asia whose cultures have only recently been affected by the modern information overload. They could accurately recount their family history and community events for 10 or more generations. That covers about 300 years.
[4] See ‘People: am’ in William D. Mounce, Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006). p. 504.
[5] William D. Mounce, Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006), p. 244.
[6] See Frank Cole, ‘Facing Fear’ in Stress Selfcare: Controlling the Pressures and Cares of Life <https://stress-selfcare.co.uk/facing-fear/ [accessed 30 December 2023] for a discussion about the different aspects of fear.
[7] Praying and reading silently is quite a modern development. It seems only to have become a feature in Western civilisations after the invention of printing when books became much more readily available and many more people were able to read for themselves.
[8] William D. Mounce, Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006), p. 426.
[9] Vincent Donovan, Christianity Rediscovered, (Croydon, SCM Press, 2001)
[10]Diane Langberg, Suffering and the Heart of God: How Trauma Destroys and Christ Restores, (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2015), p. 8.
Here is a 33 minute video version of this study in the form of a sermon as distinct from the above Bible-study note format.
Written: 3 October 2023
Published: 5 January 2024
Edited: 23 January 2024