Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Psalms 66:16-20
b) A Call To Consider The Way In Which God Has Answered His (or their) Prayer Because His (their) Heart Was Right Towards God (Psalms 66:16).
The Psalm ends with an emphasis on the fact that God has answered prayer. The king was an intercessory priest after the order of Melchizedek (see introduction to the Psalm above). But this would do no good unless his heart was pure before God. He recognised that it was only when he approached God as one who was right with Him, that his prayer was heard. God knows nothing of ex opere operato. This may thus be the cry of the king, praying as the people's representative.
Alternately the cry is that of each individual (as part of the whole) as he recognises the wonderful way in which God has answered his prayer.
‘Come, and hear, all you who fear God,
And I will declare what he has done for my life.'
First he calls on all who ‘fear God', that is who recognise the Almightiness of YHWH, to come and hear while he declares what God has done for him which has so benefited his life. ‘All who fear God' acknowledges the fact that even among the godless nations there were those who recognised and acknowledged the greatness of the God of Israel. Whilst Judah were His people ‘the fear of God' was not limited to them. We can compare here Naaman the Syrian general and the Sidonian widow who succoured Elijah (Luke 4:26; 2 Kings 5:17; 1 Kings 17:9 ff.).
I cried to him with my mouth,
And he was extolled with my tongue.'
What he wanted them to recognise was that he had cried to God with his mouth, and had extolled Him with his tongue, and that God had heard him (Psalms 66:19). Note the combination of prayer and praise. The idea is not that we somehow persuade Him to act by praising Him (the extolling comes after the praying), but that we not only look to Him to answer our prayers, but also give Him the worship and gratitude due to Him for His goodness.
‘If I regard iniquity in my heart,
The Lord will not hear,
But truly God has heard,
He has attended to the voice of my prayer.'
However, he stresses the importance of approaching God with a pure heart. Unlike the so-called gods of other nations the God of Israel is concerned with the moral behaviour of His petitioners. He will only hear the prayers of those whose hearts are right with Him as revealed in their response to His covenant requirements and their behaviour towards others. There is nothing automatic about it. They will not be heard for their much speaking, but only when they approach Him with their hearts purified and free from known sin. Cherishing sin in the heart will result in God not hearing them. What they pray for must be right, and so must their attitude of heart. The importance of this fact cannot be overstated. It reminds us that God is only ‘bound' to hear the prayers of those whose hearts are right with Him and whose motives are pure. And in this case God had truly heard his prayer, and had heard him as he prayed, precisely because he had prayed from a true heart and with a cleansed conscience. This was the basis on which their great deliverance had been enjoyed.
Again the idea is not that by our behaviour we somehow earn the right to be heard. Rather it is that a righteous and moral God will only act in accordance with righteousness.
‘Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer,
Nor his covenant love from me.'
He finalises his prayer by blessing God for having heard him in accordance with His covenant. He never turns away from those who approach responsive to His covenant. For He Himself is always faithful to those to whom He has covenanted to act in love, that is to those who have responded to His freely offered love by entering into a covenant relationship with Him.