Psalms 66:1-20

Psalms 66

DESCRIPTIVE TITLE

Invitation to All the Earth to Join in Israel's Song of Praise.

ANALYSIS

Stanza I., Psalms 66:1-4, Invitation based on Display of Divine Power. Stanza II., Psalms 66:5-7, Examples of God's Ancient Doings, leading up to bis Abiding Rule. Stanza III., Psalms 66:8-12, Renewed Invitation based on Recent Deliverance. Stanza IV., Psalms 66:13-15, Individual Resolve to Fulfil Personal Vows. Stanza V., Psalms 66:16-20, a Record of Personal Experience.

(Lm.)SongPsalm

1

Shout unto God all the earth,

2

celebrate in psalm[708] the glory of his name,

[708] Or: make melody unto.

establish ye the glory of[709] his praise.

[709] So it shd. be (w. Aram., Syr.)Gn.

3

Say unto GodHow fear-inspiring are thy works![710]

[710] Or: doings.

through the abounding of thy power will thy foes come cringing unto thee[711];

[711] Or: feign obedience unto thee. Cp. for same significant word, Psalms 18:44 (2 Samuel 22:45), Psalms 81:1.

4

All the earth will bow down to thee and make melody unto thee,

will celebrate in psalm thy name.

5

Come and see the doings of God,[712]

[712] Cp. Psalms 46:8.

Fear-inspiring is he in act towards the sons of men:

6

He turned the sea into dry land,

through a stream passed they on foot,
there let us be glad in him!

7

Ruling in his might to the ages

his eyes over the nations keep watch:
as for the rebellious let them not show exultation against him!

8

Bless O ye peoples our God,[713]

[713] Some cod. (w. Aram., Syr.) simply: GodGn.

and cause to be heard the sound of his praise:

9

Who hath set our soul[714] among the living,

[714] Some cod. (w. 7 ear. pr. edns): souls (pl.)Gn.

and not suffered to slip our foot,[715]

[715] Some cod. (w. 3 ear. pr. edns.): feetGn.

10

Surely thou hast tried us O God,

hast refined us like the refining of silver:

11

Thou didst bring us into the net;

didst lay a heavy load[716] on our loins,

[716] Or: constraintBr. and others.

12

didst let mere men ride over our head,[717]

[717] Some cod. (w. 3 ear. pr. edns., Sep., Vul.): heads (pl.)Gn. Cp. Isaiah 51:23.

we came into fire and into water;

and then thou didst bring us forth into a spacious place.[718]

[718] So it could be (w. Aram., Sep., Syr., Vul.). Cp, Psalms 18:19Gn.

13

I will enter thy house with ascending-sacrifices,

I will render unto thee my vows,

14

What my lips uttered,

and my mouth spake in the strait I was in:

15

Ascending sacrifices of failings will I cause to ascend unto thee,

with the perfume of rams:
I will offer cattle with he-goats.

16

Come hearken and let me tell all ye that fear God

what he hath done for me:[719]

[719] ML: my soul, but undoubtedly Br. is right: The naphshi is as usual a poetic expression for the person, and does not refer to the soul as distinguished from the body. Notwithstanding, the definition of Dr. is apt: a pathetic circumlocution for the personal pronounDr. PP. Glos. I.

17

Unto him with my mouth did I cry,

with high praise under my tongue,[720]

[720] Ready to burst forth in speechBr.

18

Iniquity[721] had I cared for in my heart

[721] NaughtinessDr.

my sovereign Lord had not heard,

19

In truth God hath heard,

hath attended to the voice of my prayer.

20

Blessed be God

who hath not turned away my prayer (from before him[722]),

[722] Cp. Psalms 88:2; Psalms 88:13, Psalms 102:1, Psalms 119:170. This personification of prayer, as coming in before God, helps to explain the one application of the verb rendered turned away to both man's prayer and God's kindness.

nor his kindness from being with me.

(Lm.) To the Chief Musician. (CMm.) With stringed instruments.

PARAPHRASE

Psalms 66

Sing to the Lord, all the earth!
2

Sing of His glorious name! Tell the world how wonderful He is.

3

How awe-inspiring are Your deeds, O God! How great Your power! No wonder Your enemies surrender!

4

All the earth shall worship You and sing of Your glories.

5

Come, see the glorious things God has done. What marvelous miracles happen to His people!

6

He made a dry road through the sea for them. They went across on foot. What excitement and joy there was that day!

7

Because of His great power He rules forever. He watches every movement of the nations. O rebel lands, He will deflate your pride.

8

Let everyone bless God and sing His praises,

9

For He holds our lives in His hands! And He holds our feet to the path!

10

You Wave purified us with fire,[723] O Lord, like silver in a crucible.

[723] Implied.

11

You captured us in Your net and laid great burdens on our backs.

12

You sent troops to ride across our broken bodies.[724] We went through fire and flood. But in the end, You brought us into wealth and great abundance.

[724] Literally, You caused men to ride over our heads.

13

Now I have come to Your Temple with burnt-offerings to pay my vows.

14

For when I was in trouble I promised You many offerings.

15

That is why I am bringing You these fat he-goats, rams and calves. The smoke of their sacrifice shall rise before You.

16

Come and hear, all of you who reverence the Lord, and I will tell you what He did for me:

17

For I cried to Him for help, with praises ready on my tongue.

18

He would not have listened if I had not confessed my sins.

19

But He listened! He heard my prayer! He paid attention to it!

20

Blessed be God who didn-'t turn away when I was praying, and didn-'t refuse me His kindness and love.

EXPOSITION

Instead of speaking of this psalm as composite (w. Br.), it would probably be more accurate to term it various, passing from scene to scene, from the remote past to the recent past, and from the nation to the individual; but threaded through with a clear and strong principal of unity; namely, the inspiring occasion that gave it birth. The overthrow of the Assyrians, and simultaneously therewith the recovery of King Hezekiah from sickness, form a cluster of events worthy of being the occasion to inspire this beautiful and significant psalm. It is indeed Israel's song of praise; but all nations are invited to join in singing it, and to make Israel's joys their own. The spirit of prophecy which inspired the predictions of Isaiah, Micah, and others, pulsates strongly throughout this song, imparting to it an outlook and an onlook adapted to justify it more effectively than a mere foreglance at immediately following events in Israel could have done. Its companion psalms are notably the 46th and 47th; and its ultimate sphere of fulfilment is nothing less than that manifest dominion of Jehovah, under the person of the Returned Messiah, which is the burden of prophecy, and which alone, from among all known or foretold combinations of events, supplies the conditions needed for the complete realisation of this psalm. Never during the Monarchy prior to the Exile, never during the stand made by the Maccabees after the Exile, andneedless to saynever since, has there been such a conjunction of events as could induce Israel's foes, or Jehovah's foes, to come cringing unto Him, while Earth as a whole was singing and harping to his name. Least of all, with any show of New Testament sanction, can cringing foes, feigning an obedience they dare not withhold, be regarded as possessing the essential qualifications for membership in the Christian Church. No: in its ultimate outlook, this is a song for the Coming Kingdom; while nevertheless the inspiration to compose it, and begin singing it, sprang, under God, from the significant deliverance in Hezekiah's days, a deliverance adumbrative of a larger deliverance from Antichrist's dread domination.

But, clear as is the general outlook of the psalm, there meet us in the study of it a few minor difficulties which it were to be wished could be removed; though possibly, since they may be due to accidents of transmission, they may for the present have to remain unresolved. In any case it will repay us to endeavour to trace the changeful current of thought as it passes from stanza to stanza: before attempting which however, it may frankly be admitted that the stanzical division itself cannot probably be placed beyond question, without resorting to drastic changes and excisions for which we are by no means prepared; though happily the Selahs [

]), and the evident changes of person in the speaker, go some way to supply the defect. Submitting our division of the psalm as tentative and practical only, we proceed.

In Stanza I., an invitation is boldly given to all the earth, to join in the public worship of God, by the employment of the teru-'ah, or sacred shout, the lute or lyre as leading in song, and therefore in accompanying words; and so, by shouting and harping and singing (implied) to the glory of God's name, to establish the glory of his praise on a basis of worldwide faith and unison. Words are then suggested for use in such worship by the formula: Say unto God; and the tenor of the words which follow shows two things: first that some fearful manifestation of Divine Power has recently been witnessed in the earth; and second, that, while foes will come crestfallen in submission, the earth as a whole will, to all appearance, join heartily in the praise.

In Stanza II., the mighty deeds of God are still the theme; but now, by examples from history, the past is called on for its testimony; which it renders by (probably two) conspicuous specimens, the one at the Red Sea, and the other at the Jordan. It cannot, indeed, be dogmatically affirmed that there are two events, rather than a duplicated narration of the one great event when Pharaoh was overthrown; but, in favour of including both passages through water, may be urged: that thereby the entire transfer of the nation into the promised land is comprehended; and more especially that thereby a point of connection is provided for the following line, which has given critics some trouble: There let us be glad in him. If the one journey out of Egypt into Canaan has been covered by the two lines preceding, then this line may be taken to apply to the Holy Land itself. Therenamely in the land so reached, equivalent to HERE, in our own land, into which we were so miraculously brought; HERE, in our own land in which we again realise that we are a free people now that the invading Assyrians have disappeared, let us be glad in him: with the old joy renewed. Otherwise, if both the preceding lines refer to the transit through the Red Sea, then the line following ought to have read, as in most English versions: There were we made glad in him; which would indeed have brightly suggested the song of Miriam, but is strongly represented by Perowne as an ungrammatical rendering of the Hebrew word. It is barely possible that, in the ancient risks of copying, the whole line has been accidentally brought back from (say) the end of Psalms 66:12, where slightly modified into Here let us be glad in theeHere, in this spacious place, it might well have stood; but, meantime, the previous suggestion is submitted to thoughtful readers: Therein the land so miraculously given to us (and now afresh made our own)let us be glad in him.

However this small difficulty may be disposed ofand small relatively it certainly isit is evident that the transit through sea and stream (or through the sea regarded as the same as the stream) is but a stepping-stone to the larger thought of the age-abiding rule of God. His work for Israel was not then ended, when he so brought Israel into this delightful land: he continues to care for Israel, and therefore His eyes over the nations still keep watch; first, for Israel's sake; but second, also to their own good; for only the rebellious among them have need to beware of exalting themselves against Israel's God.

In Stanza III., we perceive the inspiring spirit going forth to the non-Israelitish nations with new and stronger impulse, in order to impress upon them this lesson: that Israel's history is theirs, Israel's deliverances are ultimately fraught with blessing for them. Hence, now, this recent Divine interposition is brought forward and elaborated in seven lines of graphic life and power, which need no detailed comment. They are Hezekiah's reading of the event of the Assyrian invasionthe reading also of all the godly in Israelin respect of the disciplinary improvement it was hoped would follow from that invasion and that deliverance. It was hoped that the nation was refined as silver is refined through the fire; and so undoubtedly, in a measure, it was. Nor did Israel only profit: even Gentile nations are still being instructed by those thrilling and exemplary events.

And now at length, in Stanza IV., there steps into view an INDIVIDUAL, whom we instantly recognize as Hezekiah himself. We know that Hezekiah's heart was set on going up to the house of Jehovah, when his sickness should be ended (Isaiah 38:22); we know also the liberality of the provision of sacrifices which he made on other occasions (2 Chronicles 29:20-35); and therefore we instinctively feel that the resolution which is amplified in this stanza is like him and worthy of him. The most liberal offerings which he could now make would not be more than commensurate with his abounding gratitude.

And, finally, in the last stanza of the psalm, we are invited to hear him tell the story of his prayer in his sickness. He does not indeed tell us all. He makes no mention of the nature of his sickness. That is was nothing less than leprosy, we have already learned incidentally from various sources: that, however, he does not here divulge. Nevertheless, his language betokens that his complaint was of grave import, moving him to earnest supplication; and two additional touches enhance the interest of this his personal reminiscence: there was faith in his outcry, and no allowance of iniquity marred his prayer. There was faith; for this, cherished in a warmth of rising gratitude, is what is implied by the highly poetic representation: With high praise under my tongueprayer on the tongue, praise under it! And there was a sincere renunciation of evil (2 Kings 20:3, 2 Chronicles 32:26, Isaiah 38:3). Had he cloaked iniquity, or still tolerated in his heart an inclination towards it, his prayer would not have been heard. But his prayer has been heardthe leprosy has been removed; and so the happy event confirms the clear consciousness of renunciation of sin.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1.

Read Isaiah 36:1 to Isaiah 38:22. In these Chapter s of Isaiah we probably have the historical setting for this psalm. Particularly notice Isaiah 37:20, as compared with the first four verses of this psalm. Psalms 66:16-20 compare well with Hezekiah's sickness and recovery as related in Isaiah 38:1-22.,

2.

There are two distinct partsone choral, Psalms 66:1-12; the other solo, Psalms 66:13-20 (both to be sung in the Temple). Notice the change of pronouns we and our in Psalms 66:1-12. I and my in Psalms 66:13-20. What is the purpose of the five Selahs used in this psalm?

3.

We could well outline the first half of the psalm: (1) The God of all, Psalms 66:1-4; (2) The God of Israel, Psalms 66:5-7; (3) The God of Israel is the God of all, Psalms 66:8-12; (After Graham Scroggie). Answer the following questions on this section: (a) All the earth should praise Godwill there ever be a time when it will be a reality? When? How? (b) Why mention the crossing of the

Red Sea and the Jordan? (c) The God for all is revealed

in these verses (Psalms 66:8-12) as one who: (1) disciplines (2) delivers. Show where these two thoughts are developed.