Speaker 1: Life audio.
Speaker 2: Hi there, and welcome to another Prayer through the Psalms
Speaker 2: episode of the Praying Christian Women podcast. I'm Jamie, and
Speaker 2: today we are going to be talking about and praying
Speaker 2: through Psalm sixty six. So this psalm is called praise
Speaker 2: for God's mighty deeds and his answer to prayer. And
Speaker 2: it does not say that it's a psalm of David.
Speaker 2: It says for the choir director, a song a psalm.
Speaker 2: So commentators and scholars think that it could have been
Speaker 2: written by David, It could have been written by maybe
Speaker 2: a later temple worship leader, and it could have been
Speaker 2: used because of the content and the context. It could
Speaker 2: have been used during a time of national deliverance or
Speaker 2: military victory, or just post exile worship in general. But
Speaker 2: it has themes of remembrance, and it has themes of
Speaker 2: remembering God's goodness but also remembering that God allows catastrophe,
Speaker 2: he allows difficulty, and the psalm writer likens this to
Speaker 2: refining silver. So kind of the idea that the trials,
Speaker 2: the tribulations, the difficulties that actually in the psalm are
Speaker 2: attributed to God, Like you laid the net, you allowed
Speaker 2: us to be trapped. You allowed us to go through
Speaker 2: suffering because you were refining us. You were bringing us
Speaker 2: through the fire and then through the water, and then
Speaker 2: into a purification and then remembering God's deliverance into what
Speaker 2: we would consider abundance. The refining process is not something
Speaker 2: that we would consider abundant. It's something we would consider
Speaker 2: painful and difficult. So it's kind of a both. And
Speaker 2: so if you find yourself right now in a time
Speaker 2: where you're going through something, and I'm going to interject
Speaker 2: because I don't always believe, and this is jaming the
Speaker 2: non theologian, just from what I read, what I've experienced,
Speaker 2: how I perceive God in the Bible. I believe that
Speaker 2: there are times when God absolutely either invites calamity, causes calamity,
Speaker 2: or allows calamity for a purpose of refinement. But it
Speaker 2: seems to me that there are also times when we
Speaker 2: just are reaping the sinful world we live in. I
Speaker 2: don't think every sickness is sent by God or allowed
Speaker 2: by God for a specific purpose to test us or
Speaker 2: to beat us into submission. I think sure there are
Speaker 2: times and biblical examples that job sickness, death, tragedy were
Speaker 2: all allowed, They were caused by Satan, but they were
Speaker 2: allowed by God to reveal Job's faithfulness, not necessarily to
Speaker 2: beat him into submission, but to kind of just be like,
Speaker 2: I know this man will be faithful no matter what,
Speaker 2: so go ahead, do your worst. And Job was faithful.
Speaker 2: But I think there are times when we're just basically
Speaker 2: living a life that's hard because sin is in the world,
Speaker 2: and we have a choice of whether to lean into
Speaker 2: God and find the peace and the comfort and the
Speaker 2: healing that comes from him, or to go the other
Speaker 2: way and to rebel against him, to curse him for
Speaker 2: allowing these things, and to live a terrible life. I
Speaker 2: don't know that He always intends for some of the
Speaker 2: things that we endure. I think sometimes he does. Sometimes
Speaker 2: he doesn't. But that's me, and maybe that's me coming
Speaker 2: to terms with not wanting to think that everything bad
Speaker 2: is specifically allowed by God.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Some people say everything happens for a reason. I don't
Speaker 2: know if I adhere to that. I don't know if
Speaker 2: everything happens for a specific reason and purpose. I know
Speaker 2: that in all things God works for the good of
Speaker 2: those who love him, absolutely, I don't know if everything
Speaker 2: happens specifically for a purpose. There are some terrible tragedies
Speaker 2: that I don't know if they are meant to produce
Speaker 2: a certain outcome, but without God they're impossible to weather.
Speaker 2: If that makes any kind of sense at all to anyone.
Speaker 2: That's my philosophy. It's not carved in stone. It doesn't
Speaker 2: have to be yours. But this particular psalm is celebrating
Speaker 2: that God is a God who can be both rescuer
Speaker 2: and gift giver and also refiner. And I love that
Speaker 2: and I embrace that for sure. So that was kind
Speaker 2: of a long way to say, welcome to Psalm sixty six.
Speaker 2: Let's pray other God, we just give you thanks for
Speaker 2: your word, and as always we just come before you
Speaker 2: with complete love and adoration, with complete humility and just
Speaker 2: mindfulness that we are so unworthy of your love and
Speaker 2: of your fellowship and of your invitation to be sons
Speaker 2: and daughters. And so we just thank you and praise
Speaker 2: you for your goodness and love and for that invitation,
Speaker 2: and we welcome that, we embrace it, we accept, we
Speaker 2: take that offer, that olive branch in the form of
Speaker 2: Jesus Christ, who literally was the bridge between us and
Speaker 2: you and fellowship.
Speaker 1: When we were broken.
Speaker 2: Because of sin, and we just pray that we could
Speaker 2: come before you and just understand a little bit more
Speaker 2: about who you are through this psalm. Help us to
Speaker 2: see you clearly. Help this psalm to help us make
Speaker 2: more sense of the lives that we're living. Help the
Speaker 2: pain and the suffering and the difficulty to be a
Speaker 2: little bit more bearable through acknowledgment of your goodness and
Speaker 2: your work in our lives. That no pain is wasted
Speaker 2: in Jesus name.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 2: All right, let's read Psalm sixty six. I'm using the
Speaker 2: Nasby nineteen ninety five praise for God's mighty deeds and
Speaker 2: for his answer to prayer. Love it the Praying Christian
Speaker 2: Women podcast. I love that this specifically says this is
Speaker 2: praising God's mighty deeds and his answer to prayer. So
Speaker 2: let's read this and let's try to find what prayers
Speaker 2: were answered for. The choir director a song a psalm.
Speaker 2: Shout joyfully to God, all the earth, sing the glory
Speaker 2: of his name, Make his praise glorious. Say to God,
Speaker 2: how awesome are your works. Because of the greatness of
Speaker 2: your power, your enemies will give feigned obedience to you.
Speaker 2: All the earth will worship you and will sing praises
Speaker 2: to you. They will sing praises to your name. Saylah,
Speaker 2: Come and see the works of God, who is awesome
Speaker 2: in his deeds. Towards the sons of men, he turned
Speaker 2: the sea into dry land. They pass through the river
Speaker 2: on foot. There, Let us rejoice in him. He rules
Speaker 2: by his might forever. His eyes keep watch on the nations.
Speaker 2: Let not the rebellious exult themselves. Saylah, bless our God,
Speaker 2: o peoples, and sound his praise abroad, who keeps us
Speaker 2: in life and does not allow our feet to slip.
Speaker 2: For you have tried us, O God, You have refined
Speaker 2: us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net.
Speaker 2: You laid an oppressive burden upon our loins. You made
Speaker 2: men ride over our heads. We went through fire and
Speaker 2: through water, Yet you brought us out into a place
Speaker 2: of abundance. I shall come into your house with burnt offerings.
Speaker 2: I shall pay you my vows, which my lips uttered
Speaker 2: and my mouth spoke when I was in distress. I
Speaker 2: shall offer to you burnt offerings of fat beasts with
Speaker 2: the smoke of rams. I shall make an offering of
Speaker 2: bulls with male goats Selah, Come and hear, all who
Speaker 2: fear God, and I will tell of what he has
Speaker 2: done for my soul. I cried to him with my mouth,
Speaker 2: and he was extolled with my tongue. If I regard
Speaker 2: wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear. But
Speaker 2: certainly God has heard. He has given heed to the
Speaker 2: voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, who is not
Speaker 2: turned away my prayer nor his loving kindness for me.
Speaker 1: So there is a lot in here, I think. In
Speaker 1: the beginning.
Speaker 2: What stands out to me is this line in verse three.
Speaker 2: Because of the greatness of your power, your enemies will
Speaker 2: give feigned obedience to you. And I looked into this
Speaker 2: a little bit into commentaries and the lexicon. The word
Speaker 2: used here about giving feigned obedience is the same word
Speaker 2: used when someone is conquered and they bow to their conqueror.
Speaker 2: It doesn't mean that they're plotting or pretending that they're
Speaker 2: not going to submit. It means that they're forced into it,
Speaker 2: and their heart isn't in it, but they have to.
Speaker 2: And what I see here is here we are like
Speaker 2: the whole earth is shouting to God, is singing the
Speaker 2: glory of his name. This is universal praise like this
Speaker 2: is even the rocks will cry out. If there wasn't
Speaker 2: a human on the planet to give praise to God,
Speaker 2: even the rocks would cry out and worship because He
Speaker 2: is worthy of praise. And then you've got God's people,
Speaker 2: who are the ones who are singing this. Obviously this
Speaker 2: is the people of Israel singing this, but they're talking
Speaker 2: about all of the earth will worship you and sing
Speaker 2: praises to you. And then, because of the greatness of power,
Speaker 2: even your enemies will have no choice. It's that every niche,
Speaker 2: all about, every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Speaker 2: It's not robotic, it's a response that's necessary when confronted
Speaker 2: with the greatness of our God. And the thought that
Speaker 2: came to my mind is if everyone, even God's enemies,
Speaker 2: are going to have no choice but to submit to him,
Speaker 2: why wouldn't we willingly turn ourselves to this great God
Speaker 2: and partner with him to bring love and God's kingdom
Speaker 2: here on earth as it is in heaven. Why would
Speaker 2: we not be on his side? And so that contrast
Speaker 2: of even your enemies are going to just be flat
Speaker 2: on their faces giving glory. Sorry to you, not because
Speaker 2: it's in their hearts, but because they have to. They
Speaker 2: have no choice. What a gift that we can choose
Speaker 2: to be in relationship with him, not to have to
Speaker 2: just fall flat on our faces out of obligation or
Speaker 2: because that's how things go. But the invitation, the hand
Speaker 2: that is extended out to us of Jesus, why would
Speaker 2: we not take that. The next section, verses five through seven,
Speaker 2: it talks about come and see the works, and this
Speaker 2: is remembering what He did for his people. He turned
Speaker 2: the sea into dry land, so that evokes imagery of
Speaker 2: the Red Sea when Moses and the people cross the
Speaker 2: Red Sea, or maybe the Jordan when it was parted.
Speaker 2: Also they passed through the river on foot. There let
Speaker 2: us rejoice him in him And this is a call
Speaker 2: to remembrance. And this is a thing that I think
Speaker 2: is so important. You can call him Ebenezers where you
Speaker 2: place these monuments of memory on.
Speaker 1: Ways that God was faithful.
Speaker 2: There are several times in my life when God was
Speaker 2: blaringly obviously faithful to me, times when I wasn't sure
Speaker 2: if He was there, and a prayer was answered in
Speaker 2: a way that couldn't have been explained any other way,
Speaker 2: and I stand on these things. I go back to
Speaker 2: them in my mind during times when things are hard,
Speaker 2: and I love that they bring this up first, whether
Speaker 2: it's David or someone else. The psalmist brings this up
Speaker 2: and says, remember these miraculous things that God did for
Speaker 2: our people, because the next section brings up God doesn't
Speaker 2: allow our feet to slip. He keeps us in life.
Speaker 2: But in verses ten through twelve, it talks about how,
Speaker 2: even though he is faithful, let's also remember the times
Speaker 2: when they were hard, times when God allowed us to suffer.
Speaker 2: When God allowed us to be tried, He tried us
Speaker 2: find us. As silver is refined, God brought us into
Speaker 2: the net or the trap. The net is used sometimes
Speaker 2: in these psalms. Remember it talks about how, like David
Speaker 2: will say, my adversaries have laid a net, have laid
Speaker 2: a trap. Let them get caught in their own net.
Speaker 2: But this is saying He brought us into the net.
Speaker 2: God brought his own people into a trap. He refined them.
Speaker 2: As silver is refined, which means pain and heat and fire.
Speaker 2: It means turning the heat up just enough so that
Speaker 2: that draws the impurities would rise to the surface, but
Speaker 2: not so hot that the silver would be consumed, and
Speaker 2: that language is used also, But we were not consumed.
Speaker 2: And a good refiner knew the precise temperature that was
Speaker 2: needed to precipitate out the impurities from the silver, so
Speaker 2: it could be skimmed off, but that silver would be preserved.
Speaker 2: And he's a good God and he does that. He
Speaker 2: does not consume his people, He refines them. You laid
Speaker 2: oppressive burden upon our loins. You made men to ride
Speaker 2: over our heads. This language isn't just we live in
Speaker 2: a fallen world. Bad stuff happens, like I was talking about,
Speaker 2: I think sometimes that does happen. This is talking about.
Speaker 2: This is evidence that there are times when God makes
Speaker 2: difficulties happen. And yet even though we went through fire
Speaker 2: and through water, yet in verse twelve, you brought us
Speaker 2: out into a place of abundance. And so that is
Speaker 2: where we can say whether this trial I'm going through
Speaker 2: was just something that's a result of a fallen world.
Speaker 2: Whether it's a trial that God is placygone me, or
Speaker 2: whether it's a trial God is allowing Satan to put
Speaker 2: on me, it doesn't matter. I think for me, the
Speaker 2: absolute worst case scenario is that God is making it happen,
Speaker 2: because that's hard to take and hard to swallow. But
Speaker 2: even if that that's what's happening, he is good. He
Speaker 2: is at work, and he will bring us out into
Speaker 2: a place of abundance. And we know that why because
Speaker 2: we look back on the times when he did when
Speaker 2: the times that he showed himself to be all powerful,
Speaker 2: to be capable of crushing enemies and making miracles happen
Speaker 2: and parting waters. If he is capable of it, then
Speaker 2: we can trust that he will do it when it's necessary.
Speaker 2: And if he has done it, he'll do it again,
Speaker 2: and we can praise him for being the God of
Speaker 2: all power. And the Psalmist ends with I will come
Speaker 2: into your house with burnt offerings. I'll pay you my
Speaker 2: vows which my lips uttered and my mouth spoke when
Speaker 2: I was in distress. And he's saying that everyone, everyone
Speaker 2: who knows that there's a god who's worthy of paying
Speaker 2: attention to listen as I tell what he has done
Speaker 2: for my soul, That he has listened to the cries
Speaker 2: of my mouth, and he has answered my prayers. So
Speaker 2: the ending of this, because it is whether you're feeling
Speaker 2: it or not, today You can pray this as the
Speaker 2: Psalmist praise. You can borrow the faith and the positivity
Speaker 2: of this Psalmist to remember that God has certainly heard,
Speaker 2: He's given heed to my cries, and he is good,
Speaker 2: and he has not turned away my prayer. You can
Speaker 2: know that no matter what you're going through today, and
Speaker 2: no matter why you're going through it, you don't even
Speaker 2: need to really know why, but no matter why it's happening,
Speaker 2: you can know God is blessed. Blessed be the name
Speaker 2: of the Lord. He has not turned away my prayer
Speaker 2: or his loving kindness from me. He is with me,
Speaker 2: He loves me. He's with you. He loves you, and
Speaker 2: he hears your prayer, and your prayer will be answered.
Speaker 1: Let's pray.
Speaker 2: God, We praise you for being a hearer of prayers,
Speaker 2: for being a good God who never leaves us. We
Speaker 2: pray that the rocks wouldn't have to cry out for
Speaker 2: lack of praise on this planet. Let us be the
Speaker 2: first to lift up your voice, lift up our voices,
Speaker 2: to lift up your name and praise you as the
Speaker 2: creator of the universe, as the God of Abraham, Isaac
Speaker 2: and Jacob, who provided a ram in the wilderness for
Speaker 2: Abraham so that Isaac didn't have to be sacrificed. Who
Speaker 2: provided your son, Jesus so that we could have a
Speaker 2: relationship with You, Who refines us. And even though it's painful,
Speaker 2: there is abundance on the other side of it that
Speaker 2: could never have been attained without that pain. Who comforts
Speaker 2: us in our time of need, Who meets us in
Speaker 2: our deepest, darkest hour. You are close to the brokenhearted.
Speaker 2: You bring healing and love and hope and peace, and
Speaker 2: you hear our prayers. You are the God who sees,
Speaker 2: You see us. You see the difficulties we're going through,
Speaker 2: the pain, the worry, the hard work that no one
Speaker 2: else sees, the frustration, the hopelessness.
Speaker 1: We cling to you Lord in this moment, and.
Speaker 2: We pray that you would give us a glimpse of
Speaker 2: your presence, that your Holy Spirit would be with us
Speaker 2: and wrap us up in a warm blanket, that you
Speaker 2: would give us God winks throughout our day, things that
Speaker 2: people say, verses, we come across songs, we hear messages
Speaker 2: from pastors, whatever it is to help us to just
Speaker 2: know that you are with us. We pray that you
Speaker 2: would just be with the person listening today, who is
Speaker 2: feeling hopeless, forgotten, who is feeling like you're heaping difficulties
Speaker 2: on them, that you would remind them that you love them,
Speaker 2: that you are in this for their good, that you
Speaker 2: have provided before and you will provide again, and even
Speaker 2: now you're providing in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: Amen. We'd like to.
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