This is a praise Psalm. It is the second in a row of four grouped here together. These praise Psalms are a little different than many of the Psalms we've studied. These are all about praise and worship and not about finding yourself in a cave or in threat of death or dealing with betrayal. These Psalms are about focusing on who the Lord is and singing His praises. Many Psalms were written around an event. The event here is coming into the presence of God and worshiping.
To the Chief Musician. A Song. A Psalm.
1 Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth!
2 Sing out the honor of His name;
Make His praise glorious.
3 Say to God,
"How awesome are Your works!
Through the greatness of Your power
Your enemies shall submit themselves to You.
4 All the earth shall worship You
And sing praises to You;
They shall sing praises to Your name." Selah
David called for the people to make a joyful shout. This is the king leading his people to the Lord, calling on them to look outside their life and outside their world to sing out extolling the honor of His name. This is to bring all you have because all we have is His anyway. Our lives are His anyway. Everything else we think we possess will be stripped away. He is our creator and sustainer, our hope and salvation.
This call to worship is not necessarily calling you to some exceptional quality of worship, although we only want to bring our best. This is really a call to come to Him with all your heart, with a full commitment. It's not coming to Him with a Loud and beautiful song but with my entire life wrapped up in Him. It's coming in repentance of sin and with a broken and contrite heart. We present ourselves to Him; all we are and all we have, all in.
Many times we come to God with our shopping list or our questions. We ask why did this have to happen in our life? Why do bad things happen to people? Why do we have to struggle so? Why can't life be easier? And so on, we all do it.
The Psalmist, possibly David, suggests coming to God and telling Him about His awesome works. Tell Him of His great power and how all His enemies will come before Him. A day is coming soon when all the earth will sing His praises. What an amazing thing that will be. Especially in light of what is going on today. This act of praise that is being written about is an event. It is all about God and His glorious works. He is awesome and powerful and we should praise Him.
5 Come and see the works of God;
He is awesome in His doing toward the sons of men.
6 He turned the sea into dry land;
They went through the river on foot.
There we will rejoice in Him.
7 He rules by His power forever;
His eyes observe the nations;
Do not let the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah
The Israelites had a rich history with the Lord. They were God's people. So when they spoke of the awesome things he had done for men they thought of Him turning the sea into dry land. This was God's people walking out of bondage through a sea. This was an amazing story of being delivered and the Israelites could never forget it.
When we think of the amazing things God has done towards men what comes to mind? Maybe you consider how this nation came about. If you've read the stories of our founding fathers you will find that God was moving in amazing ways in their lives. There are incredible stories of the providence of God throughout the founding of this nation. Many of these men risked it all. Many paid for their patriotism by losing their families, their wealth and their life. But they felt moved by God to drive on because God was founding a nation on liberty and freedom. As a nation these are our stories. They show God's amazing work and provision in bringing this nation about. Sadly, the history books are being rewritten to remove those stories.
Do you have a story in your own life or family that speaks of Gods works? We talked about this a little in Psalm 65. I think about farmland and crops. I think about hard work and having two sets of amazing grandparents who taught me the lessons of life. I think about times when my life was threatened and fear was taking root. And God moved and did a work that left me in awe of Him.
The most amazing work we should all know and embrace is our own salvation. We were all in that place of bondage with no way out. When we studied Galatians we found out we were spiritually dead. Dead is dead; the dead are incapable of improving their situation on their own. In fact, in our bondage we didn't even realize how dead we were. Our lives were defined by sin. But God made a way by His grace he called us out of bondage. He gave us the faith to believe. He sent people to show us the way. At just the right time, He opened our eyes. And we understood we were sinful and an enemy to the creator of the Universe. Yet, He had done the most loving thing. He sent His son to pay the debt I owed. Jesus died for me. When we cried out to Him in trust of what he did for us, He answered by saving our soul for all eternity. That is the awesome and amazing work of God we can each see and respond to.
8 Oh, bless our God, you peoples!
And make the voice of His praise to be heard,
9 Who keeps our soul among the living,
And does not allow our feet to be moved.
We should sing our praises loud to the Lord our God. Bless Him by making your voice be heard. He sustains our life in this world. And we are also saved in Christ for all eternity.
We are in His care before His eyes and always in His reach. We are kept in Him. He doesn't allow our feet to be moved. Nothing can move us from the care of the Lord.
10 For You, O God, have tested us;
You have refined us as silver is refined.
11 You brought us into the net;
You laid affliction on our backs.
12 You have caused men to ride over our heads;
We went through fire and through water;
But You brought us out to rich fulfillment.
Again, I see David leading his people here. They need to recognize that the Lord had done a great work in them as a nation. They had been refined, afflicted, crushed and killed. And in all that, they were sanctified, set apart as God's people for God's use. Since they were God's people, tested and refined, God brought them to a rich fulfillment.
Everything you are today, your character, your personality, your demeanor all worked together to make you what you are. When you came to the Lord and gave all your life to him all that you were becomes something he can, and will use. We all have a history. We all had (or have) baggage. We've all been through our fire and afflictions and we've all come out of those things to where we are right now. We continue on our way moving toward a rich fulfillment.
13 I will go into Your house with burnt offerings;
I will pay You my vows,
14 Which my lips have uttered
And my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble.
15 I will offer You burnt sacrifices of fat animals,
With the sweet aroma of rams;
I will offer bulls with goats. Selah
This was the act of worship for the Jews. They came into the tabernacle and later the temple. They offered their burnt offerings, paid the vows they had made and offered sacrifice before the Lord.
Our sacrifice was made in Christ. His sacrifice on the cross was made on our behalf. Our act of worship now is to recognize his sacrifice as ours. In identifying with Him, we offer ourselves to Him as He offered Himself for us. We die to our selves and find our new life in Him because He died for us and gave us new life.
Romans 12:1 says....
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
16 Come and hear, all you who fear God,
And I will declare what He has done for my soul.
David is now talking on a personal level. He wants to share with God's people, in worship, what God has done for my soul.
17 I cried to Him with my mouth,
And He was extolled with my tongue.
18 If I regard iniquity in my heart,
The Lord will not hear.
19 But certainly God has heard me;
He has attended to the voice of my prayer.
David cried out to God. We've seen this many times as we've studied the Psalms. King David knew and was teaching those in his presence that if they had iniquity in their heart the Lord would not hear them. The Hebrew word translated to iniquity means trouble, sorrow and wickedness.
This is to say sin or the results of sin. In our own sorrow and trouble and wickedness we find ourselves burdened with the things of life. We are weighed down with our cares and these things keep us from a close relationship with the Lord. Iniquity interferes with our worship.
I'll go to the book of Romans again....chapter 6......
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
Our troubles, sorrows and wickedness sometimes have dominion over our lives at times. No matter how much we've taken our eyes off the Lord and failed to bring our praise and worship to Him with our whole heart. He is faithful to hear our prayer when we come to him and confess our sins.
When we once again stand before Him and offer ourselves to Him fully and completely to be used in whatever way He sees fit. When we come to that place, we can join David in verse 20 saying.....
20 Blessed be God,
Who has not turned away my prayer,
Nor His mercy from me!
Blessed be God and we praise Him. We repeatedly fall short. We set our burdens and cares on Him only later to pick them back up. We say, "I'm all in Lord" only later to complain when things get tough. In spite of continually falling short, God is constant in His provision of grace. He hears our prayers when we turn back to Him and once again shows mercy on us. It is by His great work we can have a close relationship with Him.
So our worship is to be an event centered on the Lord. In the beginning of the Psalm we see this event was together with David leading the people. Toward the end it is personal but still an event centered on the Lord.
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