How Awesome Are Your Deeds- Psalms 66

Psalm 66

How Awesome Are Your Deeds

    To the choirmaster. A Song. A Psalm.

 ¹ Shout for joy to God, all the earth;
 ² sing the glory of his name;
   give to him glorious praise!
³ Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
   So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.
⁴ All the earth worships you
   and sings praises to you;
   they sing praises to your name.”
                         Selah

 ⁵ Come and see what God has done:
   he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.
⁶ He turned the sea into dry land;
   they passed through the river on foot.
There did we rejoice in him,
 ⁷ who rules by his might forever,
whose eyes keep watch on the nations—
   let not the rebellious exalt themselves.
                         Selah

 ⁸ Bless our God, O peoples;
   let the sound of his praise be heard,
⁹ who has kept our soul among the living
   and has not let our feet slip.
¹⁰ For you, O God, have tested us;
   you have tried us as silver is tried.
¹¹ You brought us into the net;
   you laid a crushing burden on our backs;
¹² you let men ride over our heads;
   we went through fire and through water;
yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.

 ¹³ I will come into your house with burnt offerings;
   I will perform my vows to you,
¹⁴ that which my lips uttered
   and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
¹⁵ I will offer to you burnt offerings of fattened animals,
   with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams;
I will make an offering of bulls and goats.
                         Selah

 ¹⁶ Come and hear, all you who fear God,
   and I will tell what he has done for my soul.
¹⁷ I cried to him with my mouth,
   and high praise was on^[a] my tongue.^[b]
18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,
   the Lord would not have listened.
¹⁹ But truly God has listened;
   he has attended to the voice of my prayer.

 ²⁰ Blessed be God,
   because he has not rejected my prayer
   or removed his steadfast love from me!

I feel like this psalm can be split up into three parts. In verses 1-7, the psalmist praises God for His sovereign power in all creation. Verses 8-12 talks about God's favor to His church. And in verses 13-20, he brings it back to his personal praise for his own experience of God's goodness. 

In the first set verses, the words that stick out to me the most are "glory," "awesome," and "praise." Even the first words almost jump off the page at you, "Shout for joy to God, all the earth." I can see the excitement there. He is literally shouting to God, praising Him for all He has done. The psalmist wants the whole world to know of the mighty deeds that God has done.

In verses 8-12, he turns his attention to God's blessing on the church. He begs God's people to lift their praises to Him for He has provided for us abundantly. He says that God has tested us, laid a burden on our backs and let evil men walk over us. But through all of it, He has brought us to a place of abundance. After all of our trials, God has provided for us. These verse are great reminders of why we should praise God, because He has blessed us tremendously and what we must lay down for Him is completely worth it.

Verses 13-20 are the things that the psalmist promises to do. A lot of the verses begin with, "I will..." He talks about the offerings that he will bring God. He calls the people to come to him, and he will proclaim to them what God has done for his soul. He will tell them how he cried to God and God listened. God attended to the voice of his prayer. It closes with these great words, "Blessed be God, Because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!"