Psalm 66:8-20 (NRSV)
Read Psalm 66:8-20 on biblegateway.com
Verse 8Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard,
Verse 9who has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip.
Verse 10For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried.
Verse 11You brought us into the net; you laid burdens on our backs;
Verse 12you let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a spacious place.
Verse 13I will come into your house with burnt offerings; I will pay you my vows,
Verse 14those that my lips uttered and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
Verse 15I will offer to you burnt offerings of fatlings, with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams; I will make an offering of bulls and goats. Selah
Verse 16Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for me.
Verse 17I cried aloud to him, and he was extolled with my tongue.
Verse 18If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
Verse 19But truly God has listened; he has given heed to the words of my prayer.
Verse 20Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me.
Devotion
The psalms are like the word edition of an old hymnal. I have often wished that we had the original music the Hebrews used to sing these age-old words. Psalm 66 talks about our response to what God has done for us. The psalmist suggests that we bring a burnt offering. That sounds rather foreign to us. Could we not rather bring cash or a check? Could we not give God our undivided attention? Could we not recall the many things God has done for us? God has listened to our prayers and given heed to what we have said. God has not rejected our prayers. God has not removed his steadfast love from us. Let us blow the trumpets, beat the drums, and sing a song of thanksgiving. Blessed be God!
Prayer
We give God thanks for the gift of music, for the tunes composed, the words expressed. Amen.