Psalm 66:8-20
Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard,
who has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip.
For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried.
You brought us into the net; you laid burdens on our backs;
you let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you
have brought us out to a spacious place.
I will come into your house with burnt offerings; I will pay you my vows,
those that my lips uttered and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
I 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
Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for me.
I cried aloud to him, and he was extolled with my tongue.
If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
But truly God has listened; he has given heed to the words of my prayer.
Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love
from me.
I thoroughly enjoyed the dialogue regarding the gospel last week. Shared some of the
entries with my adult class who got a kick out of the various positions.
Now another Sunday, and as I am preaching from the Psalm, I wonder if anyone else is!
Quieter waters, no doubt.
It is the Festival of the Christian Home and I'm baptizing two infants and saying
farewell to a creative Coast Guard officer who is being transferred. So that leaves about
10 minutes for preaching.
The psalmist invites us to praise God "who has kept us among the living"
(And Are We Yet Alive!). This means a lot to me personally as my husband who has currently
incurable cancer has reached a plateau (closest thing to remission his disease allows). So
there is much to give praise for! But I try not to talk too much about this with the
congregation.
There is the theme of being tested.
Ah! I have just seen what I need for a baptism theme "we went through fire and
through water, yet you have brought us out to a spacious place." I like the spacious
place image to talk about life in the family of God. I have just seen the Robin Williams
video "A Dream That Comes" or whatever the name is. There are lots of beautiful
images there of a spacious place.
If anyone is out there working on the Psalm, I'd love to hear your reflections...
Caroline in CT
caroline; the psalmist has his hearts eye on jesus. on heaven; eternal life, on heaven.
he does not think the cares of this life or the burdens thereof to even be considerd with
the glory and the wonders that await us. as so allwe that believe, and stay our eyes upon
jesus, share in this hope and confidence. the world or those who chose to reject this has
no hope and therefore no tolerance for the burden. thank god for his grace!!! jmd...
Caroline,
He really has kept us among the living - even if we are overtaken by what seems death
to us.
The Psalm ends with, essentially, "I cried to him and he heard me, and he loved
me." Incredible that the creator of all things has time and love enough to hear us
when we cry and then love us - the creator of all things loves us. If love here on earth
is a wonderful thing, how much more wonderful is it to be loved by him?
Tigger in ND
I am using the whole psalm as the text for my sermon as we are celebrating Church Music
Sunday. Verses 1 & 2 provide the impetus for the sermon. vs 1-12 are a congregation's
festival liturgy that extols the majesty of God. The remainder of the psalm is one
individuals response to God's answer to prayer. You and I would be concerened with knowing
HOW God answered that prayer. The individual is concerened only with praising and thanking
God for answering prayer. One can then make point that in our Music we are not performing
but rather thanking God for his grace, the answer to our prayers, adn God's goodness to
our community of faith. That's how I am approaching this Sunday with this expanded text.
Don't know if it helps anyone but there it is. Ron in Florida
Thanks for the dialogue, folks.
JMD - Respectfully, I do not believe a psalmist living centuries before Jesus was
thinking of him. If there are any similarities, it is probably because Jesus knew the
psalm.
Also, I don't think Hebrew theology had much afterlife stuff. I believe this psalmist
is talking about this world and God's gracious answer to prayers here - for them esp. the
Exodus (thus the water reference).
Ron in Fla: There is wonderful hymn in the current UM hymnal that would be perfect for
your Sunday - "When in Our Music God is Glorified." You have probably already
thought of it. The Engelberg tune is fabulous too.
I am working on the spacious place in the family of God that baptism brings us in to.
Caroline in CT
caroline- I realize what you are saying. see this, that Jesus was promised to Abraham
by GOD, his coming was a full fillment of this promise. he came by way of prophesy, as the
spirit gave utterance to the prophets of old. he came to fullfill these prophesies and the
promise. see this in Isa;53 here the prophet spoke by inspiration of the HOLY SPIRIT not
having known JESUS but clearly was speaking about him. Phillip preached Christ. this is
what I was speaking about concerning this psalm. sincerely JMD.
