Psalm 66 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
A song. “The Vulgate, Septuagint, Ethiopic, and Arabic, call it a psalm of the resurrection... By many of the ancients it is supposed to be a celebration of the restoration from the Babylonish captivity.“ (Adam Clarke) But perhaps is a song of the ultimate restoration alluded to in the prior Psalm, —>
“’Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth,’ that is, the inhabitants thereof. “Not therefore Judaea alone. See, brethren, after what sort is set forth the universality of the Church in the whole world spread abroad...” (St. Augustine)— “‘Sing out the honor of His name;’ etc. Let His glorious name, even “His merciful acts be the subject of your songs.” (Adam Clarke)— This is“the clearest and most explicit predictions, that the kingdom of Christ shall at length be established all over the earth.” (Thomas Scott) “’and sing praises to You; they shall sing praises to Your name.’ Does this mean that all the earth will worship God after the wicked are destroyed, meaning that ‘all the earth’ refers to those who are not wicked? I think so!” (James Bradford Pate) Selah “Say to God, ‘How awesome are Your works! Through the greatness of Your power Your enemies shall submit themselves to You,” even those pitted for destruction. “Many people of divers nations shall be so affected with thy stupendous works, that they shall worship and praise thee for them, and all the people shall have just cause to do so; and the time will come when all nations will actually do so, namely, in the days of the Messiah.” (Joseph Benson)
"'All the earth shall worship You and sing praises to You; they shall sing praises to Your name.’ Selah” — ”If we read these verses with reference to the great work of redemption wrought upon the heart of a sinner, how very decisive are they of the covenant promises made to the person of the Redeemer by the Father, concerning the certainty of his success.” (Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary)
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 Church at all times appeals to the world, ‘Come and see’ as Jesus said to the two disciples of John the Baptist, and Philip to Nathanael (John 1:39; John 1:46). God's marvels are to be seen by all, and seeing them is the first step toward believing in their Divine Author (Psalms 65:5-8). 'He is terrible in his doing toward (Hebrew, upon) the children of men.' Men are the objects upon whom His doings are performed.” (Jamieson Fausset Brown) "See how, to save His people, He has to smite [His and] their enemies. Truly, on such occasions, He is terrible in His doing toward the children of men... ‘He turned the sea into dry land: they went through the flood on foot; there did we rejoice in Him.’ The passage of the Red Sea at the time of the Exodus was one of the most wonderful of God's works. To the Israelites it was altogether a matter of joy and rejoicing (see Exodus 15:1-21). But how terrible a thing was it to the Egyptians! ‘The waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them" (Exodus 14:28). (The Pulpit Commentary)
In a similar vein, the insertion of this story “should discourage the wicked from exalting themselves against God.”(Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch): "Joshua 2:9-11 DOES NOT not present the nations of Canaan acclaiming the God of Israel as a result of the Exodus; rather, they are terrified of Israel and her God.... [In contrast] Rahab DOES appear to acclaim the God of Israel when she not only fears God, but also seeks God’s mercy and protection. In v 1, perhaps the lands are being told to rejoice in God on account of what God did in history for Israel at the Exodus, to (in the words of Keil-Delitzsch) ‘share in Israel’s Gloria.” (The Jewish Study Bible, Adele Berlin and Marc Brettler)
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. 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. 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
The coming resurrection of the body will be such as display of power on our behalf. The new spiritual body of the believer will be incorruptible, glorious, powerful and spiritual. But there is need of the resurrection life in the lives of man. “The song into which the Psalmist here bids the nations break forth, is essentially one with the song of the heavenly harpers in Revelation 15:3.— ‘And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations!’” (Keil & Delitzsch) We are to “make the praise of Jesus glorious, both by word and deed; that others may be led to glorify Him also. But nothing can bring men to do this aright, unless His effectual grace create their hearts anew unto holiness; and in the redemption by the death of Christ, and the glorious deliverances it effects, are more wondrous works than Israel's deliverance from Egyptian bondage.” (Matthew Henry) Thus he affirms—> “‘I will go into Your house with burnt offerings; I will pay You my vows, which my lips have uttered and my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble. I will offer You burnt sacrifices of fatlings, lambs and bullocks,’ the chief animals of Old Testament sacrifice, with’ the incense of rams,’ as a free-will offering accompanying the burnt sacrifice; ‘I will offer bullocks with goats,’ here both classes of offerings being named side by side. Selah.” (Paul E. Kretzmann) “Even the thankful heart dares not come to God without a victim of grateful praise; of this as well as of every other form of worship, we may say, ‘the blood is the life thereof.’ (Lev. 17:14) Reader, never attempt to come before God without Jesus, the divinely promised, given, and accepted burnt offering.” ( C. H. Spurgeon)
16 Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will declare what He 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. 20 Blessed be God, Who has not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from me!
“‘Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer,” (Paul E. Kretzmann)— because I brought the proper sacrifices with a sincere heart. Thus was the victory wrought. This will be the song of the redeemed. Here is the gratitude of the “ignorant, sinful, dying men— When we consider how great is His condescension in doing this; when we think of His greatness and immensity; when we reflect that the whole universe is dependent on Him, and that the farthest worlds need His care and attention; when we bear in mind that we are creatures of a day and ‘know nothing;’ and especially when we remember how we have violated His laws, how sensual, corrupt, and vile our lives have been, how low and grovelling have been our aims and purposes, how we have provoked Him by our unbelief, our ingratitude, and our hardness of heart - we can never express, in appropriate words, the extent of His goodness in hearing our prayers, nor can we find language which will properly give utterance to the praises due to His name for having condescended to listen to our cries for mercy.” (Albert Barnes)