TUESDAY 3rd
Psalm 66
NIV (v16) – ‘Come and hear, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me.’
ESV (v16) – ‘Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul.’
As we have continued through the psalms thus far, I have found it difficult to decide which verses to concentrate on as to try to cover a whole chapter especially the longer ones would take us forever, in this psalm, the author mentions the deeds and the works of God, and then gives an instruction ‘Come and hear’, hear what? ‘What he has done for my soul.’
Let’s look at some of the things the author has already said, first verse 3, ‘Say to God, how awesome are your deeds!’ verse 4 ‘Come and see what God has done, he is awesome in all his deeds towards the children of men’. He wants to highlight how awesome God has been with his dealings toward mankind, so much so that the enemies of God cringe before him, (v3) he highlights some of the awesome deeds, He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the river on foot . . . his eyes keep watch over nations . . . he has kept us, tried us, and brought us to a place of abundance. It is all about God’s provision for his people the Children of Israel. His awesome deeds towards them, but then the author changes it to where we come to with our verse, ‘Come and hear . . . I will tell you what he has done for my soul.’ The first verses was his providential care toward a people, a group or community, now it is personal, his providential care toward a person, the individual
We can continue to rejoice in what God has done providentially to mankind in general, and we can define it further to those who are the people of God, the Church, and as we look back through the ages since the Church commenced on the day of Pentecost and see how good God has been, the book of Acts is an amazing story of the early history of the Church and we can move through the ages and highlight particular times and seasons of reformation, refreshing and revival, we can look back over more recent history and talk of all that God has done through modern missionary enterprise as the good news of the gospel has gone around the world, reaching into even the darkest and remotest of places. We can call men and women to come and to see how awesome God has been towards the church, but then we need to become a little more personal and declare ‘Come and hear . . . I will tell you what he has done for my soul’, for every one of us who have been touched by the Spirit of God, born again and renewed have a story to tell of the awesome deeds of Almighty God in our own lives. What he has done for ME.
We used to sing a Sunday School chorus, ‘STOP! And let me tell you what the Lord has done for me. STOP! And let me tell you, what the good Lord’s done for me, he has healed my body, saved my soul, baptised me and made me whole, STOP! And let me tell you what the Lord has done for me.
I have a story to tell, and the amazing thing is that it is my own story, unique to me, it may not be as dramatic as the story of many others but it is still just as powerful because it is all about how the grace of God came into my life and saved me and has kept me and continues to lead me, it is my story of what the Lord has done for me, it is a story that demonstrates the awesome power of God in saving a sinner that was lost and hell bound, it is a story that tells of a sinner saved by grace. What is your story, but in the context of the devotion today are you willing to tell it, to share with others what our awesome God has done in your life?