Called To Glorify God
Psalms 66
March 15, 2020
Tonight I simply want to lay before you the expectation that
Your life is set apart as that which is intended to glorify God.
That’s certainly not far-fetched
Jeremiah 13:11 “For as the waistband clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole household of Israel and the whole household of Judah cling to Me,’ declares the LORD, ‘that they might be for Me a people, for renown, for praise and for glory; but they did not listen.’”
Isaiah 43:21 “The people whom I formed for Myself Will declare My praise.”
We were very much created for the enjoyment and glory of God.
The intent is that we will be a grateful creation
And give God the glory due His name.
The book of Psalms declares this over and over and over.
Tonight I want you to consider that calling and I want you to consider that calling FULFILLED IN TWO MAIN WAYS.
1) Through Your Faithfulness
2) Through Your Testimony
I want you to consider that you are called to bring glory to God
Both through your faithfulness and your testimony.
If you think about faithfulness, it is easy to bring to mind passages like:
Romans 12:1 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.”
• We are reminded there that the burden of instigating worship falls to us.
• We are to “present” our bodies.
• And we are to present them as “a living and holy sacrifice”
Now someone may ask, what that means?
Well Paul lays it out throughout the rest of the chapter.
In fact, he concludes the chapter with 25 basic commands.
Romans 12:9-13 “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.”
• That’s just a portion of the list…
• None of those commands are easy.
• None of them come natural.
But when we die to self, and do it anyway,
It is a soothing aroma of faithfulness to God.
We do it and thus glorify God through that faithfulness.
That is what it means to glorify God through our faithfulness.
Basically, we live this life the way we have been asked to live it,
And the way we promised to live it when we were saved.
We are also called to glorify God through our testimony.
1 Peter 2:9 “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;”
It is God who chose us and rescued us from darkness
And therefore we are called to proclaim how excellent He is as a result.
We remember the Gadarene Demoniac who Jesus freed from a legion of demons.
Luke 8:38-39 “But the man from whom the demons had gone out was begging Him that he might accompany Him; but He sent him away, saying, “Return to your house and describe what great things God has done for you.” So he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.”
Very simply he was to bring glory to Christ
By telling everyone what had happened.
We see this continually.
Psalms 40:9-10 “I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation; Behold, I will not restrain my lips, O LORD, You know. I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great congregation.”
And there are many others, but you get the idea.
We glorify God through our testimony.
So I hold up to you this idea of faithfulness and testimony.
For Israel this was understood because of the ordinances of all of their feasts and Sabbaths and things of that nature.
• They were commanded to go to Jerusalem and celebrate things like the Passover or The Feast of Booths.
• They went in faithfulness and were proscribed to testify through those events of all that God had done for them.
But it seems that in many ways the modern day church
Has seen things like that as a burden and sought to throw them off.
Now, I’M NOT PRESCRIBING that we ought to be back under the Law
Or start attending feasts again.
But I AM TALKING ABOUT
The disappearance of things like faithfulness and testimony.
Christianity today has been plagued with statements like:
• “I can worship God anywhere”
• “Don’t have to go to church to worship God”
• “My faith is private”
• Or even, “I missed church because I had to go…”
You get what I mean.
Perhaps the Psalmist has seen that kind of a slide among his own people.
Psalms 66 is a simple and yet emphatic call
To remember that we are called to glorify God
Through our faithfulness and our testimony,
And it is such a wonderful reminder.
Now let me show you the occasion for the Psalm here.
(There is no descriptive heading as to when this Psalm was written)
What we do know is that God has recently delivered our Psalmist from his distress.
We see that in verse 13-14
“I shall come into Your house with burnt offerings; I shall pay You my vows, Which my lips uttered And my mouth spoke when I was in distress.”
• The Psalmist was in a period of distress, and we even see that during that
distress he made certain vows or promises to God.
• And now that God has delivered him from that distress he is here in
faithfulness to pay those vows.
• And as he pays those vows it is also his desire to testify before the world of
God’s great deliverance to him.
You see that in verse 16
“Come and hear, all who fear God, And I will tell of what He has done for my soul.”
So you see why this is personal to the Psalmist.
God has delivered him,
And he wishes to repay the LORD with faithfulness and testimony.
The Psalmist here also cries that
The rest of the world would join him in doing the same.
And that is actually where we begin.
The Psalmist starts with the public exhortation
Before he moves back to his own personal example.
But you at least now see the big picture of what is happening here in the Psalm.
There are 3 thoughts we can break this Psalm in to.
#1 HIS CALL
Psalms 66:1-12
Just in reading those verses the main point becomes clear.
• The Psalmist is campaigning for God to be rightly understood and thus rightly exalted.
There is THEOLOGY here by which we better understand God
There is EXALTATION here whereby we give God the glory He deserves.
Both are important in a call to worship.
You go deep in theology and then you can go high in exaltation.
To make the section easier, we break down the Psalmist’s call into 3 demands.
1) SING, BECAUSE GOD IS SOVEREIGN, AND IT IS INEVITABLE (1-4)
The command jumps out instantly.
“Shout joyfully to God, all the earth;”
This NOT just a call for the redeemed,
This is a call for the entire human race.
Everyone, everywhere is called upon to stop and give a joyful shout to God.
That is, they are called to ascribe to Him His goodness,
And express our joy for all that He has done for us.
• It is the opposite of grumbling where we shout angrily…
• It is the opposite of grieving where we shout in frustration…
The Psalmist wants the entire world to stop what they are doing,
Process all that God has done and “shout joyfully to God”
He continues in verse 2
By saying, “Sing the glory of His name; Make His praise glorious.”
This adds a second element.
By speaking of “the glory of His name”
The Psalmist adds an understanding of the nature and attributes of God
Which are bound up in His name.
Much of our understanding of who God is; is bound up in His name.
• Jehovah Jireh – “The LORD Provides”
• Jehovah Rapha – “The LORD Heals”
• Jehovah Tsidkenu – “The LORD is our Righteousness”
• And so on.
So the Psalmist here is asking the world to contemplate
Who God is AND what God has done
And then to give Him the gratitude and glory He deserves.
In fact the Psalmist says “Make His praise glorious.”
• He is not an insignificant God so don’t bring Him insignificant praise.
• He is not an apathetic God so don’t bring Him apathetic praise.
As God asked the priests who disdained His service in the book of Malachi…
Malachi 1:6-7 “‘A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?’ says the LORD of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name. But you say, ‘How have we despised Your name?’ “You are presenting defiled food upon My altar. But you say, ‘How have we defiled You?’ In that you say, ‘The table of the LORD is to be despised.’”
Later God would say:
Malachi 1:11-12 “For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD of hosts. “But you are profaning it, in that you say, ‘The table of the Lord is defiled, and as for its fruit, its food is to be despised.’”
God is a glorious God so bring Him glorious praise.
And time would fail us
If we tried to break down all the benefits and glories of God.
At the very least He is our Creator and the Sustainer of life.
He is the Giver of every good thing.
Perhaps we should remember the TESTIMONY OF PAUL to the Athenians:
Acts 17:24-28 “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’”
God is overwhelmingly good to humanity.
Even in spite of our sin, God remains gracious.
• Why did God not destroy all of humanity after the garden incident?
• Why did God give mankind a second chance after the flood?
• Why does God continue to send rain on the just and the unjust?
All the earth should most certainly glorify God joyfully.
In fact, the world’s failure to do this
Is credited for being the main reason for God’s wrath on the world.
Romans 1:21 “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
Mankind is called to “give thanks” and “honor Him as God”
That is what the Psalmist is saying here.
• You should most certainly “shout joyfully to God”
• You should most certainly “sing the glory of His name”
• You should most certainly “make His praise glorious”
He also adds in verse 3 “Say to God, ‘How awesome are Your works!’”
If you read the KJV you read the word “terrible” instead of “awesome”
That is because the Psalmist is transitioning from
An insinuation to worship to the inevitability of worship.
That is to say,
If you are unwilling to recognize that God DESERVES worship
Then you should at least recognize that God DEMANDS worship.
This is not optional.
It will happen.
As the sovereign Creator of all things,
Being worshiped by the creation is NOT UP FOR DEBATE. It will happen.
Isaiah 45:20-25 “Gather yourselves and come; Draw near together, you fugitives of the nations; They have no knowledge, Who carry about their wooden idol And pray to a god who cannot save. “Declare and set forth your case; Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the LORD? And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me. “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other. “I have sworn by Myself, The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn back, That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. “They will say of Me, ‘Only in the LORD are righteousness and strength.’ Men will come to Him, And all who were angry at Him will be put to shame. “In the LORD all the offspring of Israel Will be justified and will glory.”
Paul quoted that verse twice in the N.T.
Romans 14:11 “For it is written, “AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW TO ME, AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL GIVE PRAISE TO GOD.”
Philippians 2:10-11 “so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
When the Psalmist tells you
• To “shout joyfully to God”
• Or to “sing the glory of His name”
• Or to “make His praise glorious”
He isn’t really offering up a suggestion.
He is giving you a command that you will one day inevitably obey.
In fact, notice what he says at the end of verse 3
“Because of the greatness of Your power Your enemies will give feigned obedience to You.”
That is to say
• Even those who don’t love God will obey Him.
• Even those who hate God will exalt Him.
• Even those in hell will spend their every waking moment honoring and exalting and worshiping God.
It is inevitable.
(4) “All the earth will worship You, And will sing praises to You; They will sing praises to Your name.” Selah.”
Everyone will worship God.
Everyone will exalt Him.
And the Psalmist gives a “Selah” which wants you to ponder that.
• You say, “Gratitude is not really my thing…”
• You say, “Singing really isn’t my deal…”
• You say, “I’m really not in to glorious praise…”
The Psalmist says, “That is irrelevant. Sing because God is sovereign and it is inevitable.”
Sing, because God is sovereign and it is inevitable.
2) SUBMIT, BECAUSE GOD SAVES AND IT IS LOGICAL (5-7)
Whereas the first point appeals to your good sense
Not to resist that which is inevitable,
Here the Psalmist appeals to your good sense
To do what is proper or logical.
• It’s NOT just that you should worship because God can make you worship.
• It’s ALSO that you should worship because God deserves worship.
That is why the Psalmist gives you an invite:
(5) “Come and see the works of God, Who is awesome in His deeds toward the sons of men.”
He wants you to “Come and see” all that God has done.
This is meant to inspire you that
He deserves the worship that He demands.
And what he wants you to come and see
Is that God does in fact judge the wicked in order that He might save His elect.
Again, I would tell you that the word there for “awesome”
Is rendered “terrible” in the KJV.
The Psalmist points out acts of judgment God has performed,
But they are acts of judgment which God performed
On behalf of His people whom He was saving.
(6) “He turned the sea into dry land; They passed through the river on foot; There let us rejoice in Him!”
There are two events referenced there.
The first is the parting of the Red Sea.
“He turned the sea into dry land.”
This was certainly a salvation for His people,
But it was also a judgment for Pharaoh and his people.
TURN TO: EXODUS 15:1-18
Moses worshiped God,
Not only for His salvation, but also for His judgment.
The second event referenced was the drying up of the Jordan
“They passed through the river on food;”
That again was salvation for the people,
But it was also judgment for all the nations
Whom the LORD was about to dispossess before them.
That is why the Psalmist referred to it as “awesome” or “terrible” deeds.
But what is important to be remembered is that
These were awesome deeds done on behalf of the salvation of His people.
That is the point.
GOD SAVES HIS PEOPLE!
Therefore, “let us rejoice in Him!”
In other words, worship is not just inevitable,
But it is also logical.
• How could you refuse to worship one who mightily delivers you from your enemies?
• How could you refuse to glorify one who intervened on your behalf?
To be such an arrogant and rebellious person
Would be the very essence of foolishness.
Which is what the Psalmist points out in verse 7
“He rules by His might forever; His eyes keep watch on the nations; Let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah.”
Here is the implication.
As far as worshiped is concerned you have TWO OPTIONS.
You will either exalt God or you will exalt yourself.
What manner of rebellious foolishness would choose the later?
Worship isn’t just inevitable it is logical.
• God is the Savior!
• God delivers His people!
• God judges His enemies!
Worshiping Him only makes sense.
Sing, because God is sovereign and it is inevitable.
Submit, because God saves, and it is logical
3) SHARE, BECAUSE GOD SATISFIES AND IT IS DESIRABLE (8-12)
Now we move into the 3rd aspect of the Psalmists call.
• Not only is worship inevitable (you’re going to do it)
• Not only is worship logical (a wise man would see that)
But worship is desirable.
And specifically sharing God’s greatness through worship is desirable.
That is to say, you shouldn’t just do it, but you should happily do it.
Notice the call:
“Bless our God, O peoples, And sound His praises abroad,”
• It is a call not just to worship, but to worship so that everyone can hear.
• It echoes the call to “Make His praise glorious”
In one sense this is a sort of MISSIONAL CALL.
Only here the emphasis is not for the benefit of the sinner,
But rather for the glory of God.
John Piper has the famous statement:
“Missions exist because worship doesn’t.”
It is meant to offer the perspective that
We don’t just go to the lost out of concern for the lost.
We go to the lost out of love for the Father.
He deserves to be glorified by all of His creation.
That is the call here.
“sound His praises abroad”
And the Psalmist says that this action is desirable.
You will notice that the Psalmist actually recounts
God’s sustenance through a dark and difficult place.
(9-12) “Who keeps us in life And does not allow our feet to slip. For You have tried us, O God; You have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net; You laid an oppressive burden upon our loins. You made men ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water, Yet You brought us out into a place of abundance.”
In this statement you notice the important book ends.
• The statement begins with: “Who keeps us in life and does not
allow our feet to slip”
That is a promise of SECURITY.
“That of all You have given Me, I lose none”
“No one can snatch them out of My hand”
“Him who keeps us from stumbling”
• And on the back end of the passage is satisfaction. “Yet You
brought us out into a place of abundance.”
The word for “abundance” there is
The same word for “overflows” in Psalms 23:5
Psalms 23:5 “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.”
The point then is that regardless of what God might walk us through
We can know two unchanging truths.
1) God will not lose us in the trial.
2) The trial will be worth it in the end.
And that is good reminder because the middle portion of this text
DOES SPEAK OF TREMENDOUS HARDSHIP.
• It even speaks of an intense sanctifying work where by God crushes the flesh in order to produce righteousness.
• It reminds us of that passage in Hebrews 12 where the Lord disciplines us for our good.
Hebrews 12:11 “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”
That is what we see here.
(10-12a) “For You have tried us, O God; You have refined us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net; You laid an oppressive burden upon our loins. You made men ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water”
God indeed walks His people through difficult times,
But the whole time He secures them
And in the end He satisfies them.
Can you testify to that in your life?
• That regardless of the trial, God has held you and God has satisfied you?
• Can you echo Paul that all things work together for good?
• Can you agree with Jeremiah that God’s plans for us are for good to give a future and a hope?
OF COURSE YOU CAN.
Well then, “Bless our God, O peoples, and sound His praise abroad.”
Share of His glory because it is desirable.
So you understand the call of the Psalmist here.
• It is a call to “shout joyfully to God”
• It is a call to “sing the glory of His name”
• It is a call to “make His praise glorious”
Namely because
• He is sovereign and this type of worship is inevitable.
• He is a savior and this type of worship is logical.
• He is a satisfier and this type of worship is desirable.
And if that is the call to the world,
Then how much more should it be considered a call to the church?
And I’ll echo again, it doesn’t really matter to me
If singing is your thing or not.
Those of you who were here last week got an undisputable picture
Of what a horrible singer I am.
I couldn’t find a tune if you hit me in the forehead with it,
But my inability to sing doesn’t change the mandate.
I laughed last week at the Pastor’s Conference.
• During the second day of the conference I sat next to a man from Stephen
Butt’s church.
• Later in the day I was late getting to one of the sessions because the lines at
the book store were so long and I missed the first congregational song.
• After the service the man said, “Rory wasn’t here for the first song, and I could
actually hear myself singing.”
I can promise you this. There are many people who can sing better than me, but you’re going to have a tough time finding people who can sing louder than me.
That’s the only way that I can make His praise glorious.
If He can’t get anything else from me, He’s going to get a joyful noise.
“Shout joyfully to God, all the earth”
#2 HIS COMMITMENT
Psalms 66:13-15
Here we find that not only does the Psalmist offer an exhortation,
BUT ALSO AN EXAMPLE.
For here we find him walking in faithfulness to God.
• When he was in distress he made promises to God and far be it from him to forget about those promises.
It brings Jephthah to mind.
TURN TO: JUDGES 11:29-40
Now just to sort of set your mind at ease.
Most people seem to read that and think that Jephthah killed his daughter,
And then get all bent out of shape.
That is not what the text says.
• Jephthah did not kill her, he devoted her to the LORD.
• She did not weep because she was going to die, she wept for her virginity.
• She was kept from marrying.
But the point is that Jephthah understood
The importance of honoring a vow to God.
Ecclesiastes 5:4-7 “When you make a vow to God, do not be late in paying it; for He takes no delight in fools. Pay what you vow! It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Do not let your speech cause you to sin and do not say in the presence of the messenger of God that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry on account of your voice and destroy the work of your hands? For in many dreams and in many words there is emptiness. Rather, fear God.”
We’ve certainly learned that lesson from Israel haven’t we?
What about those who came to God crying out for salvation and in return pledged to deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Him?
It seems only fitting that those people
Who entered that agreement should keep their end of the deal
And not take the Lord’s name in vain.
That is what the Psalmist is saying.
I made vows to God, and I am going to keep those vows.
It is glorifying God through his faithfulness.
And now he is bringing those burnt offerings of bulls and male goats.
We serve a great God.
He deserves glory.
And one of the ways we glorify Him is through our faithfulness.
I’ve told you that with the youth on Wednesday nights we are studying through John.
• A few weeks ago we came upon the story of Mary and how she poured that vile of alabaster perfume on Jesus’ feet even to the reproach of the disciples.
• Jesus said that she did it for His burial.
• She did it out of love for him.
• It was a measurable act of love to our Lord.
• And we asked ourselves, “How does Jesus know that I love Him?”
• (Aside from me just saying I do)
Is there anything measurable
In the arena of faithfulness that would indicate that?
The Psalmist holds up his commitment
And then asks you to follow his example.
His Call His Commitment
#3 HIS CONFESSION
Psalms 66:16-20
First the Psalmist asked for us to keep our commitments to the Lord,
BUT HE ALSO ASKED US to share His praise with others.
Here the Psalmist does that.
He leads out by example to show you what it means to glorify God with your testimony.
Psalms 116:12-19 “What shall I render to the LORD For all His benefits toward me? I shall lift up the cup of salvation And call upon the name of the LORD. I shall pay my vows to the LORD, Oh may it be in the presence of all His people. Precious in the sight of the LORD Is the death of His godly ones. O LORD, surely I am Your servant, I am Your servant, the son of Your handmaid, You have loosed my bonds. To You I shall offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, And call upon the name of the LORD. I shall pay my vows to the LORD, Oh may it be in the presence of all His people, In the courts of the LORD’S house, In the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the LORD!”
That is the Psalmist’s exact sentiment here.
“Come and hear, all who fear God, And I will tell of what He has done for my soul.”
And then notice the steps of salvation here.
1) I CONFESSED (17)
“I cried to Him with my mouth, And He was extolled with my tongue.”
• That is calling on the name of the Lord.
• That is confessing with the mouth that Jesus is Lord.
But if you’ve read Romans 10 you know that
There is a reason a person confesses.
The confession of the lips is the result of belief in the heart.
Romans 10:10 “for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
The reason the Psalmist confessed is because he believed.
And you see that next.
2) I BELIEVED (18)
“If I regard wickedness in my heart, The Lord will not hear;”
That is what we call being “pure in heart”
That is to say his belief was not fake.
His confession was legitimate because his faith was real.
The Psalmist said that the Lord saved him,
Not just because he confessed but because the confession
Came from a heart that was pure and truly believed.
That is what you call a testimony.
3) I WAS SAVED (19)
“But certainly God has heard; He has given heed to the voice of my prayer.”
I believed so I confessed and God heard and saved me.
4) I PRAISE HIM (20)
“Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer nor His lovingkindness from me.”
So because God saved me, now I praise Him!
That is a testimony isn’t it?
And now the Psalmist says: JOIN ME!
How about you?
• Any vows to the Lord that you have failed to keep?
• Any commitments that you made to Him that you are lacking in?
• Are you proclaiming His praise to the world?
• Are you making His praise glorious?
• Are you testifying of His goodness to you?
That is the emphasis of this Psalm.
We are called to be a people who glorify God in this world.
We were created for this.
And according to Psalms 66 we do it
Through our faithfulness and through our testimony.
I would encourage you to go and do likewise.
