Bible Commentaries

TESTIMONY FOR GOD

‘O come hither, and hearken, all ye that fear God: and I will tell you what He hath done for my soul.’

Psalms 66:14 (Prayer Book Version)

Gratitude towards God and generosity towards man—these are two of the marked features in the character of David. In the text he gathers, as it were, a little select congregation around him of those who, like himself, had had experience of God’s goodness. He asks them to join with him in praising and blessing God; and he instructs them, and strengthens them, and encourages them by recounting to them what God had done for himself.

I. We declare with thankfulness what God hath done for our souls in the act of redeeming us.—God sent His Son to bless us in turning every one of us from his iniquities. Salvation is a free gift. It is the gift of free and full pardon for all the bad life that is past, and the pledge and the power of a better life to come.

II. The gift of the Holy Scriptures is the second thing that God hath done for our souls.—The best way of showing our gratitude for so great a blessing is to use it well.

III. It is not merely as separate persons, one by one, that God has furnished us with blessings made ready to our souls.—We are members of a great society. The Holy Catholic Church is a part of the system of our religion. We have sacraments, and common prayer, and public instruction, and mutual help.

IV. We have the supreme blessing of the grace of the Holy Spirit and the blessing of providential care.

V. We advance one step further, and enter the inner circle of all.—At this point especially the words of the psalm are addressed to those who fear God, and it is only they who can thoroughly enter into their meaning. ‘O come hither and hearken, all ye that fear God, and I will tell you what He hath done for my soul.’ This desire to help others is a certain mark of true conversion. Gratitude to God will find its natural development in generosity to man.

—Dean Howson.

Illustration

‘The testimony of the individual is for the strengthening of the faith of God’s own, in order that they may be more perfectly equipped for their testimony to those without. In the story of God’s dealing with his people there is a recognition of His government through all the differing experiences of their history. By deliverance and by distress, by triumph and trial, He has conducted them to a wealthy place. Very full of comfort is the individual realisation, following as it does this larger experience. In the economy of God the lonely man is not lost in the multitude, and the solo of his praise is as precious as is the chorus of their worship.’

Psalms 67:3

GOD’S NAME BE PRAISED!

‘Let the people praise Thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.’

Psalms 67:3

Time begins and time ends with praise; and though during its course there may seem to be many an interval of dreary silence, yet God never wants praise. He inhabiteth the praises of eternity, and even here on earth praise waiteth for Him among His people. The whole of the course of God’s saints is full of praise.

I. And is there not ample reason?—What though sin seem to have marred the Creator’s glorious work? Is it not a glorious work still? The heavens, with all their wonders of brightness, glorify Him; the earth, with her ten thousand processes of life and organisation, is full of His power, and wisdom, and love; and man is the noblest proof of all these combined. If God’s ordinary and creation mercies should warm our hearts and find utterance of praise from our lips, how should those hearts glow with fire, and those lips burst forth in songs of joy, when we remember that all our choicest blessings are not His ordinary creation gifts, but special bestowals of undeserved mercy and inconceivable love.

II. ‘Let all the people praise Thee.’—What though to some be denied the gift of praising Him with the lips? There is a more abiding and a worthier praise than this. A thousand secret strains of melody are uttered in His ear by the consistency and devotion of holy lives, more grateful than all the offerings of the voice; and these praises all can sing.

III. ‘Let all the people praise Thee,’ not only in the church, nor on the Lord’s Day only, but through all the vicissitudes of daily life.—Some in their families; others in the mean and humble dwellings of the poor; others, again, in the busy haunts of commerce and amidst the crowding and crushing of the selfish world—these all may praise Him, these and many more. Remember His own solemn words, think of them in the light of Christ’s redemption, and ponder them at the foot of His cross: ‘Whoso offereth praise, he honoureth Me; and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God.’

Dean Alford.

Illustration

‘In this psalm there is a fine merging of prayer and praise. Its dominant note is that of prayer. It is prayer, moreover, on the highest level. It asks for personal blessing, but its deepest passion is that all peoples may be blessed and led to praise. If it was a harvest festival song, as the first part of Psalms 67:6 would seem to indicate, then the local occasion is graciously submerged in a far wider outlook. The singer, even more remarkably than in the preceding psalm, recognises the true function of the Holy Nation.’