PSALMS LESSON 64

     We will begin this lesson by giving the 66th chapter of Psalms in
metre.

                   THE PSALMS OF DAVID IN METRE

                             Chapter 66

Verse 1  "All lands to God, in joyful sounds, Aloft your voices raise;
          Sing forth the honor of his name, And glorious make his
          praise."
Verse 2  "Say ye to God, How terrible In all thy works art thou!
          Through thy great power thy foes to thee Shall be
          constrained to bow."
Verse 3  "And all the earth shall worship thee, They shall thy praise
          proclaim With cheerful heart, aloud they shall Sing to thy
          holy name."
Verse 4  "O come, the works that God hath With admiration see:
          wrought In working, to the sons of men Most terrible is he.
Verse 5  "He to dry land did turn the sea, And they a passage had;
          They through the flood on foot did march There we in him
          were glad.
Verse 6  "He ruleth ever by his power; His eyes the nations see; Let
          not the proud rebellious ones Lift up themselves on high."
Verse 7  "O all ye people, bless our God, Aloud proclaim his praise,
          Who safely holds our soul in life, Our foot from sliding
          stays."
Verse 8  "For thou hast proved and tried us, Lord, As men do silver
          try; Hast brought us into nets, and made Bands on our loins
          to lie."
Verse 9  "Thou o'er our heads hast caused that men Triumphantly should
          ride; Through fire and flood thou to a place of plenty didst
          us guide."
Verse 10 "I'll bring burnt-off'rings to thy house; To thee my vows
          I'll pay, which my lips uttered, my mouth spoke, when
          trouble on me lay."
Verse 11 "Burnt-sacrifices of fat rams With incense I will bring; of
          bullocks and of goats I will present an offering."
Verse 12 "All that fear God, come, hear, I'll tell What he did for my
          soul. I with my mouth cried unto him, My tongue did him
          extol."
Verse 13 "If in my heart I sin regard, Jehovah will not hear; But
          surely God hath heard my voice, Attending to my prayer.
Verse 14 "O let the Lord, our gracious God, Forever blessed be, Who
          hath not turned my prayer from him, nor yet his grace from
          me."

     We will begin the verse by verse study of the 66th chapter of
Psalms.  Psalms 66:1 "{To the chief Musician, A Song [or] Psalm.} Make
a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands:"

     Every land throughout the world should praise the Lord. One
universal word of praise is hallelujah. Notice, it does not say, make
a noise to the Lord. It says make a joyful noise. I have said it
before, but it should be a sweet sound in the ear of the Lord.

     Psalms 66:2 "Sing forth the honour of his name: make his praise
glorious."

     The praise should be directed to the Lord of all the earth. There
is a name above the others. It is the name of Jesus.

     Psalms 66:3 "Say unto God, How terrible [art thou in] thy works!
through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit
themselves unto thee."

     As we said in the verse before, this praise must be directed to
God. The enemy does not submit to the Lord willingly, but because of
the power of the Lord. They submit, because they have to, not because
they want to. The works of the Lord are around us on every side. His
creation speaks for itself.

     Psalms 66:4 "All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing
unto thee; they shall sing [to] thy name. Selah."

     Isaiah 45:23 "I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my
mouth [in] righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every
knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear." Romans 14:11 "For it is
written, [As] I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and
every tongue shall confess to God." Not only do they bow to the Lord,
but then they begin to sing praises to Him, as well. Selah, means
pause and think on this.

     Psalms 66:5 "Come and see the works of God: [he is] terrible [in
his] doing toward the children of men."

     When I think of the greatness {terribleness} of God, I have to
think of His creation of the world in 6 days preparing it to be
habitable for man. Everything has been done on this earth by God for
man. We look at the 10 plagues that came on Egypt, and we see God did
it for the release of the children of Israel. We have mentioned, over
and over, how God parted the Red sea and allowed the children of
Israel to escape through the sea, and then He drowned the Egyptians
that tried to follow them. At the foot of the mountain, the voice of
God speaking to the children was so awesome that they asked Moses to
speak to God for them, they were so frightened. We could go on and on,
but you get the point I am sure.

     Psalms 66:6 "He turned the sea into dry [land]: they went through
the flood on foot: there did we rejoice in him."

     This , of course, is speaking of the incident at the Red sea. The
amazing thing, to me, about all of this is how God held the Egyptians
off, until close to 3 million people could go through the sea. I will
give you two Scriptures from this account to show how God held Pharaoh
off, until the Israelites were safely through the sea. Exodus 14:19
"And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed
and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before
their face, and stood behind them:"  Exodus 14:20 "And it came between
the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud
and darkness [to them], but it gave light by night [to these]: so that
the one came not near the other all the night."  Read the whole
chapter to get the full account of what happened. You can tell from
this that, God stood between Egypt and Israel. God fought for His
people.

     Psalms 66:7 "He ruleth by his power for ever; his eyes behold the
nations: let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah."

     Pharaoh thought he was powerful, until he came up against God.
There is no less power, now, than He demonstrated here. The rulers of
nations can boast and pretend to be great, but God is the One who
lifts them up and brings them down. Lucifer rebelled against God and
got thrown out of heaven. Lucifer thought he was strong, but he was,
and is, no match for God. Christians, Jesus has given you power of
attorney to use the name of Jesus in battles against the devil here on
the earth. Jesus has defeated the devil. He may rip, and snort, and
run around, seeking whom he may devour, but if you resist the devil in
the name of Jesus, he will flee from you. Pause and think on this for
a moment.

     Psalms 66:8 "O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of
his praise to be heard:"

     I love the little chorus from the Bible that says, Bless the
Lord; O my soul and all that is within me bless His holy name. When I
sing that chorus, I feel as if I am seated in heavenly places with
Christ Jesus. This is not just silently praising in your heart, but
is, in fact, praising aloud.

     Psalms 66:9 "Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not
our feet to be moved."

     The devil can not take you away from God. We will see in Jesus'
own words that the devil, or any man, can not take us away from God.
John 10:28 "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never
perish, neither shall any [man] pluck them out of my hand." John 10:29
"My Father, which gave [them] me, is greater than all; and no [man] is
able to pluck [them] out of my Father's hand."  The only way that we
can fall away, is if we deliberately choose to walk back away from God
and go back into a sinful way of life. As long as we stay grounded in
the Lord, nothing can move us.

     Psalms 66:10 "For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried
us, as silver is tried."

     Just as Job had so many problems, we have problems, too, to see
how we hold up under pressure. Job came out of the fiery trial pure. I
wonder if we will be able to say the same? Silver is heated to over
2000 degrees to burn out the impurities. The impurities float to the
top on the melted silver, and the trash can be skimmed off. God must
purge us, too, until He gets us refined the way He would have us. It
is very important for us to be willing to be molded into the form God
would have us.

     Psalms 66:11 "Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst
affliction upon our loins."

     The one thing that I would like to point out, here, is who did
it.  Thou means God did it.

     Psalms 66:12 "Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we
went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a
wealthy [place]."

     We can not appreciate the sunshine, until it has rained a few
days. I mentioned Job in this lesson earlier, but there is no better
example of this message here, than what happened to Job. He lost
everything when he was going through his trial, but paise God! read
the last page and see what happened in the end. Job 42:12 "So the LORD
blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had
fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke
of oxen, and a thousand she asses." To learn the entire lesson about
this, read the Bible study on Job. The trials come, but if we survive
the trials, giving God glory, then we are blessed more than we could
ever imagine.

     Psalms 66:13 "I will go into thy house with burnt offerings: I
will pay thee my vows," Psalms 66:14 "Which my lips have uttered, and
my mouth hath spoken, when I was in trouble."

     David is saying, now that these terrible troubles are behind me,
I will not forget the promises I made to you, O Lord. I will keep
every promise I made. So many times, as soon as the trial is over, we
are so relieved that it is easy to forget the promises we made to God,
if He would only get us out of the mess.

     Psalms 66:15 "I will offer unto thee burnt sacrifices of
fatlings, with the incense of rams; I will offer bullocks with goats.
Selah."

     David is saying that, he will give the best of his flock to the
Lord in sacrifice. We must think on this. Are we giving the best that
we have to God?

     Psalms 66:16 "Come [and] hear, all ye that fear God, and I will
declare what he hath done for my soul."

     David is saying, I will not only praise Him in private, but I
will testify of his goodness wherever I go. I have seen people who
have had a miracle from God, who will not stand and tell others about
it. It is as if they are ashamed of the fact that God helped them in
their greatest need.

     Psalms 66:17 "I cried unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled
with my tongue."

     Extolled means praise, in this particular Scripture. This just
means that in the midst of David's prayer for help from God, he
praised God.

     Psalms 66:18 "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not
hear [me]:"

     God listens the best to the righteous. The regarding of iniquity
in his heart, means that he has the desire in his heart to continue in
sin. We cannot choose the world over God, and expect God to answer our
prayers. God listens to a repentant heart, but not to a heart that
wants to continue to sin.

     Psalms 66:19 "[But] verily God hath heard [me]; he hath attended
to the voice of my prayer."

     The reason God heard is he had a repentant heart. David did not
desire in his heart to sin. David had a pure heart stayed upon God.
David, like many of us, was guilty of sin, but it was not the desire
of his heart to sin. God listened to David and answered his prayer.

     Psalms 66:20 "Blessed [be] God, which hath not turned away my
prayer, nor his mercy from me."

     Look at another Psalm with me and see just how long God's mercy
lasts. Psalms 106:1 "Praise ye the LORD.  O give thanks unto the LORD;
for [he is] good: for his mercy [endureth] for ever." God's love for
His people is so enduring that He is not willing that any should
perish. II Peter 3:9 "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as
some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."





















                             Questions 64

1.  Make a joyful noise unto God, ____ __ ______.
2.  What is one universal word of praise?
3.  What should this joyful noise that we make be in God's ear?
4.  What is the name above all others in the earth?
5.  What causes the enemies to submit to God?
6.  Quote Isaiah chapter 45 verse 23.
7.  Quote Romans chapter 14 verse 11.
8.  What is the first thing the author thinks of when reading about
    His terribleness?
9.  Name at least 2 other terrible acts of God that helped his
    children?
10. Why did the Egyptians not over-run the children of Israel, before
    they could get through the Red sea?
11. He ruleth by His power __________.
12. Who lifts up and brings down rulers of nations?
13. If you resist the devil, what will he do?
14. Quote John chapter 10 verses 28 ands 29.
15. What is the only way we can fall away from God?
16. How hot is silver heated to take out the trash?
17. It is very important for us to be willing to be molded into ____
    ____ that God wants us in.
18. What is the one point the author says needs to be pointed out in
    verse 11?
19. When can we appreciate the sunshine?
20. Quote Job chapter 42 verse 12.
21. What is David saying in verses 13 and 14 of this lesson?
22. Are we giving the best we have to God?
23. In verse 16, David is saying that he will declare God _______.
24. What does extolled mean?
25. What does regarding iniquity in his heart mean?
26. Why had God heard David's prayer?
27. How long does God's mercy endure?
28. Quote 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 9.