Psalm 66 - Making Pure Silver And Gold

Hello, and welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. It is the end of a pretty long day for me, and so I'm looking forward to spending some time in God's Word with you all.

And so I am going to be in Psalm 66 today. I would invite you to join me. And the inscription for Psalm 66 says this, for the choir director, a song, a psalm.

Verse number one, Let the whole earth shout joyfully to God. Sing about the glory of His name. Make His praise glorious.

Say to God, how awe-inspiring are your works. Your enemies will cringe before you because of your great strength. The whole earth will worship you and sing praise to you.

They will sing praise to your name, Saylah. Come and see the wonders of God. His acts for humanity are awe-inspiring.

He turned the sea into dry land, and they crossed the river on foot. There we rejoiced in Him. He rules forever by His might.

He keeps His eye on the nations. The rebellious should not exalt themselves. Saylah.

Bless our God, you peoples. Let the sound of His praise be heard. He keeps us alive and does not allow our feet to slip.

For you, God, tested us. You refined us as silver is refined. You lured us into a trap.

You placed burdens on our backs. You let men ride over our heads. We went through fire and water.

But you brought us out to abundance. I will enter your house with burnt offerings. I will pay you my vows that my lips promised and my mouth spoke during my distress.

I will offer you fattened sheep as burnt offerings. With the fragrant smoke of rams, I will sacrifice bulls with goats, sailor. Come and listen, all who fear God.

And I will tell you what he has done for me. I cried out to him with my mouth and praise was on my tongue. If I had been aware of malice in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

However, God has listened. He has paid attention to the sound of my prayer. Blessed be God, he has not turned away my prayer or turned his faithful love from me.

Here a great song talking about the intersection of God's amazing deliverance and wonderful acts and times when we don't understand what kinds of things God is doing and what his actions and works are meant to accomplish.

We find in here a true statement that I've heard many times from Romans chapter 8, that all things work together for good to those who love God, but not all things are good. Just all things work together for good.

So let's walk through this psalm together and see what God has for us today. First let the whole earth shout joyfully to God. That's verse number one.

God's desire is that everyone, from every nation, from every language, from every country on earth, that everyone would shout out to Him.

So we should have an importance placed on not just me personally knowing God, but that I would want other people to know Him and worship Him and love Him as well. Verse number two. Sing about the glory of His name.

Make His praise glorious. We are called often, again and again and again, in each of these Psalms to sing to the Lord. It's not an optional thing.

It is something that all of us are called to do because God is worthy of it. Because we are to make His praise glorious. The people would say, wow, what would motivate my mechanic?

What would motivate my bank teller? What would motivate my neighbor or my mom to sing about this person? And it is because our God is glorious and worthy of our praise.

Verse number three, say to God, how awe-inspiring are your works? Your enemies will cringe before you because of your great strength.

That there would be, man, here David's describing a person, they don't believe in God, they're an enemy of God, but they are cringing, they're wincing, they are aware of their standing before a God whose people know who he is and they know what he's

done. And so they're telling other people about it. And though these people are enemies and that's how they're described, there is a reaction that takes place.

Sometimes we can think that when people have a bad reaction to us declaring who Jesus is or what he does or what he asks of us or of how he saved us or how he healed us or how he answered a prayer request, we can think that when someone doesn't

respond to that in a great way or in a doubting way or in a just in an incredulous way, we can think, oh man, that's like a bad sign. Like maybe I shouldn't be so excited about the Lord.

When truthfully, that is how enemies of God react to the news of his awe-inspiring works, where other people are singing about him and they're viewing him as glorious. They're singing about how worthy he is.

The reaction of the enemies of God is a cringing, a wincing, a shying away from that truth. So don't stop praising just because some people don't like it.

It is a way that you sometimes would know an enemy of God when they don't want to hear the praises of the one that is reaching out to their very soul to say, I want you to repent and believe and turn to Jesus.

Verse number four, the whole earth will worship you and sing praise to you. They will sing praise to your name, Selah.

So they're kind of from the beginning section of verse one and the section verse four, the whole earth singing and praising and worshiping God. Verse number five, come and see the wonders of God. His acts for humanity are awe inspiring.

Okay, well, what would some of those actions be? Verse number six, he turned the sea into dry land. That's talking about obviously the Red Sea, the Children of Israel crossing with Moses kind of leading them.

And where Moses had thought God was going to rescue them through some other way, which is why he tells them, hey, you know, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord when they're trapped between the Egyptian army and Pharaoh and the Red Sea.

And God tells them, hey, like, I didn't tell you to say that. You go across this sea. And as soon as they started to do so, God turned their, God split the sea in two and put a dry path there that they would walk through.

And then when the Egyptians tried to cross, obviously the sea then turned on them and took their lives. Verse number six, so he turned the sea into dry land. He says, remember what God did in the Exodus.

And then he says, and they crossed the river on foot. Kind of a smaller scale miracle was then when Joshua and the children of Israel, when they were going into Israel itself, God split the Jordan in two.

And they walked across the Jordan River on dry land as well. So over the course of 40 years here, the psalmist is drawing attention. Hey, Israel, you remember what he did?

These places that were kind of impassable by normal means. And what God did, that he rescued his people, he made what he asked them to do be possible because he is the God who makes a way for us when everything seems hopeless.

Says in the end of verse six, There we rejoiced in him. He rules forever by his might. He keeps his eye on the nations.

Because the rebellious should not exalt themselves. Think of James chapter four, where it says that as we have pride that God resists us, but he gives grace to the humble.

And so that should cause us to not exalt ourselves, which is something that's very common in the nations, especially back in these times, you would have very powerful men, very rich men that would hire soldiers and begin conquering other places,

taking land, conquering other cities, all of that. And here it says, God rules forever by his might. God's rule never ceases. He is the unending one.

And he is one that keeps his eye on the nations. He's not like striving with the nations, like really trying to keep them in check.

It's just something like you'd watch your kid, you know, keeping an eye on your kid or keeping an eye on the time if you've got to leave at a certain time, where it's just kind of a by thought.

It's not the most important thing going on that God cares about his people. And we are his primary focus. And all of world events, while certainly big to us, they are easy to an almighty sovereign ruling God.

Verse number eight, bless our God, you peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard. He keeps us alive and does not allow our feet to slip. There, that first part, he keeps us alive.

That's what's said about Jesus in Colossians chapter one. And I'm gonna turn over here real quick, just to make sure I have this phrased correctly.

Yeah, talking about Jesus in verse number 17, it says this, He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.

Jesus is the one that keeps our universe together, that all the atoms don't fly off or split and all of us explode or that gravity is wonky.

Jesus holds everything to gather through his almighty power, and he has allotted every day that you would live. He knows the day of your death. He knows when you will no longer be with your family.

So be grateful for every moment that he gives you of life and make the most of it. Your living is not like an accident or an oversight of God. It is an intentional benefit and blessing and gift to you from him.

You are not just alive today because natural processes are keeping you alive. It is because God specifically wants you alive today.

So for me, the question that comes to mind when I think about that, that Jesus is keeping me alive today, is Jesus, why did you keep me alive today? Like what's the goal? What's the mission that I need to accomplish through my life today?

And then I love the next part of the verse. He keeps us alive and does not allow our feet to slip.

And certainly here there's a thought, even as we've read often, about different traps and snares, ways in which a physical slip of the foot would cause, you know, death or something like that.

But certainly, I think, as well as we think about morality, that God has kept us in walk and in line with Him, kind of the first John 3, that as we walk with the Lord, we do not practice sin.

We don't have a habitual sin in our life because we are following Him. And I'm thankful for all the times that God has maybe circumvented my desire to get even with someone, to say a cross word to someone, to really just pop off in anger.

I'm thankful for the times when God's been like, that's not what's needed right now, and He hasn't allowed my foot to slip in that way.

And certainly, that can be one of the prayers that we have to God, of don't lead us into temptation, but keep us away from evil or the evil one.

That we would echo that from the Lord's prayer to say, God, would you continue to help me to follow you in a real and a living way that does not have me slipping? Then I think verses 10 through 12 are so poetically shocking as you read them.

He says, for you, God, tested us. You refined us as silver is refined. To refine silver and gold, you would put all of the metal into a pot.

You would heat it up to an incredibly hot temperature. All of the dross, the stuff that wasn't pure silver or gold, would rise to the very top.

You would scrape that off and then you would have it, you know, cool down and then you would reheat it up again so that all of the dross would come to the top and you would make it more and more and more pure through each time of reheating and

scraping what was not pure off of the top. And that's how often God describes how he interacts with us, that each of us have dross, sin, imperfections and impurities in our lives.

And as we go through tough times and trials, as we come to a place where we're stuck between the Egyptian army and the Red Sea, that God allows some impurities to rise to the surface in our lives, so that we would see, man, I'm really reacting in

presumption that I'm not following God, I'm walking by my own wisdom, or that I'm walking in anger, or that I just have like deep depression and anxiety that is not coming from me like bringing it to God and saying, God, here are my emotions, here

are things that I can't control, that I'm just bringing to you again and again, but maybe depression and anxiety, that we would just say, oh, okay, is God there? And we're not going to Him in prayer, it's not prompting us to call on Him, but that He

would bring impurities in our life to the surface, so that that way we would realize where we're falling short. And we would say, okay, God, would you help me with this? Would you help me to be kind in my words?

Would you help me to be honest in my dealings with others? God, would you help me to think rightly about you, or think rightly about others, or to be faithful in some way? That God tests us and He refines us as silver is refined.

There's an old song by a musician from the past century called Rejoice in the Lord, and the chorus goes, Rejoice in the Lord, He makes no mistake.

He knoweth the end of each path that I take, for when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as gold. And obviously, they're borrowing from many different Psalms and portions of Scripture.

But that's what we ought to carefully, cautiously pray for, knowing that when we pray for God to refine us, that it's not a pretty process for us.

It's good that we begin to see ourselves in the way that God sees us, that He knows all of our imperfections.

But most often, it's only in times of trial or temptation or persecution or whatever, that we begin to see ourselves in the way that God sees us. We begin to see ourselves the way that we truly are, warts and all, so asking for God to refine us.

Verses 11 and 12, you lured us into a trap. You place burdens on our backs. You let men ride over our heads.

We went through fire and water. We're here looking at Israel going into the Exodus that God had initially led them to Egypt so that they would not die of famine.

Give it a couple hundred years, a different Egyptian ruling class moves in that is not somewhat related to Israel.

And you can look at a lot of like Egypt's history and the various groups that came in at different times and noticed some of those things. And that new Egyptian ruling class, they're just scared of the Israelites.

And so they put them to work, they kill children, all of that is happening.

And here with fire and water, thinking about the pillar of fire by night that led the children of Israel through the waters of the Red Sea and through the Jordan, the burdens that were on the backs of Israel during the times of slavery.

But then the psalmist here writes at the very end of it, he says, but you brought us out to abundance.

He says, God, you brought us into like this furnace, this kiln where our impurities were made clear before you, our idolatry that we were very quickly worshiping, this false calf made of gold that Aaron had made. We turned our back on you.

We said, hey, you know, let's follow Korah or let's go back to Egypt. We had it so much better there. We had meat to eat, you know, different things like that.

But God still loved them and he cared for them. He allowed those impurities to be seen so that they would no longer do those things.

And he brought them out in abundance, that he gave them the riches of Egypt, that they didn't have to fight a battle, but the people willingly trying to like, you know, pay the God of Israel off, that the plagues would end.

They gave them so much of their riches as they were exiting Egypt. Verses number 13 through 15. I will enter your house with burnt offerings.

I will pay you my vows. Talked about that last episode of making promises to God and being true to our word in that way. Having a importance placed on God's house and where his worship is.

Says, I will offer you fattened sheep as burnt offerings with the fragrant smoke of rams. I will sacrifice bulls with goats. He says, God, you're worthy of all of these like earthly goods that I have.

Whatever I have, I'm giving it to you because you're worthy of all of it. As I think of what you did in my life and the lives of my people over the past centuries, you are worthy of everything that I can give.

Then verse 16, come and listen, all who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for me. I cried out to him with my mouth and praise was on my tongue. If I'd been aware of malice in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

I'm going to go back real quick. Verse 16 and 17, he says, I called the God, God heard me. And certainly that is true for every single Christian and believer.

That's how we entered into God's family. Was he told us to call on him in a heart of faith and obedience? And as we responded to his call, that he saved us.

And that ought to inspire praise on our tongue. Verses number 18 to the end, if I'd been aware of malice in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

I think there might be in some other translations, maybe a phrase, something like, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.

That if we can't hold on to God and hold on to sin, and for as long as we're holding on to sin, of pridefully saying, I'm refusing to repent and turn over to God, then we can rest assured, as we're praying, we know we're not praying to God, because

to pray to God is to realize who he is and who we are. And if we are holding on to sin and saying, God, I want this from you, I want this, please be my holy vending machine while I enjoy things that are absolutely contrary to your nature, God's not

going to bless because he doesn't want to give us the wrong impression that what we are doing in holding on to our sin is right and brings blessing in life because it doesn't and it can't. There is no life or blessing to be found in worshiping sin,

in worshiping self and our own desires and following the world. It only comes through regarding the Lord in our heart, not regarding iniquity or having malice that we hold on to, that inner sin, no matter how that is expressed.

He says, however, God has listened, he has paid attention to the sound of my prayer. Blessed be God, he has not turned away my prayer or turned his faithful love from me.

Here even as the psalmist is talking about some of the burnt offerings, there's a recognition that, God, I am imperfect, I'm flawed, I'm sinful, I have these impurities that need to be refined out of my life, just as my people have had that over the

centuries. And so, he's thankful that God has heard him and that he has forgiven him, that his sins haven't forever alienated him from the Lord.

And man, what a wonderful truth that that is, that God has drawn to us in part because of our imperfections.

It's like I was saying the other day, I love my daughter Evelyn, would do anything for her, but if I ever hear her going like, hey dad, like dad, help.

You know, if she's trapped, if she's hurt, I already love her, but I am going to be drawn fiercely to go defend her or save her or help her if she is in need of that.

And so with our souls that our God is desperate to rescue and save and defend and cleanse and forgive us.

And I'm so thankful that that's the kind of God that we serve, the God that though we are yet a great ways off, he runs to us and falls on our necks and hugs us and kisses us and says, this was my child who was dead and they are now alive.

So go kill the fatted calf, put my finest robe on him, put my ring on his finger because the son that was dead is now alive. I'm thankful that that's the God that we serve. I've attached a song, Psalm 66, Shout Out for Joy.

And this is one that I've known for probably a decade or longer. And it's a great way to kind of learn this Psalm and hope that it would be an encouragement to you today. Thanks for tuning in.