# 27 2019. Dev. Psalm 66:8 Praise! Read all of Ps. 66 The purpose of these devotionals is to draw Gremar and I closer to God and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living. All passages are taken from the NIV.
Ps. 66:8 “Praise our God, all peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard; he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping.”
This prayer starts out with a call for communal praise and ends with an individual personal praise of what God has done for him (her). The prayer includes praising God’s power, “awful deeds for man kind” and God testing mankind; “for you, God, tested us; you refined us like silver.”
Vs. 1-4 The Psalmist calls for universal praise. “All the earth bows down to you”.
Vs. 5-7 “Come and see what God has done” He is the ruler of the earth, He watches “the nations”.
Vs. 8-12 praises God for protection and for disciplining his people, “you refined us like silver”.
Vs. 13-15 The Psalmist worships his God; “I will come to your temple and fulfill my vows”, my promises.
Vs. 16-20 The Psalmist praises his God personally and proclaims God’s grace, “come and hear, all you who fear God. I cried out, God has surely listened”. He repented from the heart, removing all that hindered fellowship with his God. “Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!”
How can followers of Jesus identify with the Psalmist prayer? We begin with organizing our lives around being agents of God’s grace to the world. God sends us as His ambassadors, He protects and empowers us, grooms us; refining our lives and our witness. We also worship in our places of worship, studying God’s Word, applying it to our lives by living our faith. As important as communal worship is, it does not compare with our personal commitment, to God’s mission, our thankfulness for Jesus’s grace and love and our thankfulness for God choosing us to be His child. Empowered by the Spirit and empowered by praying, we praise God!
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