All across the world.....

The psalm we are studying this week is one of four songs that call upon the whole world to praise God! He is the Creator and the Lord of all the earth. His chosen people (Israel in time of the psalms and nowadays, the believers here on earth) have the privilege of praising Him and spreading His praise to every corner of the earth!

We mentioned that this psalm was divided into two parts: the first part talks about "group" or corporate praise, and the second part talks about our praising Him individually. And it says whether we are in a group or on our own, we should make His praise glorious.

How do we do that?
Let's dig in!

Shout for joy to God, all the earth!
2     Sing the glory of his name;
    make his praise glorious.
3 Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
    So great is your power
    that your enemies cringe before you.
4 All the earth bows down to you;
    they sing praise to you, they sing the praises of your name.”(Psalm 66:1-4)

One of our most familiar psalms, Psalm 100, starts off with the same words as our focus passage. There's a different name for our God in that one: in Psalm 100, the songwriter used "Yahweh" instead. The theme of the first four verses is one of exuberant praise to God because of two things: His awesome works (verse two) and who He is (His name, verse four). 

Let's think about something - exuberant praise is what we are talking about. The definition of "exuberant" is unrestrained enthusiasm or joy. It's the exact opposite of apathetic, heartless mouthing of words. Exuberant is the opposite of gazing out the window while we mindlessly sing the words of a hymn. Unrestrained enthusiasm and joy means that we are focused on the praise - not that we are thinking about what we are going to do after church. It's praise that comes from the heart because we realize Who God is and we are grateful for what He's done.

That's why the psalmist says we need to celebrate God in some way proportionate to His excellence! Now, that does NOT mean it's mandatory that we shout joyfully to God, but that we can sing joyfully the glory of His name and His works. Making His praise glorious doesn't mean that we are pumped up by group enthusiasm or by music with a catchy beat. It is instead the overflow of our hearts. 

Making His praise glorious means that we are captivated by God's glory, by His gift of Christ. It means that we cherish Christ and are satisfied with all that He is.

Verse three changes gears a little bit: the songwriter says that some of God's enemies will not give Him this kind of heartfelt worship. Instead, they will lie. Outwardly, they may go along with the crowd in singing to Him, but inwardly, their hearts are not His. They're faking it. They're pretending to praise. Pretending to obey.  I believe the songwriter mentions this to remind us that true worship is a matter of the heart. He is warning us not to fall into this hypocrisy.

In verse four, the psalmist speaks a hope that is often repeated in the Old Testament: that the whole world will praise the Almighty. He hopes that the message of God's works and glory will spread beyond the Jews and all across the world.

Spoiler alert! That's the theme of Psalm 67, too! It talks about the nations sincerely worshiping God, with hearts that are made right with Him. It talks about their hearts being transformed through the power of God's Word, which we now know as the gospel. There are other passages, too:

All the ends of the earth
    will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
    will bow down before him, (Psalm 22:27)

All the nations you have made
    will come and worship before you, Lord;
    they will bring glory to your name. (Psalm 86:9)

The nations will fear the name of the Lord,
    all the kings of the earth will revere your glory. (Psalm 102:15)

I believe that all of these verses point to a future time when Christ will reign on earth and every tribe, tongue, and people will join to sing His praise. (Revelation 5) We can begin that praise in our congregational worship and in our individual worship, too.