Praise and tell others

Here's our last section (verses 16-20) of Psalm 66:

Come and hear, all you who fear God;
    let me tell you what he has done for me.
17 I cried out to him with my mouth;
    his praise was on my tongue.
18 If I had cherished sin in my heart,
    the Lord would not have listened;
19 but God has surely listened
    and has heard my prayer.
20 Praise be to God,
    who has not rejected my prayer
    or withheld his love from me!

The songwriter has changed from addressing the nations and peoples of the world, to speaking to "all who fear God." He issues an invitation to all of us to come and hear as he tells us what God has done for his soul. 

Like many of us can attest to, when we cry to the Lord, He graciously answers. Those answers to prayer illustrate God's goodness - to us, and to those who we joyfully tell. Those answers confirm and strengthen our faith in Him. And when we tell other believers, as the psalmist did, it strengthens their faith, as well.

Right in the middle of this passage, the writer gives us an important principle for prayers that honor our Father God: "if I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened." 

Another translation says, "If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear." It doesn't matter if we can stand up in church and reduce people to tears with beautiful prayers and eloquent, well-chosen words. What matters is in our hearts. Hypocrites can offer prayers that impress human listeners. God looks on our heart. We can't play games with Him. 

But wait! Before you get the wrong idea, this doesn't mean that we must be perfect before we can pray. In that case, none of us would be able to approach Him in prayer! What it means is that we must truly reverence God and desire to be holy. It means that we see our sins as He does, and we confess to Him. Then, cleansed by Jesus' blood, we can bring our requests to the Father.

And He will hear.

Let's make His praise glorious by telling others what God has done for our souls!