Friday slowdown

 Let's make His praise glorious each and every day!

Every day is a day for worship!

 

Let's praise Him for His grace, His mercy, and His faithfulness!

Let's join in worship of our Father, Almighty God!

 

Practical applications, II

Psalm 66 also tells us to make sure our hearts are clean in God's sight. We might look A-OK to other humans, but God sees us as we truly are.

“I the Lord search the heart
    and examine the mind,
to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.” (Jeremiah 17:10, NIV) 

We dare not neglect frequent cleansing of our hearts. We must deal with sin on the heart level - in our innermost beings. Each day we might yield to the particular sins that are our "Achilles' heel," whether it be pride, lust, greed, anger, or selfishness. Just as quickly as we realize we have sinned, we need to ask the Lord for forgiveness and cleansing.

Above all else, guard your heart,
    for everything you do flows from it. (Proverbs 4:23)

Create in me a pure heart, O God,
    and renew a steadfast spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10)

Just as quickly as we ask, God will be faithful and forgive.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (I John 1:9)

The last application for us from Psalm 66 is that we cannot neglect our prayer time with God, even if the answers we seek are a long time in coming. We may feel the answers are delayed, but we must not forget that Israel prayed for deliverance from Egypt for four-hundred years! Then He sent Moses to deliver them. In the situation that the songwriter describes in our psalm, the people of God didn't receive instant relief. They were bothered by this terrible enemy for longer than they'd hoped. 

But God's timing is not our timing. He hears our prayers. He hears our cries for help. But in His time, He will bring us into a place of abundance. He will deliver us.

I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
    he delivered me from all my fears. (Psalm 34:4)

There is no one else like our God. 

Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said, “Lord, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. Lord, you are our God; do not let mere mortals prevail against you.” (II Chronicles 14:11)

He will answer our prayers. And when He does, let's give it our all! Let's praise and worship Him, and make His praise glorious!

Prayer requests

 

Instead of my saying a lot today, I hope that if you stop here and there's a burden on your heart, you will leave a comment. 

Let us pray with you.

Let us have the privilege of bearing your trial, your obstacle, your heart's cry for help, up to the throne of God. 

Let's pray.

Practical applications

 

As we finish up on Psalm 66, let's make some practical applications to our everyday lives.

Making His praise glorious is a top priority for believers. There are many ways that we can praise Him.

First, don't look down upon public song. Many people argue about the style and tempo and the instruments played, but singing in our church services is an important part of praising God. Do we think about other things while half our brain is instructing our eyes and mouth to look at the hymnal and make sounds?

Hymns and choruses sung by the congregation are not just filler. They are not just times for late-comers to slip inside and find a seat. They are not times to stand outside the sanctuary and chat with people to "catch up" with them. They aren't times to be reading the bulletin.

Hymns and choruses are times to engage whole-heartedly. If the lyrics are shown on a screen for the congregation, or if we are looking down to our hymnbook, this is a time for genuine worship.

So many times, the hymns are very familiar and we have a tendency to not think about them too much. But the words are so meaningful in many of the songs - they are like lessons in theology! They give us an opportunity to ponder the love of God and His grace and mercy. They bring to mind our sin, and the awesome gift of salvation that is ours through the cross of Christ Jesus, our Savior. The songs and hymns we sing should help us to rejoice and give Him glory and gratitude. The second verse of Psalm 66 tells us to "sing the glory of His name" and that's exactly what we should do!

Another practical application is to make sure that we don't forget about private worship - the personal, one-on-one relationship that is ours by His grace. Our singing should be the result of hearts that have been speaking gratitude to Him all week. 

Have we lost our passion for our prayer time? Is it a chore to stop and read our Bibles? When God whispers, "Come, let us reason together..." are we excited to kneel and pray, or is it annoying to take our time away from other "important" things in our lives? How can we think of what He has done for us, and grow cold?

Does a young woman forget her jewelry,
    a bride her wedding ornaments?
Yet my people have forgotten me,
    days without number. (Jeremiah 2:32, NIV)

Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (James 4:8)

In our quiet times, we have the opportunity to worship in Spirit and in truth. Take time each day to spend time with Him.

Friday slowdown

To God be the glory . . . 

This is one of the first recordings by Andre Crouch of his song that millions would sing and sing again. Many of us have been blessed by these words. 

Make His praise glorious!

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!