Psalm 66
The Psalm begins in
this manner; “Shout for joy to God, all the
earth; sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise! Say
to God, “How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power
that your enemies come cringing to you. All
the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to
your name.” Selah
Come and see what God
has done: he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.”
Jesus tells us in
Luke 19:37-40 this truth; “As he was drawing
near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his
disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty
works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of
the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees
in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I
tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” Many of our voices have been silent, and our family, neighbors, and
friends, need to hear what God has done. The Psalmist reminds us of
God turning a sea into dry land and leading them into a land flowing with
riches, homes they did not build and all kinds of abundance. He also
reminds them of the many trials and tests the Lord took them
through. It is about time we do the same, tell others what God has
done for us, if not now when?
I want to do as verse 16 declares, “Come and hear, all you who fear God, and
I will tell what he has done for my soul.” It all began with my barber asking me to attend a
Bible Study, I was Baptist, I was not sure he was anything, so I went to see
why he would go to a Bible study. I was shocked when I got there, my
barber and three other guys were standing in a buffet line with Bibles under
their arms, in the middle of a lot of businessmen. I prayed, please
do not let anyone who knows me see me with these guys!
We had a private room and once inside I
put on my religious face and played the game of church, not planning on ever
coming back or letting my barber cut my hair again. But God had
other plans, and for six months I returned each week and would even change my
schedule to make sure I was there.
My wife asked Christ into her life
after watching what God was doing with my life and saw a new man living in my
body. In our first few years, the test did come, I had been giving
thanks for small things, but the Scriptures tell us to give thanks to God in
all things. In 1970 our home and all we had was blown away by a
hurricane, when we returned home, our house set back from the road about 100
yards and we looked, and it was totally destroyed. I looked in the
car, and my wife and one-year-old daughter were safe, and the Lord spoke to me
and said, now give me thanks and I did. I passed the test, and God
began to show us what only He could do with two under-resourced kids that had
little goals or even dreams of what God wanted to do for us. It’s
now been 49 years of watching God’s favor on our lives, in five days we will
witness our baby girl turning 50. She is a mom of two sons, a
follower of Christ, married to a man who is in love with
Jesus. Often, I messed up and looked to others or self to get my
needs met outside of Christ, but like David when confronted by God, I quickly
repent.
Let me close with verse 20, “Blessed be God, because
he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!”
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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