We are called to Shout for Joy to God!

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.” Psalm 66:1-4

When was the last time you praised God? Was it in response to something He did for you? Were you overwhelmed by His great power and His holiness? Did He deliver you from a difficult or even hopeless situation? Was it simply because He is worthy? Have you ever stopped and thought about why you praise God?

Psalm 66 teaches us that our response to God’s power and His awesome deeds should be praise. The psalmist will go on to tell of the blessings of God and the great things He has done, but in these first verses we are reminded that our response to God’s power, greatness and goodness is praise. Praise is our expression of adoration to Him.

If you underlined the action words in these first four verses you would note the words: shout, sing, make, and say. You would see this psalm begins with a call to action. We are given three instructions: 1. “Shout with joy to God” 2. “Sing the glory of his name; make his praise glorious!” and 3. “Say to God, ‘How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you.’”

The first two verses instruct us to shout with joy to God and sing the glory of His Name. What does it mean to shout with joy? We are called to boldly and loudly declare the greatness of our God and to glorify His magnificent Name. Verse 4 says, “All the earth bows down to you,” and it reminds us that we do not praise Him alone, but we join all of His creation when we worship the Lord.

Psalm 9:1 says, “I will praise you, O LORD; with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders.” Let us declare that all of the deeds of our God are awesome, and His power is incomparable.

Verse 3 of this psalm says, “So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you.” The King James Version says it like this: “thine enemies submit themselves unto thee.” The most powerful advisories of our God cringe before Him and submit to His authority. There is none more powerful, none mightier than our God. He is worthy to be praised. That should give us reason enough to shout with joy to God!

Will you take a minute now and praise the Lord? Will you say to Him, “‘How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power’”? We join David in saying, “Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom” (Psalm 145:3).

-Jennifer