Read the Bible in 2023 ◊ Week 23: Wednesday
Make a loud shout to God, all the earth;Sing praise for the glory of His name;
Establish His praise as glorious.
Wednesday’s Bible reading is Psalms 66–68. These three psalms are all psalms of praise. They are ‘shout and sing’ psalms! Psalm 66 and 68 are praise for deliverance and help in perilous circumstances, while Psalm 67 calls upon all peoples and nations to praise Him.
Psalm 66 opens with:
Sing praise for the glory of His name;
Establish His praise as glorious.
Derek Kidner writes:
“Apart from the term for God, this verse [1] is identical with the opening of the Jubilate (Ps. 100). The joyful noise, in such a context is a homage cry like that of I Samuel 10:24, when all the people ‘shouted’ to acclaim their king.”1
Now compare Psalm 66:5 and Psalm 66:16.
Who is fearsome in His deeds toward the sons of men.
And I will recount what He has done for my soul.
Come and see… Come and hear… Watch for repeated phrases like these that can emphasize key themes.. Kidner writes:
“This is a thanksgiving psalm, in which the focus sharpens from corporate praise, to which the whole earth is summoned (Come and see . . ., 3) by an Israel celebrating its redemption, down to the thanks of one individual, who brings his offerings and summons the faithful (Come and hear . . ., 16) to listen to his story, a miniature of theirs.”2
In Psalm 66 notice how bless bookends the psalm.
And cause His face to shine upon us— Selah.
God, our God, blesses us.
God blesses us,
That all the ends of the earth may fear Him.
Psalm 67:1 repeats part of what is known as the Aaronic Blessing found in Numbers.
“Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them:
And be gracious to you;
And give you peace.’
Kidner comments on verse 1,
“This verse echoes three of the key words in Numbers 6:24f.; and the Selah which follows it, together with the change of person (his to thy), sets it slightly apart from its sequel. It is as though the Blessing at the festival lingered in the poet’s mind, to germinate in a prayer that explored its possibilities, following them beyond the narrow circle in which he stood and where they might seem to terminate.”3
Notice this repetition in verses 3 and 5:
Let all the peoples praise You.
Kidner titles Psalm 68 as “Majesty on High,” and writes:
“This rushing cataract of a psalm—one of the most boisterous and exhilarating in the Psalter—may have been composed for David’s procession with the ark ‘from the house of Obed-Edom to the city of David with rejoicing’ (2 Sa. 6:12). It opens with an echo of the words with which the ark set out on all its journeys (Nu. 10:35), and finds its climax in God’s ascent of ‘the high mount’ which He has chosen for His dwelling.”4
In these Psalms, the psalmists teach us about who God is as they write of His goodness and mercy. In their introduction to the Psalms, M’Caw and Motyer write:
“One of the most remarkable features of the Psalms is that, though personal testimony is their chief mode of expression and the first personal pronoun abounds, yet the clearest impression left is not of man, but of God.”5
Think about that as you read the Psalms. As the Psalms give voice to our thoughts and heart, they teach us about God. It’s important that we know God as He is, and not trust on our own ideas that we build up about who He is. One of my prayers has been to know God as He truly is, and not as I may have imagined Him to be. Remember when Jesus prayed for His disciples, He asked God the Father to:
God’s Word is truth. In the Bible God tells us who He is.
The God who is our salvation. Selah.
God is to us a God of salvation;
And to Yahweh the Lord belong escapes from death.
We do not have to fumble after God trying to guess at who He is, nor are we to mislead or delude ourselves through seeking after a mystical experience with no authority whatsoever other than our own spirit.
Come and see… come and hear… God has revealed Himself to us in His Word. Ask Him to teach you who He is through His Word—so that you may know Him and worship Him in Spirit and in truth.
For a brief overview of the structure and poetry of Psalms see my post, The Five Books of Psalms.
Silvesterzug Laterne: Bk muc. (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Psalm 51, Fort Collins: Josh Applegate. (CC0 1.0).
1,2,3,4Derek Kidner, Psalms 1–72 (Inter-Varsity Press, London, England: 1973) 224, 227.e, Scotland, U.K. 2016) 233, 233, 236–237, 238.
5Leslie S. M’Caw, J. A. Motyer, “Psalms,” The New Bible Commentary: Revised, D. Guthrie, J. A. Motyer, eds., A. M. Stibbs, D. J. Wiseman, contributing eds. (Inter-Varsity Press, Downers Grove IL: 1970) 450.
I’m using Michael Coley’s Bible reading plan (one page PDF to print) to read through the Bible in 2023. Each day my posts are on different books because he divides Bible readings into seven categories, one for each day of the week: Epistles, The Law, History, Psalms, Poetry, Prophecy and Gospels. There’s more information on his plan and other ones at Read the Bible in 2023.
Copyright ©2011–2023 Iwana Carpenter
Kindling for Candles 