Psalm 66

While in Hawaii, I found myself reading this Psalm over and over again. It was a feast for my soul and, I think, adequately summed up the previous number of months up till that point:

1 Shout for joy to God, all the earth;
2 sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise!
3 Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.
4 All the earth worships you
and sings praises to you;
they sing praises to your name.”

5 Come and see what God has done:
he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.
6 He turned the sea into dry land;
they passed through the river on foot.
There did we rejoice in him,
7 who rules by his might forever,
whose eyes keep watch on the nations—
let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah

8 Bless our God, O peoples;
let the sound of his praise be heard,
9 who has kept our soul among the living
and has not let our feet slip.
10 For you, O God, have tested us;
you have tried us as silver is tried.
11 You brought us into the net;
you laid a crushing burden on our backs;
12 you let men ride over our heads;
we went through fire and through water;
yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.

13 I will come into your house with burnt offerings;
I will perform my vows to you,
14 that which my lips uttered
and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
15 I will offer to you burnt offerings of fattened animals,
with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams;
I will make an offering of bulls and goats. Selah

16 Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will tell what he has done for my soul.
17 I cried to him with my mouth,
and high praise was on my tongue.
18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
19 But truly God has listened;
he has attended to the voice of my prayer.

20 Blessed be God,
because he has not rejected my prayer
or removed his steadfast love from me!

Verses 9-12 stuck out to me as I considered the season we have been walking through. Yes, we have been tried and it seems the Lord has laid a crushing burden on our backs. BUT, he has sustained us, is sustaining us and has not let our feet slip.

I love what verse 12 says, "you have brought us out to a place of abundance." There I was surrounded by the the beauty of God's creation...in a land of rich abundance. The past 6 months have been the hardest of my life, yet in God's mercy, He had prepared this trip for me, to refresh me, to encourage me and to show and remind me of all that He has and is doing in my heart. In terms of drawing my heart closer to Him, revealing deeper realities of the gospel, dissipating fears, and loosening my grip on this world and giving me a longing for heaven - I am in a place of abundance. How much I have to be grateful for.

Verse 16, "Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul." It seems that since our trip, the Lord has been opening my eyes afresh to lives around me. We have neighbors, friends, family, coworkers, the person behind me at the grocery store, even doctors, who desperately need the truths of the gospel. May I live my life to tell them, at every opportunity I am given, "what he has done (and is doing) for my soul."