Psalms 66:13

THE GRATITUDE OF THE PSALMIST HIMSELF

"I will come into thy house with burnt-offerings;

I will pay thee my vows.

Which my lips uttered,

And my mouth spake, when I was in distress.

I will offer unto thee burnt-offerings of fatlings,

With the incense of rams;

I will offer bullocks with goats. (Selah)

Come, and hear, all ye that fear God,

And I will declare what he hath done for my soul.

I cried unto him with my mouth,

And he was extolled with my tongue.

If I regard iniquity in my heart,

The Lord will not hear:

But verily God hath heard;

He hath attended the voice of my prayer.

Blessed be God,

Who hath not turned away my prayer,

Nor his lovingkindness from me."

"I will come into thy house ... I will pay ... I will offer ... I will offer ... I will declare" (Psalms 66:13,15,16). The future tenses here reveal that the psalmist wrote this psalm immediately after the great deliverance and even before he had had time to offer all the sacrifices and thanksgiving appropriate for such a marvelous answer of his prayers.

"Which my lips uttered ... my mouth spake when I was in distress" (Psalms 66:14). Many a soul has made solemn promises to God in the anxieties of some awful crisis and then forgot all about it when the crisis passed. As the ancient proverb has it:

The devil was sick; the devil a saint would be;

The devil was well; and the devil of a saint was he!

The public avowal of the psalmist's intentions here indicate that he did not forget to do what he had pledged to do. Incidentally the abundance and value of the sacrifices to be offered indicate ability and wealth upon the part of the psalmist.

"With the incense of rams" (Psalms 66:15). "The reference here is not to `actual incense' but to the `sweet savour' of the burning sacrifice."[13]

"All ye that fear God" (Psalms 66:16). There is no way that these words can be restricted to Israel alone. "They are addressed in the widest extent, as in Psalms 66:5 and Psalms 66:2, to all who fear God wheresoever such are to be found on the face of the earth."[14]

"If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me" (Psalms 66:18). The psalmist here offers an explanation of why his prayers (presumably those for the nation of Israel as well as those for his own recovery) have been so signally answered. The integrity and sincerity of his heart are assigned as a background requirement for such a glorious answer.

"Hengstenberg points out that this part of the Psalm is didactic, teaching that, `There is no way of salvation except that of well-doing.'"[15]

God's answer to the psalmist's prayer was the only proof needed that he indeed had asked in faith and integrity of heart. Such a truth was understood as axiomatic among the Hebrew people. As the man born blind stated it in the New Testament, "We know that God heareth not sinners" (John 9:31).

"Blessed be God who hath not turned away my prayer, nor his lovingkindness" (Psalms 66:20). In addition to the faith and integrity of heart on the part of men who pray, there is another precondition of God's answering deliverance. "That pre-condition, without which no words or works of men could avail, is the stedfast love of God, his lovingkindness to men, and his unchanging goodwill for His people."[16]