Psalms 66

¹Everyone everywhere, lift up your joyful shout to God!

²Sing your songs tuned to his glory!

Tell the world how wonderful he is.

³For he’s the awe-inspiring God, great and glorious in power!

We’ve never seen anything like him!

Mighty in miracles, you cause your enemies to tremble.

No wonder they all surrender and bow before you!

⁴All the earth will bow down to worship;

all the earth will sing your glories forever!

⁵Everyone will say, “Come and see the incredible things God has done;

it will take your breath away!

He multiplies miracles for his people!”

⁶He made a highway going right through the Red Sea

as the Hebrews passed through on dry ground,

exploding with joyous excitement over the miracles of God.

⁷In his great and mighty power he rules forever,

watching over every movement of every nation.

So beware, rebel lands; he knows how to humble you!

⁸Praise God, all you peoples.

Praise him everywhere and let everyone know you love him!

⁹There’s no doubt about it: God holds our lives safely in his hands.

He’s the one who keeps us faithfully following him.

¹⁰O Lord, we have passed through your fire;

like precious metal made pure,

you’ve proved us, perfected us, and made us holy.

¹¹You’ve captured us, ensnared us in your net.

Then, like prisoners, you placed chains around our necks .

¹²You’ve allowed our enemies to prevail against us.

We’ve passed through fire and flood,

yet in the end you always bring us out better than we were before,

saturated with your goodness.

¹³I come before your presence with my sacrifice.

I’ll give you all that I’ve promised, everything I have.

¹⁴When I was overcome in my anguish,

I promised to give you my sacrifice.

Here it is! All that I said I would offer you is yours.

¹⁵I’ll throw it all—the best I have to bring—into the fire

as the fragrance of my sacrifice ascends unto you.

¹⁶All you lovers of God who want to please him,

come and listen, and I’ll tell you what he did for me.

¹⁷I cried aloud to him with all my heart, and he answered me!

Now my mouth overflows with the highest praise.

¹⁸Yet if I had closed my eyes to my sin,[#66:18 Or “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart.”]

the Lord God would have closed his ears to my prayer.

¹⁹But praises rise to God,

for he paid attention to my prayer and answered my cry to him!

²⁰I will forever praise this God who didn’t close his heart when I prayed

and never said no when I asked him for help.

He never once refused to show me his tender love.