Now this is how what we think Psalms is all about. Worship and shouting joyfully to the Lord! And with good reason. The Lord has done great things. David recalls the history of when the Lord delivered them at the Exodus over dry ground (Ps 66:5-6).
Come and see the wonders of God;
His acts for humanity are awe-inspiring.
He turned the sea into dry land,
and they crossed the river on foot.
There we rejoiced in Him.
He rules forever by His might
The psalmist celebrates and rejoices in the great things God has done for humanity (Ps 66:8).
Praise our God, you peoples;
let the sound of His praise be heard.
And then the psalmist says something really difficult. A bit hard to swallow (Ps 66:10-12).
For You, God, tested us;
You refined us as silver is refined.
You lured us into a trap;
You placed burdens on our backs.
You let men ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water,
but You brought us out to abundance.
Lured us into a trap? Placed burdens on our backs? Let men ride over our heads? When it came to Israel, these kind of descriptors were not often figurative but actually literal. What is David referring to? Is God some kind of cruel God that lures people into traps and causes them to suffer so that they are refined as people?
Psalm 66:11, NIV: “You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs.”
Psalm 66:11, ESV: “You brought us into the net; you laid a crushing burden on our backs;”
Psalm 66:11, KJV: “Thou broughtest us into the net; thou laidst affliction upon our loins.”
Psalm 66:11, NASB: “You brought us into the net; You laid an oppressive burden upon us.”
Psalm 66:11, NLT: “You captured us in your net and laid the burden of slavery on our backs.”
Psalm 66:11, CSB: “You lured us into a trap; you placed burdens on our backs.”
If we look throughout Israel’s history, what we see is that almost every time there was suffering, it was because Israel had done evil in the eyes of the Lord. Therefore he sent them to Assyria and Babylon and handed them over to their enemies to refine them. It was discipline and appropriate.
But there was one big instance and it is mentioned here that they suffered and not of their own doing. It was when they were in the land of Egypt which the psalmist has just mentioned in v. 5. The famine had brought them to Egypt and when Egypt forgot how Joseph had blessed the land, they were heavily oppressed by Pharoah. This is the context. And when God delivered them, it was with abundance.
So again, does God draw people into a net to refine them? There is a yes and no to this.
There is a sense where God at times allows suffering to refine us. In this particular case he was allowing this because he was giving grace to the Canaanites/Amorites to repent of their evil. After 400 years, they did not, and he was now going to use Israel to displace them from the land (Gen 15:13-16). Not only would Israel displace them but they would receive the abundance that the Canaanites would leave behind.
This was not a case that Israel had sinned, but rather that the Canaanites had sinned, and Egypt had sinned (Gen 15:13-16). Wherever there is sin, there is always someone who suffers. Always. And in this case it was Israel. But God did allow it to continue forever. He redeemed this season to refine Israel while God was waiting for their repentance (Gen 15:13-16).
Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be foreigners in a land that does not belong to them; they will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years. However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions. But you will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age. In the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”
The bigger picture is not the temporal picture of individual hardship. That is a very Western view. In Eastern culture there is the group mentality and the great projection of history of a nation as a whole. And in the Christian sense, this is further met in the understanding of our eternal salvation as the bigger picture. (Note to self: Keep the bigger picture in mind.)
This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
So in the big picture we see God’s faithfulness. We see his redemption of their suffering at the ends of evil nations. And we see God’s deliverance into “abundance” (Ps 66:12).
Therefore this was the means of great rejoicing. Both for the nation of Israel and for David in his own prayer life.
Come and listen, all who fear God,
and I will tell what He has done for me.
I cried out to Him with my mouth,
and praise was on my tongue.
If I had been aware of malice in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
However, God has listened;
He has paid attention to the sound of my prayer.
May God be praised!
He has not turned away my prayer
or turned His faithful love from me.
And if you have ever prayed big prayers and have seen God move, this is actually how we respond.
