Psalm 66:16-20
16 Come and listen, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me. 17 I cried out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue. 18 If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; 19 but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer. 20 Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me! NIV
Have you ever met someone who can “smile through her tears?” There’s that certain kind of person who suffers so well that she continues to be hopeful and positive in spite of extreme pain. The author of Psalm 66 was that type of person. As he prayed to God, it says, “I cried out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue.” Those two ideas seem to go together like bananas and spaghetti sauce—what a horrible combination. How can you be crying out to God in anguish and praising Him at the same time?
It’s difficult isn’t it? Often the last thing we feel like doing when nothing is going right is thanking God for all his goodness. There’s no time or energy for that. All we can get out is “please help me!” or maybe only that agonized question: “why?”
But the author correctly believed that even in his anguish, God was still in control. Even in the questions and guilt that so often accompany suffering, God had never withheld His love.
That’s what you need to know. Suffering in this fallen world is inevitable. But if God is still in control and his loving kindness never fails, well then, it’s going to be okay. We can praise Him for all the great things He’s already done and pre-praise Him for all the awesome things He’s going to do!
And in the end, like the author, we will find ourselves telling others, “what He has done for me.”
