Shout for joy to God, all the earth! Sing the glory of his name; make his praise glorious. Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you. All the earth bows down to you; they sing praise to you, they sing the praises of your name.”  Come and see what God has done, his awesome deeds for mankind! He turned the sea into dry land, they passed through the waters on foot— come, let us rejoice in him. He rules forever by his power, his eyes watch the nations— let not the rebellious rise up against him. Praise our God, all peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard; he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping. For you, God, tested us; you refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance. – Psalm 66:1-12

“Come and see what God has done”…what a great phrase.  I picture a small child grabbing the hand of a stodgy old adult to show them something amazing.  Everything is amazing to children.  My daughter taught me something about this once.  We were having a youth group meeting at our house when my oldest daughter was little and we were debating about whether we should have youth group outside in our backyard.  It was windy and my wife and I were arguing for having our meeting inside and the youth pastor was in favor of going outside…”what’s a little wind” he said.  My daughter grabbed his hand and took him outside and said “Mr. Dave this is wind!”.

I think this is a great model for what we should do when we see God work in amazing ways in our lives.  We need to be ready to take someone else’s hand and say “Come and see what God has done!”  The psalmist is doing this by remembering the parting of red sea as described back in Exodus 14: 15-31.

There is an interesting riffle near the end of the passage “he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping”.  Our walk through life can be very “slippery” at times.  I know I slip at times and I am pretty sure I am not alone in this.  Our walk with God can pass through very slick spots where we lose our footing and we find ourselves flat on our backs wondering what just happened.  I think God knows that we will stumble and fall because we are all flawed followers, but he loves and believes in us anyway.

The last part of the passage seems to be circling back…”You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance”  The Israelites were in bondage in Egypt; escaped the Egyptians by crossing the red sea into the desert, and eventually crossed over into the promised land that God prepared for them.

The process the Israelites went through is not so different from our journey to faith in God.  We start off in bondage to the things of this world and earthly concerns; we then have to walk with God through the desert and allow Him to provide for us; all on our way to the Promised Land of salvation.

Prayer: God help us to share your amazing works in our lives with the enthusiasm and excitement of a little child.