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Psalm 66 Commentary
by Brad Boyles
The end of Psalm 66 highlights various ways in which we are to walk out the mercy of God in our lives. All of us who have believed have received grace from the Father in the person of Jesus Christ. In David’s time, those who believed walked out their relationship under the law with ceremonial rituals.
You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but You brought us out to abundance. 13 I will enter Your house with burnt offerings; I will pay You my vows 14 that my lips promised and my mouth spoke during my distress.
Psalms 66:12-14 HCSB
Note that David’s response to enter the Lord’s house with offerings is a response to the mercy of God. He writes, “You brought us out to abundance.” God delivered and David fulfilled his vow.
Under the new covenant of Jesus, Paul makes the same appeal based on the same mercies of God.
Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship.
Romans 12:1 HCSB
Again, “by the mercies of God” we must offer our entire lives over to Jesus. This is not only a sacrifice, but it is considered worship. These two responses are important to distinguish. If God’s mercy means something to you; if it has changed you in some way, then you will respond accordingly with praise and worship in the form of complete sacrifice.
“Someone might think: Why would God be interested in my body? It’s overweight, or underweight, wrinkled, blotchy, achy, diseased, impulsive, nervous, unattractive, lazy, awkward, disabled, near-sighted, hard-of-hearing, stiff, and brittle. What kind of sacrifice is that? The Old Testament demanded a flawless sheep. I don’t measure up.
The offering of our bodies is not the offering of our bodily looks, but our bodily behavior. In the Bible, the body is not significant because of the way it looks, but because of the way it acts. The body is given to us to make visible the beauty of Christ.
God doesn’t demand our bodies because he wants models for Mademoiselle or Planet Muscle. He demands our bodies because he wants models of mercy.”
John Piper
Let’s offer our bodies as models of mercy.