Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me! (Ps. 66:20)
Expanded Passage: Psalm 66:8-20
The musical Annie opens with an orphan’s prayer for love and a home. It ends with Annie’s anthem, “I Don’t Need Anything but You.” The song testifies that “yesterday was plain awful” but now she and Daddy Warbucks are “together forever.” Remarkably, even her old nemesis, the orphanage keeper Miss Hannigan, joins the celebration.
Today’s psalm hits the same notes. Verses 8–12 recall the Israelites’ imprisonment and slavery in Egypt (Gen. 39:20; 42:17; Ex. 1), then their exodus with the pillar of fire through the Red Sea’s water (Ex. 14) to the promised land. Remarkably, “all peoples” (Ps. 66:8)—even Egyptians!—receive an invitation to celebrate Israel’s salvation.
Verses 13–15 cover the formal temple ceremony of thanksgiving. It’s like Annie appearing before a judge to officially become Warbucks’ adoptee. But Annie’s never one to stick to the script, and just like she bursts into song to tell her friends of her good fortune, so does the psalmist in verses 16–20. The point isn’t to brag but to encourage: If it can happen to me, there’s hope for you too!
This past Monday we studied young Solomon’s prayer. His heart’s desire was pure: He asked God for wisdom, not worldly goods, and God listened. The psalmist prayed with right motives too (v. 18), and God answered! He still hears such prayers today. Is that your big news?
Don’t keep answered prayers to yourself. Testify!
Jerome Van Kuiken is a professor of Christian thought at Oklahoma Wesleyan University and the author of The Judas We Never Knew (Seedbed, 2023).
© 2024 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
