This Psalm, right now, has been a real encouragement, comfort, and blessing to read.  In my Bible, this Psalm is titled: “How Awesome Are Your Deeds”.  I have read the whole Psalm, but especially the first four verses, over and over.  Every time, I keep reaching the same conclusion: God is worth it.  He is most definitely worthy of my praise, my singing, and my life in worship.

Like me, I’m sure that you know that it is so easy to be distracted chasing the latest facts and figures of this pandemic, or to be caught up in fear of the future, or to stick on Netflix to try to ignore what is happening right now.  I don’t know what your life looks like right now.  You might be really affected by everything that’s happening; your plans might have been shattered, postponed, or a lot less certain. But, there is one thing that we can know for sure.  According to Psalm 66, our God is the same God.  He is the God of awesome deeds! Right now, his deeds might seem really different from the actions that we’d choose, but Psalm 66 tells us that God is a God who acts in real time to save his people and set them free from sin and slavery.

Just look at how the song-writer reflects on Moses, the Israelites, and the Exodus: they went through the Sea (v6), they endured great testing (v10), they suffered through isolation in prison (v11), and they were trampled down by their enemies (v12).  Why does the song-writer look back to the past?  He knows that this God is the same God who hears him when he prays (v16-20).  So, just like the song-writer, we can look back to the past. We can look back to the moment in history when Jesus went through the sea of God’s anger for us, and endured great testing for us, and suffered isolation and betrayal for us, and was trampled down by his enemies – people like us – for us.  Because of Jesus- we know that God has not left us on our own.  This same God, who has saved us from our sin and carried us through all our past trials and tribulations, is the One who will sustain us in these scary times.

‘Lockdown’ is hard. But, it has also been good. Maybe, like me, you’ve enjoyed slowing down, intentionally talking to friends on video calls, and enjoying creation once a day.  Hopefully, though, this weird stretch of time will be used to focus our attention on God.  He is due all glory, praise, thanks, and honour simply for being God!  He has also poured out so many blessings on us. 

Today, I encourage you to think about God, and his blessing, and trust that he really is the God of awesome deeds.  Look to Jesus, and trust that he is worthy of all praise!