Psalms 66

1 TO THE OVERSEER. A SONG. A PSALM. Shout to God, all the earth.

[Tell] everyone on the earth that they should sing joyfully to praise God!

2 Praise the glory of His Name, Make honorable His praise.

They should sing songs that say that God [MTY] is very great, and they should tell everyone that he is very glorious!

3 Say to God, “How fearful Your works—By the abundance of Your strength, Your enemies feign obedience to You.

They should say to God, “The things that you do are awesome! You are very powerful, with the result that your enemies (cringe/bow down) in front of you.”

4 All the earth bows to You, They sing praise to You, they praise Your Name.” (Selah)

Everyone on the earth [should] worship God and sing to praise him and honor him [MTY].

5 Come, and see the works of God, Fearful acts toward the sons of men.

Come and think about what God has done! Think about the awesome things that he has done.

6 He has turned a sea to dry land, Through a river they pass over on foot, There we rejoice in Him.

He caused the [Red] Sea to become dry land, [with the result that our] ancestors were able to walk right through it. There we rejoiced because of what he [had done].

7 Ruling by His might for all time, His eyes watch among the nations, The stubborn do not exalt themselves. (Selah)

By his great power he rules forever, and he keeps watching all the nations [to see what things they do], [so] those nations that want to rebel [against him] should not be proud.

8 Bless our God you peoples, And sound the voice of His praise,

You people [of all nations], praise our God! Praise him loudly in order that people will hear you as you praise him.

9 Who has placed our soul in life, And has not permitted our feet to be moved.

He has kept us alive, and he has not allowed us to (stumble/be defeated).

10 For You have tried us, O God, You have refined us as the refining of silver.

God, you have tested us; you have allowed us to experience great difficulties [to make our lives become pure] as [people] put precious metals in a hot fire [to burn out what is impure] [MET].

11 You have brought us into a net, You have placed pressure on our loins.

[It is as if] you allowed us to fall into traps [MET], and you [forced us to endure difficult things which were like] putting heavy loads on our backs [MET].

12 You have caused man to ride at our head. We have entered into fire and into water, And You bring us out to a watered place.

You allowed [our] enemies to trample on us; we [experienced difficulties/troubles that were like] [MET] walking through fires and floods, but now you have brought us into a place where we have plenty.

13 I enter Your house with burnt-offerings, I complete my vows to You,

[Yahweh], I will bring to your temple offerings that are to be completely burned [on the altar]; I will offer to you what I promised.

14 For my lips were opened, And my mouth spoke in my distress:

When I was experiencing [much] trouble, I said that I would bring offerings to you [if you rescued me]; [and you did rescue me, so] I will bring to you what I promised.

15 “I offer to You burnt-offerings of fatlings, With incense of rams, I prepare a bullock with male goats.” (Selah)

I will bring sheep to be burned on the altar, and I will [also] sacrifice bulls and goats, and when they are burning, [you will be pleased when] the smoke [rises up] ([to you/to the sky]).

16 Come, hear, all you who fear God, And I recount what He did for my soul.

All you [people] who revere God, come and listen, and I will tell you what he has done for me.

17 I have called to Him [with] my mouth, And exaltation [is] under my tongue.

I called out to him to help me, and I praised him while I was speaking to him [MTY].

18 Iniquity, if I have seen in my heart, The Lord does not hear.

If I had ignored the sins that I had committed, the Lord would not have paid any attention to me.

19 But God has heard, He has attended to the voice of my prayer.

But because [I confessed my sins], God has listened to me and he paid attention to my prayers.

20 Blessed [is] God, Who has not turned aside my prayer, And His loving-kindness, from me!

I praise God because he has not ignored my prayers or stopped faithfully loving me.