Shout joyfully to God, all the earth; Sing the glory of His name; Make His praise glorious . . . “All the earth will worship You, And will sing praises to You; They will sing praises to Your name.” Selah. Come and see the works of God, Who is awesome in His deeds toward the sons of men . . . Come and hear, all who fear God, And I will tell of what He has done for my soul. I cried to Him with my mouth, And He was extolled with my tongue . . . But certainly God has heard; He has given heed to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, Who has not turned away my prayer Nor His lovingkindness from me. (Psalm 66:1-2, 4-5, 16-17, 19-20, NASB)
Psalm 66 is titled “Praise for God’s Mighty Deeds and for His Answer to Prayer.” There is no author listed in this psalm in my bible.com edition. According to Bible Hub, “The name of the author of this psalm is unknown. There is no certain evidence that it was composed by David, yet there is nothing in the psalm itself which is inconsistent with the supposition that he was the author. Perhaps the most natural and obvious interpretation of Psalm 66:13-15, would be that there is reference there to the temple; and if so, of course, the psalm must have been written by someone else. But it is not absolutely necessary to suppose that the temple is there referred to, for the language might be applied to the tabernacle as the “house” or the place of the worship of God. There is, however, no positive evidence that it was composed by David, and it is impossible now to determine its authorship.” (https://biblehub.com/commentaries/barnes/psalms/66.https://biblehub.com/commentaries/barnes/psalms/66.htm)
In the first section of the excerpts above, the author tells of his praises to God. The Bible says that God inhabits the praises of His people, so we should praise the Lord when we pray. Indeed, the psalmist says to “shout joyfully to God, all the earth . . . make His praise glorious!” (the exclamation point is mine!) All the earth is not shouting joyfully to God, as the author had hoped, so His people need to pick up the slack!
In the second part, he tells us “what [God] has done for [his] soul.” The psalmist recounts that God has heard, and answered, his prayers. He has no doubt that God has shown “lovingkindness” to him.
Despite my illness, I still feel like praising God. He has blessed me with a great life, and He has not broken any of His good promises to me. He doesn’t guarantee that this life will be easy. My hope and my trust is in what’s ahead. The best is yet to come!