June 10, 2026 • 19 mins
Don't forget to grab your free scripture journal at PrayingChristianWomen.com/journal today!
What do you do when the path to true abundance takes you directly through the fire and the flood?
Join Jaime on the Praying Christian Women Podcast for a devotional on Psalm 66 — Praise for God's Mighty Deeds and His Answer to Prayer — a psalm of profound remembrance that celebrates God as both our miraculous rescuer and our master refiner.
Jaime unpacks the challenging, yet beautiful tension found in this passage, exploring the uncomfortable reality that sometimes God purposefully brings His people "into the net." Likening our deepest trials to the precise, careful process of refining silver, she discusses how the heat of our circumstances is used to draw out impurities—never to consume us, but to purify us. Sharing her candid reflections on the difference between suffering the natural consequences of a fallen world versus enduring a purposeful season of testing, Jaime encourages us to set up "Ebenezer" monuments of memory. Just as God turned the sea into dry land for the Israelites, we can look back on His unmistakable past faithfulness to find the courage to trust Him today.
Come ready to look at your own current struggles—the places of pain, the feeling of being trapped, and the moments when you aren't entirely sure why you're suffering. Let this psalm remind you that your pain is never wasted and that you can borrow the psalmist's faith when your own feels weak. Because He is a God who eventually brings us out into a place of abundance, who listens to the cries of our hearts, and who will never turn away your prayer or withhold His lovingkindness from you.
Discover More:
Explore additional episodes of Praying Christian Women, Mindful Christian Prayers, and other Christian podcasts at Lifeaudio.com
Check out our new podcast, Christian True-Crime Junkies!, on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you listen to podcasts!
Connect with Us:
Stay updated and engage with our community:
On Substack @PrayingChristianWomen
On Facebook @PrayingChristianWomen
On Instagram @PrayingChristianWomen
On YouTube: @PrayingChristianWomen
Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Life audio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hi there, and welcome to another Prayer through the Psalms
episode of the Praying Christian Women podcast. I'm Jamie, and
today we are going to be talking about and praying
through Psalm sixty six. So this psalm is called praise
for God's mighty deeds and his answer to prayer. And
it does not say that it's a psalm of David.
(00:26):
It says for the choir director, a song a psalm.
So commentators and scholars think that it could have been
written by David, It could have been written by maybe
a later temple worship leader, and it could have been
used because of the content and the context. It could
have been used during a time of national deliverance or
(00:49):
military victory, or just post exile worship in general. But
it has themes of remembrance, and it has themes of
remembering God's goodness but also remembering that God allows catastrophe,
he allows difficulty, and the psalm writer likens this to
(01:11):
refining silver. So kind of the idea that the trials,
the tribulations, the difficulties that actually in the psalm are
attributed to God, Like you laid the net, you allowed
us to be trapped. You allowed us to go through
suffering because you were refining us. You were bringing us
through the fire and then through the water, and then
(01:33):
into a purification and then remembering God's deliverance into what
we would consider abundance. The refining process is not something
that we would consider abundant. It's something we would consider
painful and difficult. So it's kind of a both. And
(01:53):
so if you find yourself right now in a time
where you're going through something, and I'm going to interject
because I don't always believe, and this is jaming the
non theologian, just from what I read, what I've experienced,
how I perceive God in the Bible. I believe that
there are times when God absolutely either invites calamity, causes calamity,
(02:19):
or allows calamity for a purpose of refinement. But it
seems to me that there are also times when we
just are reaping the sinful world we live in. I
don't think every sickness is sent by God or allowed
by God for a specific purpose to test us or
to beat us into submission. I think sure there are
(02:41):
times and biblical examples that job sickness, death, tragedy were
all allowed, They were caused by Satan, but they were
allowed by God to reveal Job's faithfulness, not necessarily to
beat him into submission, but to kind of just be like,
I know this man will be faithful no matter what,
so go ahead, do your worst. And Job was faithful.
(03:03):
But I think there are times when we're just basically
living a life that's hard because sin is in the world,
and we have a choice of whether to lean into
God and find the peace and the comfort and the
healing that comes from him, or to go the other
way and to rebel against him, to curse him for
(03:27):
allowing these things, and to live a terrible life. I
don't know that He always intends for some of the
things that we endure. I think sometimes he does. Sometimes
he doesn't. But that's me, and maybe that's me coming
to terms with not wanting to think that everything bad
is specifically allowed by God.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Some people say everything happens for a reason. I don't
know if I adhere to that. I don't know if
everything happens for a specific reason and purpose. I know
that in all things God works for the good of
those who love him, absolutely, I don't know if everything
happens specifically for a purpose. There are some terrible tragedies
that I don't know if they are meant to produce
(04:11):
a certain outcome, but without God they're impossible to weather.
If that makes any kind of sense at all to anyone.
That's my philosophy. It's not carved in stone. It doesn't
have to be yours. But this particular psalm is celebrating
that God is a God who can be both rescuer
(04:31):
and gift giver and also refiner. And I love that
and I embrace that for sure. So that was kind
of a long way to say, welcome to Psalm sixty six.
(04:56):
Let's pray other God, we just give you thanks for
your word, and as always we just come before you
with complete love and adoration, with complete humility and just
mindfulness that we are so unworthy of your love and
of your fellowship and of your invitation to be sons
(05:20):
and daughters. And so we just thank you and praise
you for your goodness and love and for that invitation,
and we welcome that, we embrace it, we accept, we
take that offer, that olive branch in the form of
(05:41):
Jesus Christ, who literally was the bridge between us and
you and fellowship.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
When we were broken.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Because of sin, and we just pray that we could
come before you and just understand a little bit more
about who you are through this psalm. Help us to
see you clearly. Help this psalm to help us make
more sense of the lives that we're living. Help the
(06:12):
pain and the suffering and the difficulty to be a
little bit more bearable through acknowledgment of your goodness and
your work in our lives. That no pain is wasted
in Jesus name.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
All right, let's read Psalm sixty six. I'm using the
Nasby nineteen ninety five praise for God's mighty deeds and
for his answer to prayer. Love it the Praying Christian
Women podcast. I love that this specifically says this is
praising God's mighty deeds and his answer to prayer. So
let's read this and let's try to find what prayers
(06:52):
were answered for. The choir director a song a psalm.
Shout joyfully to God, all the earth, sing the glory
of his name, Make his praise glorious. Say to God,
how awesome are your works. Because of the greatness of
your power, your enemies will give feigned obedience to you.
(07:14):
All the earth will worship you and will sing praises
to you. They will sing praises to your name. Saylah,
Come and see the works of God, who is awesome
in his deeds. Towards the sons of men, he turned
the sea into dry land. They pass through the river
on foot. There, Let us rejoice in him. He rules
(07:38):
by his might forever. His eyes keep watch on the nations.
Let not the rebellious exult themselves. Saylah, bless our God,
o peoples, and sound his praise abroad, who keeps us
in life and does not allow our feet to slip.
(07:58):
For you have tried us, O God, You have refined
us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net.
You laid an oppressive burden upon our loins. You made
men ride over our heads. We went through fire and
through water, Yet you brought us out into a place
of abundance. I shall come into your house with burnt offerings.
(08:21):
I shall pay you my vows, which my lips uttered
and my mouth spoke when I was in distress. I
shall offer to you burnt offerings of fat beasts with
the smoke of rams. I shall make an offering of
bulls with male goats Selah, Come and hear, all who
fear God, and I will tell of what he has
(08:42):
done for my soul. I cried to him with my mouth,
and he was extolled with my tongue. If I regard
wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear. But
certainly God has heard. He has given heed to the
voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, who is not
turned away my prayer nor his loving kindness for me.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
So there is a lot in here, I think. In
the beginning.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
What stands out to me is this line in verse three.
Because of the greatness of your power, your enemies will
give feigned obedience to you. And I looked into this
a little bit into commentaries and the lexicon. The word
used here about giving feigned obedience is the same word
used when someone is conquered and they bow to their conqueror.
(09:30):
It doesn't mean that they're plotting or pretending that they're
not going to submit. It means that they're forced into it,
and their heart isn't in it, but they have to.
And what I see here is here we are like
the whole earth is shouting to God, is singing the
glory of his name. This is universal praise like this
(09:53):
is even the rocks will cry out. If there wasn't
a human on the planet to give praise to God,
even the rocks would cry out and worship because He
is worthy of praise. And then you've got God's people,
who are the ones who are singing this. Obviously this
is the people of Israel singing this, but they're talking
about all of the earth will worship you and sing
(10:13):
praises to you. And then, because of the greatness of power,
even your enemies will have no choice. It's that every niche,
all about, every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord.
It's not robotic, it's a response that's necessary when confronted
with the greatness of our God. And the thought that
(10:33):
came to my mind is if everyone, even God's enemies,
are going to have no choice but to submit to him,
why wouldn't we willingly turn ourselves to this great God
and partner with him to bring love and God's kingdom
here on earth as it is in heaven. Why would
we not be on his side? And so that contrast
(10:55):
of even your enemies are going to just be flat
on their faces giving glory. Sorry to you, not because
it's in their hearts, but because they have to. They
have no choice. What a gift that we can choose
to be in relationship with him, not to have to
just fall flat on our faces out of obligation or
because that's how things go. But the invitation, the hand
(11:19):
that is extended out to us of Jesus, why would
we not take that. The next section, verses five through seven,
it talks about come and see the works, and this
is remembering what He did for his people. He turned
the sea into dry land, so that evokes imagery of
the Red Sea when Moses and the people cross the
(11:39):
Red Sea, or maybe the Jordan when it was parted.
Also they passed through the river on foot. There let
us rejoice him in him And this is a call
to remembrance. And this is a thing that I think
is so important. You can call him Ebenezers where you
place these monuments of memory on.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Ways that God was faithful.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
There are several times in my life when God was
blaringly obviously faithful to me, times when I wasn't sure
if He was there, and a prayer was answered in
a way that couldn't have been explained any other way,
and I stand on these things. I go back to
them in my mind during times when things are hard,
(12:23):
and I love that they bring this up first, whether
it's David or someone else. The psalmist brings this up
and says, remember these miraculous things that God did for
our people, because the next section brings up God doesn't
allow our feet to slip. He keeps us in life.
But in verses ten through twelve, it talks about how,
(12:48):
even though he is faithful, let's also remember the times
when they were hard, times when God allowed us to suffer.
When God allowed us to be tried, He tried us
find us. As silver is refined, God brought us into
the net or the trap. The net is used sometimes
in these psalms. Remember it talks about how, like David
(13:11):
will say, my adversaries have laid a net, have laid
a trap. Let them get caught in their own net.
But this is saying He brought us into the net.
God brought his own people into a trap. He refined them.
As silver is refined, which means pain and heat and fire.
It means turning the heat up just enough so that
(13:32):
that draws the impurities would rise to the surface, but
not so hot that the silver would be consumed, and
that language is used also, But we were not consumed.
And a good refiner knew the precise temperature that was
needed to precipitate out the impurities from the silver, so
it could be skimmed off, but that silver would be preserved.
(13:55):
And he's a good God and he does that. He
does not consume his people, He refines them. You laid
oppressive burden upon our loins. You made men to ride
over our heads. This language isn't just we live in
a fallen world. Bad stuff happens, like I was talking about,
I think sometimes that does happen. This is talking about.
(14:16):
This is evidence that there are times when God makes
difficulties happen. And yet even though we went through fire
and through water, yet in verse twelve, you brought us
out into a place of abundance. And so that is
where we can say whether this trial I'm going through
(14:38):
was just something that's a result of a fallen world.
Whether it's a trial that God is placygone me, or
whether it's a trial God is allowing Satan to put
on me, it doesn't matter. I think for me, the
absolute worst case scenario is that God is making it happen,
because that's hard to take and hard to swallow. But
(14:59):
even if that that's what's happening, he is good. He
is at work, and he will bring us out into
a place of abundance. And we know that why because
we look back on the times when he did when
the times that he showed himself to be all powerful,
to be capable of crushing enemies and making miracles happen
(15:20):
and parting waters. If he is capable of it, then
we can trust that he will do it when it's necessary.
And if he has done it, he'll do it again,
and we can praise him for being the God of
all power. And the Psalmist ends with I will come
into your house with burnt offerings. I'll pay you my
vows which my lips uttered and my mouth spoke when
(15:40):
I was in distress. And he's saying that everyone, everyone
who knows that there's a god who's worthy of paying
attention to listen as I tell what he has done
for my soul, That he has listened to the cries
of my mouth, and he has answered my prayers. So
the ending of this, because it is whether you're feeling
(16:02):
it or not, today You can pray this as the
Psalmist praise. You can borrow the faith and the positivity
of this Psalmist to remember that God has certainly heard,
He's given heed to my cries, and he is good,
and he has not turned away my prayer. You can
know that no matter what you're going through today, and
(16:23):
no matter why you're going through it, you don't even
need to really know why, but no matter why it's happening,
you can know God is blessed. Blessed be the name
of the Lord. He has not turned away my prayer
or his loving kindness from me. He is with me,
He loves me. He's with you. He loves you, and
he hears your prayer, and your prayer will be answered.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Let's pray.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
God, We praise you for being a hearer of prayers,
for being a good God who never leaves us. We
pray that the rocks wouldn't have to cry out for
lack of praise on this planet. Let us be the
first to lift up your voice, lift up our voices,
(17:13):
to lift up your name and praise you as the
creator of the universe, as the God of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob, who provided a ram in the wilderness for
Abraham so that Isaac didn't have to be sacrificed. Who
provided your son, Jesus so that we could have a
relationship with You, Who refines us. And even though it's painful,
(17:40):
there is abundance on the other side of it that
could never have been attained without that pain. Who comforts
us in our time of need, Who meets us in
our deepest, darkest hour. You are close to the brokenhearted.
You bring healing and love and hope and peace, and
(18:04):
you hear our prayers. You are the God who sees,
You see us. You see the difficulties we're going through,
the pain, the worry, the hard work that no one
else sees, the frustration, the hopelessness.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
We cling to you Lord in this moment, and.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
We pray that you would give us a glimpse of
your presence, that your Holy Spirit would be with us
and wrap us up in a warm blanket, that you
would give us God winks throughout our day, things that
people say, verses, we come across songs, we hear messages
from pastors, whatever it is to help us to just
(18:51):
know that you are with us. We pray that you
would just be with the person listening today, who is
feeling hopeless, forgotten, who is feeling like you're heaping difficulties
on them, that you would remind them that you love them,
that you are in this for their good, that you
(19:13):
have provided before and you will provide again, and even
now you're providing in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Amen. We'd like to.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Take just a quick second to thank the team at
Life Audio for their partnership with us on the podcast.
If you go to lifeaudio dot com, you will find
dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network. They've
got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and so much more.
That's life audio dot com.
Life audio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hi there, and welcome to another Prayer through the Psalms
episode of the Praying Christian Women podcast. I'm Jamie, and
today we are going to be talking about and praying
through Psalm sixty six. So this psalm is called praise
for God's mighty deeds and his answer to prayer. And
it does not say that it's a psalm of David.
(00:26):
It says for the choir director, a song a psalm.
So commentators and scholars think that it could have been
written by David, It could have been written by maybe
a later temple worship leader, and it could have been
used because of the content and the context. It could
have been used during a time of national deliverance or
(00:49):
military victory, or just post exile worship in general. But
it has themes of remembrance, and it has themes of
remembering God's goodness but also remembering that God allows catastrophe,
he allows difficulty, and the psalm writer likens this to
(01:11):
refining silver. So kind of the idea that the trials,
the tribulations, the difficulties that actually in the psalm are
attributed to God, Like you laid the net, you allowed
us to be trapped. You allowed us to go through
suffering because you were refining us. You were bringing us
through the fire and then through the water, and then
(01:33):
into a purification and then remembering God's deliverance into what
we would consider abundance. The refining process is not something
that we would consider abundant. It's something we would consider
painful and difficult. So it's kind of a both. And
(01:53):
so if you find yourself right now in a time
where you're going through something, and I'm going to interject
because I don't always believe, and this is jaming the
non theologian, just from what I read, what I've experienced,
how I perceive God in the Bible. I believe that
there are times when God absolutely either invites calamity, causes calamity,
(02:19):
or allows calamity for a purpose of refinement. But it
seems to me that there are also times when we
just are reaping the sinful world we live in. I
don't think every sickness is sent by God or allowed
by God for a specific purpose to test us or
to beat us into submission. I think sure there are
(02:41):
times and biblical examples that job sickness, death, tragedy were
all allowed, They were caused by Satan, but they were
allowed by God to reveal Job's faithfulness, not necessarily to
beat him into submission, but to kind of just be like,
I know this man will be faithful no matter what,
so go ahead, do your worst. And Job was faithful.
(03:03):
But I think there are times when we're just basically
living a life that's hard because sin is in the world,
and we have a choice of whether to lean into
God and find the peace and the comfort and the
healing that comes from him, or to go the other
way and to rebel against him, to curse him for
(03:27):
allowing these things, and to live a terrible life. I
don't know that He always intends for some of the
things that we endure. I think sometimes he does. Sometimes
he doesn't. But that's me, and maybe that's me coming
to terms with not wanting to think that everything bad
is specifically allowed by God.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Some people say everything happens for a reason. I don't
know if I adhere to that. I don't know if
everything happens for a specific reason and purpose. I know
that in all things God works for the good of
those who love him, absolutely, I don't know if everything
happens specifically for a purpose. There are some terrible tragedies
that I don't know if they are meant to produce
(04:11):
a certain outcome, but without God they're impossible to weather.
If that makes any kind of sense at all to anyone.
That's my philosophy. It's not carved in stone. It doesn't
have to be yours. But this particular psalm is celebrating
that God is a God who can be both rescuer
(04:31):
and gift giver and also refiner. And I love that
and I embrace that for sure. So that was kind
of a long way to say, welcome to Psalm sixty six.
(04:56):
Let's pray other God, we just give you thanks for
your word, and as always we just come before you
with complete love and adoration, with complete humility and just
mindfulness that we are so unworthy of your love and
of your fellowship and of your invitation to be sons
(05:20):
and daughters. And so we just thank you and praise
you for your goodness and love and for that invitation,
and we welcome that, we embrace it, we accept, we
take that offer, that olive branch in the form of
(05:41):
Jesus Christ, who literally was the bridge between us and
you and fellowship.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
When we were broken.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Because of sin, and we just pray that we could
come before you and just understand a little bit more
about who you are through this psalm. Help us to
see you clearly. Help this psalm to help us make
more sense of the lives that we're living. Help the
(06:12):
pain and the suffering and the difficulty to be a
little bit more bearable through acknowledgment of your goodness and
your work in our lives. That no pain is wasted
in Jesus name.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
All right, let's read Psalm sixty six. I'm using the
Nasby nineteen ninety five praise for God's mighty deeds and
for his answer to prayer. Love it the Praying Christian
Women podcast. I love that this specifically says this is
praising God's mighty deeds and his answer to prayer. So
let's read this and let's try to find what prayers
(06:52):
were answered for. The choir director a song a psalm.
Shout joyfully to God, all the earth, sing the glory
of his name, Make his praise glorious. Say to God,
how awesome are your works. Because of the greatness of
your power, your enemies will give feigned obedience to you.
(07:14):
All the earth will worship you and will sing praises
to you. They will sing praises to your name. Saylah,
Come and see the works of God, who is awesome
in his deeds. Towards the sons of men, he turned
the sea into dry land. They pass through the river
on foot. There, Let us rejoice in him. He rules
(07:38):
by his might forever. His eyes keep watch on the nations.
Let not the rebellious exult themselves. Saylah, bless our God,
o peoples, and sound his praise abroad, who keeps us
in life and does not allow our feet to slip.
(07:58):
For you have tried us, O God, You have refined
us as silver is refined. You brought us into the net.
You laid an oppressive burden upon our loins. You made
men ride over our heads. We went through fire and
through water, Yet you brought us out into a place
of abundance. I shall come into your house with burnt offerings.
(08:21):
I shall pay you my vows, which my lips uttered
and my mouth spoke when I was in distress. I
shall offer to you burnt offerings of fat beasts with
the smoke of rams. I shall make an offering of
bulls with male goats Selah, Come and hear, all who
fear God, and I will tell of what he has
(08:42):
done for my soul. I cried to him with my mouth,
and he was extolled with my tongue. If I regard
wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear. But
certainly God has heard. He has given heed to the
voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, who is not
turned away my prayer nor his loving kindness for me.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
So there is a lot in here, I think. In
the beginning.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
What stands out to me is this line in verse three.
Because of the greatness of your power, your enemies will
give feigned obedience to you. And I looked into this
a little bit into commentaries and the lexicon. The word
used here about giving feigned obedience is the same word
used when someone is conquered and they bow to their conqueror.
(09:30):
It doesn't mean that they're plotting or pretending that they're
not going to submit. It means that they're forced into it,
and their heart isn't in it, but they have to.
And what I see here is here we are like
the whole earth is shouting to God, is singing the
glory of his name. This is universal praise like this
(09:53):
is even the rocks will cry out. If there wasn't
a human on the planet to give praise to God,
even the rocks would cry out and worship because He
is worthy of praise. And then you've got God's people,
who are the ones who are singing this. Obviously this
is the people of Israel singing this, but they're talking
about all of the earth will worship you and sing
(10:13):
praises to you. And then, because of the greatness of power,
even your enemies will have no choice. It's that every niche,
all about, every tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord.
It's not robotic, it's a response that's necessary when confronted
with the greatness of our God. And the thought that
(10:33):
came to my mind is if everyone, even God's enemies,
are going to have no choice but to submit to him,
why wouldn't we willingly turn ourselves to this great God
and partner with him to bring love and God's kingdom
here on earth as it is in heaven. Why would
we not be on his side? And so that contrast
(10:55):
of even your enemies are going to just be flat
on their faces giving glory. Sorry to you, not because
it's in their hearts, but because they have to. They
have no choice. What a gift that we can choose
to be in relationship with him, not to have to
just fall flat on our faces out of obligation or
because that's how things go. But the invitation, the hand
(11:19):
that is extended out to us of Jesus, why would
we not take that. The next section, verses five through seven,
it talks about come and see the works, and this
is remembering what He did for his people. He turned
the sea into dry land, so that evokes imagery of
the Red Sea when Moses and the people cross the
(11:39):
Red Sea, or maybe the Jordan when it was parted.
Also they passed through the river on foot. There let
us rejoice him in him And this is a call
to remembrance. And this is a thing that I think
is so important. You can call him Ebenezers where you
place these monuments of memory on.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Ways that God was faithful.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
There are several times in my life when God was
blaringly obviously faithful to me, times when I wasn't sure
if He was there, and a prayer was answered in
a way that couldn't have been explained any other way,
and I stand on these things. I go back to
them in my mind during times when things are hard,
(12:23):
and I love that they bring this up first, whether
it's David or someone else. The psalmist brings this up
and says, remember these miraculous things that God did for
our people, because the next section brings up God doesn't
allow our feet to slip. He keeps us in life.
But in verses ten through twelve, it talks about how,
(12:48):
even though he is faithful, let's also remember the times
when they were hard, times when God allowed us to suffer.
When God allowed us to be tried, He tried us
find us. As silver is refined, God brought us into
the net or the trap. The net is used sometimes
in these psalms. Remember it talks about how, like David
(13:11):
will say, my adversaries have laid a net, have laid
a trap. Let them get caught in their own net.
But this is saying He brought us into the net.
God brought his own people into a trap. He refined them.
As silver is refined, which means pain and heat and fire.
It means turning the heat up just enough so that
(13:32):
that draws the impurities would rise to the surface, but
not so hot that the silver would be consumed, and
that language is used also, But we were not consumed.
And a good refiner knew the precise temperature that was
needed to precipitate out the impurities from the silver, so
it could be skimmed off, but that silver would be preserved.
(13:55):
And he's a good God and he does that. He
does not consume his people, He refines them. You laid
oppressive burden upon our loins. You made men to ride
over our heads. This language isn't just we live in
a fallen world. Bad stuff happens, like I was talking about,
I think sometimes that does happen. This is talking about.
(14:16):
This is evidence that there are times when God makes
difficulties happen. And yet even though we went through fire
and through water, yet in verse twelve, you brought us
out into a place of abundance. And so that is
where we can say whether this trial I'm going through
(14:38):
was just something that's a result of a fallen world.
Whether it's a trial that God is placygone me, or
whether it's a trial God is allowing Satan to put
on me, it doesn't matter. I think for me, the
absolute worst case scenario is that God is making it happen,
because that's hard to take and hard to swallow. But
(14:59):
even if that that's what's happening, he is good. He
is at work, and he will bring us out into
a place of abundance. And we know that why because
we look back on the times when he did when
the times that he showed himself to be all powerful,
to be capable of crushing enemies and making miracles happen
(15:20):
and parting waters. If he is capable of it, then
we can trust that he will do it when it's necessary.
And if he has done it, he'll do it again,
and we can praise him for being the God of
all power. And the Psalmist ends with I will come
into your house with burnt offerings. I'll pay you my
vows which my lips uttered and my mouth spoke when
(15:40):
I was in distress. And he's saying that everyone, everyone
who knows that there's a god who's worthy of paying
attention to listen as I tell what he has done
for my soul, That he has listened to the cries
of my mouth, and he has answered my prayers. So
the ending of this, because it is whether you're feeling
(16:02):
it or not, today You can pray this as the
Psalmist praise. You can borrow the faith and the positivity
of this Psalmist to remember that God has certainly heard,
He's given heed to my cries, and he is good,
and he has not turned away my prayer. You can
know that no matter what you're going through today, and
(16:23):
no matter why you're going through it, you don't even
need to really know why, but no matter why it's happening,
you can know God is blessed. Blessed be the name
of the Lord. He has not turned away my prayer
or his loving kindness from me. He is with me,
He loves me. He's with you. He loves you, and
he hears your prayer, and your prayer will be answered.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Let's pray.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
God, We praise you for being a hearer of prayers,
for being a good God who never leaves us. We
pray that the rocks wouldn't have to cry out for
lack of praise on this planet. Let us be the
first to lift up your voice, lift up our voices,
(17:13):
to lift up your name and praise you as the
creator of the universe, as the God of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob, who provided a ram in the wilderness for
Abraham so that Isaac didn't have to be sacrificed. Who
provided your son, Jesus so that we could have a
relationship with You, Who refines us. And even though it's painful,
(17:40):
there is abundance on the other side of it that
could never have been attained without that pain. Who comforts
us in our time of need, Who meets us in
our deepest, darkest hour. You are close to the brokenhearted.
You bring healing and love and hope and peace, and
(18:04):
you hear our prayers. You are the God who sees,
You see us. You see the difficulties we're going through,
the pain, the worry, the hard work that no one
else sees, the frustration, the hopelessness.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
We cling to you Lord in this moment, and.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
We pray that you would give us a glimpse of
your presence, that your Holy Spirit would be with us
and wrap us up in a warm blanket, that you
would give us God winks throughout our day, things that
people say, verses, we come across songs, we hear messages
from pastors, whatever it is to help us to just
(18:51):
know that you are with us. We pray that you
would just be with the person listening today, who is
feeling hopeless, forgotten, who is feeling like you're heaping difficulties
on them, that you would remind them that you love them,
that you are in this for their good, that you
(19:13):
have provided before and you will provide again, and even
now you're providing in Jesus' name.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Amen. We'd like to.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Take just a quick second to thank the team at
Life Audio for their partnership with us on the podcast.
If you go to lifeaudio dot com, you will find
dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network. They've
got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and so much more.
That's life audio dot com.
Popular Podcasts
Betrayal Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal Team by emailing them at betrayalpod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com