Psalm 66

1 Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth!

2 Sing to the glory of his name! Offer glory and praise!

3 Tell God, “How awesome are your deeds! Through the greatness of your power, your enemies submit themselves to you.

4 All the earth will worship you, and will sing to you; they will sing to your name.” Selah.

5 Come, and see God’s deeds— awesome work on behalf of the children of men.

6 He turned the sea into dry land. They went through the river on foot. There, we rejoiced in him.

7 He rules by his might forever. His eyes watch the nations. Don’t let the rebellious rise up against him. Selah.

8 Praise our God, you peoples! Make the sound of his praise heard,

9 who preserves our life among the living, and doesn’t allow our feet to be moved.

10 For you, God, have tested us. You have refined us, as silver is refined.

11 You brought us into prison. You laid a burden on our backs.

12 You allowed men to ride over our heads. We went through fire and through water, but you brought us to the place of abundance.

13 I will come into your temple with burnt offerings. I will pay my vows to you,

14 which my lips promised, and my mouth spoke, when I was in distress.

15 I will offer to you burnt offerings of fat animals, with the offering of rams, I will offer bulls with goats. Selah.

16 Come and hear, all you who fear God. I will declare what he has done for my soul.

17 I cried to him with my mouth. He was extolled with my tongue.

18 If I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord wouldn’t have listened.

19 But most certainly, God has listened. He has heard the voice of my prayer.

20 Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer, nor his loving kindness from me.

Around Psalm 66

Book context

PsalmsEditorial draft

Psalms is a collection of 150 songs and prayers used in Israel’s worship, written by several people over a long period. Headings name David most often, along with Asaph, the sons of Korah and others. The collection falls into five books, each ending with a short blessing of the LORD (41:13, 72:19, 89:52, 106:48), and it closes with a call for everything that has breath to praise the LORD (150:6). The psalms hold praise, lament, thanksgiving, confession and trust, so readers find words for nearly every season of life.

Why we say this

HisFullGlory editorial · broad consensus · not yet reviewed by a theological reader

From the text itself

Sources

Notes summarise their sources in our own words. Where Christians or scholars disagree, the note says so. Notes are not original-language evidence and do not replace the text.

AI explanation

About Psalms as a whole · Written by an AI model · Not reviewed by a theological reader

This explanation was written by an AI model to help you get started. It names no sources and can contain mistakes. Scripture comes first, and context with sources is shown separately on this page.

What this book is about

“How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever?” A prayer can begin like that, and in the Psalms it does. Four times the poet asks how long, and then, in the same short song, comes the turn: “But I trust in your loving kindness.”

That honesty runs through the whole book. Psalms is a collection of 150 songs and prayers, and it holds praise, thanksgiving, lament, confession, songs for the king, and reflections on wisdom and on God's law. It is arranged in five books and moves, on the whole, from many laments at the start to pure praise at the end.

Joy, fear, anger, guilt and doubt are all spoken to God directly.

Background

The psalms were written and gathered over several centuries. Their headings link about half of them with David and others with Asaph, the sons of Korah, Solomon and Moses. They were sung in the worship of the temple and later in synagogues and churches.

How Christians read it

Jews and Christians have prayed the Psalms daily for well over two thousand years. The New Testament quotes them more than any other book and reads many as speaking of Christ, among them Psalms 2, 22 and 110. The psalms that call for judgment on enemies are hard to read. Many understand them as handing vengeance over to God instead of taking it oneself.

About this explanation

Written by Claude Sonnet 5.5, an AI model, on 19 October 2026. It draws on the WEB text and general knowledge and was not checked against sources by a person. Every quotation from Scripture is checked automatically against the WEB text.

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World English Bible. Public-domain source and edition notes