Psalms  ◦   Chapter 66

1Joyfully praise God, all the earth!

2Sing out the magnificence of his character of love;
make glorious praises to him!

3Proclaim to God, "Your works are awesome!
Through your infinite love, through the weight of truth
and the strength of your unchangeable design
your enemies will bow down before you.

4All the earth will bow down in your presence;
they will sing praises to you —
they will sing, praising your awesome character of love."

5Come and see what God has done —
see his amazing works for the good of humanity!

6He removes obstacles: once he turned the sea into dry ground,
and later the people walked through the river Jordan on foot —
and we all rejoiced.

7He governs forever, powerfully sustaining the laws upon which reality functions;
he watches over the entire world and all its nations:
but the rebellious — those who refuse God’s methods — cannot heal themselves.

8People everywhere, give our God the credit;
let your praise for him be heard!

9For he heals us, providing the cure to our terminal condition,
and never seeks to trip us up.

10For you, O God, examined us and diagnosed us,
and then you cured us, making us pure like silver.

11You left us free to wander from you and be trapped —
our hearts weighed down by crushing affliction.

12You allowed selfish people to trample over us;
we have been burned by life and nearly drowned in a flood of problems,
but you have rescued us and brought us to safety.

13I will enter your house with self-sacrifice
to fulfill my vow to you —

14what I promised I would do,
when I was in trouble.

15I will symbolically enact my self-sacrifice and your plan to heal me
by sacrificing fat animals to you,
including rams, bulls and goats.

16Come and listen, all you who are loyal to God,
and I will tell you what he has done for me:

17As I cried out to him for healing,
I spoke clearly my praise for him.

18If my heart had preferred to stay selfish,
the Lord would not have listened to my words;

19but God has most certainly listened
and heard my heart’s cry in my prayer.

20All praise and honor be to God,
who has not rejected my request for healing
or withheld his transforming love from me!