God Has Heard My Prayer, a Reflection on Psalm 66:8-20

This portion of Psalm 66 begins with a call to prayer, "Praise God who has saved us."

Next, the psalmist addresses God: "You have tested us. You have burdened us. You have let people mistreat us."

What this psalm models for us: 1) Life may have difficulties; we don't have to pretend that it doesn't. 2) We are allowed to complain to God about these difficulties. We don't have to pretend that they're good for us or that we deserve them--at least, all of them, anyway.

Then, it models for us what happens after we have come through whatever the difficulty was that we were complaining about. The psalmist gives credit to God, "You have brought us out." This gratitude is further demonstrated, "I will come to your house with burnt offerings. I will do what I promised to do if you helped me."

After these promises to God, the psalmist again addresses other persons: "Come listen to what God has done for me. I prayed. God heard."

I left out verse 18, "If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened" because I'm not ready to deal with it today.