What is in the heart of praise in Psalm 66? Could this also be the heart of the everlasting gospel? Are the three angels’ messages prefigured in the psalm itself?
Chiasms (A B A′ or A B C B′ A′) often reveal a conceptual center that can be indispensable for understanding the text.1 And indeed, the chiasm of Psalm 66 points the reader to the central message of the psalm.
A. General worship (vv. 1–4)
B. God’s judgment and deliverance of ancient Israel (vv. 5–7)
C. God tests the heart (vv. 8–12)
B′ Investigative judgment/Day of Atonement (vv. 13–15)
A′ Personal worship and witnessing (vv. 16–20)
General and personal worship
I suggest that the general worship depicted in Psalm 66 alludes to the three angels’ messages (Rev. 14:6–12).
Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth!
Sing out the honor of His name;
Make His praise glorious.
Say to God,
“How awesome are Your works!
Through the greatness of Your power
Your enemies shall submit themselves to You”
(Ps. 66:1–3).2
In Revelation 14, John saw “another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people—saying with a loud voice, ‘Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water’ ” (vv. 6, 7).
The joyful shout of Psalm 66 is Revelation’s loud voice calling people to worship. Both precepts call for the whole world to give glory to God and take their relationship seriously with Him on both general (Ps. 66:1–4) and personal levels (vv. 16–20).
On the personal aspect, the psalmist directly encourages the reader or listener: “Come and hear, all you who fear God, / And I will declare what He has done for my soul” (v. 16).
Note that verses 16 to 20 use the words “I will declare,” “I cried to Him,” “my tongue,” the “iniquity in my heart,” “God has heard me,” and so forth. The Lord has become a personal God as well.
On a broader level, I believe the psalm also brings examples of God’s judgment in the light of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt across the Red Sea and the Jordan River and how He executed His judgment to the surrounding nations (vv. 5–7). “His eyes observe the nations; / Do not let the rebellious exalt themselves” (v. 7).
Day of Atonement
The mention of burnt offerings—rams, bulls, and goats (vv. 13, 15)—alludes to the Day of Atonement, described in Leviticus 16, where Aaron offered a ram for a burnt offering, a young bull for a sin offering for himself and his house (vv. 3, 6), and the two kids of goats as a sin offering: one for the Lord and one for the scapegoat (Lev. 16:7, 8).
The service of the Day of Atonement pointed to the work of Christ as the sinner’s sacrificial Lamb and High Priest in the Most Holy Place. The earthly sanctuary is a copy of the pattern shown to Moses on Mount Sinai (Exod. 25:8, 40). Hence, the service in the cleansing of the earthly sanctuary points to the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary: “For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed” (Dan. 8:14), when Christ entered the Most Holy Place and had appeared before the Ancient of Days (Dan. 7:13) “to appear in the presence of God for us; . . . He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:24–27).
The word translated as “judgment” in this passage comes from κρίσις (krisis, kreé-sis), the same word used in Revelation 14:7: “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come.” This judgment will determine who will receive the reward when Jesus comes again (Rev. 22:12). Christ’s sacrifice does not only pardon, “for by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified” (Heb. 10:14). His blood also sanctifies.
The central message
In Psalm 66:8, the psalmist calls for people to “bless our God . . . ! And make the voice of His praise to be heard.” The Hebrew word translated as “bless” is barak (baw-rák), which also is translated as “kneel” (Ps. 95:6). On the other hand, the word translated as “heard” comes from the Hebrew word shamá (shaw-máh), which can also mean “obey” (Gen. 27:8). In short, the psalm calls for worship and obedience, strikingly similar to what the three angels’ messages call us to.
Why, though, do we worship and obey? I suggest we do these things because God “keeps our soul among the living, / And does not allow our feet to be moved” (Ps. 66:9). In other words, God is to be worshiped because of His power to sustain life. This God will keep His people alive even when they can no longer “buy or sell” because they will not receive the mark of the beast (Rev. 13:17), just as He sustained the Israelites and Elijah in the wilderness (Exod. 16:35, 1 Kings 19:4–8). God’s people will choose to “worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water,” even if this faithfulness means death (Rev. 14:7).
Purified by trials
For You, O God, have tested us;
You have refined us as silver is refined.
You brought us into the net;
You laid affliction on our backs.
You have caused men to ride over our heads;
We went through fire and through water;
But You brought us out to rich fulfillment
(Ps. 66:10–12).
The Hebrew word translated as “tested” or “proved” in verse 10 is bakhan (baw-khán), which is also translated as “tried” (Job 23:10, KJV); “trieth” (Prov. 17:3, KJV); and “try” (Zech. 13:9, KJV). Its use in these verses refers to God testing the hearts. The afflictions and trials of life are God’s instruments to purify His people. Peter reminded the churches not to count this as a strange thing but rather make it a reason of rejoicing that they become partakers of Christ’s sufferings (1 Pet. 4:12–14). Is this trying process God’s means to sanctify His people?
Why does God test the heart when He already knows what’s in it? God knows that the heart is deceitful, but by testing, or refining, it, He desires to purify it:
“The heart is deceitful above all things,
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?
I, the LORD, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give every man according to his ways,
According to the fruit of his doings”
(Jer. 17:9, 10).
God would have this deceitfulness removed by allowing trials to purify and cleanse it.
Purified by the Holy Spirit
In the new covenant, the Lord has placed law inside man’s hearts: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. . . . I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Jer. 31:31–33).
As, on the one hand, the keeping of God’s commandments in their hearts reveals that they are God’s people, Zechariah, on the other hand, shows that a purified life is what God wants to claim as His own:
“I will bring the one-third through the fire,
Will refine them as silver is refined,
And test them as gold is tested.
They will call on My name,
And I will answer them.
I will say, ‘This is My people’;
And each one will say, ‘The LORD is my God’ ”
(Zech. 13:9).
How would the Lord place His commandments inside the heart? As the Ten Commandments were written by the finger of God (Exod. 31:18), so His law is written in man’s heart by the Holy Spirit. As the two tablets of stones are inside the ark of the covenant (Exod. 25:21; Heb. 9:4), so God’s law is placed inside man’s heart. As Aaron sprinkled the blood of the goat on the mercy seat (Lev. 16:15), so is Christ’s blood sprinkled in the Most Holy Place: “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb. 9:14); “having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:22). The psalmist said, “We went through fire and through water” (Ps. 66:12). Does this suggest that Christ’s cleansing of the sanctuary also means the cleansing/sanctification of man’s heart by the Holy Spirit is as silver being refined through fire?
When God’s people ask God to help them understand and obey the truth in the Bible, the Holy Spirit comes to purify and sanctify them and make them loving and lovable Christians (1 Pet. 1:22; John 17:17). The Lord would have His children refined, purified, and would “make them white, until the time of the end” (Dan. 11:35).
Gospel of salvation
The center of the chiasm ends with “thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place” (Ps. 66:12, KJV). The Hebrew word translated as “wealthy” is revayah (rev-aw-yáw). Interestingly, this word occurs only twice in the Old Testament. The other instance of revayah is in the Shepherd’s Psalm, where it is translated as “runneth over” (Ps. 23:5, KJV). What’s running over? The cup of salvation (Ps. 116:13) after the sinner accepted Christ as his Savior, for Christ took the cup of God’s fury and drank it on behalf of man (Isa. 51:22; Matt. 26:39).
Psalm 66 was written for God’s people in all ages, but it seems to be speaking to us as well, a people called to present the three angels’ messages to the world, messages prefigured in this psalm, a message of grace and hope amid trials, persecution, and judgment. In short, it is the “everlasting gospel.”
- John Breck, “Biblical Chiasmus: Exploring Structure for Meaning,” Biblical Theology Bulletin: Journal of Bible and Culture 17, no. 2 (May 1987): 70–74, https://doi.org/10.1177/014610798701700206.
- Unless otherwise noted, Scripture is from the New King James Version.
