Psalm 66
Today’s Passage: Psalm 66
This Psalm is a beautiful expression of the glory, love & trust that God deserves for who He is and what He has done. It recounts Israel’s history and shows how God was present and a part. But the Psalmist uses a variation of a phrase two times in this Psalm that I want to focus our attention on today: Come and see. Come and hear.
Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man. // Psalm 66:5
Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul. // Psalm 66:16
This is a phrase that Jesus repeated in John 1:39 when people were curiously asking Him questions. Jesus is not in the business of hiding who He is. He is saying, “Come and see.”
The Psalmist was also not hiding who God is or what He has done. He was using his story and all that he had experienced with God to invite people to come and see... come and hear. He wanted people to experience God in the way that he had experienced Him. His heart yearned for people’s stories to be changed by God in the way his story was changed by God. The question is do we?
We all know we are supposed to tell others about Jesus and the hope that we have in Him. But if the stats prove true, very few of us will ever open our mouth, tell our story, open God’s Word, and tell someone the story of Jesus. Why?
There are a lot of reasons but here are a few:
I think all of those reasons are traps to avoid. But what scares me the most is (1) and (5). I think for some of us, we don’t share Jesus because we don’t truly have anything to share. I think for some of us it is because we don’t really care.
Making disciples is a joy only for earth. We cannot make disciples in heaven. It is our purpose. We exist to point people, real people, to a creator God who loves them and wants a relationship with them. We do this by the way we live. We do this by what we say. If all we do is “live the gospel” without sharing Jesus, then people don’t hear about Jesus. If all we do is share the gospel without “living the gospel”, then people don’t care about Jesus.
Telling people about Jesus is an honor, privilege and stewardship. We need to be able to look at people and say “Come and see”. Do we view evangelism as a get to or a have to? As a joy or a burden? As a responsibility or someone else's job?
Make a list today of 5 people you can begin praying for and start praying for them to (1) have soft hearts to Jesus (2) an opportunity for you to tell them about Him.
Written By: Nick Parsons
This Psalm is a beautiful expression of the glory, love & trust that God deserves for who He is and what He has done. It recounts Israel’s history and shows how God was present and a part. But the Psalmist uses a variation of a phrase two times in this Psalm that I want to focus our attention on today: Come and see. Come and hear.
Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man. // Psalm 66:5
Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul. // Psalm 66:16
This is a phrase that Jesus repeated in John 1:39 when people were curiously asking Him questions. Jesus is not in the business of hiding who He is. He is saying, “Come and see.”
The Psalmist was also not hiding who God is or what He has done. He was using his story and all that he had experienced with God to invite people to come and see... come and hear. He wanted people to experience God in the way that he had experienced Him. His heart yearned for people’s stories to be changed by God in the way his story was changed by God. The question is do we?
We all know we are supposed to tell others about Jesus and the hope that we have in Him. But if the stats prove true, very few of us will ever open our mouth, tell our story, open God’s Word, and tell someone the story of Jesus. Why?
There are a lot of reasons but here are a few:
1. Jesus hasn’t really transformed us.
2. We are scared.
3. We are ashamed.
4. We are unprepared.
5. We don’t care.
I think all of those reasons are traps to avoid. But what scares me the most is (1) and (5). I think for some of us, we don’t share Jesus because we don’t truly have anything to share. I think for some of us it is because we don’t really care.
Making disciples is a joy only for earth. We cannot make disciples in heaven. It is our purpose. We exist to point people, real people, to a creator God who loves them and wants a relationship with them. We do this by the way we live. We do this by what we say. If all we do is “live the gospel” without sharing Jesus, then people don’t hear about Jesus. If all we do is share the gospel without “living the gospel”, then people don’t care about Jesus.
Telling people about Jesus is an honor, privilege and stewardship. We need to be able to look at people and say “Come and see”. Do we view evangelism as a get to or a have to? As a joy or a burden? As a responsibility or someone else's job?
Make a list today of 5 people you can begin praying for and start praying for them to (1) have soft hearts to Jesus (2) an opportunity for you to tell them about Him.
Written By: Nick Parsons
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