Psalm 65

Psalm 65 – Due to Him
      When you have to pay dues for something, you want to know exactly what you are paying for. None of us would be very happy with getting a bill in the mail for an amount that we owe without any explanation of what it is for or why we owe it. In fact, for most of us, the phone call would happen very quickly if we did receive a bill without any explanation.
      Well in Psalm 65, the psalmist tells us that praise is due to God. This is what we as His people owe Him. Our praise. However, the psalmist doesn’t just hand us this bill without any explanation. No, actually he uses the next 12 verses to very clearly lay out exactly why God is due our praise.
      Forgiveness, dwelling in His presence, the goodness of His house and holiness of His temple, righteousness, hope, creation, joy, water, provisions, and care, and this is just the very quick cliff’s note version of what the psalmist is telling us. For everything God has done for us, everything He continues to do for us, and just because of who He is as our God and the creator of our universe, He is most definitely due our praise.
       We were actually just discussing this in our Bible study on prayer the other night, that Luther writes in several places that our praise is the ONLY thing we can give God. He owns every physical thing already, we can’t do good works without Him, so there is nothing at all that we can actually give to God other than our praises. And as the psalmist reminds us in this psalm, God is absolutely, positively, most definitely due our praises. He created the world we live in, He gave His people the promise of a Savior to atone for their sin, He sent His Son Jesus Christ to be that Savior who died on the cross for the sin of the world, and He called you and me into that salvation giving us our eternal life in Him. We owe Him more than we can ever imagine. He is due our praises. So, take some time today to give God a few of the million praises He is due. Praise Father, Son, and Spirit, one God now and forever, Amen!