Tag: Refined for Abundance - Psalm 66-68

Psalms 66:8-12

Bless our God, O peoples;

let the sound of his praise be heard,

who has kept our soul among the living

and has not let our feet slip.

For you, O God, have tested us;

you have tried us as silver is tried.

You brought us into the net;

you laid a crushing burden on our backs;

you let men ride over our heads;

we went through fire and through water;

yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.

Tag:  Refined for Abundance

Psalm 66 is an exodus Psalm that the Israelites would sing at Passover.  It is intended to remind them of the time of slavery in Egypt when God redeemed them and brought them out of the fire.  The people are to "bless" God - a way of singing praises to God.   They are to see the Egyptian enslavement and the trials along they way as a time of God's "testing."  They are to praise God for the time He takes us through the fire and the water (the Red Sea).  They are to praise God even though the burdens on their backs was severe.  God will, eventually, bring them to a place of abundance.   Men would "ride over" their heads, yet God would bring to this place of abundance.  The only way you go through this time of struggle is to remember that God is well aware of the burdens on our backs and He is the one who brings us through the fire and water.  He is refining us as "silver is tried."  God uses struggles and pressures to conform us to the image of His Dear Son.   Jesus suffered and we are to share in that same suffering.  We are not "owed" an easy life.  We are not "owed" an abundant life.  Yet, that is what God promises and Christ provided as a gift:

John 10:10

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

We have abundance "in Christ."  That is our abundance. It is not abundant money, that God promises.  It is not abundant prosperity, that God promises.  It is not abundant freedom from strife, that God promises.  It is abundance "in" Christ.  Christ is our abundance.  Christ is all we need:

Colossians 2:1-3

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.