Psalm 66:1-4 (continued)

God seeks both High Church and Low Church worship. Neither trumps the other; both are quite biblical and quite appropriate depending on the circumstances leading up to and surrounding any given worship situation.
2. Yahweh's "name" (verses 2, 4) here is his character. It is a circumlocution for God himself. We worship God because of who he is, and we know who he is by what he does--in nature and in history--and what he does are "awesome deeds" (verses 3, 5; see Psalm 65:5). Therefore, we "sing the glory of his name [his glory];" we "sing praises to his name [to him]."
3. Yahweh's "awesome deeds" reveal two things about him as universal king: (1) his "glory" (splendor, magnificence, incomparability) (verse 2; see Psalms 24:7-10; 29"1-3, 9; 96:3, 7-8; 145:5, 11-12; Isaiah 6:1-5; Ezekiel 1:28; and very often); and (2) his "great power" (verse 3; see Exodus 15:2, 13; Psalms 29:1, 11; 93:1; 96:6-7).
4. The only appropriate human response to the universal king of all peoples (see Jeremiah 10:7, 10) is "worship" and "praise" (verse 4; see Psalms 47:6-7; 95:6; 98:4-5; 99:5).
Let us worship and praise our God daily for his awesome deeds of the past and of the present--in nature and in history and in our daily lives.

John Willis