"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. All the earth shall worship You and sing praises to You; they shall sing praises to Your name.'”
Read all of Psalm 66
In many places throughout the Psalms we're told to sing, praise, bow down and worship the LORD, and even to shout, glory and tremble before Him. We were created for no less, and such we should do.
In distinction from these general or broader exhortations, These first verses of Psalm 66 are quite particular. They not only provide an exhortation to us as God's people to shout and sing to the Lord, and to make His praise glorious, they also provide some of the content of what we should say. I don't know that this is a really big deal, but it seems to me that if we're told to do or say something like this, we should probably do it. I think it's sort of like the Lord's Prayer. It's not the only prayer we should pray, but certainly it is a prayer that we should pray fairly frequently (daily?).
There are only a few other places where we are told explicitly what to say. If my count is right, I think it's only four times in the Book of Psalms (Psalm 40:16, here, Psalm 70:4, and Psalm 96:10). Each of these urge us to recognize God's great power and glory and to vocalize our recognition it.
I suppose this raises a pretty valid question, when was the last time you've said these (or similar) things to God? By yourself in prayer? In the assembly of public worship with your brethren? And if you've not, it's time you should.
As I think about this... maybe the Conclusion to the Lord's Prayer insures that we think and address these things properly:
"For Thine is the Kingdom, and Power and the Glory Forever. AMEN."
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