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Praise our God, all peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard; he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping. For you, God, tested us; you refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs. You let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but you brought us to a place of abundance. (Psalm 66:8-12)

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Psalm 66 is a song of praise to God.\xa0 And yet, these are some pretty hard words here in the middle.\xa0 \u201cPraise our God\u201d says verse 8.\xa0 \u201cYou brought us to a place of abundance\u201d says verse 12.\xa0 But in the centre of this paragraph are some facts that might make us question that triumphant assertion.\xa0

How can a God whose plan for us includes testing, refining, imprisonment, burdening, oppression, fire, and water be a God that\u2019s worthy of praise?\xa0 It is a question that\u2019s haunted many people of faith, including the psalmists, for millennia.\xa0 But it\u2019s not really a question that psalm 66 dwells on.\xa0

There are different seasons in our lives. \xa0Sometimes we stand in a place of a childlike faith\u2014perhaps it\u2019s na\xefve about the challenges of life\u2014but it is trustful and uncomplicated: oriented fully toward God.\xa0 At other times we stand in the place of disorientation.\xa0 It\u2019s the messy middle where we are confused, hurt, feeling abandoned and asking the hard questions or just avoiding God altogether.\xa0 But then there is a third place: the place of reorientation when we finally find some hard-wrestled place of peace with God again, our faith having been tested, deepened, and renewed.\xa0 This three-part rhythm of orientation\u2014disorientation\u2014reorientation found all over the psalms and all over our lives was coined by an Old Testament scholar, and it\u2019s helpful, I think.

Psalm 66 is not written from the place of orientation or disorientation, but from the place of reorientation.\xa0 This is a psalm proclaimed by the people who have passed through the fire and the water and who have found God faithful still on the other side.\xa0 They call back to us who still languish in the throes of disorientation following whatever crisis of life or faith we may be facing, and they remind us of God\u2019s faithful, saving work.\xa0 \u201cBe patient,\u201d they say, \u201ckeep going!\xa0 There is still reason to hope.\u201d\xa0

They remind us that God is a God who saves, who \u201cpreserves our lives\u201d and keeps \u201cour feet from slipping.\u201d\xa0 Through the waters of the Exodus, through the return after exile, and as we Christians would now read it too: through the work of Jesus himself.\xa0 There are Good Friday times of disorientation when we cry out \u201cwhy have you forsaken me!?\u201d\xa0 But there are also times of Easter reorientation when life is curiously changed and made new and we find reason to praise God again.\xa0 That\u2019s what this psalm declares.\xa0

It says: \u201chang in there: we\u2019re here to tell you that there are still places of abundance\u2014Easter still comes!\xa0 God is still a God of resurrection and salvation no matter how dark the night may look from here.\u201d

So dear friends, whether you\u2019re ready to take up the praise of God on your lips right now or not: be encouraged that the community of faith cheers you on.\xa0 Be encouraged that there are others who are in that third place who can praise God for you on the days when you feel too disoriented to do it yourself.\xa0 Be encouraged that no matter how long the night, our God is still a God of resurrection hope.\xa0

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