b). A Call For Them To Remember And Take Note Of What God Has Done For His People In The Past (Psalms 66:5-6).
The nations are now called on to consider what God has done in the past (the crossing of the Red Sea and the crossing of the Jordan are to some extent combined in the description), in revealing His divine activity in the opening up of the sea and in the destruction of the pursuing Egyptian army, demonstrating through it that He is awesome, all-powerful and fierce in His activity.
‘Come, and see the works of God,
He is terrible in his doing toward the children of men.'
The nations are called on to consider what God has done in the past, His great ‘works'. For these reveal that He is mighty and awesome in His dealings with men; towards His people He is great and powerful on their behalf, amazing them by His activity (Psalms 66:6), towards those who would harm them He is fierce and terrible, Someone to be feared. Men do well not to cross Him (Psalms 66:7).
‘He turned the sea into dry land,
They went through the river (flood) on foot,
There did we rejoice in him.'
The emphasis here is on His greatness and might exercised on behalf of His people. He made a way for them over the Sea of Reeds (Rede Sea), turning it into dry land (see Exodus 14:21-22; Exodus 14:29; compare Joshua 3:17), so that they could go through the waters on foot. The main emphasis is on the Red Sea deliverance, but the language of the second line may possibly echo the crossing of the Jordan. The word for ‘river, flood' (nahar) is found in Joshua 24:2-3; Joshua 24:14-15, speaking there of the Euphrates. It elsewhere regularly refers to the Euphrates. It also often refers to rivers, (even the Nile), but not to the Red Sea. On the other hand its use here might be loose, as a parallel to ‘sea'.
‘There did we rejoice in Him.' The Psalmist sees himself and his people as ‘one' with the people of the Exodus. At the Red Sea deliverance they had rejoiced, and they continued to rejoice in that event for they felt that in some way they had been a part of it. We too, as Christians, can rejoice at God's deliverance of His people through the centuries, for we are truly a part of that too.