d). The Nations Are To Take Note Of The Wonderful Deliverance From A Disastrous Experience That His People Have Experienced (Psalms 66:8-12).
The words that follow indicate some special trial that His people had faced. Whilst it is possible that these words reflect the Exile, with the people seeing themselves as a continuing unity so that what some suffer their descendants suffer with them, it is more natural to see the words as the expression of people who have themselves gone through deep trial and have themselves been delivered. This would point to some experience like that of the deliverance of Jerusalem from the Assyrians (2 Kings 18:13 ff.; Isaiah 36-37). It is probable therefore that we are to see in this Psalm an expression of worship in the days of Hezekiah, when the Assyrians withdrew from the siege of Jerusalem, with Hezekiah playing a prominent role. For us it is an assurance that, although He might allow His true people to go through fire and water, He will in the end bring them through into a place of abundance.
‘Oh bless our God, you peoples,
And make the voice of his praise to be heard,
This part opens with this call to give praise and worship to God, which will be immediately followed by an explanation as to why this call to praise God is expressed. All peoples are called on to ‘bless God' (offer Him praise and worship) and to make the sound of their praise heard.
Who holds our person in life,
And does not allow our feet to be moved.'
And the reason for such praise is that God maintains their lives, not allowing them to be tossed aside. He keeps them alive in dire situations and establishes their way. And there had been no situation more dire than that when the Assyrians surrounded Jerusalem, bent on great slaughter once Jerusalem surrendered. (A city which surrendered immediately was usually treated leniently, but once it had shown stubborn resistance it was seen as deserving wholesale slaughter - see Deuteronomy 20:10-14).
‘For you, O God, have put us to the test,
You have tried us, as silver is tried.'
The first illustration is that of metal tested for purity in the fire (compare Psalms 17:3; Psalms 26:2; Proverbs 17:3; Jeremiah 9:7; Zechariah 13:9; Malachi 3:2-3). God is seen as having tested out the trueness and obedience of His people by putting them through great trial.
‘You brought us into the net,
You laid a sore burden on our loins.'
The next two illustrations are of being captured in a net (compare Job 19:6), and of having been put through a hard time. They had been free like a bird until they had suddenly found themselves ensnared by the surrounding Assyrian armies. And the consequence had been that life had become hard and difficult, almost too heavy to bear.
You caused men to ride over our heads,
We went through fire and through water,
But you brought us out into a wealthy place (‘into abundance').'
Prior to the siege of Jerusalem Judah as a whole had been trodden down by the Assyrian armies. One by one their great cities had been taken. The land had been trodden underfoot. And they themselves had been mowed down by the advancing Assyrian horsemen. The enemy had ‘ridden over their heads' as they had yielded before them (compare Isaiah 51:23). Egyptian and Assyrian inscriptions both depict their victorious chariots riding over their enemies. And as a consequence the people of Judah, had passed through great dangers, ‘through fire and through water' (compare Isaiah 43:2). God's way is never an easy one for His people, because they have to be refined.
But in the end He had brought them out ‘into abundance', their wealth and freedom restored (in a similar way to Job). This will always be true for His persecuted people, whether it be in this world or the next.