“Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul.”
Psalm 66:16, NIV
Reverence and awe are primary constituents of holy fear. It is only those who revere God and who worship Him in awe and wonder, whose ears are truly open to hear the testimony of a redeemed sinner. To those whose ears are shut to the voice of God and whose eyes are closed to the creation of God, testimonies of salvation are as meaningless as the description of how a nuclear reactor works to an old man who never went to school! What would be meat and drink to the nuclear scientist, would be indigestible nonsense to the old man!
Until a person’s understanding is opened up to a knowledge of God and the reality of sin and its consequences, testimonies of salvation are received with obvious embarrassment and usually fall on deaf ears. But to those who have been saved, the stories of how God moved in a person to give them new life, when they were born again and their soul was saved from death and hell, are the source of intense joy and gladness.
So it is those who already know the fear of the Lord who the psalmist calls to come and hear his story. Throughout the psalms you can read about the goodness of the Lord. We read of how God redeemed David after his catastrophic fall and restored him. We hear how God set his feet again upon a rock and as we read these amazing songs of testimony, we are caught up in the joy and thanksgiving of all that God did for David’s soul.
David couldn’t stop telling God how grateful he was for His love and mercy. Psalm 66 ends with David saying (or singing), “Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me!” Praise and thanksgiving build up one’s spirit and bless those who fear the Lord. Why not spend a few minutes now, rejoicing in all that God has done for your souls and then sharing your testimony with great thanksgiving.
And then when unbelievers see the fruit of a changed life, they can be prompted by the Spirit of God to ask the right questions. Then you can tell them that what they now see is a fruit of what God did for your soul. Once people start asking the right questions (like the woman at the well did in John 4) we then have the immense privilege of telling them the Good News.
Prayer: I am so grateful, Lord, for saving my soul and for redeeming my life. Help me to always be thankful for Your goodness. And help me also, Lord, to always be willing to share the good news with those who see the fruit of God’s presence in my life and want to know more about Jesus. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.