Sing Until You Can't: Worship, Joy, and the Awesomeness of God - Psalm 66:1-3

Good morning, and welcome to the preaching ministry of Dillingham Moravian Church.

My name is Pastor Simon, and we are so thankful that the Lord has led you to

study God's Word with us today.

One beautiful trait of the Yupik people in southwest Alaska that has drawn my

heart is their desire to sing to the Lord until they can sing no more.

While the teaching of the Word of God is central, Christians in many Yupik villages,

go to church so that they can joyfully share a song to give glory to God.

In the villages, youth groups and youth rallies are different than the lower 48 states.

Where the youth groups in the cities have games and sports as activities,

the youth in Moravian villages sing together.

And one of the main reasons behind the Yupik people's love for singing came

from the missionaries of the Moravian church.

In fact, the Moravians pioneered congregational singing in the everyday language,

publishing the first Protestant hymnal in 1501 through the early Hussite movement.

And I bring all this to your attention because all God's people are all called

to sing to the glory of the name of Jesus Christ, our God.

Let's pray. Oh, Heavenly Father, what a joy it is to be able to sing to you,

to be able to pray to you, to give glory to your name.

Oh, Father, Lord, thank you for your Son and what He has done on the cross in

His resurrection, paying our

debt, our blood debt, so that we didn't have to all die to be forgiven.

But He paid that for us. Thank You so much, Lord.

And Lord, we pray that as we go to Your Word today, may You give us Your Holy

Spirit so that we can understand Your Word,

so that we can live according to it and know that you are our God without a

shadow of doubt and we live by faith in you every single moment.

We are faithful,

thanking you, Lord, and we are in praise for you.

In your precious Son's name, Jesus Christ, we pray, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Turn with me this morning to Psalm 66, verse 1 through 3. Psalm 66, verse 1 through 3.

Psalms 66:1–3 Psalms 66:1–3

Shout for joy to God, all the earth. Sing the glory of His name.

Give to Him glorious praise.

Say to God, how awesome are your deeds. So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.

There are two overarching truths that God is teaching us today.

The first truth that we are to learn is that as Christians, we are to shout

and sing for joy to the Lord.

One of the ministries documenting the singing of the persecuted church is Heart Sounds International.

HSI is a division of the mission agency Operation Mobilization.

HSI workers today pray for the day when they can record the songs of suffering

believers in North Korea.

The China Harvest Mission shares the story of singing dangerously every Christmas in North Korea.

When darkness falls, the believers quietly slip into the night and walk to a nearby mountain.

When they reach the top of the mountain, they look to the south and picture

in their minds their Christian brothers and sisters in South Korea openly walking

to church or relaxing at home singing Silent Night.

But then, rather than singing Silent Night, along with them,

they instead sing aloud, Faith of our fathers, living still,

in spite of dungeon, fire, and sword.

Oh, how our hearts beat high with joy whene'er we hear that glorious word.

Faith of our fathers, holy faith, we will be true to thee till death.

I share this account from Heart Sounds International to you because it's one

thing to genuinely sing praises to God with our hearts when we are safe and secure.

And we do. Sing genuinely to the Lord.

But it's quite another to sing praises to God when if you're caught, it means instant death.

Those folks have such a strong faith in the Lord. Thank you, Lord, for them.

And this is what the psalmist wrote in the worship song for the congregation of Israel.

In Psalm 66, verse 1, Shout for joy to God all the earth. Sing the glory of

Psalms 66:1

His name. Give to Him glorious praise.

The word the psalmist used for shout for joy meant public worship or an act of praise with music.

Because the people of God are so full of joy that it must be expressed.

This outward expression of inner joy in God gives glory to God.

The phrase, the glory due to his name, meant to give honor that is due to him as Yahweh.

I want us to understand that giving honor and glory, giving glorious praise,

are all actions that are part of worship.

For the people of God to truly worship the Lord, God's people must decrease

in their own estimation, and God must become everything to us.

This is crucial. All our thoughts, emotions, actions, words,

our songs, our possessions, our money,

our work, our family, all of our lives are designed to give God the glory due to Him as Yahweh.

And this is what it means for God to be first in our life and in the life of our families.

This is what Paul meant when he considered all things garbage in comparison

to the surpassing greatness of Christ.

Not that in themselves that everything is garbage, but in comparison to the

glorious greatness of Christ, they are.

So how much glory is due to Yahweh's name? All of it. Everything. Everything.

Many of you heard me teach on this multiple times before, but the definition,

for Yahweh is the great I am, the life giver, the creator, the one who is,

the absolute and unchangeable one, the ever-existing and ever-living,

who is self-consistent and who is the God of redemption.

Meaning that Yahweh is the only existing God. There are no others.

He is the creator. He is the life giver.

He is the absolute master of the universe and is always consistent and always faithful.

And there is no redemption or salvation from anywhere else other than Yahweh.

This same Yahweh, who is the only true God of the universe from which all redemption

comes from, this same God is the one of whom the Psalms declare that He can

hold the entire universe between His thumb and His forefinger.

I point this out to you because the fullness of joy that comes out in our singing

to God is a direct result of how much glory and honor we are giving Yahweh.

To understand this concept clearer, please turn with me to Ephesians 5, verse 18 to 20.

Ephesians 5:18–20

Ephesians 5, verse 18 to 20. This is what Paul taught.

Ephesians 5:18–20

And do not get drunk with wine, for this is debauchery, but be filled with the

Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,

singing, and making melody in the Lord with your heart,

giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our

Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Paul commanded the believers in Ephesus that they were to sing songs,

hymns, spiritual songs to each other.

These songs based upon God's Word are to be sung outwardly to other believers

and to the congregation.

This outward singing was the result of the inward singing and making melody with your heart.

I grew up with the phrase, that person has a song in their heart,

meaning that they were filled with such joy that it came out in song.

And this is what Paul was getting at, The word making melody meant to sing praise.

Additionally, the word heart was the locus of a person's thoughts,

their minds, their emotions, their will, the knowledge of right and wrong,

meaning their conscience.

All of this, all the inner life is considered the heart.

And so all the Christians' internal being is to sing praises and give glory to God.

And as we sing, we are giving thanks to God.

The heart of giving thanks is giving glory to God for His blessings,

for Him being in trouble, and for Him being Yahweh.

The believer's outward joy comes from the internal life that is continually

praising and thanking God. Let me say that again.

The believer's outward joy comes from the internal life that is continually

praising and thanking God.

How do we apply this to us as Christians today? We, you and I, who have been...

Remade and been given new life in Christ, we have Christ Almighty,

God through the Holy Spirit, dwelling in the inner lives of our beings.

Because of the blood sacrifice of Christ Jesus on the cross and His resurrection,

we have been adopted as sons of God.

We have been forgiven of our sins, and the blood debt that we owe God has been paid in full.

We have been made holy and blameless in the sight of God. We have been set free

from the power and control of sin and death.

And God Almighty is now abiding in us, and we are abiding in Him.

All because Yahweh, the only Almighty God, who is the creator of everything,

loves us so much that He sacrificed everything most dear to Him for us.

All because Christ Jesus joyfully obeyed the Father by coming to earth as fully

man and fully God and offering Himself as the sacrificial blood slaughter on our behalf.

Christ rose from the dead, breaking the power of death and sin for those who

trust Christ as Lord and Savior.

Aren't these truths worth a continual song of praise in our hearts?

I love how David preached to himself in Psalm 42, verse 5.

Psalms 42:5

Why are you in despair, O my soul? Why have you become disturbed within me?

Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence.

Praising God in our inner life is the key to being so full of joy that it bursts out in song.

Don't we wish to be a people who have this much joy in our hearts?

What a witness we would be to the world for God.

And if just our local church and our churches in Dillingham live with that much

joy, the world would be knocking on our doors, wanting to know why.

So far, the author had sung that all people are called to sing for joy and gave glorious praise.

God's people are to give God glorious praise because He, Yahweh,

and all of who He is, is awesome.

And this leads us to the next point that I want to show you,

and that is God's awesome power is so great that His enemies will be subdued.

In Open Door's World Watch list for 2026, more than 388 million Christians suffer

high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith.

The total number of Christians killed for their faith increased from 4,476 in

2025 to 4,849 in 2026, reporting period,

the vast majority of this being from sub-Saharan Africa.

Out of the total of 4,849 deaths, 4,491 took place in this region,

a shocking 93% of the global total.

Nigerian Christians make up 3,490 of this total, up from 3,100 last year.

Christians have also paid the ultimate price for following Christ in Myanmar, Mexico, and Syria.

Unfortunately, North Korea is still number one on the watch list,

being the most brutal place on earth for Christians to live.

And yet, and this is amazing and encouraging, Christians who do manage to escape

North Korea get trained in the Bible, and then they sneak back into North Korea to share the gospel,

even though it means death for them and seven generations of their families.

What a courageous and faith-filled bunch of Christ-believers they are.

And I'm bringing this to your attention because the enemies of God and the evil

that they perpetrate still exist, and they seem to thrive.

And yet as believers in Christ, we know that God is in control,

and one day, if not sooner, justice will be done.

For those going through tremendous suffering in the hands of evil people,

this is a very comforting truth and one that brings joy.

The psalmist continued in Psalm 66, verse 3, Say to God, How awesome are your

Psalms 66:3

deeds! So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.

In verse 3, the psalmist started off this verse with the command for Israel

to pray and give glory to God by exclaiming the awesomeness of God's works and

the certainty of His dominion, power, and control over His enemies.

The word for awesome meant astonishment and awe-inspiring in regard to God's

dealings with hostile nations.

Now, we use the word awesome so much today that we hardly understand what it means.

It's probable the author had in mind God sending the plagues on Egypt and completely

destroying that country for not letting His people go.

Other instances of God demonstrating His awesome works against hostile nations

or His enemies were when God destroyed Sodom or how God smashed the enemies

of God when Israel went into the Promised Land.

These were acts of such supernatural, magnificent power that all the nations

around who heard of God's actions were in fear and awe of God and His people.

The question is, why would the psalmist command the people of God to pray like that?

There are three reasons why the believer is commanded to pray to God by praising

God about His mighty power in dealing with the enemies of God.

The first reason for the believer to pray to God like this is to praise God

and give Him glory or honor due His name.

God is in absolute control over the entire universe, the nations, and all His enemies.

Everything that occurs happens because God ordains it directly or that He allows

the situation to happen for His purpose.

And when God takes direct action against the enemies of God,

it is for the purpose of demonstrating not only His power and control,

but a witness to the other nations and to everyone that He is God and that all

people are under His authority.

Paul taught in Philippians 2, verse 9-11, For this reason also,

Philippians 2:9–11

that God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every

name, so that the name of Jesus every knee will bow

of those who are in heaven and on the earth and under the earth,

and that every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord

to the glory of God the Father.

All of God's enemies will bow their knees before Christ one day,

whether they like it or not.

The nation's submission to Christ will be all to the Father's glory thus we,

as believers you and I are commanded to praise God so that he gets the glory and honor due his name.

The second purpose for why we are to pray to God and praise for His awesome

and mighty works is that the more we praise God for His glory,

the more our joy in God grows.

One of the main benefits of praising God is that our joy and satisfaction in

God grows as we give God glory.

Do we want more of God's joy in our life?

Then we must stop focusing on problems around us and focusing on praising God

in every situation, and our joy will begin to grow so much that eventually we

will be people that are characterized by joy.

The third goal for praising God for His awesome power over His enemies and their

eventual submission to God is that we as believers can remind ourselves that God is in control,

and He will one day return, and He will bring right justice to the enemies of

God and the enemies of God's people.

Let's look at Revelation 20, verse 7. Revelation 20, verse 7.

Revelation 20:7 Revelation 20:7

This is what John's vision stated.

And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison

and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the

earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle.

Their number is like the sand of the sea.

I want you to understand that this is the largest army ever assembled.

But look at what happens to them. Verse 9.

And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp

of the saints in the beloved city.

But fire came down from heaven and consumed them. And the devil who was deceived,

who had deceived them, was thrown in the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast

and the false prophet were.

And they'll be tormented day and night forever and ever.

You see, this reads like a newspaper article. Matter of fact,

like there was no huge war, no conflict, bam, the largest army the world has

ever seen, gone, one shot, burned up.

And then Satan, who is the most powerful being besides God, was thrown into

the lake of fire and sulfur forever.

And it wasn't done by Michael or Gabriel, the messengers and warriors of God.

No, it was done by an unnamed regular angel empowered by God to discard Satan

like he was thrown away to trash.

Then I saw a great white throne, and him who was seated on it,

and from his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne,

and the books were opened.

Then another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged

by what was written in the books according to what they had done.

And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, death and Hades gave up the dead

who were in them, and they were judged.

Each one of them according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were

thrown into the lake of fire.

This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found

written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

This passage foretells that when Christ returns, he will destroy all his enemies.

And Satan, the beast, and the false prophet, and those who did not believe in

Christ as God, who are enemies of the Lord will be thrown into the lake of fire forever.

For us as disciples of Christ here in America, when we hear of atrocities done

against God and His people overseas, we grieve and we pray.

But the reality of persecution does not yet hit in our hearts.

And that's because it's so far away from us. We don't understand it.

It's tempting for us to worry and be afraid and despair that intense persecution is coming to the U.S.

I can imagine for those Christians who are being persecuted for their belief

in Christ, the strong temptation would be to deny Christ and to live in fear.

And yet Jesus comforted his followers by saying in Matthew 5,

Matthew 5:10–12

verse 10-12, Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all

kinds of evil against you because of me.

Rejoice and be glad. Why? For your reward in heaven is great.

For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Back in Psalm 66, the psalm shows us that God is awesome in His might and power,

and He is in control, and His enemies will one day bow and cringe before Him.

One day, justice will come for all the murdered babies, for all the persecuted Christians.

One day, all God's enemies will need to bow before Christ, whether they want to or not.

As Christians, we need to be continually and intentionally reminding ourselves

that God is absolutely awesome.

We are to keep our minds and our thoughts, our will and emotions focused on

God and His glory because God is the source of our joy.

In the midst of suffering, we are to remind ourselves that no suffering for

the sake of Christ is meaningless or without worth.

We must preach to ourselves that as we suffer with Christ through cancer,

heart disease, or any other illness or grief or any hardship,

Our suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character,

and character generates hope based on the love of Christ poured out in the Holy Spirit.

We will be rewarded for our constant faith in Christ, and the sufferings of

this life will seem like nothing in comparison.

There is no baby that was ever murdered that will not be avenged by God.

There is no Christian that was ever martyred by evil people that will not also be avenged.

God is in control, and God is and will be victorious, and His glory will be

proclaimed to the ends of the earth.

So what have we learned from God's Word today?

First of all, God has taught us that as Christians we are commanded to worship

the Lord publicly with joyful song and praise to God.

Now, where does this joyful worship come from?

The believer's outward joy comes from the internal life that is continually

praising and thanking God.

Secondly, God is awesome in His might and in His control over all situations

and all people, including His enemies.

Psalm 66 teaches us that one of the keys to effective prayer is that we are

to praise God in His awesomeness.

As Christians, we are to remember that all the nations will one day bow to Jesus Christ.

And if you are listening.

Or watching on live stream, and you would like to live with more joy in God,

the key to being so full of joy is that we're continually and intentionally

praising God in all situations.

We praise God while we sing in public and in person, because our thoughts and

our emotions are so full of joy that it bursts out in song.

The question I have for us here in Dillingham, or wherever you are in this world,

Do we wish to be a people who witness for the Lord with this much joy in our hearts?

If so, then continually praise God in Jesus Christ. Let's pray.

Oh, Heavenly Father, we thank you. We praise you. We give you glory and honor,

for your love and your greatness in Christ.

Lord, we thank you that you have sent your Holy Spirit to teach us through your Word.

And I pray that your word today would be saturated into our hearts so that it

bears fruit through our lives, that we would joyfully live for you and sing

our praises and worship to you, Lord,

but that also we would live faithfully.

No matter the circumstance, no matter the situation, because you, Father, are awesome.

You are our God, and you are the one that we worship and praise.

In your precious Son's name, Jesus Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit, I pray. Amen.

Have a wonderful Sunday, and may the Lord bless you all.