For thou, O God, hast proved us thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Thou broughtest us into a net, thou didst lay a heavy burden upon our loins;
The verse looks back on a road of trouble and names who laid it out: God brought His people into the net and put the weight on them. That raises a hard question. Why would the God who saves also be the One who traps and presses down?
One commentator lines up the pictures in verses 10–12 and says what each one stands for:
They had been tried in the furnace of affliction, as silver is tried to remove the dross. They had fallen into the hands of the enemy, like an animal caught in the hunter's snare. They had been slaves to their enemies, like a pack animal with a heavy load laid on its back. Their enemies had triumphed over them, like someone thrown down and trampled under foot by a savage enemy. They had gone through fiery persecution and faced the waters of death.
Older translations put the load "upon our loins" — the waist, where a carrier takes the weight.
Every clause here has God as its subject. One writer takes this as the psalm's moral force, and adds an honest word about where the trouble came from:
We see God in the trouble itself, and as its author, though our failures may have been the occasion of it. This is the true test of a right heart — what Leviticus calls, in Israel's case, accepting the punishment of our iniquity. Two things stand out in it. God brought them into the trouble. He held their soul in life through it. It was the same with Job on both counts. And He did not let the trial move their feet off the divine path of faith.
The same writer adds that where people were used, they were only instruments. The trial was real, and they felt it deeply, but it was God's doing (J. N. Darby).
A net does not kill. It holds. One writer asks what the net and the load were meant to do:
"You brought us into the net" (v. 11), as fish are held by captivity. Then He "laid a crushing burden on our backs." This was needed to stop the willful ways of a people who will not learn without severe discipline. Though men would ride over their heads, the psalmist looks past the enemies in front of him. He sees that God was causing this trouble as part of His discipline.
The net is not a dead end. One writer traces God's whole course of action, from the trouble to what it leads to:
God has a positive purpose in this: a path, a place of love, which He carries through. The trial was part of it, to fit the soul for the place of such great blessing. "You have brought us out to a place of abundance." God sends the trouble. He preserves the soul in it. He purges the soul by it as silver. He brightens its hope, a hope that rests more fully on Him and looks with a purer eye for what He has promised. Then He brings it out into a place of abundance.
The psalm speaks outward, to the nations. One writer notes what gives Israel the right to speak to them:
God does not only discipline the people of the world. He also disciplines His own people Israel. So Israel can speak to the nations, not as their superiors, but as people who go through the same discipline from God (v. 8). They can urge everyone, without pride, to bless God and to let the voice of His praise be heard.
What Israel sang still holds for God's people. One writer shows what trouble reveals:
God's people hold no exemption from trouble in this life, no charter that frees them from it. While the wicked are kept in sugar, the godly are often kept in brine… Affliction is the test of sincerity. "For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried… you laid a crushing burden on our backs" (Ps. 66:10-11). Hypocrites may embrace the true religion when life is easy. But the good Christian is the one who keeps close to God in a time of suffering.
- Proved — the trial tests, as silver is tried to remove the dross. God is not destroying the metal but purifying what He values.
- Trapped — the net holds and the load presses down. A people who will not learn any other way must be stopped in their willful course.
- "You" — faith looks past the enemies who held the net and takes the trouble from God's hand. Our own failure may have been the occasion of it.
- Preserved — the God who sends the trouble keeps the soul alive in it. He will not let the feet of the godly leave the path of faith.
- Abundance — the trial is one stage in a path of love. It fits the soul for the blessing it leads to, and the net gives way to a place of abundance.
Thou didst cause men to ride over our head; we went through fire and through water but thou hast brought us out into abundance.
Psalm 66 is a song of praise that looks back over a hard road. Verse 12 is the turn in the story: enemies on top, then fire and water, then room to breathe. It leaves the reader two questions. Who was behind the trouble, and what was it for?
The verse piles up pictures of a beaten people. One writer takes them one at a time.
God had led them by a painful way. He had tried them in the furnace of affliction, as silver is tried to remove the dross. They had fallen into the hands of the enemy, like an animal caught in the hunter's trap. They had been in servitude to their enemies, like a beast of burden with a heavy load laid on its back. Their enemies had triumphed over them, like a man thrown down and trampled under foot by a savage foe. They had gone through fiery persecution and faced the waters of death.
The pairing is not random. A law about captured goods put Israel's spoil through these same two elements. One writer reads the verse in that light.
The expressions "fire" and "water" in this scripture may perhaps be explained by Numbers 31:23. Eleazar commanded, by the word of the Lord, about the spoil Israel had taken from the Midianites: "Everything that can stand the fire, you shall pass through the fire, and it shall be clean. Nevertheless, it shall also be purified with the water for impurity. And whatever cannot stand the fire, you shall pass through the water." So fire and water were the two means of purification.
The same writer shows what these two elements picture elsewhere in Scripture.
Fire is always a figure for the holiness of God in judgment (see, for example, Deuteronomy 4:24; 5:24-25). Water sometimes stands for the Word, as in John 3 and 13. But it also carries a similar sense in another way — as in the cases of the Red Sea and the Jordan.
Every line of the verse says "You." Men did the riding, but the psalmist speaks to God as the one behind it. One writer treats that as the moral heart of the psalm.
One point in this psalm is of great interest for its moral force. When deliverance comes, the psalm credits everything to God. … Even when all seemed to have been darkness, we now see that His power was above it all. … And there is more: God is seen in the trouble itself, and as the author of it, though our failures may have been the occasion of it. This is the true test of whether the heart is right — what Leviticus calls, about Israel, accepting the punishment of our iniquity.
The men who rode over their heads were not in charge. Another writer says what they were really doing.
But the way God brought them was painful to them, and the holiness of God had made it necessary. God had tested and purified them, as silver is tested. He made their foes serve them in this way, without their knowing it. Affliction had been a severe but effective teacher to them. Now the end was reached, and only gains were left to count: "we went through fire and through water; yet You have brought us out to a place of abundance."
The place of abundance is not payment for the fire. It is what the fire prepared them to hold.
God has a positive purpose in this. He carries through a path, a place of love, and the trial was part of it. It fits the soul for the place of such great blessing. "You have brought us out to a place of abundance." God sends the trouble. He preserves the soul in it. He purges the soul by it, as silver is purged. He brightens its hope, so that it rests more fully on Him and looks with a purer eye for what He has promised. Then He brings it out into a place of abundance.
The last line points to a time still ahead. It also opens into the worship that fills the rest of the psalm.
The time that this outcome points to ("You have brought us out to a place of abundance") is the full blessing of Israel in Messiah's glorious kingdom (see vv. 1-4). So the Psalm is Israel's look back after restoration and blessing. Worship can now flow out without hindrance (vv. 13-15), and with it the call to all lands to "shout for joy to God". When the goal is reached, God is seen to be justified in all His ways, and clear in all His judgments.
- You did it. Israel says all of it to God — the riding, the trap, the fire, the water. Behind every human instrument stood His hand.
- You purified. Fire and water were the two means of cleansing in Israel's law. God used them to test His people as silver is tested.
- You taught. Enemies became teachers without meaning to; when the road ends, only gains are left to count.
- You brought out. The trial was not a detour but preparation — it fits the soul for the place of blessing it is heading toward.
- You are praised. The place of abundance looks on to full blessing under the Messiah. There worship pours out, and God is shown right in all His ways.