Psalm 66

 O God, You Refined us Like Silver

"And you shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not..."  Deuteronomy 8:2

¹       Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth—

²     Sing the glory of his name, give to him glorious praise.

³         Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!  Because of your great power,

       Your enemies cringe before you.

⁴     All the earth worships you—

                   They sing praises to you, Sing praises to your name.”           Selah

⁵     Come and see what God has done:

                   He is awesome in his deeds among all men.

⁶     He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the river on foot.

There we rejoiced in him—

⁷     Who rules by his might forever, whose eyes keep watch on the nations.

                   Let the rebellious not exalt themselves.                                   Selah

⁸     Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard,

⁹     Who has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip.

¹⁰    For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried.

¹¹    You brought us into the net; you laid burdens on our backs—

¹²    You let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water,

 Yet you have brought us out to a spacious place. 

¹³     I will come into your house with burnt offerings; I will pay you my vows.

¹⁴     Those that my lips uttered and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.

¹⁵     I will offer to you burnt offerings of fatlings, with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams;

  I will make an offering of bulls and goats.                               Selah

¹⁶     Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for me.

¹⁷     I cried aloud to him, and he was extolled with my tongue.

¹⁸     If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

¹⁹     But truly God has listened… He has given heed to the words of my prayer.

20      Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer or removed his steadfast love from me.

Refining Takes Place in the Heart

He tests us that he may refine us.  
He turns the dross into pure silver… that He may  cleanse us and make us pure; to make us acceptable for right worship with Himself... He refines us that we may serve Him rightly with joy–and not of ourselves that no one can boast.  Our willful choices can causes us the most affliction... and when we are wronged by the affliction others cause us, how we react is very important to God.  He has already forgiven us of our sins when we trusted in Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior.  But work still remains to be done on our heart.  Yes, He refines us, in His furnace of affliction.

 One thing the Bible clearly teaches is that He tests His people.  If we wish to belong to the  people of His pasture, then we must be prepared to be tested.  A metal worker will place the  raw silver in a pot and place it over the hottest possible fire.  It begins to melt and bubble in  the heat while the impurities float to the top—the dross.   He patiently continues to skin the  surface until there is no impurity left in the silver.  The final test… is when He can see His  own face mirrored back with no distortion.  God tests us but the furnace He uses is  affliction.  Gently and patiently God skims the impurities from our heart with the “invisible  skimmer” of His Holy Spirit ! 

   Until He sees His own image reflecting back in our lives, then He knows the process has been successful. 

“See I have refined you, though not as silver—

I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.”    Isaiah 48:10

      Lord, why do ask to escape the testing ? 

      But because of your grace I can endure it, until you are satisfied with my life.  Amen.