you let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.
The psalmist celebrates one deliverance, but means it as proof of God's constant mercy to His people through all ages. His point is comfort: our subjection to enemies has been the furnace proving us as silver, and God's hearing of the faithful proves His acceptance of them alone, not the wicked.
AI summary
Commenting on Psalm 66:1-20
Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads. They stormed, and hectored, and treated us like the mire of the street. Riding the high horse, in their arrogance, they, who were in themselves mean men, treated the Lord's people as if they were the meanest of mankind. They even turned their captives into beasts of burden, and rode upon their heads, as some read the Hebrew.
In these verses the psalmist calls upon God's people in a special manner to praise him. Let all lands do it, but Israel's land particularly. Bless our God; bless him as ours, a God in covenant with us, and that takes care of us as his own.
Commenting on Psalm 66:8-12