strange praise

This morning I ran into this passage in Psalm 66 that struck me as an odd kind of praise. Here it is:

Oh, bless our God, you peoples!
And make the voice of His praise to be heard,
Who keeps our soul among the living,
And does not allow our feet to be moved.
For You, O God, have tested us;
You have refined us as silver is refined.
You brought us into the net;
You laid affliction on our backs.
You have caused men to ride over our heads;
We went through fire and through water;
But You brought us out to rich fulfillment.
(Psalm 66:8-12)

This is totally not a 21st century way of approaching God.

Think about it this way:

Hey, everybody (and I do mean everybody)! Bless our God!
And do it loudly
Because this is the God who keeps us alive
And gives us a firm foundation.
We bless You, God, because you've tested us;
You've melted out our impurities the way silver is refined.
You led us into a trap;
You made us into abused slaves.
You have caused men to ride over our heads;
We went through fire and through water;
But You brought us out to rich fulfillment.

How often do we really put the bad things in that perspective?

And would we ever have true "rich fulfillment" if we had not known the badness of the bad things?