God Bless Us And Accomplish The Mission (Psalm 67)
When we look around today it’s easy to become despondent and feel like we are losing. Here in America local churches are shrinking and it’s likely that many will be closing their doors. Christian morality is being tossed out of the back of the truck like Christmas tree the second week of January. And because we see it over and over on 24 hour a day news networks, we believe it wholeheartedly.
We know that there is coming a day when people from every tribe, nation, and tongue will feast at the marriage Supper of the Lamb. We have read it. We have talked about it. And we have looked forward to that day. And we glory in the song of the living creatures in Revelation.
“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the Earth.” (Revelation 5:9-10 ESV)
But how do we get there? How do we get to that point in history? How did the faith go from about 120 people at Pentecost to what it is now? How will it move from where it is now to people from “every tribe and language and people and nation”?
How does the people of God grow from a single family, that of Abraham, to bless every nation of the Earth, as he was promised that it would do (Genesis 22:18)?
How did about 120 people at Pentecost grow greater in numbers than the pagan worship of the Roman Empire and become the religion of the Empire even as the most powerful rulers in all the world stood against them? And how did the message they delivered just continue to expand even to today?
It is through the grace and mercy of God in His accomplishment of salvation for us. And God’s people taking that message in the power of the Holy Spirit to many nations, even the one we are in today.
You see, the Church is supposed to be on the offensive. We are charging the gates of Hell and gaining ground by the power and blessing of God. Jesus stated, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18 ESV) The picture here is of Jesus’s Church on the move. They are on the offensive. They are at the enemy’s gates, not their own. And the Church will have the victory. And we will see that victory and celebrate that victory at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
And today we are going to look at Psalm 67 and consider these things. It is a triumphant prayer sung to God asking for His blessing upon them so that His name would be spread to all the nations. We ask that God would bless us that we would spread His name to the nations.
That is what we will see from Psalm 67 today. We ask that God would bless us that we would spread His name to the nation.
God, Bless Us So The World Will Know You (Psalm 67:1-3)
The psalm opens with part of the blessing that God commanded Aaron to speak over the people of Israel in Numbers 6:24-25. It is truly a wonderful thing to have spoken over us.
“May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face to shine upon us,” (Psalm 67:1 ESV)
God gives us grace all throughout our lives. He has already given us grace in His Son. We deserved only God’s grace and instead we received grace. Instead of punishment we got forgiveness through the perfect life, death, and resurrection of God the Son. What unbelievable grace! But all of life is grace. I haven’t ever taken a breath that I deserved. Everything is grace. And at night I ask for God to continue giving me grace.
And God blesses us. I know that I have been blessed with abundance. I have a wonderful family, church family, home, life, and financial situation. But let us not forget the blessing of God’s Word and the gift of His Holy Spirit. I know that this could be in the grace paragraph above, but what a tremendous blessing it is that God has given us these things. And as I grow in the knowledge of God’s Word and God’s ways through the work of the Holy Spirit I find myself tremendously blessed. Blessing upon blessing is poured out upon me and it has been this way throughout my while life. And I do ask for God to continue to bless me.
And I do pray for God to make His face to shine upon us. I pray for God to give us an intimate knowledge of who He is, for His lovingkindness to shine greatly upon us. And what a beautiful thing to pray for. But these gifts don’t terminate in us.
These blessings are for the purpose of spreading God’s salvation to the ends of the Earth (Psalm 67:2. Why do we receive blessing upon blessing? “that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.” (Psalm 67:2 ESV) God blesses us because He loves and cares for us. This is seen over and over in Scripture. But he also pours out upon us blessing after blessing for the salvation of the nations.
God the Father sent the Son to save His people. God the Son took upon Himself human flesh and dwelt among us. He came from Heaven and was born of a woman, the Virgin Mary. He lived a perfect life, fulfilling all righteousness for us. And He died a gruesome death on the cross where He bore God’s punishment for us in our place. And three days later He died for our justification. This is the good news that we have to deliver to the nations. This is God’s salvation. Those in the Old Testament only understood this in shadows, but we see it more clearly. This is what God did so that we could be in fellowship with Him and this is the message that we are to deliver to every tribe, nation, and tongue. And the blessings God bestows upon us help to further the message of God’s salvation to the world.
As one commentator wrote,
“The more graciously God attests Himself to the Church, the more widely and successfully does the knowledge of this God spread itself forth from the Church over the whole Earth.”—Keil-Delitzch, Psalms Book 2, p. 240.
And so, as God is gracious to us and blesses us and gives us an intimate knowledge of Him and that He is for us this works to spread the knowledge of God to all the nations.
And in verse 3 is the refrain that is seen twice in this Psalm
“Let the people’s praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!”—Psalm 67:3 & Psalm 67:5 ESV
It is a prayer for God to grant the victory. Oh God, let all this come to pass. Let the nations praise you! God grant to us Your grace, Your blessings, and an intimate knowledge of you and an assurance that you are with us and for us that the peoples will know you!
And here we see that the Church is God’s plan for bringing people to faith in Christ. How is it that people in Conway, Arkansas are going to come to faith in Christ? It will be the work of the Church here in Conway, Arkansas. How is it that people in Japan are going to come to faith in Christ? It will be through the work of the Church in Japan.
God’s plan for growth is through the proclamation of His Word by the Church in the power of the Holy Spirit. This is plan A and there is no plan B. God blesses His Church and as the Church grows in the knowledge of God, His Word, and His ways it also grows outward in sharing love and grace to others. Christ has come and graciously accomplished salvation for us and the blessings abound in our lives, and the intention is for these blessings to flow to us then from us to others as the nations come to the Lord.
The applications of this to our personal lives are too many to count. So, when thinking through this let us consider that we are those who are saved by God’s grace. We are the blood bought children of God. And as we understand the character and nature of God, His Word, His mission, His character, we become people who effectively go. Learn God’s Word. Learn about who He is. Grow in the knowledge of the His Word. Teach it to your children, tell your co-workers. Grow mighty in God’s Word and then give that knowledge to others.
And I want to add a personal note to this application as well. There is a reason that I work hard to bring God’s Word to you. I believe that as you grow in the knowledge of the Lord and in your relationship with Him that this will have tremendous affects for a long time to come. Growing in this way will change your life, your family’s life, and those around you. As we grow in the knowledge of God’s grace and mercy toward us, and see His blessings poured out upon us, and in the knowledge of God’s Word we are people who will bring others to Christ.
And we also see application as to how we use our stuff. Rather than staying caught up with the Jones’s we are to be about the Father’s work spreading His name to the world. This informs us as to the usage of our time, money, and other resources for the fame of God’s great name.
God, Rule The Nations And Make Them Glad (Vv. 4-5)
Marcus Tullius Cicero was an ancient writer who was very influential to the American Founders, lived from 106-43 BC. He famously stated that “Never was a government that was not composed of liars, malefactors, and thieves.” And we have all heard the line about power and corruption. It seems to have been a summary from Lord Acton who was a historian and moralist. It was in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887 that he said,
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.”
As Christians we understand both that this is the case and why it is the case. Things are this way because we live in a fallen world. Even the best of nations this side of Heaven will have problems with sin, corruption, justice, and inequities.
And here the psalmist prays and sings that the nations would be glad and sing because
You judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon Earth.” (Psalm 67:4-5 ESV)
Countries around the globe are plagued with horrible rulers and judges. I consider America to be a wonderful country but we still face problems due to the pervasive nature of sin. There will never be perfect justice and equity on Earth until Christ returns. But when He does, He will rule and reign perfectly. There will be no more injustice. Christ will rule in perfect justice.
The psalmist does not just discuss God as the perfect future Judge of all the Earth, but the perfect “guide” (Psalm 67:4). When God is ruling the nations and throughout the whole Earth His will is carried out as it is in Heaven there will be great and glorious joy throughout the whole Earth.
There is a sense in which God is guiding the nations now. You will never hear me deny that God is in control. But there is a difference between now, when God is ruling and reigning over the nations in a manner that is somewhat hidden and when the whole Earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord and He is overtly ruling the entire globe. On that day sin and sorrow will be no more and perfect joy will cover the nations.
And again we read the refrain. Now it seems a bit different due to the words that came before it. And the refrain becomes a prayer for God to grant the victory (V. 5). The same words used above to pray that God would grant the request that came before it which were for grace, blessings, and for “His face to shine upon us” (Psalms67:1 ESV) , now becomes a prayer for God to bring about the day when He will judge with equity and guide the nations into joy.
Oh God, bring about that day! Let us see that day when You bring about joy to all the nations because of your glorious reign!
There is coming a day when all the world will bow before King Jesus. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And on that day all the great glorious joy that is looked forward to in Scripture will happen. And what a glorious day that will be for His people!
This is the day that we long for. And when we think about the first verses of this text we understand that there is something that we are to be doing in this period of longing for the Age to Come.
We work and long for the day when this glorious truth becomes a reality. Yes, God brings it about. Yest, God is the One that knows the time and the day. Yes, to all of those things. But we are to be taking the Good News to the nations and spreading the fame of God’s great name until He comes. Interestingly, you would be shocked and amazed at the number of people who have no idea what the gospel is that live in Conway, Arkansas or other places around the “Bible Belt”. Let us be a witness here to bring people to glory with us.
Missionaries go to the ends of the Earth with the Good News of the Gospel. And we support them and pray for them as God’s Word goes forth. And if there is anyone reading this who is itching to go to the ends of the Earth, I would love to talk with you.
And here is the point. The Church is God’s plan for the news of His salvation to go forth. There will be numerous people from every tribe, nation, and tongue in the New Heavens and Earth singing for joy because of what Christ has done for them and His perfect Lordship over all of Creation.
And We Go In Confidence (Vv. 6-7)
As with many of the Psalms this one ends with a complete trust and confidence in the Lord. And it is a confidence that we should go forth with as well.
The Psalm ends where it began, with a discussion of God’s blessings. And here the Psalmist just looks at what the abundant blessings that God has already poured out upon His people and it gives him a trust that God will do what He said He will do. His faith in God was built up as He saw all the things that God had already done. Isn’t this the way it often works for us? We stress about all the things that need to get done and then suddenly, we realize that God has been a prayer answering God for us in the past and we are assured that He will do it again.
The Psalmist looks back at the abundant blessings that God has bestowed upon them and it assures him that God will bless them. The prayer that was requested in Psalm 67:1 will come true. God will bless.
The interesting thing in this passage is that God had always stated that His salvation would go forth. In God’s promise to Abram we read,
“I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the Earth shall be blessed.”—Genesis 12:3 ESV
And under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit Paul stated,
“Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”—Galatians 7:7-9 ESV
So, all the way back to Abram we find God promising that all the nations are going to be blessed by Abraham and Paul tells us that the fulfillment of that is Christ Himself. This is what God had always promised would happen. And suddenly the Psalmist looks at how God has blessed them and rests in the knowledge that God will fulfill what He promised to do long ago.
The Psalm then ends triumphantly,
“God shall bless us; let all the ends of the Earth fear Him!” (Psalm 67:7 ESV)
Christ will build His Church. God will pour out His blessings upon His people. He gives to us His grace. He gives to us His blessings. And He gives to us an intimate knowledge of who He is and an unshakable understanding that He is with us.
One day the fruit that we sew for and hope for will come to fruition. The mission will be accomplished by the power of God and people from every tribe, nation, and tongue will worship before Christ’s throne. It is a glorious thought. The Lord has accomplished salvation and He will get to see the Church spread the fame of His great name in the power of the Holy Spirit to the ends of the Earth.
And here is what I want us to see. We can go in confidence into a lost and dying world, knowing that God Himself will build His Church. God will bless us. And we pray and long for the day when the fear of the Lord will be all over the globe.
As I look at the news, the shrinking churches, the lostness and corruption that pervade society, I begin to feel like we’re losing. I can become distraught about things going on in Washington and in Arkansas. But if I believe the testimony of Scripture then I should not be. There is coming a day when we will triumphantly sing praises to Jesus our King amid a myriad of other voices from all over the globe.
Let us be confident in the power of God to convert the sinner. Let us pray confidently that God will bring many to faith in Christ through the work of our missionaries, churches, and in our church here in Conway. God who created all things, caused the waters to part as the Israelites left Egypt, made the sun to stand still, healed lepers, caused the blind to see, made the lame to walk, caused the dead to rise and many other things has the power to bring people to Him. And through the Church that is exactly what He does. By the power of God, the Church will break down Satan’s strongholds and the gates of Hell will not prevail against us.
Conclusion
And so, we pray with the Psalmist,
“May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face to shine upon us, that your way may be known on Earth, Your saving power among all nations.” (Psalm 67:1 ESV)
R. Dwain Minor