Psalm 67
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May God Bless Us.
May God Bless Us.
Text: Psalm 67
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm. A Song.
May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face to shine upon us, Selah
that your way may be known on earth,
your saving power among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you!
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you judge the peoples with equity
and guide the nations upon earth. Selah
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you!
The earth has yielded its increase;
God, our God, shall bless us.
God shall bless us;
let all the ends of the earth fear him!
Summary:Yahweh blesses his covenant people sothat his kingly reign might spread among the nations. Simply put, God blesses his people so that missions can happen.
If there is only one thing that basically every believer prays about all the time is that God mighth bless them. In fact every says “amen” when they hear “God bless you”. This is to the extent that false prophets have developed a business out of blessing the peple of God. you will hear that certin blessings cost certain amounts of money. Unfortunately that business seems to be booming. Some christins in good bible proclaiming churches will go in hiding to purchase those blessings. I am here simply trying to pit us to the fact of the high demand for God’s blessings.
While it is glaring that everyone is seeking God’s blesing, it is difficult to say how many of the seekers slowdown to think about why they must be thus blessed. It seems to me that the Psalm before us, brings the two together very sweetly; The prayer for blessing, and the purpose of the blessings. Let us turn to our song and see what it reveals about blessing and the purpuse thereof.
Let the nations be glad (v. 4)
You are probably wondering why i an starting in the middle. Well look with me at the Psalm. Notice how v1 and v7 share some similarities. You realise that in both verses, there is the point of blessing. You will certainly see that there is also a difference. While v1 is a prayer, v7 seems like some proclamation for the future. Even so, they both say something about blesing. See also how v2 and v6 both say something about the earth. In v2, the way of the lord is known in the earth, and in v6, the earth is yielding her produce. Now, even if you have little doubts about the other similarities, this next one should jump at you. See how v3 is completely repeated in v5. When an author writes and produces this kind of structure, he generally is drawing the reader’s attention to the verse which stands alone at the center. In this case it is v4 which stands alone.
So instarting my analysis of this psalm in verse 4, i intend for us to see that it is the center of the psalm. The song writer cries out that the nations might be glad and sing for joy. It is a common thread in the Bible that Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel is against the nations. Remeber hwever that he intends to save. But his treasured possession is the nation of Israel. He chooses her in order that she might bring his name to the nations. The nations will therefore see the great light of the Lord’s salvation and be glad and sing for joy. Does the bible not make clear in Isaiah 60 that darkness is over the whole earth but teh light of God is risen on his people Israel? Does it not add that the nations shall come to her light? We see in Isa 9:2-3 that those who walked in darkness have seen a great light and are rejoicing as at the harvest. This certainly is spoken of Israel. My point with bringing it is that when the light of God rises on a people they sing songs of joy. The Psalmist says for the nations to be glad and the ground of such gladness and singing is God’s righteous rule over them. Yahweh shall rule the nations with justice and they shall exult in him. He shall guide the nations of earth. It seems to me that this is the heart of this prayerful song. The eternal reign of Yahweh shall gladen the nations of earth, even those ones that seem to be completely turning their backs on him today. He shall gladen all the peoples of earth by his righteous rule. If this is the center of this song, then it seems to me that the church of God ought to be about this business of bringing the rule of her king to the nations of the earth.
Permit me to lay some foundation here. you recall that when God called Abraham in Genesis 12, part of the promise to him was that all the families of the earth shall be blessed in him. This says that God had always had an earth-wide perspective of his dominion. In fact Adam was commanded to fill the earth and to subdue it. His rule over creation was to be entire.