Psalm 67 - God's Blessings For All Nations
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
For those of you who have done missions work and served various people groups, you know what it's like to see God's work around the world. And for me, one of the greatest takeaways that I've taken from missions trips that I've been on, aside from just appreciating different cultures and a reminder of just how big the world is and how different people are, is you spend time with believers overseas and you see so clearly that God has a heart for everyone around the world. They may live life differently, their day to day may be different, they may go through different challenges and different struggles, but when you get the chance to praise God alongside them and serve God alongside them, it's amazing, and it really is a taste of a world where God's reign and lordship is perfectly recognized and desired, it's a taste of, it's a glimpse of heaven, being with people from all around the world, praising God. It's what scripture foreshadows over and over and over again, a time and a place where all voices, people of every tongue, are praising God for being Lord over all. And today we're gonna be in one of those scriptures that talks about that.
So if you wanna turn in your Bibles with me to Psalm 67, I'm gonna go ahead and read this passage. You can follow along on the screen. It says, "May God be gracious to us and bless us "and make his face shine on us, "so that your ways may be known on earth, "your salvation among all nations. "May the peoples praise you, God. "May all the peoples praise you. "May the nations be glad and sing for joy. "For you rule the peoples with equity "and guide the nations of the earth. "May the peoples praise you, God. "May all the peoples praise you. "The land yields its harvest. "God, our God blesses us. "May God bless us still so that all the ends of the earth "will fear him." Theologians say that this psalm, no other psalm captures more clearly and simply the grand vision that God is the God of all people and nations, that he wants all of them to embrace him, and that he wants his own people to mediate that blessing to the nations. This psalm sums up what has been God's heart from the very beginning. From before creation began, God's desires that the entire world, all of humanity, know and love him. But as we know, sin entered the world and drove a wedge between humanity and God. And then a plan was formed. And instead of doing everything all by himself, he provides opportunity and prefers that his own people partner with him in carrying out this mission to rescue people for him. This morning, as we continue in this Psalm, I want us to have the image of concentric circles and God's blessing and love starting from this epicenter of him. And as time goes on and through the work of his people, his love spreads farther and farther and farther out. That's what he had in mind. When he invites his people to partner with him, that their influence and work would make waves in this world for his kingdom.
We see this plan and heart reiterated throughout scripture, specifically through various covenants that God makes with his people. God had a rescue plan and he wanted his people to know of his plan and to keep hope and to keep faith, knowing that it's gonna take time, but I am doing something and I'm saving my people. One of the first covenants was with Abraham in Genesis 12. He says, "I will make you into a great nation," speaking to Abraham, "I will bless you, "I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. "I will bless those who bless you, "and whoever curses you, I will curse, "and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." speaking about his descendants of Israel, and even farther down to Jesus himself. Again, think of those concentric circles. He then continues that promise generations later with Israel at Sinai in Exodus 19, when he says that Israel is gonna make them a kingdom of priests. The nation of Israel itself as a whole will function as intermediaries, as examples of holy righteous living between God and the rest of the nations. And then in the New Testament, Paul will again repeat God's heart in Romans one when he says, through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name's sake. So throughout scripture, we see God's heart is for all people to know him. And because we strive to have a heart like Yahweh, we also should have a heart to see all people come to know him. And this Psalm speaks to that heart. We see in verses one through two, the people asking for God's blessing. May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us, so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. They are asking for God's blessing. The first part is taken almost word for word from Numbers, the book of Numbers, one of the oldest poems in the Bible, where God gives the priests of Israel a blessing to speak over the nation. And while it's short and beautiful, it can be easy to take for granted the complexity and profound meaning of this poem. This blessing back in Numbers is linked to regulations of purifying camp. We have to remember that at this time, Israel is in the desert, having escaped Egypt by God's power and is heading towards the promised land. And God is making them into a nation. They're new to this. They're like, we've never been a nation before. We've just been in slavery. And so God gives them guidelines and directions of how to be a people. And this blessing, this poem, reminds them of their purpose, to be a light to the world, that they are holy and separated for God. This blessing invokes God's protection on his people. shows that God's permanent purpose is to bless the earth.
There's a phrase here that I love, the Psalmist beautifully write, "Make his face shine on us." Today, in today's culture, we miss out on the context. If we were living where we had kings and we would have to ever make an appearance in front of a king, there was a lot of power that that king held. And if you were to walk into that room and the king would not look you in the face, it would mean that you don't have the king's favor. And you're facing some kind of punishment, possibly even death. But if the king were to lift his head and look at you, then you knew that the king's favor was upon you. And that you would even possibly have blessing. So the people are asking that God look at them, bless them, God, we want your favor. They're likening God to light, shining mercifully and powerfully on the people. 'Cause when God smiles on his people, they can be sure that he will be gracious to them. He will deliver them from their troubles. He will answer their prayers and he will save them from their sickness, from their enemies, and from their sin. So we pray that same prayer today. We sing that same song. We desire for God's face to shine on us and we ask for his blessing, not just for us, but for the entire world. Verses three through five, we see the people envisioning God's blessing over all the world. May the people praise you, God. May all the peoples praise you. May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth. May the peoples praise you, God. May all the peoples praise you. We see a peoples whose heart are aligned with God, desiring that all the world know who God is and to have saving faith in him.
What the psalmist right here is also what John sees in Revelations, describing what he sees from people from every tribe, nation, and tongue, praising God. And what unites everyone is their love for God and being under his reign, that God is their king. And we see the psalmist acknowledge that only God can rule justly. Only God can perfectly reign with complete fairness and guide the nations to peace and prosperity. Again, think of those concentric circles. God blesses his people. His people represent him and bring others to God. Others come to know him and are blessed by God. And they in turn represent God and bring more people to him. And more and more as more people are blessed by him and experience God's love and salvation and realize God's lone ability to rule perfectly, they are led to praise God. In Hebrew, when things are repeated, it means it's very important. And so we see in this little section here, may the peoples praise you, may all the peoples praise you, God. God is repeated because he is the only one who can do this. And may all the peoples praise you is repeated because that is the most important and primary response that we have to receiving God's love and being under his rule is to praise him. So we see them praise him for who he is and what he does. In the last couple of verses, we see the people recognize God's blessing. It says, "The land yields its harvest, God. "Our God blesses us. "May God bless us still "so that all the ends of the earth will fear him." There is evidence that God does bless his people, and it's abundant. Israel was an agricultural people and so the abundance of food being such a clear, it was such a clear sign of blessing. Think of the Promised Land, what they're heading to in Exodus and as Israel's, they know that it's a land flowing with milk and honey. Now growing up in the church, I literally thought that it was like lava, like there's honey is flowing in the land and milk is like there's rivers of milk. And then as some time it clicked, I was like, oh, it's just a land full of lots of cows and bees. It's just tons of cows and bees and it's amazing. and it's great and God is plentiful there.
We're reminded throughout scripture that God blesses his people in small and in vast ways. And on the most basic level, we know that he sustains the very world itself. It says in Acts 17, "Life and breath and everything, Yahweh holds it together." These last couple verses are also a promise of better things to come. One scholar writes, "This psalm encourages us to pray, 'Let God who brings much out of little and distributes it in love bring such blessing on us as to make us in our turn the blessing of the world.'" Again, those concentric circles. You got to realize that you are a part of that. Somewhere along the line, God reached you, and he wants to bless you, and he wants you in turn to bring other people to him so he can bless them. This is a part of God's plan, part of his rescue plan to save the world. And we have the chance to partner with God as he brings salvation. This is why missions are so important. We can partner with God here and abroad around the world. Jesus commands his followers, which includes you. And really it's a command, but it's also an invitation. He says, as Vivek mentioned in the Great Commission, Matthew 28, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." This is Jesus speaking. "Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I've commanded you, and surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Repeated throughout Scripture over and over and over again is God's heart for the nations. And what we read this morning in Psalms was meant to be sung, was meant to be a blessing over Israel that serves as a reminder of who God is and what He does and therefore who we are and what we are to do.
So as we close today, I just have one question for you to consider this week. How is God inviting you to partner in His kingdom work around the world? How is God inviting you to partner in His kingdom work around the world? I'm going to give you a couple numbers here. There are 195 countries in the world. There are 17,281 people groups. 7,000 of them are unreached. There are also 7,000 languages spoken in the world, also not spoken, including sign language. God has a heart for all of them. To hear his truth, hopefully in their native tongue, and to be rescued from sin and death. So have those people in mind as you hear that invitation by Jesus and the great commission to join in Yahweh's rescue plan, how can you get involved? Are you able to give your time? Are you able to give your resources? Are you able to actually go abroad and serve and meet these people and bring Jesus to them? Great thing about living here in America is that they're here too. Are you able to just go outside in your neighborhood in the city and meet them and bring Jesus to them. And can you pray for them? Will you pray for them? How are you going to be a part of the outward movement of those concentrant circles of God's kingdom? God wants your participation in the glorious redemptive work that he's doing. And so will you join?
Would you guys pray with me? God, thank you for sending your son, for rescuing us. And for the fact that we have your scriptures to show us that that's been your plan all along. You've been working that plan and that plan is still ongoing to rescue people from their sin. And God, thank you for that invitation that we could join you in that by prayer, through resource, through giving our resources, whatever it may be. But I gotta pray that through your spirit you would speak to us, you would guide us in how we can work with you to spread your kingdom. to have other people know you. We wanna be a blessing to others. We've surely received your blessing and we wanna give you all the praise and in turn, we wanna turn around and bring people to you. So guide us through your spirit how to do that. In our day-to-day lives, who to partner with to do that all around the world. Thank you God for reaching us, for saving us. We love you God, we give this to you. Amen.