Reflections on the Psalms: God’s Blessing [Psalm 67]

This morning we are going to use Psalm 67 as a sling-shot to dive into the rest of scripture from Genesis-Revelation. I want to show you this one truth that is revealed all over the pages of scripture.

I want to start with a question before we dive into scripture…and that question is… “what is the purpose of humanity today?” And I think that’s a good question to ask since we are part of humanity today. We’re going to use Psalm 67 as the primer to answer that question, we’ll read the whole chapter but the main focus will be on the first two verses. I do think there is a disconnect in the church today that deals with the purpose of humanity…so let’s look at Psalm 67 {stand for the reading}

Like I said I want to focus mainly on verse 1 and 2 and one truth we will split up in two parts.

God desires to bless us

The first part of this truth is: “God desires to bless us”. That’s how this Psalm begins and it’s how it’s filled throughout the whole thing. It’s with the blessing of God. “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us” (Ps. 67:1).

Now this is a prayer that is rooted way back in the Levitical priestly prayer. Numbers 6. The priest would pray over the people of God. They would say “May God be gracious to you. And bless you and may His face shine upon you.”

God’s Blessing Is Gracious

I want you to see in this passage. We aren’t going to camp out long here but I want you to see God’s blessing is gracious. It’s based not on what we do but what He has done out of His initiative for us.

May we never forget when we gather to sing praises to Christ. May we never forget that not one of us deserves to be here. Not one of us has lived the life that warrants even the privilege of giving praise to this God. We are here because of the grace of our God. And because it is an initiative that He has taken and we should never cease to be amazed at that grace.

God’s Blessing Is Comprehensive

I want you to see that God’s blessing is comprehensive, may His face shine upon you. It basically means that may God show His favor completely to you.

Let’s not be Western, too materialistic when we read this verse. When we think about the blessing of God and start thinking about all the possession we have. That is not what the psalmist is talking about here. It’s not talking about all the things that we have that show the blessings of God.

We know in our lives that those things can actually draw us away from God very easily. The blessing of God is summed up in His grace and His mercy, His salvation that He has brought to you and me. The fact that He sent His Son to die on the cross. That is the epitome of the blessing of God. It’s comprehensive.

God’s Blessing Is Personal

And I want you to see also that His blessing is extremely personal. There is an interesting difference between Numbers 6 where the priest says “May God be gracious to you and bless you and may His face shine upon you” then in Psalm 67 where it says “May God be gracious to us.” It shifts it to the first person and says this blessing is for all of us.

I want to remind you that the God we serve and the God who said to His people in Isaiah 43 “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned … For I am the Lord your God … you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you” (Is. 43:1–4).

What incredible words from God. A God who said in Isaiah 49:16 that He has the names of His people engraved on the palms of His hand. Think about that! How about Zephaniah 3:17 when God says to His people “[I] will quiet you with [my] love.” You have got to know the context of that chapter. God is talking to a people that had disobeyed Him, that had turned their backs on Him, and He said, “I am going to bring you to a stand still with my love.” And it says, “He will rejoice over you with singing” (Zeph. 3:17). What an amazing picture the Old Testament gives us of a God who sings over us.

And I will remind you coming here today in a world of broken and shattered homes by people who have loved us for a little while and then left us. Whether it’s your parents or whether it’s your spouse who loved you for a little while and left you. I want to remind you that the God of the Bible says that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor any power, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. God desires to bless us! Let that soak in for a second. He desires to bless you.

But don’t put a period on it there. If you look in Psalm 67:1 it doesn’t say “May God be gracious to us and bless us and may His face shine upon us—PERIOD”. Instead there is a comma there. There is a purpose clause that comes after that.

So here’s what I want us to do. We could easily stop here and say alright we have talked about the blessing of God, great sermon, and go home feeling good about the blessing of God. But that would miss out on the whole point of this passage. Instead I want us to think “Ok, God desires to bless us now let’s ask the question ‘Why?’ ” That’s not a question I think we ask very often.

“Why does God desire to bless you and me?” “What’s the purpose of God’s blessing?” We know we have experienced blessing…but why?

Make His salvation known in all nations

So here’s the truth. One basic truth. God desires to bless us so that we might make His salvation known in all nations. Now that is basic truth of Scripture that I want you to see this morning that is revealed from cover to cover.

I am going to give you 20 Scriptures over the next few minutes. Now don’t get concerned. We aren’t going to be here for a few hours. What I want to give you is 20 Scriptures that show us from cover to cover this blessing of God.

What I want us to do is I want us to start in the book of Genesis 12:2–3. God calls Abraham and says “Abraham I am going to bless you.” I want you to see this is God calling out His people, the people of Israel, and He says “Abraham I am going to bless you. I am going to make your name great. You will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse.” So we see the blessing of God but now let’s see the purpose behind it. “So that through you all peoples on earth will be blessed.” So here is the economy of God. He says “Abraham I am going to pour out my blessings on you and the result is you are going to make my blessings, my goodness, My grace known among all the peoples of the earth. You are going to be my conduit of blessings.” That how God starts with His people.

Now Abraham had a son, his name was? Abraham had a son and his name was? Isaac. Ok Isaac. In Genesis 26:4 God comes down to Isaac and says a very similar thing. He says to Isaac in Genesis 26:4 “I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands.” And here it is; there’s the blessing. Now let’s see the purpose—“through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed” (Gen. 26:4). So God says, “I am going to bless you Isaac so that all the nations of the earth will be blessed.”

Isaac had a son. His name was Jacob. In Genesis 28:14 God says the same thing to Jacob. “I am going to make your descendants, Jacob, as numerous as the stars in the sky. They will spread out to the west and the east, to the north and to the south, all peoples will be blessed through you and your offspring.”

So I want you to see the why that is driving God. Does it stop in Genesis? I don’t think so. You get in the book of Exodus. You see God delivering His people out of slavery in Egypt. You see a very interesting story come about in Exodus 14. As God is leading them out of Egypt He brings them to the Red Sea. Now everybody is thinking “What is Moses doing leading us to the Red Sea? No where to turn to the right or the left. The Egyptians are about to overtake us and we have this huge body of water in front of us.” Why would God lead His people to that predicament?

He did it so that He said “I will harden pharaoh’s heart and I will gain glory for myself. I am going to show the Egyptians. They are going to know that I am the Lord.” So that’s what He did. He split the sea in half, and sent His people through and the Egyptians knew the salvation of God that He brings to His people. They knew the goodness and the power and the grace of God. You look throughout the rest of the Old Testament and you will see people always saying “We remember this is the God who split the sea in half.” God is showing off His greatness, His grace, His majesty through blessing His people in an unusual way.

Let’s keep asking the question, “Why”. Deuteronomy 4:5–6 we know God gave His people the Ten Commandments. Why did He give them the Ten Commandments? Deuteronomy 4:5–6 says that God gave His people the Ten Commandments so the people would follow them and show the wisdom of God to the nations and the nations would know that God is all wise. And God is good. God is blessing His people with the Ten Commandments so that His character is known among the nations.

Joshua 5-6, one of my favorite passages in the Old Testament. Remember that story about the first battle going into the Promised Land? City called Jericho. This huge city with massive walls around it? It’s a great story. Joshua 5:13 says Joshua was walking outside the city wondering how in the world he was going to take the army into this massive city.

Basically in that day he had five military options available to him to take these walls. He could either try to take the army over the walls; they could try to go under the walls; they could try to break through the walls; they could send a decoy in (like a Trojan horse type thing); or they could starve the people inside the walls and make them come out. Five options: over, under, through, send the decoy in, or starve them out.

God comes to Joshua and says here is the battle plan. Joshua is thinking “Okay. Over, under, through, maybe the decoy route, maybe we are going to stave them.” God says “Get out the trumpet players, call the music guys together, and pull out the sheet music. What you are going to do is you are going to march around the city for a few days and you are going to play some cool music.”

And then here is the kicker and you can almost picture God’s face at this point, can’t you? Then here is the kicker, after you’ve played music for a few days, one day you are just going to shout really loud and the walls are going to come down. That’s weird. That’s highly unusual. We have got to ask the question “Why?”

Why is God giving this as the battle plan for taking the first city in the Promised Land? Well I believe He is doing what He has done throughout Scripture. He is organizing and orchestrating the events of His people, don’t miss it! He is organizing the events of His people so that in the end only He gets the credit for what happened.

Let me tell you what you don’t see in Joshua 6. You don’t see all the Israelites going up to the trumpet players telling them what an incredible job they did that day. “Ralph I’ve never heard you play so well. Harry you hit the high C! It was awesome man! We went running in!” NO! You see the people on their faces saying “Only God could have done this”. God blessed His people in a very unusual way to put His glory on display.

It continues 1 Kings 10:1–19. We all know Solomon was the wisest man in that day. Why was he so wise though? 1 King 10 says he was wise so that people like Queen Sheba would come and see his wisdom and give glory to His God. She starts singing God’s praises. That’s the only reason he could have been so wise.

Daniel 3:29—another unusual story. Why would God let His servants, these three Hebrew boys who were so diligent in serving Him, why would He let Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be thrown into a fiery furnace? Well He did it so that these guys would come out on the other side without a drop of sweat on their brow. And if you look at Daniel 3:29 you will see that the king says that the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego deserves the praise of everyone in this land. He has delivered them for His glory.

Same thing in Daniel 6. We know the story. Daniel gets thrown into the lion’s den. Praise the Lord, the next morning he comes out and some other guys get thrown in. Why did God let that happen? Well look at Daniel 6:25–26 and you will see that King Darius said after Daniel came out of the lions den, “Only Daniel’s God is living. All the people in this land, I’m giving a decree. We are going to praise the God of Daniel because He saves His people.” God puts His glory on display through blessing His people. I believe that is the motive that is driving God throughout the Old Testament.

You know Psalm 23. You’ve memorized it, but have you ever thought about it though? I’ll just start it. “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness” (Ps. 23:1–3). Finish it. “For His name’s sake.” Why does He guide us? Why does He lead us? “For the sake of His name.”

How about Psalm 25:11. Why does God forgive our sins? Because He wants to. Well yeah He wants to, but why? “For the sake of your name, O Lord, forgive my iniquity, though it is great” (Ps. 25:11). “For the sake of your name, do it.” Is that how we pray? “God forgive my sins for your sake?”

How about Isaiah 48:9–11. Very interesting verses. He says “For my own name’s sake I delay my wrath” (Is. 48:9). He says “I’m not going to part my punishment on you for my sake. For my own namesake I do it.” You go to the end of that verse and it says that He does it because He is not going to yield His glory to another. God says “I am going to work among you like I am so that my name is known among the nations as great because my glory does not belong to anyone else. It is all for me.” This is a very interesting picture of God.

How about this verse? Turn with me to it Ezekiel 36. You need to underline these verses in your Bible. These are amazing verses I want you to see from the mouth of God expressing the motive, the heart of God.

Just to give you the background, basically this is God talking about discipline among His people. Why He is going to discipline them in a certain way. What is driving His motivation? Listen to what He says in verse 22, “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says …” (Ezek. 36:22). Listen to this, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes” (Ezek. 36:22–23).

Did you catch that? God said to His people “When I pour my blessing. Pour my judgment on you. I’m not doing it for your sake, I’m doing it for the sake of my name among all of the nations. The nations will know that I am holy and they will know my character, my greatness, and my glory.”

Now is this just an Old Testament thing that just dies away when we get to the New Testament? I don’t think so. Matthew 24:14- this gospel, this salvation, is going to go to all the nations and then the end will come. Matthew 28:18–20—go and make disciples where? All nations. Mark 16:15—go and preach the good news where? To “all” creation. Luke 24:47–49—Jesus died so the repentance and forgiveness of sins would be preached in all nations. Acts 1:8—you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be witnesses where? In Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. God is in the business of making His salvation known among all nations through blessing His people.

Why did Jesus go to the cross? Why did Jesus go to the cross? Just to die for me? I think Scripture tells us a little deeper then that. John 12:27–28. What does Jesus pray before He went to the cross? “Father what shall I say? Save me from this hour? No it is for this very reason that I came to this hour. Father” do what? “glorify your name. A voice came from heaven and said I have glorified it and I will glorify it again.”

Throughout the New Testament we see a people, a people like Paul whose ambition was to make the glory and salvation of God known in all nations. That was the very purpose of the church and the Book of Acts.

Now we started all the way back in Genesis 12. I want to take you to the end. Revelation 7:9–10. Mark it down. This is where all of eternity is headed. There is going to be a day, Revelation 7:9–10 says that from every tribe and every language and every people—people from all over the nations, every nation will be represented, the Scripture says.

Around the throne of the Lamb who was slain; the Lamb who won the ultimate battle. It says they will sing out that “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb” (Rev. 7:10). In the very beginning of this book it starts off with God saying He is going to bless His people so that all nations will know how good I am, and eternity tells us that there is going to be a day when all nations are going to bow among the thrown and sing praises because He alone is worthy of the glory.

So there it is. From cover to cover in Scripture. God desires to bless us so that we might make His salvation known in all nations. A simple truth.

But here is the question I want to ask of you. I want to ask it of you as individuals and I want to ask it of you as a church. God desires to bless us so that we might make His salvation known in all nations. The question I want to ask you is this: Are we a people today who have disconnected the blessing of God from the purpose of God? Are we a people who have soaked in the blessing and disconnected it from the purpose?

What do I mean by disconnecting the blessing of God from the purpose of God? Well let me give you an example. I think if you were to walk into the average church across the United States and you were to ask the average person sitting in a pew or a seat there to sum up the message of Biblical Christianity. “What’s the message of Christianity?” The response you would get is something probably along the lines of this: “Well Christianity means God loves me. The message of Christianity is that God loves me enough to send His son Jesus to die for me. That is the message of Christianity.”

Well I want to say…based on what we just looked at in scripture…I don’t think that’s the message of Christianity. Stay with me...

Do a little English class with me for a second. If “God loves me” is the message of biblical Christianity, the essence of Christianity, then who is the object of Christianity? God loves “me”. And therefore Christianity is about “me”. When I come to church it is about “me”. And the music fits my preference. When I think about my life and my plans and my dreams and my family it’s about me and my portfolio and my comfort and my plans and my dreams and what I think is best.

And what I want to say to you based on the authority of Scripture is that “God loves me” is not the message of Christianity. Christianity does not say, “God loves me.” Put a period on it go home. Christianity says, “God loves me so that His grace, and His glory, and His majesty and His mercy might be made known in all nations.”

Now who is the object of Christianity? He is. I’ve heard it a million times. They stand giving testimony and say, “When Jesus died on that cross …”—I’ve heard songs about it—“When Jesus died on that cross He died just for me.” And while I in no way want to take away from the extremely personal nature of God’s love for each one of you I do want to say to you that when Jesus died on the cross He didn’t just die for you. He died so the repentance and forgiveness of sins would be preached among all the peoples of the world.

This thing isn’t just for us here. It’s isn’t just for New Florence, or MO, or even the USA…it is intended for all nations…all peoples to hear…this is the purpose of biblical Christianity…for all people to hear! He saves us so that He made be made great…in our arrogance we think it’s about us when it’s all about Him!

Think about it this way. If God is infinitely good and infinitely loving; if all that is love is summed up in God, then what is the greatest way that He could show love to you and me? By giving us what? Himself. And enjoyment in Himself and worship of Himself and glory in Himself. And that is exactly what He has done in our Lord Jesus.

The beautiful picture that God’s Word gives us is a God who is centered on His glory but praise the Lord we get to be a part of this thing. And we get to experience grace and satisfaction and joy and pleasure and the blessing of God.

We experience God’s blessing most when we are most involved in fulfilling His purpose

And don’t miss it! Connect the two together. We experience God’s blessing most when we are most involved in fulfilling His purpose.

I love Nick Ripken’s book ‘the insanity of God’ where he tells story after story of Christians around the world in extreme persecution for their faith filled with purpose, hope, and joy…filled with blessing fulfilling God’s purpose.

But somewhere along the way there is a dangerous temptation for you and I to disconnect the two. Focused on the blessing but disconnected from its purpose. Please hear me loud and clear. I am not saying in any way that God does not love you deeply. He does love you deeply, passionately, each and every one of you who are sitting before me now.

His love is gracious to the core. I am not saying He doesn’t love you deeply but I am saying this: The purpose of your life goes much deeper then simply receiving the love of God. It is reflecting and reproducing that love to the nations and showing His glory and His majesty to them. And it’s interesting, I think, when we disconnect the two and we focus on the blessing and ignore the purpose we begin to miss out on what the blessing really is.

Please hear me. Please hear me. This is not a mission’s sermon. Please do not walk out of these doors today and say that was a good mission’s sermon. Don’t even say that was a bad mission sermon’s. Just don’t call it a mission’s sermon all together. It is not a mission sermon, it is a sermon about the mission of our lives. It’s the reason for which we have been created. It is the reason for which we have been saved.

I am saying to you based on the authority of Scripture that God has blessed you; He has blessed this church with a global purpose behind it. He wants His greatness, His salvation, His mercy and His majesty to be made known in all nations. And I believe that is why God has created you, that is why He has saved you, not ultimately for our sake but for His sake in the nations.

And that means a totally new way of looking at our lives where it is not about us and how we can gain success but how can I most effectively make the glory of Christ known in all nations with the life that God has entrusted to me. And that changes the way that we live and that changes the way that we do church. It changes everything because we are consumed by the God-given purpose for which we were created.

Some people might say that is idealistic that I was created to impact nations, change the world for the glory of Christ. It is idealistic. “Thanks Brian, for the pay it forward speech, change the world speech. It didn’t really do much for me.”

But if you think it’s idealistic I say it’s not idealistic it’s biblical. From cover to cover in Scripture I believe God has created each of us for this purpose. I can’t get the image of Revelation 7:9-10 out of my mind, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

Will you bow your heads with me? With your heads bowed and your eyes closed I want us to enter into a time of reflection and response to God’s Word.

I want you to think about the blessing of God in your lives. I know that there are many of you who have never truly experienced His blessing through salvation. Some of you may not have entered into a relationship with Jesus and been forgiven of your sins and experienced salvation He came to bring when He went to a cross.

And if that has never been made real and been made personal in your life, even if you have been in church for years and it has never been a reality for you. Then I want to invite you to say, “I want to experience the blessing of God. I want to experience the salvation of God.”

And then for those of you who are believers, brothers and sisters in Christ. I want to ask you the question this morning: have you disconnected the blessing of God from the purpose of God?

And if you have, then I want to challenge you to say, “I am going to take some steps in my life to reformat everything around this one purpose.” I am not saying you know all of what that means but I do want to challenge you to come before the Lord and say I’ll do whatever it takes. I want to make your glory, your salvation known in all nations.

And as a church I want to invite you as God is leading you to do that, I want to invite you to take advantage of this time and say, “God I want to connect your blessing with your purpose. I want to put them together. I want to experience the purpose for which I have been created and stop living in a self-centered Christianity.” I want to invite you to take advantage of this time to express that to the Lord.

God, God I praise you for your grace that we see all over your Word. You have blessed your people in some unusual ways. And God I want to be so bold as to ask you that you will bless The Church at New Florence in unusual ways.

And bless the brothers and sisters who are sitting before me this morning in unusual ways, God, so that your glory will remain known through me and your salvation will be known through them in all nations.

God forgive us for making this a mission’s thing that is reserved for a few. God help us to see this as the purpose, the mission for which we were created. And God I pray that your body would stand up and connect your blessing with your purpose.

May we fall down before you and say God use us, whatever it takes, use us to make your salvation known in all nations. For the glory of your name we pray, Amen.