May All the Peoples Praise You
Summer in the Psalms • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A psalm. A song. 1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us— 2 so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. 3 May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you. 4 May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth. 5 May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you. 6 The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us. 7 May God bless us still, so that all the ends of the earth will fear him.
[Display Chinese symbol for Blessing, Luck, fortune and ask folks if they know what it is and means]
While it may be true that for many people who hang this up during Spring Festival they are hoping that their homes and their lives will be filled with good luck, good fortune, and many blessings, what if for Christians this could be a symbol that represents the prayer of Psalm 67?
Maybe this symbol could represent Psalm 67, but I think on its own it is incomplete. It’s true, Psalm 67 has much to say about God’s blessing, but this symbol of blessing misses an essential teaching of blessing that we find in our text.
We’ll come back to this symbol later...
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One commentator that I read this past week shared how a fresh reading and understanding of this psalm in his early adult years had a profound impact on his understanding of the Bible and on God’s call for his life. In fact let me share with you what he wrote:
Exalting Jesus in Psalms 51-100 The Ultimate Disconnect (Psalm 67)
Quite possibly more than any other chapter in the Bible, Psalm 67 has shaped my understanding of my life, my family, and God’s purpose for the church in the world. I’ll never forget where I was sitting the first time I heard this psalm taught and the way God used it to put my life on a totally different trajectory.
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Maybe by God’s grace some of us will experience that this morning.... that God would use this Psalm to put your life on a totally different trajectory…that truly is a God sized possibility that I hope for.
But I also pray that as we consider this Psalm this morning that God would favour us with the kind of blessing that this psalmist prays for!
And what kind of blessing is it, you ask?
It is the kind of blessing that drives us towards a greater longing for all the peoples of the earth to find joy and thanksgiving in the One True God of heaven and earth.
As one writer puts it:
Exalting Jesus in Psalms 51-100 One Truth
God blesses his people for the sake of his praise among all peoples.
Perhaps another way of saying it could be this:
“God blesses his people for the sake of the world.”
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The blessing that the psalmist prays for and that God wants to give is a blessing for a purpose.
Now as we unpack that a little bit more together, I want to draw our attention to some important echos of other key passages that we find in this morning’s psalm.
22 The Lord said to Moses, 23 “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: 24 “ ‘ “The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” ’ 27 “So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”
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[Elaborate on that last verse.... worth pausing and thinking about....this is an identity claim....so much talk about identity in our day, especially around race and gender...... belonging.... you belong to me....]
There’s also another echo to an earlier blessing passage....
1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. 2 “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
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God chose a family, and his descendants, from which he gathered an entire community...
3 Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”
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And the intention that God had for this community was always for a purpose...
Isaiah 49:6 (NIV)
6 ... I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”
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Now why is it that God would call and bless a particular people so that his blessing might extend to the ends of the earth?
So that the “nations will be glad and sing for joy!”
The prayer at the centre of the poem helps us understand where true joy and gladness if found....under the rule and guidance of God
4 May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth.
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[King and shepherd image.... elaborate…]
God’s rule
5 See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. 6 Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” 7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? 8 And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?
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5 May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you. 6 The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us.
Harvest? How are we to think about this part of the prayer?
[Connect “harvest” to the reversal of the curse
On one hand its about reversing the cursed earth to the fruitful earth.... physical harvest....
But also its about revering the cursed humanity, into the one unified people of God (Rev. 7)
35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.
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36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
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So what might be take away from this Psalm:
God will most likely bless us when we are longing for the nations to be blessed.
I like how John Piper captures this in his book, Let the Nations Be Glad
Sermons from John Piper (1990–1999) Let the Nations Be Glad
if God blesses his people for the sake of the nations; then God is most likely to bless us when we are planning and longing and praying to bless the nations. If God wants his goods to get to the nations, then he will fill the truck that’s driving toward the nations. He will bless the church that’s pouring itself out for unreached peoples of the world. And this blessing is not payment for a service rendered; it’s power and joy for a mission to accomplish. When we move toward the unreached peoples, we are not earning God’s blessings, we are leaping into the river of blessings that is already flowing to the nations.
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How might God be calling us....you and me individually....but also us corporately as a congregation to leap into the river of blessings...
Talk about our ministry to international students.....COVID had a significant negative influence on that but perhaps in the near future we will see a resurgance.... and talk specifically about Emma....(don’t mention her name or city)
…God is most likely to bless us when we are longing for the nations to be blessed....
2. Is God calling someone here this morning to serve as his ambassor to people who have never heard the Gospel???
3. Might our church be increasingly known as a missionary sending church???
The Message of Psalms: Songs for the People of God 3. Two Applications
‘Lord, the light of your love is shining,’ sings a twentieth-century psalmist, Graham Kendrick; ‘Shine, Jesus, shine, fill this land with the Father’s glory.’ Isaac Watts versified our psalm in a similar way back in 1707: ‘Shine, mighty God, on Britain shine’! These are worthy prayers; but they are not what Psalm 67 is about.
The 1834 version by Henry Lyte got the point: ‘God of mercy, God of grace, Show the brightness of thy face: Shine upon us, Saviour, shine, Fill thy church with light divine.’ It is when the people of God are alight with joy and praise, and are themselves ruled and guided by him, that his ways and his salvation will be known among the peoples around
End of service..... Blessing is always preceded by a “charge to the congregation”
Following the Eucharist: “Now the time has come to return to the world. ‘Let us depart in peace,’ says the celebrant as he leaves the altar, and this is the last commandment of the liturgy. We must not stay on Mount Tabor, although we know that it is good for us to be there. We are sent back. But now ‘we have seen the true Light, we have received the heavenly Spirit.’ And it is as witnesses of this Light, as witnesses of the Spirit, that we must go forth and begin the never-ending mission of the Church. Eucharist was the end of the journey, the end of time. And now it is again the beginning, and things that were impossible are again revealed to us as possible . . . and God has made us competent to be His witnesses to fulfill what He has done and is ever doing. Alexander Schmemann, For the Life of the World. New York: St. Vladamir’s Seminary Press, 2002.
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Back to the symbol we talked about at the beginning.... I said that I thought it was incomplete....
Let me show you another image or symbol [Globe-Cross picture]
How many of you have seen this image or symbol before?
[Explain..... when I first came to this church and saw this I loved it.... see it also as a prayer....that the nations of the world would come to know the One who hung on a cross for us! Nations would live under the shadow of the cross.... finding life in the One who took our sin....etc.......Perhaps connecting that Chinese character with this image would complete the prayer of Psalm 67.... I’m picturing the Chinese character above this image as a prayer of God’s blessing to come down such that all the nations find life in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ…]