PSALM 67 - Drawn to Gospel Glories

Introduction

Back in the early 1960’s, Walt Disney began scoping out land in central Florida that he could buy to build a second amusement park. The success of Disneyland in Anaheim, California had brought with it a crowd of businesses, hotels and other urban sprawl around the park itself; Disney wanted a lot more control over the land surrounding his new park, Walt Disney World. The name of the park is actually a tip-off to what Disney had in mind for his Florida attraction—he wanted to build not only a theme park but a working city along with it. He called his idea the Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow, and he wanted it to be a city where new advancements in zoning, roadways, commerce, architecture and so on could be tried out (he also considered calling it “Progress City”).

In order to get the flexibility he needed for that kind of leeway to create his own zoning laws and building codes and so on, he petitioned the Florida State Legislature to create the Reedy Creek Improvement District, a separate municipality that was under the complete control of Disney and his company. The legislation was passed in 1967, one year after Disney himself had died, and so the project never took off the way he envisioned. The Disney company did use some of his ideas to build the town of Celebration, Florida inside the Reedy Creek district. (Last April Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation to abolish the Reedy Creek Improvement District after the Disney Company declared that it was going to engage in direct political activism in response to the passage of the Parental Rights in Education Act that prohibited teachers from presenting sexually explicit materials to elementary school children in Florida—a situation that would have utterly horrified and revolted Disney himself!)

Though he might have had the best of intentions, Walt Disney’s vision of creating a community utopia that bore the fruits of cutting edge technology and innovation was ultimately doomed to failure, wasn’t it? Because any attempt at building utopia—whether through advanced technology and zoning or through economic or legislative power—will ultimately be pointless apart from the blessing of the hand of God:

Proverbs 11:11 (ESV)

11 By the blessing of the upright a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is overthrown.

Walt Disney tried unsuccessfully to create a city that would be an example of the blessings of technology for all the world to see. The psalm before us today says that God is creating a people that will be an example of the blessings of His grace for all the world to see!

Psalm 67:1–2 (ESV)

1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah 2 that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.

This is another psalm (like the last three) that is meant for public worship (it’s addressed to “The Choirmaster”), and it carries on the theme of God’s blessings to His people that we have seen in Psalm 65 and 66. It’s arranged in a form of structural poetry called a chiasm (from the Greek name of the letter we call ‘X’) because the verses repeat themselves from the top down and the bottom up. Verse 7 matches verse 1, verse 6 matches verse 2, and so on. Read verses 1 and 7 back-to-back and you’ll see the structure:

Psalm 67:1 (ESV)

1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah

Psalm 67:7 (ESV)

7 God shall bless us; let all the ends of the earth fear him!

So the theme of the psalm is pretty clearly laid out here—God has a purpose in His blessing His people that goes beyond just blessing them for their own sake. He blesses His people so that the world will fear Him. Put another way, God intends to glorify Himself in the way that He blesses His people. We are called to display God’s wisdom and glory and grace and love through the blessings of salvation that He has poured out on us so that the world will see His power and praise Him for it.

We are fond of saying here that the church is meant to be “an object lesson of the Gospel” to the world—this psalm is one of the primary reasons we say this. Far too often I think we are content with the understanding that God has blessed us with His salvation for our own sake—and this is certainly true as far as it goes. But if we are content to have a man-centered understanding of the work of God in our salvation, we will ultimately become short-sighted, selfish and introverted in our faith—it’s all about me, it’s all about what God did for me.

Of course we glorify God for what He has done for us. But Psalm 67 is a powerful reminder that you and I have ultimately been saved by God’s grace for the sake of His own glory! When God spoke through Ezekiel to Israel about the deliverance He was going to work for them, he said

Ezekiel 36:22 (ESV)

22 “...Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came...

This is the same truth that the psalmist builds Psalm 67 on—that God blesses His people so that His Name would be great among the nations. So the way I want to say it this morning is that

The Church cultivates GOSPEL BLESSINGS in order to harvest the NATIONS

Let’s look through our passage to see how this is so.

Look at verse 1 with me:

Psalm 67:1 (ESV)

1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah

Right here at the beginning of the psalm we see

I. The blessing SECURED (Ps. 67:1; cp. Numbers 6:24-26)

Here is the description of the blessing with which God blesses His people so that the nations would see His ways and His saving power. This verse is based off of the blessing that God instructed Aaron to give the children of Israel in Numbers 6--

Numbers 6:24–26 (ESV)

24 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

See how this lines up with the first verse of Psalm 67?

Psalm 67:1 (ESV)

1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah

It’s as clear as can be, isn’t it? God blesses His people so that they may be a blessing! And while the saints in the Old Testament had only glimpses of God’s grace and blessing and favor, you and I have the fulness of God’s blessing revealed to us—we have

The GRACE of God in CHRIST (John 1:16-17)

Consider the magnitude of the Grace of God revealed to you in the work of Jesus Christ on your behalf! Jesus Christ died in your place, becoming sin so that you might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21)—as the Apostle John would write in His Gospel:

John 1:16–17 (ESV)

16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Moses gave Israel the instructions to bless their children with “may YHWH be gracious to you...” but that was a promise, a down-payment as it were, on the grace and truth that was poured out on us through Jesus Christ! He fulfils the blessing of God’s graciousness to us, and He is the fulfillment of the blessings promise of

The DELIGHT of God in YOU (2 Corinthians 4:6)

The Old Testament blessing asked that the LORD would make His face shine upon His children—in Jesus Christ the shining face of God is turned fully and permanently upon you!

2 Corinthians 4:6 (ESV)

6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Consider the magnificence of the blessings of God that have been poured out on you in Jesus Christ! The penalty and power of your sins have been placed on Him, and His death, burial and resurrection have freed you from them forever! And now you live in Him—who you are and what you love and where you go and what you do is all found in Jesus Christ. And because you now live in God the Son, then God the Father’s love and delight and joy in you is supernaturally directed at you by His Holy Spirit!

And these blessings of the Gospel—your atonement by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God the Father’s delight in you because of your union with Christ—these blessings go on to completely transform your life. There is no part of your existence that is not impacted in one way or another by the blessings of your salvation in Christ—in other words, you can’t help but demonstrate the power of the Gospel to transform a life!

In verse 1, we see the blessing secured. And in verses 2-4 we see

II. The blessing DISPLAYED (Psalm 67:2-4)

Psalm 67:2–4 (ESV)

2 that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. 3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! 4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah

Look again at the way the psalm is structured—verse 2 matches with verse 6. In verse 2, God’s ways are made known on the earth:

Psalm 67:2 (ESV)

2 that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.

And in verse 6, God’s blessings are made known on the earth:

Psalm 67:6 (ESV)

6 The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, shall bless us.

As God pours out His blessings on the people who have received His grace and favor and shining countenance, their lives display the blessings of that grace. In the Old Testament, Israel was meant to draw the nations to herself because of the blessings they displayed. It was a

COME and SEE pattern (vv. 2-3; 1 Kings 8:41-43)

This “Come and See” pattern flows all through the Old Testament. From God’s deliverance of His people out of Egypt. In the middle of the ten plagues that He brought on Egypt, God says to Pharoah

Exodus 9:15–16 (ESV)

15 For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. 16 But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.

And later on in 1 Samuel, when David went out to face Goliath, he told the giant to his face

1 Samuel 17:46 (ESV)

46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel!

And when David’s son Solomon dedicated the Temple in 1 Kings 8, he specifically said that the Temple was meant to be a place where the nations would come and see the blessings of God’s covenant people:

1 Kings 8:41–43 (ESV)

41 “Likewise, when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a far country for your name’s sake 42 (for they shall hear of your great name and your mighty hand, and of your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this house, 43 hear in heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name.

The entire pattern of God’s glory in the Old Testament was a “come and see” pattern—calling the nations to come and see God’s gracious blessings revealed in His people.

Christian, you are a recipient of the fulfillment of all the grace and mercy and favor that was promised in the Old Testament—you have received grace and mercy and redemption from your sins by the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so consider just a few ways that this “come and see” pattern works for you. Are you inviting people to “come and see” the Gospel

--In your LIFE?

Are the blessings of the Gospel in your life so visible to others that they are attracted to God’s glory? Is God’s grace filling you in such a way that that grace flows out to others? Is the forgiveness you have received from Christ such a constant source of joy and peace in you that forgiving others comes naturally? Are you inviting others into your life as if to say “Come and see what God has done for me in the Gospel!”

Are you inviting people to “come and see” the Gospel at work

--In your HOME?

to “come and see” the Gospel at work? Whether you are married or unmarried, whether you have kids or no kids, whether you are young or old, the world around you needs to see what a home governed by the Gospel looks like! You may think you have nothing to offer, you may think that your home isn’t anything special, but the world around you is starving for examples of a home built on the happiness and peace and joy and contentment that comes from the blessings of the Gospel!

Are you inviting people to “come and see” the Gospel at work

--In our CHURCH?

The world around us has no idea how to get along with each other. The world around us can do nothing but fight and argue and divide and hate and suspect and fear. But it is through the Church that God has made His manifold wisdom known to the world, bringing together people who would otherwise have no connection whatsoever with each other, and forming them into one body through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ! So every Sunday as we worship together as one family, one body, one people in Christ that we say to the world “Come and see the blessings of the Gospel at work!”

If the pattern of the Old Testament was a “come and see” pattern, then the New Testament pattern set by our Lord Himself is a

GO and TELL pattern (v. 4; cp. Matt. 28:18-20)

As we come to Verse 4 here in Psalm 67, we have come to the heart of the chiasm—there is no “corresponding verse” because this is the spot the “X” of the chiasm is supposed to mark.:

Psalm 67:4 (ESV)

4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah

This verse is the “anchor” of the psalm, and notice where it directs us—to God’s sovereign rule over the earth! There are two reasons that the nations are to be “glad and sing for joy”—first, that God is a righteous Judge—He “judges the peoples with equity”. Second, the people are glad and sing for joy because God is a reliable guide—He “guides the nations on the earth”. The nations look to the blessings of God’s grace that are on display in His people and respond with praise for His authority as a righteous Judge and His guidance in directing the nations.

When Jesus sent out His disciples in Matthew 28:18-20, (what we call the Great Commission), notice how His commands align perfectly with Psalm 67:4--

Matthew 28:18–20 (ESV)

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me [He has all authority to judge the peoples with righteousness!]

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, [guide the nations of the earth to obey Him!]

baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you [guide the nations into obedience to Christ!]. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

If Psalm 67 is the essence of “Come and See”, then Jesus’ command in Matthew 28 is the essence of “go and tell”. And Psalm 67:4 along with Matthew 28:18-20 give us the essence of the message regarding the glory of God’s grace in salvation that we are to take with us as we go. We are to go and

--DECLARE His authority

Jesus Christ is the reigning King over all the nations! We sometimes get the idea that we are like campaign workers for Christ; that we have to go out and get enough people to agree to put Him in charge, that we have to go out and talk people into giving Him authority. But that’s not what the Scripture tells us! We are go go and tell the good news that Christ is already reigning over the nations of this earth; that He does judge the peoples with righteousness—we are not going out to ask people to submit to His authority, we are going to proclaim that He already possesses all authority!

And with that authority, Jesus Christ reigns today to “guide the nations on the earth...” He sets up kings and removes kings, He raises up nations and tears them down, He determines the alloted periods and boundaries of the dwelling places of the peoples so that they should seek Him and find Him in the faithful proclamation of the Gospel. This is what Jesus is saying in Matthew 28:20—that His people are to go and

--DISCIPLE the nations

Matthew 28:20 (ESV)

20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you...

Christian, your task is to go out and proclaim this Gospel—that Jesus Christ was crucified, buried and has risen again with salvation for all who repent of their sins and place their faith in Him. We are to “make disciples of all nations”—this is the New Testament revelation of what the Psalmist understood when he wrote that God “guides the nations on the earth”. This is your task, Church! To declare the authority of Jesus Christ through the proclamation of this Gospel—straight up the middle, no frills, no excuses. Repent and believe in Jesus Christ for salvation!

The Church is meant to be an object lesson of the Gospel; a demonstration of what the Gospel of Jesus Christ does when it gets hold of a group of people. Transformed by grace through faith, the blessings of the Gospel are on display in the love and commitment and grace and peace that exists in a Gospel-saturated church. This is what the Gospel does. And as the mustard seed of the Gospel takes root in a people, it transforms them.

And when a people are transformed by the blessings of the Gospel—whether it is a church, a town, a state, or a nation, then the blessing displayed becomes

III. The blessing ENJOYED (Psalm 67:5-7)

Psalm 67:5–7 (ESV)

5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! 6 The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, shall bless us. 7 God shall bless us; let all the ends of the earth fear him!

When the blessings of the Gospel are guiding the nations, the result is increase—abundance, prosperity, security. Verse 4 says that God “judges the peoples with equity”—that word has gotten a lot of usage these days, hasn’t it? Penn State is making a big deal (as is every other university these days) over their “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” initiatives. But the problem is that they are seeking those things while in direct rebellion against God! When mankind attempts to rule apart from submission to Jesus Christ, the result is a disaster—

The EQUITY of man brings POVERTY

Look around at the history of civilization in the 20th Century and you will see what happens when man’s idea of “equity” takes hold—not just equality of opportunity—making sure everyone has the same chance to succeed—but equity of outcomes: Making sure everybody gets the same result. If you have a “right” to affordable housing in the name of “equity”, then that means that someone else has a responsibility to pay for that housing (either a landlord who becomes impoverished or someone else forced to pay higher taxes!) You’re watching in this country (in real-time) what happens to a people who are enjoying the fruits of man’s so-called “equity” driven by envy, resentment, greed and hatred.

But the message of Psalm 67 is that the equity with which God governs the world brings increase—if the so-called “equity” of man brings poverty,

The EQUITY of God brings GLORY (Rev. 21:22-26)

Psalm 67:6–7 (ESV)

6 The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, shall bless us. 7 God shall bless us; let all the ends of the earth fear him!

The death of Jesus Christ was the most inequitable event in all of history. He Who deserved life received death, He Who deserved praise received scorn, He who was utterly and completely holy was weighted down with all of the sin and wickedness and perversions of the world. And so the death of Jesus Christ meant the death of inequity. Angry and bitter claims of “inequity” are put to silence once for all by the One Who suffered as the One True Innocent Victim that has ever existed in this world. By his Resurrection He was declared with power to be the Son of God, He was given dominion and glory and a kingdom which will never pass away or be destroyed. He is the One and Only source of true justice, true “equity” in this world! He is true justice, this is true glory.

When the Gospel takes root in a people, the result is glory—whether it is the glory of a church family that loves one another, loves God and His Word and loves their neighbors, or the glory of a Christian home full of hospitality, love, light and joy, or the glory of a Christian nation that bows the knee to Jesus Christ in submission to His Word (just imagine for a moment if God were to send a revival to Capitol Hill—what would our government look like if all 435 representatives, all 100 senators, all 9 justices and the president were all truly, gloriously and genuinely born again?!?)

And the Scriptures tell us that someday all the kings of the earth will bring their glory into the Kingdom of God: The Apostle John writes about the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21:

Revelation 21:24–26 (ESV)

24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.

Beloved, this is the harvest that God intends to bring through the proclamation of the blessings of the Gospel—a harvest of the nations! The earth will yield its increase—the nations will be ripe for harvest! This is why God’s people cultivate the blessings of the Gospel in our lives, our homes, our church—so that the world will come and see the glory of God in the Gospel, even as we go and tell the world the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection and His exaltation as the King of Kings!

And if these things are so, beloved, then cultivate the blessings of the Gospel in your life! If God intends to bring the world to Himself by showcasing the blessings of the Gospel in you, then you must not be cowed into apologizing for those blessings! Here in these days while the nations are raging against God, they will not admit that the reign of God in Christ has any value; their envy and hatred will cause them to tear down any goodness they see--you are a bigoted and hypocritical hater; you can’t be forgiven for your sin because your very existence is a sin. The way you have built your home (in obedience to Christ and His Word) is not “cisnormative oppression”; it is obedience! Do not apologize for the display of the blessing of God in your life, because this is the means by which the ends of the earth will come to fear Him!

And secondly—do not neglect to declare the Lordship of Christ! Remember that you are not in the position of “drumming up votes” for Jesus. You are not trying to get people to sign a petition to have Jesus named King; He is King, and you have been given the task of declaring His Lordship to the nations so that they may obey Him! Be ready to give an answer for the Gospel blessings evident in your life to anyone who asks you—we have booklets on the back table that walk you through a simple way to present the Gospel, and some new tracts that you can keep with you to give to someone you talk with. Declare the blessings of the Gospel in the way you worship in His presence, praising Him for His saving power that brought you to Himself, demonstrating by your commitment to worship here week by week that He is your greatest treasure.

Cultivate Gospel blessings in your gratitude for your blessings, cultivate Gospel blessings as you declare the Lordship of Jesus Christ in your evangelism, in your worship. God says here in His inspired Word that the outworking of the Gospel in your life will produce blessings that the world will see and notice. And so the question for you this morning is, can the world see the outworking of your salvation?

Does your commitment to living in Christ by faith set you apart from the world in a way that makes people want to ask you about it? Or does your life, your conduct, your speech, your desires and affections, your demeanor look just like every other unbeliever?

If that is your struggle this morning, then listen to the words of the Apostle Peter as he exhorted the churches of his day:

1 Peter 2:9–12 (ESV)

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

So cultivate Gospel glories, Christian—in your life, in your home, in your church. Call the world to come and see what God has done for you in Christ, go and declare His Lordship over all the people of the earth and declare this Gospel to the nations so that His way will be known on all the earth, His saving power among all nations.

And if you have come here today and seen these Gospel blessings at work in the people around you and you want this grace and forgiveness and peace and salvation for yourself, if you have come to realize that you are guilty before God and deserve His wrath, if you have seen and heard in our worship the truth that Jesus Christ died for your sins according to the Scriptures; that He was buried and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, then come and talk to me after the service this morning, come and talk to any one of the regular members here so that we can help you know for sure that these blessings of the Gospel can be yours today through your Savior Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION:

Ephesians 3:20–21 (ESV)

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

In what ways has God blessed you physically and materially? In what ways has He blessed you spiritually? How has the Gospel’s outworking in your life been the root of all of your blessings—physical and spiritual?

What is the difference between the way God’s glory was communicated in the Old Testament and the New Testament? (Hint: Read 1 Kings 8:41-43 and Matthew 28:18-20). How can you carry out both of these patterns in your life?

What is the difference between the way the world uses the word “equity” and the way God rules with “equity”? How does the message of the Gospel challenge (and defeat) the world’s attempts at “equity”?