PSALM 67
This psalm was written to be sung with a band of stringed instruments. It is a song that asks God to bless Israel, but not just bless, but to bless with a purpose.
67:1-3
Blessing With A Purpose
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!
In verse 1, the psalmist asks God to bless Israel. He invoked the blessing God gave to Aaron, the first high priest, to bless the people. That blessing is found in Numbers 6:24-26.
The blessing goes like this:
The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
This blessing was given after the Israelites entered into a covenant with God on Mount Sinai and promised to obey his law. It was given as they began their journey through the wilderness to Canaan. The blessing invokes God’s provision, God’s favor, and God’s presence.
In the wilderness, they would need God’s provision because the wilderness often did not provide food or water. They needed God’s favor because nations would attack them. And they needed God’s presence to guide them, as he did in the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day. These were all great, visible, and physical signs of their need for God and his blessing.
The psalmist invoked this blessing, seeking God’s blessing at this later time. But the Psalmist does more than that. He asks God to bless them, but not just so they would prosper. He asked God to bless Israel to that God’s way may be known on earth, along with his saving power.
By doing so, the Psalmist looks back past the Mosaic covenant with its law, to the Abrahamic covenant with its blessing. That blessing is recorded for us in Genesis 12:1-3, where God said to Abraham:
“And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
It is the last clause of that covenantal statement to which the Psalmist refers: “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” The Psalmist realized that God wanted Israel to be special, and by living according to the covenant, show the world the way to God and the way to know his saving power. (2)
If and when that happens, all of the people, not just Israel, will praise God. (3)
Although the Psalmist asked for this, Israel did not accomplish it, and actually came to despise the nations, the Gentiles. There was even a prayer that blessed God for not making the Jewish man a woman, a slave, or a Gentile.
But God accomplished the blessing on all people by sending his Son, an Israelite, or Jew, according to the flesh, and a son of Abraham, who brought salvation to the nations.
Paul explained this in Galatians 3:7-9, when he wrote “Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying “In you shall all the nations be blessed. So, then, whose who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.”
God fulfilled his covenant promise to bless the nations through Abraham, by sending his Son as the seed of Abraham to bring salvation to the nations. That means he also answered the prayer of this Psalmist to make himself known over all the earth.
67:4-5
Let The Nations Be Glad
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!
Here the Psalmist envisions the world submitted to the rule of God. They would be glad and sing for joy when they saw God judge with equity and guide the nations.
The word “Judge” here is more than a judge in the courtroom. It is like the Old Testament judges who led the people to repent of idolatry, throw off their oppressors and live for God. They were leaders of the people.
The Psalmist wanted that to happen, so he cries out “Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you”. (5) That is the cry of every believer who sees the world full of rebellion against God and sinking into depravity. At the end of the book of Revelation, John the Apostle wrote “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!”. (Revelation 22:20) He wanted to see it, too.
And, in fact, God gave John a vision of the world under the rule of God. It is in Revelation 22:3:-5, which says
No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of god and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
This desire for the nations to worship God is also the reason for missions. We want God to be glorified by all, to be worshipped by all, for his glory and their benefit.
67:6-7
Acknowledging the Blessing
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!
The Psalmist acknowledged the blessing of God, specifically a bountiful crop. He said “the earth has yielded its increase”. That is a sign that, as the Lord blessed in the past, the Lord will bless in the future. So, the nations should fear him, or hold him in reverence because they believe in him.
Sadly, many to do acknowledge God as the one who provides. They are the ones Romans 1:21 refers to as those who did not honor God or give thanks to him. The only cure for that is belief in the gospel. As Paul wrote in the same chapter, the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. (Romans 1:16)
Since the coming of Christ, the role of the Jews and Gentiles have been reversed. The Church is largely a Gentile church. It is composed of Gentiles who have indeed come to know God’s ways through salvation in Christ, who have come into Christ’s kingdom, and recognize God’s sovereign rule in the affairs of this world.
We are now the ones who sing for joy as God blesses us by providing for our needs. Jesus said our heavenly Father knows all our needs. We are to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all of our needs will be met. (Matthew 6:32-33)
Now, in turn, we should pray that the Father will bring the Jews to the fear of the Lord by believing in Jesus as savior and lord so that indeed all the ends of the earth will fear him.
Rejoice this week that God knows your needs and meets them. Pray for those who do not know him, that they would be saved and the fear and worship of the Lord would spread over all the earth.
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