LET THE NATIONS BE GLAD - PSALM 67

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. 

 It is for the honor of Jesus that we endure the trial of our faith with sacred joy. Let each man surrender his own longings to the glory of Jesus and declare: "If my lying in the dust would elevate my Lord by so much as an inch, let me still lie among the pots of earth.

Spurgeon

There is another that has made you, and preserves you, and provides for you, and on whom you are dependent: and He has made you for himself and for the good of your fellow creatures, and not only for yourself.

Jonathan Edwards

PSALM 66 - PRAISING GOD FOR HIS MIGHTY DEEDS

PSALM 66

66:1-4
Call to Worship

You can easily image the choirmaster standing in front of the congregation signing these words as he calls them to worship. He calls for everyone to shout for joy. Worship should bring joy because, in worship, we put God and ourselves in the proper place. We exalt God as we recall his mighty deeds. We humble ourselves and appreciate his grace that allows us to have a relationship with him.

So, in joy, we sing the glory of his named give him glorious praise. Praising God and giving him glory are the same thing. It is recognizing and verbalizing God’s greatness. We do not add anything to him, for he lacks nothing, but we acknowledge and rejoice in who he is.

God’s power is so great that his enemies cringe before him. They fear being destroyed. The Old Testament gives us many examples of God defeating his and Israel’s enemies. As they crossed the wilderness and entered Jordan, the Israelites defeated all of their foes, even those who were more numerous and better equipped.

When the Israelites got to Jericho, the fear of the Lord had fallen upon the inhabitants of the land because they had heard of the Lord parting the Red Sea and defeating the Amorite kings. (Joshua 2)

We also know that all of God’s enemies will cringe before him at the end. In Revelation 6, when the sixth seal is opened and there was a great conflagration, the people of earth, rich and poor alike, called to the mountains and rocks to fall on them and hide them from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb because it was the day of the Lord’s wrath.

And so the psalmist says all the earth worships and sings praises to his name.

66:5-7
Praise For Redemption
So, we think of God’s awesome deeds in worship in addition to his awesome nature. In Psalm 65, we saw praise for God in creation and in provision of water. In this psalm, we will see praise for God’s redemption of his people.

All through the Old Testament, God’s redemption of Israel is referred to repeatedly. The Lord himself referred to it when he gave instruction or correction to his people. He would say “I am the Lord who brought you up out of Egypt”, then give his instruction.

We all know about the parting of the Red Sea, which God did to allow the Israelites to escape the Egyptians and then to bring judgment on the Egyptians as they drowned in the sea. The psalmist referred to that in verse 6. Most of us have seen a graphic representation of that in the movie The Ten Commandments.

But, God parted the waters again when the Israelites entered Canaan. The psalmist refers to it here when he says “they passed through the river on foot”. He told the congregation to reflect on God’s awesome deeds in the redemption of Israel, focusing on God parting the waters to allow Israel to go from the land of slavery to the land of redemption.

Joshua 2 tells us the story. As Israel finally arrived to enter Canaan, they had to cross the Jordan River. At the Lord’s instruction, Joshua and the priests carrying the ark, and one man from each tribe walked into the water and God parted it so that the Israelites could walk across on dry ground. Just as leaving Egypt required a work of God’s power, so did entry into the promised land require a work of his power. The Psalmist recalled that event and said they rejoiced when God did it, implying they should continue to rejoice now because it shows God’s might and sovereignty over the nations to save his people.

Christians still use the imagery. For example, we sing a song about Jordan’s stormy banks, written by Samuel Stinnett, a Baptist pastor in the late 1700s. It says:

On Jordan's stormy banks I stand,
and cast a wishful eye
to Canaan's fair and happy land,
where my possessions lie.


66:8-12
Worshipping in Times of Correction

God redeems his people. He redeemed the Israelites. He redeems the church. He also sanctifies his people by correcting them when they stray.

The psalmist said God kept their souls and did not let their feet slip. He tested them and tried them and at times it was very difficult. He referred to refining silver, which requires great heat. He referred to the Lord leading them to be caught in a net and being crushed by burdens. All of these are images and symbols of difficult times, which the Lord used for their correction.

For the Israelites, this often came in the form of invaders. When they strayed, God would let marauders come and raid their towns and villages. If they continued, they would be invaded by armies of foreign powers. If they still continued to stray, God would let them be overrun and defeated. But, when they repented and got back on the righteous path, God brought them back to the place of abundance.

The times of blessing and the times of difficulty were part of the blessings and curses of the old covenant. We do not live under that system today. But, God still desires our sanctification and leads us to grow in that direction. If we stray from that path into disobedience and sin, he will correct us for our benefit.

That correction may come from the reading of his word. 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us Scripture is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness.  

Sometimes it comes in the form of discipline. The writer of Hebrews said:

In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
    nor be weary when reproved by him.

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
    and chastises every son whom he receives.”
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:4-11)

I truly believe God cares more about your sanctification than your comfort. I have been corrected by reading the Word. I have been corrected by discipline. I recommend the former. It is much less painful.

66:13-15
Performing Vows

We see again the psalmist performing the vows he made when he sought God’s help. He said “that which my lips uttered and my mouth promised when I was in trouble”. (14) He vowed to make extra offerings of animals if God would help him. Now he will keep that vow.

Whatever you have promised to God, you should do. Whether it is giving, or attending, or witnessing. Do what you have promised in gratitude for what God has done for you.

This psalm shows us something about our gathering to worship. It is first corporate. The congregation gathers and praises God together. But it is also individual, the keeping of vows and the giving of gifts.

66:16-20
The Invitation

In this section, the psalmist invites all who fear God to come and hear the testimony of the psalmist. He asked God for help and God gave it to him. He did not sink into sin, but raised his prayer to God and God listened and acted in steadfast love.

For a while, our church had testimony time on some Sunday nights. And you found yourself built up as you rejoiced with someone who shared God’s deliverance.

Whatever you struggle with today, lift it up to God in a prayer for help. He will answer and he will help. Pray for others who struggle. Those who share the struggle, share the victory.

A Blessing

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[a] upon you and give you peace.

Severe Trials

In seasons of severe trial, the Christian has nothing on earth that he can trust to, and is therefore compelled to cast himself on his God alone. When his vessel is on its beam-ends, and no human deliverance can avail, he must simply and entirely trust himself to the providence and care of God. Happy storm that wrecks a man on such a rock as this! O blessed hurricane that drives the soul to God and God alone! - Charles Spurgeon

PSALM 65 - PRAISE FOR GOD'S PROVISION

PSALM 65

This Psalm is specifically designated as a song. It is a song of praise to God for bringing rain that resulted in a bountiful harvest.

Praise For God’s Presence
65:1-4

The first thing the David says is that praise belongs to God. In fact, it is owed to him. David takes no credit. He gives no credit to Israel. He says praise belongs to God.

This is a good word for us. We should give God praise because he has provided so well for us. It is human nature to take credit for the good we have and blame God for the bad that happens. But, as believers, we should acknowledge that God gives us our blessings and we should praise him.

It may seem like an odd thing to say in the middle of a pandemic. But most of us in America are doing fine. We are restricted in activities, but we still have food, a place to live, and plenty of entertainment. While there are things that worry us, we can, if we will, look to our blessings and the gracious God who gives them to us.

When David writes “to you shall vows be performed”, he likely refers to sacrifices. People often vowed to offer sacrifices if God granted their requests. So, the proper response to God’s answering prayers was to praise him and offer any sacrifices promised.

We do not sacrifice animals as part of our worship any more. But I’m sure some of us have made promises to God that we would fulfill if he answered a prayer. That would be a similar thing.

One of my favorite movie scenes is in a movie called “The End” where Burt Reynolds is thrown overboard and swims to shore. He promises to give God 90% of what he has if he will save him. Then he reduces it to 50% as he gets closer. When he finally arrives, he says never mind God, he did it himself. It is a good example of how we think sometimes. You can see this scene on YouTube at https://youtu.be/IkOT64-1OOw.



The praises were offered to God in Zion, according to verse 1. That is a reference to the temple in Jerusalem where God’s presence dwelled. David would have considered the best way to praise God would be to go the temple and offer his praise.

David referred to God as “you who hear prayer” and to whom all flesh come”. “Flesh” here means people. We take our requests to God and he hears us. He is the only one who answers prayer. Despite the fact that you hear people today saying they asked the Universe or put it out on the Universe, the Universe does not answer prayers. The Creator of the universe answers prayer.

In addition to answering prayers, God forgives sin. Even when our sins seem to overtake us, God forgives and provides atonement for sin. (3) In the Old Covenant, atonement was accomplished by the sacrifice of animals. In the New Covenant, Jesus accomplished atonement for us once and for all.

When we come to Christ, we receive atonement for our sins because of the life and death of Christ. Hebrews 10 explains this to us.

Those whose sins are atoned are those whom God has chosen and bought near, as verse 4 says. In David’s time, the children of Israel were chosen by God to be his people and were brought near to him. Deuteronomy 7:6 says “The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”

We, now as believers, are chosen ones. Ephesians 1:4 says “…he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him”.

God’s chosen ones are brought near to him to dwell in his courts, to be in his presence. God did this physically with the Israelites. He brought them from Egypt to himself at the mountain. He said to them “I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself”. (Exodus 19:4)

The Jews were brought near to God. Everyone else, the Gentiles, were far off. All of here today are likely Gentiles. Before Christ, we were far off from God, but no longer. Ephesians 2:13 says “But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ”. We are the blessed ones whom God had chosen and brought near to dwell in his presence.

And his presence is enough. It is sufficient for life. David said “we shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple”. (4) There is no real satisfaction outside of Christ. Only Christ satisfies. Every thing else leads to disappointment.

65:5-8
Praise for God’s Awesome Deeds

In this stanza, David praises God for his deeds. He says the God who did all of these mighty deeds answers our prayers. He is the hope of all people.

The first mighty deed David recounts is that God established the mountains (6) The mountains were the largest and strongest physical objects David knew and God made them. In other words, God is the creator of the earth. It is the first thing we learn about God in the Bible: he created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1) That is a mighty deed. David praised God for it and so should we.

David also said God was sovereign over the seas. He could still them. Since the Jews saw the sea as a place of chaos and danger, this is a testimony to the power of God. Jesus demonstrated this to the disciples when they got caught in their boat in a storm. Jesus slept through most of it. I’m guessing that is because he had no need to worry about something he could control. When the disciples woke him up, he even asked them why they were afraid. Then he said “Peace! Be Still!” He stilled the sea. (Mark 4:35-41)

God also stills the people of the earth. He is sovereign over humanity and well as nature.  For example, he made King Nebuchadnezzar live like an animal until he recognized God’s sovereignty over him. (Daniel 4) Those are mighty deeds. They put us in awe of him.

God’s mighty deeds also make us shout for joy, David said. (8) Why would God’s mighty deeds make us joyful? Because we know that since God is powerful enough to create the earth and govern its natural forces and its people, he is powerful enough to take care of us. And he is powerful enough to accomplish his will.

65:9-13
God’s Provision

Specifically, this stanza is David’s praise for the gift of rain. The prayer of verse 2 was a prayer for rain. Since Israel has a desert climate, rain is precious and vital. If it rains at the right time and in the right amount, crops will be bountiful. If there is no rain, or insufficient rain, there are no crops. And there is not enough grass for the livestock to eat.

David gave God the credit for the rain. He said God visited the earth and watered it. (9) With that water, God provided grain for his people. God provided abundant water, resulting in a harvest of grain in abundance. This all resulted in shouts and songs of joy.

We had a drought here for about three years. In that last year, people prayed desperately for rain. Cities and towns were running out of water. The lakes were drying up. It was scary. Churches met and prayed for rain.

For the last few years, and especially lately, we have had an abundance of rain. The lake closest to me overflows its banks. The engineers at the dam release water into designated creeks. We have waterfalls. It has rained enough that some people are tired of it. I vowed never to complain about rain after the drought. We should thank God and praise him for giving us enough water. We take it for granted, but should not.

God has given us many blessings, especially here in the United States. We have an abundance of natural resources. Things have been so good here for generations that many people do not even know where food and fuel come from. They just assume they can find it and buy it at any time.

But God can take away blessings. Some think the current pandemic is a sign of that. I do not know. But, today is a great day to recognize the greatness of God, to joyfully praise him for it, and to repent of times we have ignored it or taken it for granted.

My God bless you this week and may you thank and praise him for it.