Scripture Reading(s)
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Psalm 67
67:1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah
67:2 that your way may be known upon earth, your saving power among all nations.
67:3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.
67:4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah
67:5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you.
67:6 The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us.
67:7 May God continue to bless us; let all the ends of the earth revere him.
Reflections
This is a Psalm centered around the promise to Abraham that God would bless His descendants, and in Abraham, all the families of the earth. There are two themes that run through this Psalm. They are the need and result of God’s mercy and the future universal worship of God.
We all find ourselves in need of God’s mercy. The nation of Israel unfortunately had a history of falling away from being obedient to God and therefore as a result falling into sin. However, in God’s abundant Grace, He still forgave them and brought them back to Him. His love and mercy for us never fades. He only waits for us to turn from our sin and ask for forgiveness which He offers so willingly.
However, there was also a future promise in store. For years, the Gospel was only made available to the Jewish nation. Here we see how in verse 3, that the Gospel would be available to all people. In verse 3 we see how in the future, when we all go to heaven to be with Christ, it is now a universal truth for everyone to participate in.
We all now have the joy and privilege of having free access to God’s Grace! This is a promise that is available to but all who will turn from their sin and believe in Jesus Christ. His mercy and love are everlasting and the more we continue to seek Him, the more we will experience His true blessing in our lives.
Here in the 1st world we are blessed beyond measure. I one visited Nicaragua on a mission trip and I saw how happy the children were and the families, even though they lived in poverty. Many of them lived in shacks or shanties, crudely constructed of debris and other random materials. Many of them had just a few selections of clothing. They often did not have shoes. It was a truly poverty stricken world. After I got home I realized just how blessed we are in the 1st world.
And what do we do with our blessings? We mostly complain. Let’s be real. We always want more. We need to take a note from the Psalmist and be thankful for what we’ve been blessed with. God says whoever can be faithful with little can be trusted with much. But part of being faithful with what we have is also being thankful. If we are given much but we are not thankful then why would we be blessed with anything else? This is also why God loves a cheerful giver. A cheerful giver requires an attitude of thankfulness.