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Remember these are notes, so don't expect compete sentences or good grammar. PSALM 67 Praise and wonderful hope!
Wonderful encouragement in a world of: • sadness, • injustice, • uncertainty, • lostness, • and hunger.
vs. 4: `May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples justly and guide the nations of the earth.'
REMEMBER THIS PSALM IS A PRAYER OF ANCIENT ISRAEL WHO BELIEVED THEY WERE THE CHOSEN PEOPLE. I have often said that `chosenness' never meant `favouritism'. However sometimes the Israelites thought that that was what it meant. But here in this prayer (written about 3,000 years ago) they show that they want all the nations to `rejoice and be glad' - to be ruled justly and be guided aright. I hope that in your prayers when you are praying for yourself, and your family and neighbourhood, you also earnestly pray for all the world, and make this prayer of the psalmist your prayer - all nations and peoples.
One day this prayer will be seen to have been answered and you will want to have been one of those who were in tune with God in making it your prayer, during your life on earth. ---------------- Let us just consider what this Psalm tells us about that day of the Lord. 6 `Then the land will yield its harvest, and God, our God, will bless us.'
So much hunger today.
There is ample capacity in the world today to feed double the present world's population - even when rains fail in some parts of the world. OVER-POPULATION? The real problem is unjust and selfish practices in both the poor countries and the rich countries that so distorts the world economy that vast areas of the world cannot produce the food even though God had given ample resources.
Not that all world leaders are wicked, selfish tyrants. Some are. But others are simply lost.
They want to do the best but have no idea what to do.
DITHERING IS CHARACTERISTIC OF MANY WORLD LEADERS. `MY INDECISION IS FINAL!'
So what we need is what this Psalm tells us justice, (fairness), and guidance.
When the God's kingdom comes to this world He will judge the world.
As well as punish the wicked, JUDGE means `Rule and straighten out what is crooked - put right what is wrong.' -Then the Lord will rule.
Our prayer: `Thy KINGDOM come..', Thy WILL be done on earth...'
The rule of His people will be with `guidance'. The Hebrew word implies a real tenderness.
Not overbearing master but a good shepherd - allowing a great deal of freedom. Strength and tenderness are combined.
In our unjust world - that is a great hope. ---------------- Do you think that this is all make-believe?
I believe the Bible promise to be true.
2 Reasons: 1. God created the world. God did not create the world only to let it disintegrate into chaos and self-destruction. Injustice triumphing forever?
2. Death and resurrection of Christ stands at the centre of world history. The meaning of that death and resurrection of Christ is fanned our throughout the history of mankind. After an unjust trial, suffering, death, and seeming hopelessness, is resurrection.
God is not going to allow evil to triumph for ever. ---------------- Now lets look at the way God works out His purpose.
vs. 1 and 2: `May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, 2 that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.'
THAT SHOULD REMIND US OF TWO VERY FAMOUS VERSES IN THE BIBLE:
1. The prayer of this Psalm is `May we be blessed so that the world may be blessed.' Near the beginning of the Bible we read God's promise to Abraham: Genesis 12:1-3 1 The LORD had said to Abram, 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. and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you."
Blessing on Abraham's descendants will bring blessing to the nations. If Abraham's descendants are not right with God the nations will not receive the blessing:
THE PROPHETS SAY THE SAME THING.
Destiny of Israel is bound up with the destiny of the whole world. The leaders of the world may not understand it but God has made sure that tiny Israel's affairs are always kept before the nations - they are never out of the news.
For a nation only the size of Wales with no strategic importance and one of the very few Middle East Nations to have no oil, that is surely a remarkable fact. (Like all the nations, they of course, have their many faults.) ----------------- The other famous text we use in Baptism.
Verse 1 of this psalm: (May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us,) THIS reminds us of: Numbers 6:24-26 24 "` "The LORD bless you and keep you; 25 the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace." ' 1. The Lord bless... and be gracious to you.
The word gracious in the Hebrew means to `stoop' to the level of an inferior, to be kind to him - to be one with him in such a way as to hide one's own superior station.
That is what we believe about Christ - In Him, God has stooped to our human level and veiled His glory that becoming one of us He might bear our sin and sorrow and death.
2. The Lord make His face shine upon us. In the Bible, to give to someone's face means to give it in person to the person. (Not send it through an intermediary).
There are some occasions in life where to meet someone face to face takes much more courage and can be more painful at first, - more so than an intermediary or a telephone call or a letter - but it yields a more satisfactory outcome in the end.
`The Lord's face shining upon us' means that we know His personal presence with us AND THAT FOR OUR GOOD.
Jesus is the very presence of God in our midst - not an intermediary who keeps God at a distance. `He who has seen me has seen the Father.' -------- In the Jerusalem Temple there was a specially holy table and on the temple was the `Bread of the Presence'.
It foreshadowed our Communion Bread. `Presence is actually the word `face'. `Bread of the face of God'.
In other words the real personal presence of God with us is most clearly seen in the sufferings of Jesus. His presence with us meant a suffering for our sins. --------------- This was necessary before the final judgement at the end of the age when what this psalm promises comes to fruition.
The other necessity is the taking of this message to all nations so that all parts of the world have the opportunity to hear and respond - THE EARTH MUST YIELD ITS HARVEST.
That is the time that we are living in now!
SO vs. 2:make his face shine upon us, 2 that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.
The blessing is that God's WAY and SALVATION may be known in all the earth.
WAY: The paths which God takes as He walks through history. BIBLE is primarily the story of the world from beginning (Genesis) to end. Focused in Israel - represents the world before God.
Focused further in Jesus - brings God and mankind together.
So by knowing the Bible story, one is able to understand the ways of God in the turbulent story of the world AND in our own individual lives. ----------------- The second part of the blessing is that His salvation might be known in all the world.
The two are really one because as God walks through the story of our lives, and the story of the whole world, His purpose is to save the world.
It is a very difficult thing to do. He has to save us without destroying our freedom - for that would be destroy our humanity.
So he can't merely wave His magic wand and force us to stop our sinning and warring.
He has to use our sin as the means of saving us. So at the heart of the story He deliberately allows us to reject Him and crucify Him so as He might bear away our sin and give us His forgiveness - a forgiveness which will transform us from selfish self-centredness to love. -------- The Psalmist looks forward in prayer to the days when this would be known in all the world.
In the wonderful providence of God, although it was the Jews who are the human authors of the Bible it is the Gentile Christian Church that has taken the Bible into all the world.
The story of world mission according to the july 1993 edition of `prayer network for revival' is as follows: In the city of Antioch in AD38 there were six Christians. By the end of that century with a population of half million it is estimated there were in that city over 100,000. In AD1000 there were 50 million Christians throughout the world. By 1900 this had grown to 560 million and by the year AD2000 it is expected that there will be 2,000 million. Of the total number of Christians since AD38, 70% have been added since 1900, 70% of these since World War II and 70% of these during the last three years. In 1900 the world was 3% Christian, by 1992 it was 40% Christian and by 2,000 the world is expected to be 50% Christian. It is estimated that world wide there are 16,000 new Churches formed every week.
WHEAT AND TARES GROWING TOGETHER.
And so the prayer of this Psalm is being answered nearly 3,000 years after it was written. Psalm 67:1-7 1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us, Selah 2 that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. 3 May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you. 4 May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples justly and guide the nations of the earth. 5 May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you. 6 Then the land will yield its harvest, and God, our God, will bless us. 7 God will bless us, and all the ends of the earth will fear him. (NIV)
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