Psalm 067

Introduction

Psalm 67 is a prayer. Did you notice that? The psalmist is addressing God. So, in verse 2 the psalmist refers to ‘your ways’ and ‘your salvation’. And when he says ‘your’, he’s referring to God. In verse 3 he says ‘May the peoples people you, O God’ and ‘may all the peoples praise you.’ He’s talking to God. In verse 4 he says to God that ‘you rule the peoples justly’ and ‘[you] guide the nations of the earth.’ Once again, he’s addressing God in prayer. Verse 5 repeats verse 3 and so once again he’s directing his words to God when he says, ‘May the peoples praise you, O God’. And whereas the NIV translates the final lines as a statement that God will bless us, it’s possible that they should also be translated as a request to God:

May God, our God, bless us!
May God bless us,
that all the ends of the earth fear him.

So, this is a prayer. And what is the content of the prayer? Basically it’s this: The psalmist is praying to God for the world: that people around the world will come to know him and will praise him. And in the course of the psalm, he refers to three things about God which he wants the nations to know. Firstly, he wants them to know that God is a God who saves. Secondly, he wants them to know that God is a God who rules. And thirdly, he wants them to know that God is a God who provides. He wants them to know those three things about God so that they will praise him.

Verses 1 and 2

In verses 1 and 2 the focus is on God’s salvation. He begins with a summary of the Aaronic Blessing which appears in Numbers 6:

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.

The Lord, through Moses, commanded Aaron to pronounce that blessing on the people of Israel. And the psalmist’s prayer at the beginning of this psalm is a summary version of that blessing:

Be gracious to us.
Bless us.
Make your face shine upon us.

And this is really a prayer for salvation, because God’s grace is his kindness to us, which we do not deserve and cannot earn. And because of God’s kindness to his people, he promises to bless them and to fill their lives with good things and not with evil. Though we are sinners who sin against him continually, so that what we deserve from him is his wrath and curse for our many sins and shortcomings, the Lord, who is merciful and gracious, does not treat us as our sins deserve and he does not repay us according to iniquity. Instead of sending his curses upon us, which is what we deserve, he blesses us with good things.

That was how God treated his people in Old Testament days, because though they did not deserve it, he graciously and freely rescued them from their slavery in Egypt. And when his people were in the wilderness, they often rebelled against the Lord and they were disobedient and ungrateful. But instead of destroying them for their sins, the Lord was gracious to them and he continued to provide for them and to show them kindness even though they did not deserve it and eventually he brought the people of Israel into the Promised Land.

And the psalmist was no doubt aware of his own sins and of the sins of the people in his own day. So, in his psalm, he asks the Lord to be gracious to them. He’s asking the Lord not to curse them, but to bless them and to do them good. And he asks the Lord to make his face shine upon them. When someone is angry with us, they might scowl at us. And when you see their dark scowl, you know this person is displeased with you. And so, the psalmist was asking the Lord to look on his people, not with a dark scowl, but to look on his people with a warn and bright smile. Of course, the Lord doesn’t really have a face, but the Bible is using this imagery to refer to God’s favour towards his people.

So, the psalm begins with this prayer to God to be gracious to his people and to bless them and to smile upon them. In other words, instead of treating them as their sins deserve, be gracious to them and pardon them. And then he goes on to pray that God’s ways may be known on earth and his salvation may be known among all nations. So, he’s asking the Lord to be gracious to his people, so that people all over the world will come to know God’s saving ways for themselves. As another preacher put it, Israel was to be a like a model home. You know what a model home is: whenever a developer is building a new housing estate, he turns one of the new homes into a model home to impress prospective buyers. They’ll see what the builder had done with the model home and they’ll have confidence in him and in what he will do for them and their new home. And the Lord chose the people of Israel and he blessed them by forgiving their sins and by filling their lives with good things to display to the world his grace and glory so that people all over the world would turn to him and be saved.

And the church today is like a model home, because God has displayed his grace and glory in us, by saving us from our sins through faith in his Son, who gave up his life to pay for our sins and to deliver us from our sin and misery. And so, we gather before the Lord on Sundays to praise his name for what he has done for us by his Son. And when we gather, we pray that others will see what God has done for us and that they too will come to know his salvation for themselves and will praise him with us.

Verses 3 and 4

The focus of verses 1 and 2 is on God’s salvation. In verses 3 and 4 the psalmist prays that the nations will come to know that God is a God who rules. So, he prays that the peoples will praise God and that the nations will be glad and sing for joy because ‘you rule the peoples justly’ and ‘guide the nations of the earth’.

He rules over the nations on behalf of his people. So, in the past, he broke the power of the Egyptians and rescued his people from Pharaoh’s grip. And whenever enemy nations attacked the Israelites in the wilderness, God gave victory to his people, who were not experienced soldiers, but only farmers and labourers. When they entered the Promised Land, the Lord helped them to drive out the people of Canaan, who were wicked, and he handed over the land to his people. He gave victory to David when he fought against Goliath and when he led his army against the Philistines and the other nations. Because of Solomon’s sin, he divided the nation of Israel in two, but he watched over and protected the kingdom of Judah and ensured that there was always a descendant of David on the throne. And whereas other kingdoms came and went, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah survived. And even when the people of Israel and Judah were taken away into exile, the Bible makes clear that the Lord sent them away because of their unfaithfulness. And so, he sent the Assyrians and Babylonians against them and gave them victory over his rebellious people to humble them. In other words, what happened to them was under God’s control. And when the time was right, he brought his people back to the Promised Land. The Lord was able to do all of this, because he rules the peoples and he guides the nations.

And he rules the peoples and he guides the nations on behalf of his people, to protect them and to help them and to discipline them when necessary. And therefore, as the psalmist says, he rules the people with justice, doing what is right and just, and therefore disciplining his own people when it was right to do so.

And in all that God did for his people, Israel, God was displaying his grace and glory to the world. And so the psalmist was praying that the nations of the world would realise what a great God he is, so that they too would praise him. They would realise he is the true God, whereas their gods were idols who can do nothing. And so, may they turn from their idols to worship the true and living God.

And we too should pray that men and women and boys and girls around the world will give up their unbelief and instead of thinking everything happens by chance, they will come to know that nothing happens by chance, but by the will of God above, who has continues to rule over all people and events and who has promised to work out all things for the good of his people. And therefore all people everywhere ought to bow before him and submit their lives to him, because he is the one who rules over all.

Verses 5 and 6a

The focus of verses 1 and 2 was on God’s salvation. The focus of verses 3 and 4 was on God’s rule. The focus of verses 5 and 6a is God’s provision. Though the NIV translates the first line of verse 6 as ‘Then the land will yield its harvest’, the word ‘Then‘ is not in the Hebrew text. And so, the psalmist is not saying when the people praise God, then the harvest will come. No, he’s saying a reason for praising God is because he sends the harvest. So, the psalmist prays to God for the people to praise him, because he is the one who sends the harvest.

I wonder whether this psalm is tracing the history of the Israelites and how the God who saves saved them from their captivity in Egypt; and how the God who rules the peoples drove out the nations and gave the Promised Land to his people; and how the God who provides provided his people with food to eat in the Promised Land? God promised to give his people a land like the Garden of Eden, flowing with milk and honey, where they would have all that they needed. And before they entered the Promised Land, he promised them all kinds of blessings if they remained obedient to him. Blessed shall you be in the city and the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of their womb and the fruit of their ground and the fruit of their cattle. Blessed shall you be in the basket and kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in and when you go out. The Lord was promising to bless them with good things. And he blessed them in such a way that the Queen of Sheba was amazed by Solomon’s wisdom and wealth. She was overwhelmed by all the things she heard and saw when she visited Israel and she saw how the Lord had blessed Israel and made it into a great nation.

And now the psalmist was praying that the nations would praise God because of how he has blessed them. He was praying that they would see God’s grace and glory and his abundant goodness and generosity towards his people Israel. He was praying that they would realise that their gods are idols who can do nothing, and that the Lord is the true and living God who saves and who rules and who provides for his people.

And we too should pray that the world will see how the Lord has blessed us, because hasn’t he blessed us by forgiving our sins through faith in his Son? Hasn’t he blessed us by giving us his Spirit as the deposit guaranteeing our inheritance? And doesn’t be promise to care for us, so that we need not worry about what to eat or drink or wear, because our loving Heavenly Father will take care of us? We should pray that the world will see how he cares for us and provides us with all we need for this life and the next. And we should pray that they too will come to believe in him and to praise him.

Verses 6b and 7

I said at the beginning, the final lines can be translated as a prayer as well. So:

May God, our God, bless us!
May God bless us,
that all the ends of the earth fear him.

So, may God bless us by saving us from our sins and by ruling on our behalf and by providing us with what we need. And may the world see it and believe, so that instead of disregarding the Lord our God, and Jesus Christ his Son, they will honour the Lord and trust in his Son and give to God the glory and praise he deserves.

Conclusion

And what the psalmist prays for in this psalm anticipates what the Lord has planned for the future, when the nations will be brought into the New Jerusalem and where all of God’s people will worship the Lord forever and forever, because they have been washed in the blood the Lamb who came to take away the sins of the world and all to the praise of God’s glorious grace.