Psalm 67
Let the Nations be Glad
“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t.”
John Piper opens his book on missions with these memorable lines. And this truth is fuel our prayers.
It is this concern that undergirds this week’s Psalm, where we are invited to pray for the worship of the nations.
For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A psalm. A song.
1 May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face shine on us –
2 so that your ways may be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.3 May the peoples praise you, God;
may all the peoples praise you.
4 May the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you rule the peoples with equity
and guide the nations of the earth.
5 May the peoples praise you, God;
may all the peoples praise you.6 The land yields its harvest;
God, our God, blesses us.
7 May God bless us still,
so that all the ends of the earth will fear him.
This Psalm is constructed around three prayer:
1-2: Prayer for Blessing to be Broadcast
3: Prayer for International Praise
4: Prayer for Global Gladness
5: Prayer for International Praise
6-7: Prayer for Blessing to be Broadcast
We will work through them from outside to the centre.
Prayer for Blessing to be Broadcast
The opening and closing of this Psalm is bracketed by a plea from the people of God to be blessed by our God.
To be blessed is to experience the lavish favour of God. It is to know and encounter his abundant kindness and provision. It is to step into his eternal happiness. Paul makes it clear that for us to know the blessing of God is be in Christ (Ephesians 1.3). It is through our faith in Christ that we enter into the grace of God. When we are bound to Jesus, abiding in him, the face of our Heavenly Father shines upon us. For in the same way he delights in his Son, he delights in us when we come in the name of his Beloved.
So our prayer is for God to rain down his blessings from the inexhaustible clouds of heaven and for us to see and know them personally and truly.
But do you notice that the blessing is for a purpose? It is so that God would be feared (7), his ways and salvation known across the broad expanse of the earth. The first part of the movement in this Psalm is the desire for the world to see how the people of God are blessed through him.
This dynamic is fulfilled in the New Testament. We see it first at Pentecost, where the disciples blessed and filled with the Spirit from heaven, are the visible picture to the world (Acts 2). Peter explains this to the watching clouds, point out how this is the blossoming of the promise of Joel where God would pour out his Spirit on all his people. And so people from all nations come to know the ways and salvation of God.
Prayer for International Praise
But that is not where the prayer culminates. The next step is the repeated refrain in v3 and v5. For our desire is that God would be glorified and magnified as he should be.
In that time, God was localised and parochial. Each nation had their own coterie of deities and only rarely did they cross their borders. In contrast, while the LORD bound himself to Israel, his purposes always stretched far beyond their borders. For the God who formed the whole earth is to be worshipped by all the nations across the globe.
Our prayer is that people from Djibouti and Denmark, Peru and Papua New Guineau, Australia and Angola, Turkmenistan and Turkey, Benin and Belgium, Mali and Malaysia, Canada and Comoros, Egypt and Estonia, Italy and Iran, Nauru and Nicaragua, Uruguay and Ukraine would all lift high the name of God.
And we can pray this in confidence knowing this is the future reality secured by the Author of Creation and History. For before the heavenly throne will be gathered “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language” (Rev 7.9). And there we will sing of the Lamb who was slain and who now reigns.
Prayer for Global Gladness
Right at the centre of his Psalm and our prayers is the hope that these nations will praise God because they will themselves experience the gladness that comes from knowing God.
J.C. Ryle, the 19th century Anglican Bishop of Liverpool, wrote that “The Christianity that saves is a thing personally grasped, personally experienced, personally felt, and personally possessed.” Our prayer is that people from all nations who have a true and vital experience, through the gospel, of the comfort of knowing God.
Gladness and singing for joy is rooted in knowing that God rules and reigns in justice and grace. In a year where there are elections in Rwanda, India, USA, Mexico, here in the UK and in many other nations, it is a soul-settling consolation to know God is seated on his throne.
So Grace Church, let’s get to praying. Let’s pray for the nations. Let’s pray they sing to the glory of God!
Glory be to God the Father, who shines upon us in love and grace.
Glory be to God the Son, the exalted King to whom all the nations will come.
Glory be to God the Spirit, in whom we experience all the blessings from heaven.
Ever three and ever One.