Today, I want to talk about a word that if I asked each of you to define, we’d likely get some different answers. It’s a common Christian and non-Christian word but there are often similarities to how these two groups describe the word. That word is blessing.

If you go to Chick-Fil-a and order a 8 ct nugget but they give you a 12 ct nugget instead, you are #blessed. If everything is going well in your life, you are #blessed. If you have the perfect home or just got a good raise at work, you are #blessed. But is blessing just about having good outcomes in your life or is there something deeper? Because what happens when bad or tough things come, has God stopped blessing you? Is it possible to be blessed when things are falling apart?

There is a danger for us, especially in the West. We love comfort – we’ll say we’re blessed when all our bills are paid but could you say the same if you lost your job and had no idea how to pay rent or your mortgage? There is a danger that for a lot of you, God’s blessing is directly tied to how comfortable or how good life feels right now. But, is it possible for us to disconnect God’s blessings from his purposes?

Psalm 67 lays out a clear point for us and it’s the point we’ll be making today: your blessings have a purpose: God’s name magnified in your neighborhood and among the nations. We’ll be tracing through to see what God gives us (his blessings), who God is because of that, and what these blessings are for. As we go through, we’re going to discover that God’s blessings aren’t meant to stop with us – they’re meant to spread.

If you’re able, would you please stand with me as we read God’s word?

What God Gives Us (Blessing, Grace, Presence, & Provision)

In this Psalm, we see three ways that God blesses us: with his grace, with his presence, and with his provision. Here’s how that works:

1.      His grace: “May God be gracious to us.” This is asking God to bless them by showing them unmerited kindness or favor. The Psalmist knows they don’t deserve God’s kindness but because of who God is, they want him to show his favor.

2.    His presence: “Make his face shine on us.” This is asking God bless by turning his face towards his people – asking God to be attentive to their needs, to hear their prayers, and continue to be present with them. He’s asking God, “please don’t leave us. Stay.”

3.    His provision: “The land yields its harvest.” So, they’re asking God to bless them by continuing to meet their material or physical needs. He’s making sure they have enough to eat and survive.

In this Psalm, these are three examples that God blesses his people but it’s easy for us to just look at blessings as God’s provision. What does Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount: “See how your father cares for the lilies and the birds, aren’t you more valuable than them?” But, there are times when we forget about the other two ways God can bless us with his grace and his presence.

God blesses us with grace through the fact that while we were yet sinners, Christ Jesus died for us – the just (Jesus) for the unjust). How many of us, in our natural ability, would forgive a person who consistently sinned against or intentionally hurt us? That’s God’s grace. But, God also blesses us with his presence: Jesus humbly descended from the throne, took on flesh, and dwelt among us. After he ascended, he sent the Holy Spirit who lives in every believer. And because the Spirit is in us, God’s attentive love is always with us – he sees you, he sees me, and he hears us when we cry. God’s attentive love is also displayed through his church who cares for the hurting and the poor. Those are ways we can be blessed.

PIC When I was in Peru, I met a family who was facing a lot of challenges. They had no formal income – the mom had a small market stand along the street and the husband was a farmer with a teen son. One day, the husband was riding his bike and was hit by a car breaking his leg right at harvest time with his crops. There was no way he’d be able to harvest but when we visited, he kept talking about how blessed they were. This is a family whose income was just severely impacted, who lived in a cinderblock home with a dirt floor and no AC, and no social benefits. He said they were blessed because God’s blessings were shown through the local church there. The church paid for his doctor visits, the church helped harvest his crops, the church prayed for his healing, and the church reminded him that God was with him in this struggle.

God’s blessings aren’t just limited to a comfortable life. They also include his grace, his presence, and his provision like in that Peruvian family’s life.

In seasons where provision is tight or things are hard, you can still say you’re blessed because God’s presence never leaves you and his grace is what brings you into his presence through what Jesus has done.

But, all of this begs a question: If someone consistently gives you favor that you don’t deserve, stayed close to you no matter what, and faithfully cared for your needs, you will ask – who does this sort of thing? Psalm 67 gives us two qualities of God that should lead us to joy.

Why God?

The Psalmist is expressing that the nations will be glad and sing for joy when they hear of the God of the bible. Why in the world would they do that?

Psalm 67 tells us in verse 4, that connector word: May the nations be glad and sing for joy, FOR…you rule the people with equity and guide the nations of the earth. And it’s those things that cause them to be glad and sing for joy! Why is that good news?  

It’s good news because it shows us that:

1.      God is just – we live in a world that often is unjust. From our perspective, it seems like bad people get away with their wrongs and the weakest of our society are manipulated or forgotten. But, not in God’s eyes – he is just meaning he does what is right. He is the father of the fatherless, he defends the weak and oppressed, and he sees the evil deeds done in our world and will bring justice to those who cause harm. And one day fully, God’s justice will be shown as Jesus himself will wipe away every tear from every eye.

2.    God is powerful: that’s why he guides the nations of the earth. All rulers of the earth may feel like they’re truly in control and can effect great change but it is God who is truly on the throne. He is powerfully working all things together for good. In the Old Testament, God worked in the hearts of multiple kings of Babylon to free Israel from exile. God worked in the Babylonian Kings who then gave Israel all the supplies and funds that they needed to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. This is the same God who parted the Red Sea for Israel in the Exodus. God is powerful and he is a firm rock to put your hope in.

So because of who God is, the nations are glad and sing for joy! God isn’t in the business of redeeming people who grit their teeth and regret the fact that God called them. Instead, God is in the serious business of joy – he wants passionate worshippers who know he is better than the other things we’re tempted to put our hope in.

The nations are worshippers of God because of who he is and what he gives us. But, Psalm 67 creates a cycle where we worship and rejoice but we also take action: there’s a power phrase in this psalm that gets to the reason why we’re blessed – “so that.” It’s asking us: what’s the purpose of God’s blessings?

What It’s For

Ultimately, this is what Psalm 67 is about – helping us to see that God has a purpose behind his blessings (his grace, his presence, and his provision) because of who he is. So, what is that purpose?

Verse 2 and verse 7 tell us in this Psalm – so that God’s ways would be made known on the earth, his saving way or salvation among all nations. Verse 7 tells us so that all the ends of the earth will fear him or hold him in reverence.  So, blessing isn’t meant for us – blessing is meant for the sake of others, in our neighborhoods and the nations.

PIC Christopher Ash, in his commentary on this says: “Psalm 67 celebrates the attractive power of grace.”

Why does God care about the neighborhoods and nations? Because of the fall, we all offer some sort of disordered worship. Because we have disordered worship, we find ourselves enslaved to serving false gods. For example, if you idolize having enough money – what’s your response when someone has a higher salary or hourly rate than you? Is it joy and contentment with what you have or is it rage at that person for getting paid more than you? Don’t you get jealous and wish you were paid more instead? You’re stewing by now and you’re falling into sin because you’re desiring what someone else has and also angry at them. You make poor decisions like obsessing over your finances, only to find out there’s another person who has a nicer home than you. That false god has enslaved you and led you into sin. Pick your own false god and this path repeats itself.

But, it’s only Jesus who can truly save you from your sin and your idolatry. By trusting in Jesus, you can find the forgiveness you need and fight sin by trusting that God will always provide for you – it doesn’t matter if someone gets paid more than you. It’s only through Jesus that this can take place, it’s only through him that anyone can be made right with God. But, God is under no condition to do any of this. Out of deep love, he chooses to free us from the bondage of sin and offer us new life found in him. So, have you repented from your sin and trusted him yet? If you haven’t, today’s the day.

And when you come to faith in Christ, you join with all the believers to worship him and to be glad at what he has saved you from! You shout with joy because your old ways are no longer your new ways. You become a worshipper in every area of your life. And true worship is contagious – meaning it spreads to others, to your neighborhoods and to the nations.

That’s the heart of this Psalm: if you’re a follower of Jesus, you’re not meant to keep this gift to yourself. Here’s the thing: your neighbors and people in the nations will not hear about Jesus if you do not talk to them about Jesus. Psalm 67 repeats the idea of: May the peoples praise you, this is the Father’s heart. He doesn’t want his blessings to just be on Israel or just this church, he wants his blessing spread all across the globe.

If you have the gift of faith, that gift isn’t just to be a steady anchor for you when life gets messy and hard – it’s meant to also meant to be shared with others so they come to a deeper faith. If you have been blessed with an abundance of time, money, or other resources, it’s not meant to only be used by you – it’s meant to be multiplied and invested into the Kingdom.

Psalm 67 wants us to see that God blesses us with his grace, with his presence, and with his provision so that we will be empowered to work towards the spread of his Gospel message. One of the reasons that God has chosen to save and redeem you so that you will be an instrument in his hand to reach those who are far from him – it doesn’t mean being a missionary in Papua New Guinea, it means being faithful and intentional right where you are. This is how God is fulfilling his promise that he made to Abraham all the way back in Genesis 12 – he blessed Abraham so that all the nations would be blessed through him

Revelation 7:9-10 gives us this incredible promise and future reality:

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰ And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”

And how do those people get to the lamb? They get to the lamb through hearing the message of Jesus from one of his followers, you and me. And can you imagine that day? People from all across the world – different languages, different cultures, and different ethnicities but all united in worshipping the King of Kings. That’s where the biblical story is heading and Psalm 67 wants us to jump into that story today.

So, I want to ask two hard questions: when’s the last time you talked to someone about Jesus? When’s the last time you prayed for someone to come to faith in Christ? If you’re feeling the weight of that, I’m with you – so, let’s commit to take action together.

As we eagerly look forward to the day when Jesus returns and Revelation 7 becomes our reality, I want to give you two practices I’d recommend. These two practices will help Psalm 67 become true in your neighborhood and the nations.

1. I want you to pray for a specific person or household in your neighborhood or workplace. And I want you to pray that God would provide you with opportunities to show them the love of Christ through your actions but also share the love of Christ through your words. I want you to pray that they would come to faith in Jesus.

2. I want you to pray for an unreached people group. In case you don’t know, unreached people groups are folks around the world who have never heard about Jesus. They are far from God, searching for meaning, for freedom, and for hope. There’s a fantastic tool called: “joshuaproject.net” that shows you stats of how many people in the world haven’t heard about Jesus (3.58 billion) and they give you a daily prayer prompt for a people group who are unreached. I want you to pray that God would raise up missionaries in this church and the global church to reach every inch of this world with the hope of Christ. I want you to pray that God would be working in the hearts of those unreached people to hear and receive the Gospel well when it comes. Today, we’ll be doing that for the Dome people in India. 204,000 people, 0 following Jesus. Poor.

Next year, it’s my hope and prayer that we will have more strategic ways for us, as a church, to engage in local and global missions so stay tuned. But, prayer must always be our first step in these pursuits so commit to pray for a neighbor and an unreached people group.

As we prepare to close, remember that your blessings have a purpose: God’s name magnified in your neighborhood and among the nations. Will there be days where you fail in this pursuit and live a life where your blessings are disconnected from God’s purposes? You bet. Ultimately, Jesus did what Israel and ourselves could not do: he lived in complete obedience to God’s Law. He was blessed by God and he submitted himself to the Father’s will which was to rescue and redeem people from their slavery to sin which leads to death and life spent apart from him. Jesus accomplished his mission and he has given us the mission of spreading his name everywhere we go. But because of the cross, there is forgiveness when we mess up or forget this.  

But slowly, with the Spirit’s help and your intention, God’s name will be magnified in your neighborhood and among the nations. Maybe next time someone asks you if you're blessed, your answer won't begin with your paycheck or your health or your house. Maybe you'll say, 'Yes. God's been gracious to me. His presence is with me. He's provided what I need. And now I want someone else to know Him too.'

As we prepare to sing one final song together, I’m going to introduce a new song by Keith and Kristyn Getty entitled: “May the Peoples Praise You” – it’s inspired by this very Psalm and it’s full of the joy that this Psalm encapsulates. And we must never cease singing this song until all the peoples praise God for who he is. Amen? Let us pray. If you need prayer, go see the people in the back.