Aug-28-0500-The blessing of God?
500_The blessing of God? Psalm 67 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah 2 that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. 3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! 4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah 5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! 6 The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, shall bless us. 7 God shall bless us; let all the ends of the earth fear him! Henrietta Mears was a follower of Jesus who lived in the early 20th century. Through her work in developing and teaching adult Sunday School year after year, hundreds of young men and women came to know Christ personally. Some of them went on to become Christian leaders, like Billy Graham, Young Life founder Jim Rayburn, and Campus Crusade for Christ founder Bill Bright. Nearly 400 others went into full-time ministry after attending her Sunday school class. When asked the secret of her fruitfulness, she said, “I only ever asked God to bless me so that others would be blessed through me.” Her life was like a channel, not a container. She desired only that the knowledge of God would spread through her life like a river that waters everything in its path. This is what Psalm 67 reminds us of. Many of us approach the idea of God's blessing in very personal terms. We think of blessings as a better job, a safe home, a healthy body, or a thriving family. But this psalm reminds us that the reason we should seek God’s blessing goes far deeper—and reaches much wider—than just our individual lives. The psalm begins with a familiar prayer: “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us.” This echoes the priestly blessing of Numbers 6, where Moses instructed Aaron to bless Israel with those words. It’s a beautiful picture of God's favor, His protection, and His pleasure—resting on His people. And then the psalmist tells God why he desires the blessing: “So that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.” In other words, God’s blessing on His people would tell the world about God and show them that He was a Savior. This is a radical shift in perspective. The psalmist isn’t asking for blessing just to live out his life on earth in comfort. He longed for all people across the earth to know the glory of God. Israel wasn’t chosen to be a cul-de-sac of God’s blessing, but a highway. God had made them His own, not to isolate them from the world, but to reveal Himself through them to the world. Psalm 33:12 declares, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance.” Their blessing had a purpose—to be a light to the nations, a testimony to