Psalm 67

Psalm 67 | New International Version:

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us—so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.

May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you.

May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples with equity and guide the nations of the earth.

May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you.

The land yields its harvest; God, our God, blesses us.

May God bless us still, so that all the ends of the earth will fear him.

RAMP: READ / ANALYZE / MEDITATE / PRAY

R: Read the Passage

Read the passage fully from start to finish and then read it again! This one is short, but it is jam-packed with truth and goodness.

Psalm 67 is a prayer of both thanksgiving and praise. The more we dig in, I think you’ll see the strong connection between the two — and what a perfectly timely passage as we enter November!

A: Analyze

Journal your response to these questions:

1. What does this say about God?

May the peoples praise — praise what? Why?

2. What does this say about you?

How do you immediately see yourself in this passage?

3. Is there a command to follow?

Maybe not implicitly, but is there an implied command?

4. Is there a sin to repent of?

Are you sensing conviction from the Holy Spirit?

5. Is there a promise to claim?

Yes, yes, yes!

Really, the entire passage can be seen as one big, beautiful promise — that God WILL be praised among all peoples.

M: Meditate

• Meditate on how you know, praise, enjoy and fear God.

• Meditate on how others in your life know, praise, enjoy and fear God.

• Meditate on all the people in the world knowing, praising, enjoying and fearing God.

• Think about how your life has been blessed SO THAT others will also be blessed by God.

P: Pray

• Ask God to grow your knowledge of Him so YOU can know Him more/better.

• Ask God to grow your knowledge of Him so OTHERS will know Him more/better.

• Ask God to receive the praise of your life

• Ask God to be praised by others because of your life

• Ask God to help you enjoy Him — to shift your duty into delight

• Ask God for your enjoyment of Him to cause others to see, know, praise and enjoy Him as well.

• Ask God to grow your reverence of Him as holy

• Ask God to multiply your view of His holiness by showing others He is to be feared and revered.

• Ask God to give you a heart tender toward the nations — for all peoples to come to know, praise, enjoy and fear Him.

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Nicole’s Notes:

Let’s look at just the first two verses for a moment. May God … may God do what?

1. Be gracious to us

2. Bless us

3. Make His face shine on us

WHY? So that...

1. His ways may be known on the earth

2. His salvation may be known among all nations.

Don’t miss this — this is the entire point/punchline of the chapter — what God does in your life, who God is in your life and the work of God in your life is to be done for two purposes:

1. For YOUR knowledge, praise, enjoyment and reverence of Him

2. For the knowledge, praise, enjoyment and reverence of others, particularly the nations.

Who God is to you, for you and in you is not just for you.

Who God is to you, for you and in you is for you AND for all people. One doesn’t overshadow or rise above the other, however, both are true. And in order for us as Jesus followers to experience the fullness of God, we must never stop short of His ultimate goal — the nations. All the peoples of the earth.

As God is gracious to you and blesses you and gift you with His presence, it cannot stop there. It should pause there and be worshipped, acknowledged and celebrated. And then FROM His grace, His blessing and His presence, you are to carry HIM to the rest of the peoples on this earth.

Now, wait a minute, Nicole — are you talking about, like, global missions?

Yes. Yes, I am.

And neighborly missions. And co-worker missions. And family missions.

The work of God in your life is 100% a gift to you. And 100% a gift to be used, given and shared with the world.

God’s desire, His master plan is to be:

1. Known

2. Praised

3. Enjoyed

4. Feared

KNOW HIM

We see all of these clearly in this psalm of prayer — God desires to be known by all people, to be seen and acknowledged. This is most obvious in creation. As we experience the seasons change and the miracles of new creations, as we see the vastness of His creation around the world, as we see His image represented in every living being and as we experience the beginnings and endings of days, we see Him and we can know Him. Our knowledge can then grow in our relationship with Him — through His word and through spending time talking to Him and learning from Him. The gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives is our gateway to knowing Him more. As Jesus followers, we are in relationship with Him and we are able to grow in our knowledge of who He is and how He works and what He desires.

PRAISE HIM

In knowing Him, our only acceptable response is to praise Him. Sometimes, this comes naturally and we don’t even realize our bodies and emotions react in praising our Father. Other times, we have to be mindful that our knowledge can and should roll up into praise to God. The more we know, the more there is to praise Him for!

ENJOY HIM

Have you ever thought about your relationship God through the lens of enjoyment? If you’re honest with yourself and with God, do you enjoy Him or is your relationship/worship/service all rooted in duty? Are you a Christian because you feel like you should be? Do you serve on Sundays and enter into Godly community because that’s what Jesus followers should do? Do you worship on Sundays because that’s just what you do because you live in a certain community or are part of a certain friend group? If so, ask God to show you what delight looks like in place of duty. God desires for you to enjoy Him — by His gifts, His creation, His gift of salvation through Jesus, His Holy Spirit within you to be ENJOYED.

The shift from duty to delight, from burden to enjoyment, is not something I can outline for you — I can’t give you a 3-step process. It’s a deep, holy and spiritual transformation. And it’s something God wants for you. I can tell you how this has looked in my own life — I grew up in a wonderful Christian home where I was shown the love of God very beautifully from my parents and was plugged into an incredible church filled with a biblical church family. I served my church in many ways from a young age, and through the mentorship of many strong believers ahead of me, God cultivated a love for serving Him and others in my heart. I am deeply grateful that I gave my heart to Jesus as a young girl and have pursued Him since.

However, it wasn’t until my early twenties as a young adult serving the church and as a newlywed wanting nothing more than to be obedient to God’s call that I began to learn what enjoyment looked like in my walk with Christ. It wasn’t a sermon I heard or a conference I attended. It wasn’t a book I read. It was a desire for God to be as real in my life as He was in the pages of Scripture. It was a desire for God to meet with me in worship. It was a desire for me to see God as He intended for me to see Him — as beautiful, personal and GOOD.

At Venture Church, we hear our leadership talk a lot about church being fun, and it should be. And church can be fun when the people of God ENJOY God. This week, ask God to help you see what that looks like for your life. Ask Him to transform your heart and mindset from one of duty to one of delight. Your life will never be the same. AND the people in your life will never be the same. Your enjoyment of God will change the world around you. Because a watching world wants to know how God can be enjoyed. As you live your life of enjoyment in faith, people will not only see YOU, they will see a God who is worthy of our reverence, our worship and our praise.

FEAR HIM

The fear of God, or the reverence of God, is very important to Him. And it should be. As Almighty God, He is just, perfect and all-knowing. He is the Creator of the world and the author of the most beautiful redemptive love story of all time. He is the Giver of life — both physical life and eternal life through salvation. He is to be feared — as in, revered, respected and held in the highest regard. A proper view of God leads to a reverence for God which grows in us a deep trust and surrender to God.

Psalm 67 is intended to be a prayer from us to God — a true cry of our heart for Him to be known, praised, enjoyed and feared in our life AND in the lives of every person around the world. As cliche as it may sound, God has blessed you to bless others.

God has created you so others will see Him as Creator God. God has redeemed you to be a part of the redemption of many. And particularly — God has saved you so you can be a part of the salvation of many.

When scripture talks about ‘peoples’ and ‘all nations,’ it means all people living in all nations. And while we must be obedient to God’s commands to love and serve and share the gospel with our neighbors, family, friends and coworkers, we must never ignore or deny the command to take the gospel to the ends fo the earth.

WHY? SO THAT...

• His ways will be known on earth and His salvation will be known among all nations (verse 2).

• All the peoples will praise Him (verses 3 and 5).

• The nations will be glad (verse 4).

• The nations will enjoy Him (verse 4).

• God will bless His people (verse 6).

• All the ends of the earth will fear Him (verse 7).

*If you have questions about how your life can and should be a part of God’s global story, shoot me an email. This is something Timmy and I are very passionate about, as we take this command very seriously in our personal lives and in our marriage. We would love to share more about God’s plan for all people from every nation to come to know Him — and how YOU and your family can be a part of the global spread of the Gospel.

Psalm 67 | The Message:

God, mark us with grace and blessing! Smile!

The whole country will see how you work, all the godless nations see how you save.

God! Let people thank and enjoy you.

Let all people thank and enjoy you.

Let all far-flung people become happy and shout their happiness because

You judge them fair and square, you tend the far-flung peoples.

God! Let people thank and enjoy you.

Let all people thank and enjoy you.

Earth, display your exuberance!

You mark us with blessing, O God, our God.

You mark us with blessing, O God.

Earth’s four corners—honor him!