Psalm 67:1-2 - God be merciful to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us, Selah. That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.
Our text for today, Psalm 67, begins with a simple prayer for the mercy, blessing and favor of Almighty God. You and I have asked God for this many times just probably with different words. We say things like “Lord, forgive me for the way I acted today”, or “Dear Jesus, help me to get the raise I so desperately need” or “Lord, may the test results show nothing abnormal”.
These are all the legitimate prayers of God’s people in need. (A position, I might add, we are all in almost every minute of every day of our lives.) They are the normal petitions of the human heart. They are real prayers from real people.
When I ask for God’s mercy I am recognizing that I don’t deserve or earn what I am asking for, but because He is gracious and merciful I am asking for it. When I ask for His blessing I am admitting that what I can do for myself is woefully inadequate, so I need His help. Finally, when I ask for God to shine His face upon me I am asking for His grace, His unmerited favor. This idea is taken from the priestly prayer of Aaron over the nation of Israel in Numbers 6:24-26.
Praying for the mercy, help and grace of God is all well and good but we should probably ask ourselves a very basic question as we lift up these requests. That question, simply put is, “Why should God bless me?” The profound answer is found in verse 2 of this Psalm.
The verse says that the purpose of God’s blessing upon His people is “That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.” So there you have it. God blesses us so that others may be blessed. God answers our prayers not just so our situation can be improved but so that His way might be made known on the earth and so that the nations might know about His glorious salvation.
I prefer to think that the only reason God answers my prayers is because He loves me. I want to believe that I am so important to Him that He blesses me just to bless me. If either of these were the only reason for the blessing of God it would foster an incredibly self-absorbed attitude in all of us. We would be constantly crying, “bless me, bless me, bless me” and “give me, give me, give me” as if God were some cosmic ATM with the password “In Jesus Name”.
Surely, God blesses us out of His concern for us, but His purpose and plan are much greater. He gives to us so we might give to others. He blesses us so that His ways, His salvation might be made known to all.
Let me suggest a very powerful, yet easy, exercise. Take a few moments to list as many blessings that God has bestowed upon you as you can think of. Take a minute or two to read over all of these blessings and then ask the Lord to help you understand His purposes for blessing you. Ask Him to show you specifically how His mercy and blessings upon you can be used to advance His kingdom and His agenda. In other words, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”.
Blessings (with a purpose),
Dave Watson
The Urban Christian
