Psalm 67 - Let All The Peoples Praise God!

Change both how and why you pray!

Photo: Andreas Gücklhorn via Unsplash

PSALM 67

For the choir director; with stringed instruments. A Psalm. A Song.

¹ God be gracious to us and bless us,

And cause His face to shine upon us—

Selah.

² That Your way may be known on the earth,

Your salvation 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 will judge the peoples with uprightness

And guide the nations on the earth.

Selah.

⁵ Let the peoples praise You, O God;

Let all the peoples praise You.

⁶ The earth has yielded its produce;

God, our God, blesses us.

⁷ God blesses us,

That all the ends of the earth may fear Him.

Heidelberg Catechism

Q&A 117

Q. How does God want us to pray so that he will listen to us?

A. First, we must pray from the heart

to no other than the one true God,

who has revealed himself in his Word,

asking for everything he has commanded us to ask for.

Second, we must acknowledge our need and misery,

hiding nothing,

and humble ourselves in his majestic presence.

Third, we must rest on this unshakable foundation:

even though we do not deserve it,

God will surely listen to our prayer

because of Christ our Lord.

That is what he promised us in his Word.

Summary

Psalm 67 begins as a prayer asking for the most important thing anybody could ask for - that God be gracious to us. In other words, this song/prayer begins by requesting God to be merciful (KJV). But as important as it is, it's not likely that begging for grace or mercy is very often at the top of anybody's prayer list. Most people's highest priority is to ask God for what the psalmist asks for next: that God would bless us.

But the psalmist rightly recognizes the need to begin by asking for grace / mercy. After all, remember that we deserve God's justice, not His blessings! You and I have a covenantal relationship with God. How many times haven't we read these past few months in going through the Old Testament that God is to be our God, and we are to be His people? The fact that you can inhale right now means that you continue to enjoy the life God's provided! But this provision comes with the expectation that you maintain holiness, righteousness and justice, and you've not held up your end of the covenant.

So you have no right to ask for God's blessing without first asking for His grace. Keep this in mind the next time you pray! The psalmist poetically combines both of these requests in echoing what's often called the Aaronic Benediction as he pleads that God would cause His face to shine upon us, even as we traverse what David famously referred to as the darkest valley.

And the amazing thing that Psalm 67 reminds us of is that God grants both of these prayers! He's gracious to us by forgiving our sins and fulfilling our covenant requirements in the perfect life, death, resurrection and ascension of His Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. And God, our God, so richly blesses us beyond measure - for the earth has yielded its produce far more abundantly that we could ever ask for or even imagine!

  Dig Deeper  

Notice that the psalmist's opening request for grace and blessing doesn't end with a period. It ends with a dash that leads to the beautifully mysterious Hebrew word selah. We don't know exactly what the word means, but it's quite likely the word signaled the accompanying musicians (remember, the psalms are meant to be sung!) to pause and take a break - to let the words just sung sink in.

So often our prayers are dominated by requests for God's blessings, spitting out one request after another in rapid fire succession. This simple selah reminds you to slow down when praying. God knows what you need; your pausing to take a breath gives His Spirit the opportunity to help you know He's heard your prayer!

But it's one of Psalm 67's most humble words that comes to the forefront, a word that ought to change not just how you're asking for God's blessings, but even the particular blessings you're asking for! That simple word is that, and it's repeated twice in this short psalm.

Most of the blessings we pray for are things we need or even simply want for our own lives. And that's not wrong to ask God for! Jesus commanded us to pray each day for our daily bread. But Psalm 67 reminds us that the blessings we ask for ought to serve a purpose much bigger and higher than our own appetite. We're to pray for God's blessings:

• so that His ways may be known on the earth, [and so that] His salvation [be known] among all nations; and
  

• so that all the ends of the earth may fear Him.

And like the psalmist, our prayers ought not be so self centered by only asking that God be gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us. Notice the psalm's five time repeated request that God would let the peoples praise Him! Imagine how different this world would look if the Church as a whole would earnestly and repeatedly prayed Psalm 67!

AAA Prayer (About)

• ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, God, our God, who is gracious to us, blesses us, and makes His face shine upon us;

• ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that all the peoples would praise God!

• ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

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