Turn to Psalm 67. Let me get
there. Psalm 67. I titled this Psalm 67, a prayer for God's
blessing. After reading it before coming
down, I thought that I could title it a universal psalm because
he prays for the nations and the people, the peoples of the
nations, that they would bless the Lord. Well, it's evident
the Lord has answered that prayer, isn't it? Because here we stand.
We are the nations He's talking about, the Gentiles. Now in this
Psalm, He asked God to bless, cause
His face to shine, and make His way known. I don't know of anything to be
more desired than for God to bless us, and make His face,
His favor, shine upon us." And the translation of that is, to
shine with us. You can see that over in the
margin, it's to shine with us. Over in the Gospels, Christ's
name is called Emmanuel, God with us. If we have the Gospel here, and
we do, I believe with all my heart we do. If this is not the
Gospel, there's not any. There's not a Gospel. But this
is the Gospel. And having the Gospel, we have
Christ. And having Christ, we have God's favor. If you have
Christ, you have God's favor. And God's face has shined. upon you and is with you." Think
of that. God with us. God is with us. He's for us and He's with us.
Now this psalm is also a prayer for Israel, and it's a prayer for the salvation
of the Gentiles. And think of this prayer as the
prayer of our Lord as the High Priest. That being so, this prayer
is answered. It's going to be answered. And
it is being answered right now. Gentiles are being saved. And
it's interesting how this ties in with Romans 11, when he talked
about when the fullness of the Gentiles come in, and he's going
to turn again to that nation. And here he's praying for that
nation, Israel, at that time. He's praying for Israel. He's
asking God to bless Israel and then to bring salvation to the Gentiles. Now, the Jews had this. They
read this. When our Lord came, and he was
despised and rejected of them, and Paul preached the gospel
to some of them, and they turned away from it, and Paul said,
seeing that you count yourselves not worthy of it, we turn to
the Gentiles. Right here it is. And they read
it day after day. That shows you what it is to
be spiritually blind. The light can be shining and
you don't know it. You don't know it at all. If you're spiritually
blind, the light shines, the gospel being preached, you can't
see. One of the things that I remember
distinctly when I heard Henry, the very thing that I said, and
I don't know that I said it to anyone, but I said it to myself,
I see. I see what you're saying. I see.
I see the Gospel. I see it. I see Him in the Gospel. In the Old Testament and the
New Testament, I can see Christ. Listen to this. The reason I
think of this as a prayer of Christ, turn over to Numbers
chapter 6. This is familiar once you see
it. But this the priest was to pray. Listen to this. In Numbers chapter
6, starting in verse 22, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
Speak unto Aaron and unto his son, saying, On this wise you
shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless
thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine
upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee, and give thee peace. They shall put my name upon the
children of Israel, and I will bless them. And then we come
over here, and the first thing he asks the Lord to do is bless
us, to bless us. And another reason I say that
this applies to the Lord Jesus Christ, over in Psalm 2 verse
8, God speaking to His Son, God the Father speaking to the Son,
says, Ask me, and I shall give thee the heathen, that's us,
for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth
for thy possession. Now, seeing that we have been
made kings and priests unto God, let us also pray this prayer
sincerely. And this prayer is also a song. It's also a song. It's a prayer
and then it turns into a song. And we'll see here in a minute,
it was given to the chief musician and he was to put it upon the
stringed instruments. You know, David put his psalms
to music. Now, one of the things as we
go along here we'll notice is how broad his prayer is. And our prayers ought to be broad.
If you'll notice, there's nothing selfish about this prayer. In
his prayer, he speaks of us Nations and people. When our Lord taught
His disciples to pray, He taught them to pray, Forgive us our
sins. Forgive us. Lead us not into
temptations. Our prayers ought to be broad. They ought to include more than
just me and mine. Thy kingdom come. We pray for
God's kingdom to come, that we pray for this prosperity of God's
kingdom. Part of it's here, part of it's
in other parts of the world, in other parts of this country.
We pray thy kingdom come. Now here in verse one, the psalmist
makes three requests and they're very important, the way he starts
out here. Now it says here, to the chief
musician on Neganoth, a psalm or a song. And he starts out
and he says, God, be merciful unto us. We give him so many reasons not
to be merciful, don't we? Honestly, I give God so many
reasons not to be merciful, and yet, He's merciful and merciful
and merciful. He bathes us in mercy. Be merciful and bless us and
cause His face to shine upon us. The psalmist starts with
a plea for mercy. This is how we start our prayers.
Isn't this the best way to start prayer? Lord, have mercy on me
for what I'm about to ask for, because I don't deserve it. I've
never deserved one thing I've asked for. Never. And this is where we start. We
acknowledge our need of mercy. Don't lose that. Don't ever lose
the fact and the feeling of your need of mercy. In fact, if you start to lose
it, ask God to have mercy on you and make you know it. It
would be in God's mercy to make you to know, to give you a great
knowledge and understanding and feeling of your need of Jesus
Christ. That's mercy. Repentance. A broken heart. A broken heart
is of the mercy of God. Repentance is of the mercy of
God. Oh, that God be merciful to us.
He be merciful. No blessing, now listen, no blessing
ever comes to us except it comes by way of mercy. No blessing
except by the sovereign mercy of God to us in Jesus Christ. Have mercy upon us, forgive us,
pardon us, hear us when we call. David asked God in Psalm 51 to
be merciful to him according to his mercy and his lovingkindness. The multitude of his mercy. He's
got plenty. He's got plenty. Grant us, in
mercy, grant us an ever clearer knowledge of Jesus Christ and
my need of Him. Lord, make me to know that. Keep
that before me. And Lord, by Thy mercy, lead
us by Thy Spirit. Do you know which way to go?
You've got decisions to make. You're going to get up in the
morning. You've got decisions to make every day. Do you know exactly
what decisions to make? Decisions to me are like having
children. You don't know what they're going
to grow up and be like. That's the reason I don't like to make
any more than I have to. Lord, lead me by thy Spirit, guide
me." And then the second request in this first verse is, bless
us. This is how mercy is conveyed
to us, is that God bless us. Have mercy and then show it by
blessing us. Bless us. These blessings that
the psalmist is asking for are spiritual. I've learned this,
it's taken me a while. There's some things you do have
to get older to learn. There's just some things you've
got to wait until you grow up to learn. And I've learned that
my greatest blessings and need are spiritual. And if God blesses
me with spiritual knowledge and understanding, if He blesses
me spiritually, I know this, everything else will be taken
care of. Everything else is taken care of. If He just blesses me
with spiritual understanding, spiritual knowledge in Christ,
spiritual growth, if He just gives me spiritual blessings,
everything else will be taken care of. In fact, everything
else pales in comparison to my need. of Him blessing me spiritually. And then bless us in making us
to know and comprehend what we have in Christ. You know, you
hear it. You hear it from the pulpit.
I heard it for years from Henry, from the pulpit, week after week
after week. Don't let that become, and I
don't know what better word to use, don't let that become mundane.
Because of sin, we do that. Because of sin, we hear the same
thing over and over, and after a while, it's like we don't hear
it no more. And that's why the Lord has to
bring us through trials to wake us up and get our attention. But let us never grow weary or
cold or complacent in hearing the gospel and really grabbing
a hold of all that we have in Christ, to really get a hold
of that. Today and yesterday, the thought
had been on my mind of standing before the Lord and seeing Him
and actually experiencing heaven, paradise. It just seems like, it's one
of those things you almost like wake up from a dream. I mean,
it's like, am I, pinch yourself. Did the Lord really love me and
choose me? Did he really redeem me from my sins? Am I really
gonna stand in heaven, in paradise, like he said to that thief, today
shalt thou be with me in paradise? Is it really gonna be when the
second I close my eyes in death, I'm gonna wake up in heaven?
Many don't. Many don't. And as a tree falls,
so shall it lie. It will not change position. And I think, my soul, don't ever grow cold. Don't ever
let these things grow cold. And then third thing he asks
is this, and calls his face to shine upon us with us. The blessing
is completed. The blessing is completed when
God makes His favor to us known in Jesus Christ. There are so
many people out there who don't know Him in any way, shape, or
form. And you do, and I do. We have God's favor if we know
the Lord Jesus Christ. We have His favor. We couldn't
have it. We couldn't have God's favor any greater in any other
way. than having it in Christ. All
things are yours in Christ. All things are yours. It's just
the wisdom of our Father, how He deals it out to us. Because
in this life, we couldn't handle it. We couldn't handle it. Now,
pause. Selah, this musical note, this
is for the music to take a pause and think about it. David put
these in the Psalms because the Psalms are so serious and the
Psalms are inspired by God. David wasn't just a good poet
now. He was not just a good poet. David's writing things concerning
Jesus Christ. The Psalms speak of Christ. This
is Christ speaking. The greater David. But David
wrote these so after he made these statements, it would be
like Paul's. Pause and think, give real thought to this. Serious,
sober thoughts to this. And then it's also a pause so
that the music can take an even higher, an even higher note,
Spurgeon said. Takes the next lines or stanza
and just take it up even higher because it's gonna get better. Now look, the prayer now expands
from Israel to the Gentiles. Us. He's praying for us. Just
as our Lord did in John 17. He's praying for us. He says here, cause His face
to shine upon us. Pause for a minute. Now take
this up higher. That thy way may be known upon
earth." What's he talking about, thy
way? Well, it's his way of mercy.
Moses said, Lord, show me your glory. You know what he showed
him? I'll be merciful to whom I'll
be merciful. I have compassion on whom I have compassion. Sovereign
mercy. That's why he started out with mercy. The way God saves sinners, the
psalmist is asking God to make it known. Think about the time
this is written. This is written when our ancestors
were in darkness. The greatest part of our ancestors,
according to the flesh, I'm not talking about spirit, I'm talking
about according to the flesh, went to hell. Most of my ancestors
are in hell, as far as the flesh is concerned. But 2,000 years
ago, this prayer was answered, and it's still being answered.
The gospel was sent throughout the world, throughout this earth.
And Gentiles from every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation under
heaven have now been saved. Where at one time, they perished. They perished under the wrath
of God. They didn't have this. They didn't have it. And he's
praying here. that God would make His way known
to sinners throughout the earth, that the gospel would run well,
and sinners from all nations would be brought to faith in
Jesus Christ. We see that. In reading this
psalm today, I thought this thought to me today was, most of the
time our thinking is negative. Isn't it? Most of the time, it's
gonna get worse and worse. It's just gonna get worse and
worse. But boy, when I was reading this Psalm today, it just turned
my thoughts in a different direction. This is God's earth. This is
God's earth. The people are His. He said,
the earth is mine and everything in it, and they who dwell therein.
It could be, especially after looking at Romans 11, that God
turned and saved that nation Israel, and then He said, if
the diminishing of them be the riches of the world, what would
be their turning around and them being saved? What would that
do to the world? That's what He's talking about.
And here this prayer, if you take it as the prayer of the
Lord Jesus Christ, He's saying here, make your way known upon
the earth the way God blesses sinners and saves sinners. Make
it known. And we know that way. Which is
that way? Who is that way? That way is a person. It's Jesus
Christ. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. The way God blesses and saves flows to sinners through
Jesus Christ. The way God can be a just God
and a Savior is through Jesus Christ. Make that known. Make
that known. And listen to this line, Thy
saving health among all nations. Thy saving
health. Now, the translation of that
is this, Thy salvation. among all nations. Make thy salvation
known among all nations. One of them said, John, I believe
it was John Gill said this, thy Jesus among all nations. That thy way, who we know as
Jesus Christ, may be known upon earth, thy Jesus among all nations. Because Jesus is what? What's
his name mean? What's Jesus mean? It means Savior. Savior. David said, God has become
my salvation. God has become my salvation in
Jesus Christ. Make thy salvation known among
the nations. Oh, wouldn't that be great right
now? You know there's nothing that this world It doesn't need
policies. We don't need more laws. The
last thing we need is another law to break. We don't need more policies.
We don't need more committees. We just need God to send the
gospel out in power. And people would get along. People
would love each other. The gospel he's praying here
would go throughout the world. I tell you this, spiritual health,
and I like that word health, that's saving health. That's
what I need. I need saving health. I need spiritual healing is what
I need. I need spiritual healing. But
spiritual health starts with God. It doesn't start in a monastery. It doesn't start with some guru
sitting on a mat. It starts with God, Christ, and
our need of Him. Now brethren, if that is given
to you, God has given you spiritual health. He's making you spiritually
healthy. Jesus Christ is the saving health
of His people. He is. And all those who know
it, all those who know this by experience, they know this. They have tasted that the Lord
is gracious. If you and I have tasted that
the Lord is gracious, you want someone else to taste it also,
don't you? I can't tell you how many times Vicki and I have been
sitting at a restaurant, and she usually orders something
different than I do. She'll go, mm, this is good.
Taste this. You want to taste this? I always say, you want
to taste this? I usually say no, because I got
what I got. But she'll say that, and I've
done it too. I've done it to her. I said,
man, this is good. Taste this. That's the way it
is. If God has really saved you and
me, we want others to taste also. Taste and see that the Lord is
good. It's not a religion, it's a person. It's a person. Taste and see
that he's good. Someone told me that when he
heard the doctrines of grace, it changed his theology. I said,
well, you can't change your theology without changing God's. You can't
do it. It's a study of God. You want others to know the Lord
Jesus Christ. Paul's a great example. Listen
to this. This is so good. Acts 26, 27
through 29. I'll read it to you. Paul standing
before Agrippa. He says, King Agrippa, believest
thou the prophets? I know that thou believest. I
know you believe what they say. Then Agrippa said unto Paul,
Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian, almost. And Paul
said, and this is beautiful, and this is the heart of every
believer. Everyone has grown up and matured in Christ. And
Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but all that hear
me this day, everybody sitting here, just like when I preach,
Now, on Sundays, I would to God everybody believed the gospel.
But he said here, I would to God that not only thou, but also
all that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such
as I am, except for these bonds. He said, I wish you had what
I have. Oh, he said, I would to God you
had Christ. I wish you had the one I have. He said, I would
to God that you were saved and you knew the Redeemer. He said,
except for these bonds, I don't wish that on anybody. I don't
wish that on my enemy standing right in front of me. He said,
I don't wish that my bonds on you, but I wish that the Lord
Jesus, you knew the Lord Jesus Christ. I would to God you knew
him. Oh, that thy saving health, that
the divine reign of Christ would be universally acknowledged.
Wouldn't that be something? Do you believe God is able to
do that? When you look at the world, you
look at North Korea, Russia, China, when you look at that,
do you believe God's able to conquer them and bring them down
and make them acknowledge Him? Absolutely. Absolutely. The very fact that this is prayed,
and I see this as a prayer of Christ, we may yet see that happen. I don't know. I don't know. You know, the Lord said, I tell
you these things that when they come to pass, that when they
come to pass, you'll know I told you. That's how you and I know
prophecy. We don't look in the Scriptures
and say, well, this is what's going to happen to happen. No,
we know prophecy after it's happened. We say, that's what it means.
That's what it means. And then he says here in verse
3, Let the people praise Thee, O God, let all the people praise
Thee, from all nations, all ranks of life. Let them all praise
Thee. I thank God He prayed this. Because I can see myself in all
the people. Let them praise Thee. Let them
sing praise to Your holy name. Can you imagine what it'd be
like? Can you even imagine what it's
going to be like in heaven when the whole host of heaven, angels
and the redeemed, sing at the same time in unison to His praise? That'd be something. It'd be
something if all the nations praised God from whom all blessings
flow. All the people, none are so far
off that the grace of God can't reach them." You know, I don't
find... The only people I find who feel
they're so far off that God can't reach them are the ones that
God has reached. Everybody else don't need Him.
I don't find anyone that really needs Him. I don't find anyone
saying, I'm such a wretch and He can't save me. That's usually
a good evidence that the Lord's already begun to work. Because
everybody, even the lowest, are so self-righteous, they don't
need a Savior. But I've been looking at this
word, just this one word, and it's mentioned like three times. The people praise Thee. One translation
said, make. Aren't you glad God made you
fall down on your face? Aren't you glad God made you
acknowledge Him as Lord and Savior? Aren't you glad God made you
able to praise Him? Let. And here's another thing. Let them pray. You know, God
let us come here tonight. You know that? God let you come
here tonight. He let you come in here, sit
down, open that Bible and listen to His Word. He let you do that. This is a privilege. The highest
privilege in your life is this. And let, it takes the work of
God for it to happen, but He's able. We see here in verse 4 how His
heart is just into this. He says, oh, I mean, you can
just feel something of His heart here as He prays this. And He
gets to verse 4, and it's just like a groan. It's almost like
a groan. Oh, let the nations be glad and
sing for joy. I want them to have what I have.
Not just Israel. Not just this little nation.
Oh God, I want all the nations at one time, and in unison, and
in agreement, and in harmony, sing and praise You. Do you want that? I would to
God I could see that in my lifetime. I do. God's able. I tell you,
one of our problems is that we don't expect much of God. We
don't expect great things of God. Henry said one time, expect
great things of God and He'll do great things. It's written
in the Gospels, He did not many mighty works there because of
one reason, their unbelief. They didn't believe Him. And
He packed His bags and left town. Well, we can't do this, we can't
afford that. Expect great things of God. And
I'm speaking to me, as well as you. Let the people praise thee, O
God, let all the people praise thee. Oh, let the nations be
glad and sing for joy. And here's the reason for the
praise and joy. Now listen. For thou shalt judge
the people righteously. Thou shalt judge the people with
equity and govern. I wrote under that word, shepherd. That's what it means. Shepherd
the nations. Guide and lead the nations. govern the nations upon earth.
When I read that, the first thought came to my mind was this, oh,
for a just judge in our day, this world is starving for one
who judges with equity. There's so much corruption in
government, so much corruption in the courts, so much corruption. Oh, but here we have something
to rejoice in. We have something to rejoice
in because it says, "'For thou shalt judge the people righteously.'"
This is not talking about the end of time and the great white
throne judgment. This is now, judge the people
righteously, govern the nations. You know why that man over there
in North Korea hasn't pushed the button? Because God is governing
the nations. He's shepherding the nations.
That's why. He will shepherd the nations and
He will govern them in righteousness. Oh, I love that. I love that
verse when I read it today. He will govern in righteousness. There was a time I would not
have liked that verse. There was a time when righteousness
would not have been in my vocabulary. But I thank God that he will
judge the people righteously. He'll guide his people, and he'll
govern the nations, and he'll do it for the elect's sake. He'll
do it for the elect's sake. Now, pause and think about that. Pause and think about that. Take
it home with you. Chew on it. Chew on it. And He's so passionate in His
prayer, He repeats it. Let the people praise Thee, O
God. Let all the people praise Thee. When we sing, don't we
repeat the chorus? This is like the chorus. We will
repeat the chorus, and this is the chorus here. Let the people,
let all the people praise Thee. Put this to song. Sing it aloud. Put it to the stringed instruments. And here's what will happen when
all the people praise God. Then shall the earth yield her
increase, and God, even our own God, shall bless us. You know,
many times the earth has been kept from yielding her increase
because of sin. Don't think drought is just something
that happens once in a while. If it's a drought, God caused
it. God still causes this earth to increase or decrease, not
give forth her fruit. He holds it back. And He holds
it back because of sin. Look right now over in the Middle
East. What's that place look like?
A desert. A desert. Now, at one time, the
gospel was over there. The gospel was over there in
Turkey and all those places, and it was preached, and it was
preached in power, and it was sent out. And now look at it
over there. Now look at it. It's a desert. But you know, God can turn that
place green again. He can turn them to Christ and
bless the earth and the seed that's in it will just grow,
flourish, flourish. This earth is His. It's His. Then shall the earth yield her
increase. I tell you this, though, when
Christ has put down all rule and all authority and righteousness
and peace reigns, the earth, Especially that new earth will
yield its increase. That earth will always yield
her increase. Always. There'll never be a desert
on that new earth. I got something here. I don't
remember who I read it from, but it was a good example. And
he was talking about here praising God, you know, back up in verse
5, let the people praise Thee, O God, let all the people praise
Thee. And this man likened it to the vapors that go up from
the ocean. It's carried and it comes down
and it goes into the... it waters the ground, goes into
the rivers and the creeks and goes back to the ocean. It's
just like this. And he made this observation, the more we praise
God, it's like the vapors that go up and then they come down. The vapors go up, our praise
goes up, and the blessings come down. The praise goes up, the
blessings come down. The more the vapors go up, the
more the rain comes down. And the more we praise God, the
more the blessings come down. And I thought, how simple is
that? But it's true. It's true. Then the earth shall yield her
increase. God will bless us. Even our own
God shall bless us. You know, a man's God is his
glory. So who's your God? Who's your
God? Our own God. This is more than just saying,
God who created all things will bless us, but our own God, this
God is our God. I am His and He is mine. God
is my God. Something's your God or someone's
your God, something or someone's my God. The God of heaven and
earth, the God of salvation is our God. And if we can say that God, even
our own God, shall bless us, then we will eat of the fatness
of His blessings from that covenant of grace. Mercy, grace, forgiveness. And then God shall bless us in
verse 7. God shall bless us. And all the
ends of the earth shall fear Him. First it talks about praising
Him and joy, and now it's talking about fear. But there is a right
fear that's joined with joy and praise. Now here in verse 7, His prayers
turn into a song. God shall bless us and all the
ends of the earth, shall fear Him." What comfort! What comfort, especially
in our day. I think we're living in a dark
day. I do. But what comfort knowing with
absolute confidence that God shall bless us. Why? For Christ's sake. All our
blessings were purchased by the blood of Christ. And we're going
to have them. What comfort in knowing that
God shall bless us because He's going to bless us for Christ's
sake. That's how I know it. That's
how I know it. I know that whatever God does,
He does for Christ's sake. And we have a promise However
dark the days may be, we have a promise, we have God's Word
on it that He will bless us. And I tell you, that psalm lifted
me up. It did. It lifted me up. All
right.