Okay, this evening now, turning
again to Psalm 67. Psalm 67. I'm taking the title
with a message from the words found down here in verse 7. God
shall bless us. Now what great comfort is that
to God's people? God shall bless us. Why would He bless us? Why would
he show favor to us? Not for anything in us. Not for
anything that we have done. God shall bless us because of
the Lord Jesus Christ and everything God has done for us. For he's blessed us in Christ
with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. God shall bless us. Well, you could just dwell on
that. He's blessed us in Christ forever
and ever and ever. Now, this is not ungodly and
unholy presumption to say with confidence, God shall bless us
because that's what he says. That's what he said. I'm just
repeating what he has said. This is not ungodly holy presumption
upon our part, but rather holy confidence and assurance in the
God of all grace and the father of mercies who shall fail not
fail to bless us for one reason, for the gospel sake, for the
Lord Jesus Christ alone. You remember we studied from
2 Corinthians 1 recently, all the promises of God. You think
of all the promises of God. Boy, that's the exceeding great
and precious promises of God. All the promises of God in him
are yes, and in him, and amen, and to the glory of God. Believers
are fully persuaded that all that God has promised, all that
God has promised, he's able to perform. And we can say with
Joshua, he had not failed to fulfill all of his covenant promises
to his people. Isn't that a blessing? God shall
bless us. Now let's go back and look at
verse one. And it begins where everything
begins. You see verse one, God. He's alpha, he's the omega. In
the beginning, God. God be merciful unto us. This is our prayer, is it not?
God be merciful unto us. Since he delights to show mercy,
and mercy is in, and he shows mercy to those in Christ, wouldn't
it be right to seek mercy where mercy's found? in Christ God
be merciful unto us. God be merciful unto us and then
he repeats what he said down there in verse 7 and bless us.
If God's merciful to us, he has blessed us already. If he's merciful
to us, his mercy is not giving us what we do deserve. His mercy
is not giving us what we do deserve. What do we deserve? Well, the
wages of sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life.
God be merciful unto us and bless us. And then he says cause. God is the first cause of our
salvation. He's the second cause of our
salvation. He's the third cause of our salvation. He's the only
cause of our salvation. God, be merciful. Oh, be merciful
to me. Isn't that what David prayed
in Psalm 51? Be merciful unto me, oh God,
according to thy loving kindness, according to the multitude of
thy tender mercy, Lord, blot out my sin. What did the publican
pray in the temple? God be merciful to me, the sinner. It's of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed. They're new every morning. God
delight to show mercy. Not by works of righteousness
we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. God be
merciful unto us. Now think about that. Who are
the us here? Who are the us's here? That's
not good grammar, is it? good theology, who is God pleased
to bless? He said, I will have mercy upon
whom I will have mercy. So he blesses according to this
sovereign pleasure. God be merciful unto us and bless
us, bless us, and then cause his face And I know this is referring
directly to our Savior, the Lord Jesus, cause His face to shine
or to be upon us, to be with us, as the marginal reference
has upon the word upon, cause His face to shine with us. God be merciful unto me. Moses
asked that question, didn't he? God, show me your glory. What
did the Lord respond? I will be merciful. I'll make
all my goodness pass before you. What is that? That's Christ.
God's greatest glory is our greatest need. Think about that. He delights to show mercy. His
greatest glory is mercy. That's my greatest need. Our
plea is not of merit, but of mercy. Our plea is not of works,
but of grace. Our plea is not of ceremony,
but of Christ. Our plea is not of tradition,
but truth. Is it not? He said, come boldly unto the
throne of grace that you may obtain mercy." How do we come
boldly? By faith. By faith. It's not
running to a place. It's coming to a person and we
come by faith. God shall bless us. He may Now think about this,
God shall bless us. Talking about his covenant children
now. God shall bless us. He may in the process of blessing
us, smite us, strip us, break us, and slay us, but God must
and will, for Christ's sake, bless us. Now in the process
of blessing us, there's a conviction of sin isn't there? showing us
that we're guilty. He's neither them of a broken
heart. He saved us such as be of a contrite spirit. He blesses us for Christ's sake,
right? His covenant people. Bless us,
bless us. Job, a good example of being
smitten and stripped and broken. You remember he lost his, livelihood,
his stock, everything he worked for. God took all of his children
away, killed every one of them. God took his health away. He
said, the Lord gave and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name
of the Lord. Job lost everything around him. But you know what he said? Though
he slay me, yet I will trust him. You see, he believed that
God is merciful and that God will bless us. And then the third
thing, he says, cause your face to shine upon us. Let us see
the glory of God that shines in the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. For he is called the Lord Jesus
Christ. In Hebrew chapter one, remember
he's called the express image of the invisible God. How can
you see the glory of God, the glory of His majesty, the glory
of His mercy, the glory of His grace, the glory of His holiness? Where is all that seen? God who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in
our heart that he give us the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God. Where is it at? In the face of
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where the glory of God
shines, in the face of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
son of righteousness that does arise in our hearts by his sovereign
will and purpose. You remember Malachi chapter
four, verse one and two? But unto you that fear my name
shall the sun, S-U-N, of righteousness arise with healing in its wings,
and you shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall. Now, what does a calf in a stall
have to do in reference, being a picture of a believer? Well,
I know a lot about cows and farms, being around a dairy farm, that
both my uncles had dairy farms, and my dad grew up on a dairy
farm, and I worked on a dairy farm. But calves of the stall
are well cared for, protected, and well fed. The farmer takes
care of that calf. You know why? That's his future. That's his future. I remember
one time visiting my Uncle Ray, and I was always out in the back
around the barn, around the hay and different things, and I went
out around his stall where his calves were. And he had this
feeding trough, and then he fed bales of hay down in that feeding
trough. And somehow this little calf
got in there. And one of them bales came down
and fell on it and smothered the calf. Well, I saw what was
going on, and that calf was already dead the time I looked at it.
And I went back in and told my uncle, I said, you better come
out here and look at this calf. It doesn't look good. And that
little calf didn't make it. But the calves of God's stall
are well protected. They'll never die, not like that
little calf did. Never forgot that. I must have
been seven, eight, nine years old, something like that. But
the calves of the stall are well, well protected, aren't they?
The son of righteousness shall arise with healing in their wings
and you shall go forth and grow up with growing grace. Grow up
like the calves of the stall are well fed. That's Malachi
1, Malachi 4, verse one and two. God must command the light to
shine in our hearts. Now we've seen this before. If
you'll turn back to Psalm 31, Psalm 31 verse 15. My times,
Psalm 31, my times are in thy hand. Deliver me from the hand
of mine enemies and from them that persecute me. Make thy face
to shine upon me and save me for your mercy's sake. Psalm
31 verse 15 and 16. Make thy face to shine upon thy
servant and save me, save me, Lord, because you are merciful.
Not that I deserve mercy, but save me. Cause your light to
shine upon us. When I think about that, I think
about two scriptures. One is found in Colossians, Colossians
chapter one, where it says that we've been translated out of
the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God, dear son.
And then the other scripture I think about is found over there
in first Peter chapter two, where it says that we are a chosen
generation of royal priesthood. We're called out of darkness
in his marvelous light that we should show forth to the praises
of him who did that, who called us, where'd he find us? Loving
darkness. And he called us to the light.
He caused that light to shine in our hearts. He was the cause.
God's the first cause and the last cause. He's the alpha and
the omega of our salvation. Now, let's read verse one and
verse two again. God be merciful unto us. Bless
us and cause your face to shine upon us. That, verse two. Thy way may be known upon the
earth. Now, if God didn't cause the
light to shine, we'd still be in darkness. We'd still be in
ignorance. Hating God, loving ourselves, despising the way
of truth, that thy way may be known upon the earth. The second part of verse two,
thy saving health. thy saving health among all nations,
thy saving health, that thy way may be known." God, God's method
of salvation is revealed and made known only in the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I'm the way, the truth,
the life. No one comes to the Father but
by and through me. God's method of salvation is
revealed and known only in the gospel of Christ. Hid these things
from the wise and prudent. Revealed them on the bay demon
so father for so it seemed good in thy sight Neither is there
salvation in any other way Christ is the new and living way that
thy way the way God's way salvation in him alone the way is a new
and living way I Jotted this down from Hebrew chapter 10.
I Verse 19, having therefore boldness to enter into the holiest,
by the blood of Jesus Christ, by a new and living way which
he made for us. Our forerunner has entered into
heaven for us, ever to appear in the presence of God for us,
ever living to make intercession for us, that thy way, cause your
light to shine, be merciful unto us and bless us, that thy way,
may be known upon the earth. You see how all that builds to
this? Salvation comes by revelation.
It's God revealing the Lord Jesus Christ unto our heart. And then
the second part of verse two is that thy saving health among
all nations may be known. Thy saving health is salvation. Now notice the reference on that,
on the word, thy saving health. See the reference there, Luke
2 verse 30. You see that? What does Luke
2 verse 30 say? You remember the story of Simeon?
Lord, let me die in peace, for I have seen thy salvation, looking
at the Lord Jesus Christ. Thy saving help, thy salvation
among all people. Now, everybody in our day, especially
in our day, they're all concerned about health, aren't they? About their health. Everybody
wants to have good health, and I'm not opposed to that. I'm
not opposed to eating right, exercising, doing those things,
because that's no guarantee to good health. Our times are in
his hands. But everybody's concerned about
personal, physical health, mental health. We all want to be healthy.
But this here is talking about our spiritual health. our salvation
in Christ. Now, by nature, we are sick with
sin. We're diseased, incurably terminal
with sin. How can this sinner be healed?
Spiritually healed. He was wounded for our transgression,
bruised for our iniquity, and with his stripes, that's how
we're healed. That's what he makes known to
us. His saving health, His salvation. Now isn't it interesting, everybody's
so concerned about health insurance and all this health stuff. Nobody
seems to be interested much in salvation that's of the Lord,
do they? You see, this is what we're in
need of because of our condition by nature, salvation in Christ. That's eternal salvation. He
saves us with an everlasting salvation. And they have this
big argument about how much health costs are and how much the premiums
are for health and who pays for that and the co-pay and that
pay and every other pay. This saving health that's eternal
and spiritual is free. Isn't that good news? Nobody's interested in it for
the most part. They try to buy their way in,
that thy way may be known upon the earth, thy saving health
among all nations. God's salvation is by His appointing,
His promise, His sending. Salvation is by Christ and Him
only. He came to attain it. He's the
author of it, the strength of it, the power of it, the health
of it. He came not to call the righteous. Those who are well
don't need a physician, right? Those who are sick, I didn't
come to call the righteous, but sinners, sinners to repentance. This is a faithful saying, worthy
of all acceptation, that the Lord Jesus Christ came to save
sinners. He's a physician we need. His
blood is a remedy for our every disease. He's a savior. of his people. Call his name
Jesus, he shall save his people from their sin. He's the one we need. He's the
doctor of salvation. Now, look at verse 3 and verse
5. Let the people praise thee. He keeps talking about particular
people. Let the people praise thee, O
God. Let all the people praise thee.
Now, consider this. God's been merciful unto us.
He's blessed us. He caused the glory of God to
shine in our heart, that we might see the blessedness in Christ,
that we may know His way. He's given us saving health,
spiritual health. Now, what does that lead to? Let all the people praise Thee. It's spontaneous. He's blessed
us with, we, as Paul said in Ephesians 1, we bless God who
has blessed us. And as David said in Psalm 103,
bless the Lord, O my soul, with all that is within me. Bless
his holy name. Let the people praise thee. Oh God, let all the people praise
thee. And he repeats the, If this could
be sung as a song, this would be the chorus. Let the people
praise thee, O God. Let all the people praise ye
the Lord. Let all the people praise thee,
O God. Now look that word up there,
praise, and it can be rendered two different ways. To confess
thee and to worship thee. Let all the people worship thee,
praise thee, and confess thee. that all the people purchased
with his blood. We do worship him. The fathers
seek as such to worship him in spirit and in truth. It is impossible
to approach God apart from Christ, right? That's so. But it's also
impossible to worship the true and living God apart from the
Lord Jesus Christ, apart from the gospel of Christ. Now listen,
where the gospel is denied, there is no true worship. Where the true and living God
is denied, there is no spiritual worship, not at all. They're
just going through religious motions. So we do worship the
true and living God. We worship Him as He is. The
only place a sinner will take, the only place a sinner will
worship is at the throne of an absolute sovereign God. That's
the only place worship takes place, before the throne of the
absolute God. We worship Him and then we confess
Him. We confess Him. We can only do
that Worship Him as we confess that we are sinners in need of
Him, that we truly confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is our
only hope. That's how we confess Him, being
identified with His people, being identified with His gospel, being
identified with the Lord. In believers' baptism, that's
how we publicly confess that He is our hope. We have a good
hope through Christ, a good hope through grace, and we worship
Him as God our Savior. We confess Him As Thomas said,
you remember what Thomas said when the risen Lord, you remember
the disciples told Thomas said, the Lord is risen. Thomas said,
Peter, you're beside yourself. I will not believe unless I see
him myself. And when the risen Lord appeared,
you remember what Thomas said? His confessing was what? My Lord
and my God. And he worshiped him. You see
what he's saying here? Let all the people praise thee. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. I know whom I have believed,
and I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've
committed unto him against that day. Who are these people that
do worship him and confess him? Well, what do we know about them? We know they're chosen by his
grace. We know that redeemed with the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We know they're regenerated by
the Holy Spirit. You have he quickened who were
dead. And we do worship him and confess
him. That's what the people of God
do, don't they? Look at verse four now. Psalm
67 verse four. Oh, let the nations be glad and
sing for joy. For thou shalt judge the people
righteously and govern or lead the nations upon the earth. When sinners, that is his elect
among the nations, that is his elect among the Gentile nations,
I believe that's what he's referring to, but the nations be glad. Let the nations be glad. His
elect among the Gentile nations. You remember, we sang that song
of redemption, that new song. He's worthy. He's redeemed the
people of every kindred, tribe, nation, tongue under heaven.
His elect among the nations. His elect sinners know God's
way of salvation. Saved by the grace of God, and
all see the promises of God fulfilled in Christ. And when we do, when
sinners see this, and they know this, and they've been taught
this, what does it bring? It brings joy and gladness in
our heart. We sing for joy. unto him who
loved us and washed us from our sin, and his own blood, to whom
be glory both now and forever. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
joy of our heart. Let the nations, God's elect
among the nations, be glad and let them sing for joy. Sing with
joy in your heart as unto the Lord. Four, look what he says. Thou shalt judge the people righteously
and govern the nations, lead the nations upon the earth. Two
things there. Number one, God has righteously
judged our sins already done in our substitute, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Thou shalt judge the people righteously. That's already taken place. God
made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in him. Christ suffered once
for our sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us
unto God. He has righteously judged our
sin in our substitute. And you know what? He put them
away. He appeared once in the end of the age to put away sin
by the sacrifice of Himself. Now listen to these scriptures.
I looked these up today. He says in Psalm 103, as far
as the east is from the west, He put away our sin as far as
the east is from the west. Now how far is that? That's pretty
far. He says in Hebrews 10, 17, it's
infinite. Remember, he said, their sin and their iniquity
will I remember no more. He has righteously judged our
sin and put them away in our substitute. In Isaiah 38, 17,
he said this about our sin. Thou hast in love to my soul
delivered it from the pit of corruption. Thou hast cast all
my sins behind thy back. And then in Micah 7, 19, he said,
they're cast into the depths of the sea. They no longer exist. What a great savior we have who
came and took upon himself our flesh, who took upon him our
sin, who took upon him the judgment and wrath of God and put away
our sin forever by the sacrifice of his own blood. No wonder his
blood is called precious. God bought the church with his
own blood. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the second
part of that in verse 4 is, not only he judged the people righteously,
putting away our sin, and then he governs them. That is, he
leads them. He's the leader we need. He governs
us, he leads us. You see, he is our great and
good shepherd. David said, the Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. Turn over there to Psalm 23,
just a moment. Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. He makes me to lay down in green
pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads
me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Everything
I need, He has provided. God shall supply all our needs
according to his riches in glory through the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord is my shepherd. He's the great shepherd that
provides all things for us. He's a good shepherd who laid
down his life for us. He's the chief shepherd who will
come again and receive us unto himself. Christ leads, governs His people,
protects, defends them, holds them by the right hand of His
righteousness. He guides them, He counsels them,
and receives them to glory. What a Savior we have! Down to verse 6, "...then shall
the earth yield her increase, And God, even our own God, shall
bless us. The earth shall yield her increase. Now this is not talking about
an abundant harvest of corn or wheat, but rather the increase
and the abundance of spiritual blessings through the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, through the seed of the word that is
sown in the good ground that brings forth much fruit. Our land shall yield her increase. God has promised to bless, to
bless his word. Now you don't need to turn to
this, you can if you want to, but, And Isaiah 55 verse 10 says,
for as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and
returneth not thither, but waters the earth, that it may bring
forth bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the
eater. And then he says, so shall my
word be. His word is the incorruptible
word of God. So shall my word be that goeth
forth out of my mouth, that shall not return unto me void. But
it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper
in the thing whereunto he sends it." Now, if he sends his word,
he's going to prosper it. He's going to bless it to his
people. You remember, we read recently
this scripture in our study of 1 Corinthians 3, where Paul said,
I planted Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then
neither is he that planteth anything, neither is he that watereth,
but God that gives the increase. Then shall the earth yield her
increase, and God shall bless us. Nothing more excites the
heart of a believer to know that he who is God is God over all,
blessed forever, and that he is our God. the true and living
God, who is not against us. If God be for us, who can be
against us? You remember what he said in
Romans 8? He's God over all, blessed forever. What shall we
say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things in him? Then the earth shall yield
her increase, and God, even our own God, he shall bless us. Verse seven again, God shall
bless us. all the ends of the earth. God
shall bless us, and because he does, he has a people north,
south, east, west. This scripture comes to mind
to mind just right now. Isaiah 43, fear not, I am with
thee. I'll bring thy seed from the
east, gather thee from the west. I'll say to the north, give up,
And to the south, keep not back, bring my sons from far, my daughters
from the ends of the earth. God shall bless us at all the
ends of the earth. See what he's saying? I will
say to the north, give up. To the south, keep not back,
bring my sons from far, my daughters from the ends of the earth. Everyone
is called by my name, for I have created him for my glory. I have
formed him, yea, I have made him. God shall bless us. That's not presumption. You see,
it's not presumption to believe God. It's not presumption to
believe His word. We can have confidence and assurance
because He said He's going to bless His people. And all the
ends of the earth shall worship Him. Worship Him. It's all about
His glory and worshiping the Lord.