Return in your Bibles to Psalm 67. Psalm 67 will consider a prayer for gospel missions. A prayer for gospel missions. This is something of an extended application from our message this morning.
Remember this morning Jesus commissioned, Jesus authorized his disciples, his 12 to go on a very specific mission in Galilee to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. In Matthew 28, he gives the great commission to the church that they are to go and make disciples of all the nations. So I thought tonight we would take up Psalm 67 and learn something of a prayer for gospel missions. It ought to be in the heartbeat of God's people to see the kingdom of Jesus Christ advance.
In fact, we are taught to pray that specifically in the Lord's Prayer. May His kingdom come. not only in its eschatological fullness wherein he ushers in the eternal state and we enter the consummated glory, but may his kingdom come through the preaching of the gospel, through the calling of sinners to repentance of faith, through entrance into the kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit, through the word of the gospel itself. I just want to read Psalm 67 and then we'll look at this prayer for gospel missions. To the chief musician on stringed instruments, a psalm, a song.
God be merciful to us and bless us, and cause his face to shine upon us, say la. That your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, oh God. Let all the peoples praise you.
Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy. For you shall judge the people righteously, and govern the nations on earth. Selah. Let the peoples praise you, O God.
Let all the peoples praise you. Then the earth shall yield her increase. God, our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.
Amen. Well, let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for this, your word. We pray that you would put this prayer in our hearts, that tomorrow, through the week, we would remember the cause of God and truth throughout this earth. We know there are nations steeped in Islam, nations steeped in Romanism, nations steeped in atheism, in all manner of departure from your truth. We pray, God most high, that you'd raise men up and equip them and cause them to know the scripture, to be mighty in the scripture, as it was said of Apollos.
And may you send them forth, preaching the gospel of free and sovereign grace. And our Father, may you indeed give us an interest in your harvest. May you give us a desire to see workers sent out. And may you give us a zeal and an earnestness at the throne of grace to plead, Lord God Almighty, that you would send forth your glorious gospel.
And we ask for Jesus' sake, amen.
Introduction
Well, as I said, this is a prayer concerning gospel missions, and it envisions more than what we saw this morning, that localized mission to Galilee. This is a comprehensive view. It has more in line with Matthew 28. It is a universal call, or a call rather, to God's universal blessing throughout the world.
Remember, I quoted Knox Chamberlain this morning. He said, the latter day Joshua here in Matthew 10, authorizes apostles to conquer the land. He will later commission them to conquer the world. And when you read through the Psalms, we read Psalm 72, we've read Psalm 67.
If we would read others in the Psalms, the psalmist, the Psalter had an expectation of God's blessing on a big scale. In other words, the Psalter understood, or the psalmists understood, the Abrahamic covenant. Remember that God the Lord promised to Abraham that it wouldn't just be a handful. It would rather be a great multitude that would be saved from the nations of the earth, yea, the families of the earth.
And you find that confident expectation set forth over and over again in the various psalms that we have in the scripture. Now Psalm 67 is calculated or it is structured as a prayer. The first section deals with the petitions or what the psalmist prays for in verses 1 to 5. He then ends with the promise in verses 6 to 7.
In other words, if you grant these petitions, Lord God, then we expect these particular promises, or these particular blessings. Not because the psalmist says so, not because it's formulaic, but because of the character of God. God in His mercy, God in His covenant, God in His kindness has promised to bless a great multitude through the preaching of the gospel.
Petitions for the Church and World
So let's look first of all at these petitions in verses 1 to 5. And there are two categories with three petitions each. The first category is the church. The psalmist prays first for the church.
I think the idea is clear. We need to make sure that we're thinking God's thoughts after Him. We need to make sure that our house is in order. We need to make sure that all the things that we stand in need of are supplied by God so that we may be enabled to go to the world.
So the first three things concern the church. The second three things concern the world itself. So the psalmist prays, first of all, concerning the church, God be merciful to us.
First Petition: Mercy for the Church
God be merciful to us. I think much of the backdrop of Psalm 67 is the Aaronic Blessing in Numbers 6, 24 to 26. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. It's almost as if the psalmist has this in his mind and in his heart. Perhaps he just left the temple and this was the benediction read at the end of the service so he busies himself in composing this particular prayer in terms of God's Word. But God be merciful to us.
That's the first petition sought by the church at prayer. God be merciful. Continue to be gracious. We acknowledge that we do not stand based on merit.
We acknowledge that we do not stand based on our own resources. We acknowledge, Lord God, that we are always needy. We are always supplicants. We are always beggars before the throne of God Most High.
This is a great petition to cause us to reflect upon the fact that we are a needy people. We never arrive as the Church. We never get to a place where we say, that's it, we can't reform anymore, we have filled up the measure of Reformation theology. No, one of the maxims of the Reformation was always reforming.
And the Church of Christ will do well to adopt that mindset. But God, be merciful to us. Spurgeon says mercy is a foundation attribute in our salvation. He says the best saints and the worst sinners may unite in this petition.
God be merciful to us. Those who have received mercy, those who understand mercy, those who traffic in mercy are going to be those who go out and propagate mercy. I love that particular sequence of events that we find in David's psalm of repentance in Psalm 51. You can turn there for just a moment.
David takes this particular order very seriously. You remember the psalm. You remember the occasion. It was a psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba.
So this is at David's lowest ebb. This is at David's lowest place. This is at a time when David had committed murder. He had committed adultery.
The prophet brings the law of God to bear upon him. David is humbled. He confesses his sin, the Lord God atones, the Lord God forgives. So David takes pen to paper and he composes this particular song.
He rehearses God's kindness. He rehearses the fact that he's having his iniquities blot out. He's acknowledging his sin. He's acknowledging his depravity.
He's acknowledging the reality that David is a wretch. And then notice in verse 7, he starts to call out to God, purge me with Issa. and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me your joy and gladness, that the bones you have broken may rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. He says, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me by your generous spirit.
Now note the order, then I will teach. Transgressors your ways and sinners shall be converted to you. You see that? God forgive.
God, blot. God, wash. God, restore. God, give me joy.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways." In other words, when we understand the saving mercy of Christ in our lives, when we understand the saving grace of the gospel, certainly we're poised better to communicate those realities to others as well. And so the psalmist at prayer says, God, be merciful to us. Let us not go out in the posture or in the disposition of telling people, you need to be like us, no? Go out in the posture and with the disposition of God is merciful even to the likes of us.
That's the first petition for the church.
Second Petition: Blessing for the Church
The second is for blessing. He says, God be merciful to us and bless us. When God, or when we bless God, that means we speak well of Him. As in Ephesians 1, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We're not adding to God. We're not enhancing God. We're not establishing His blessedness or His glory. Rather, we are recognizing it.
You know, when we speak about that, glorify the Lord. Do you think the Lord needs Jim Butler to make Him glorious? That's not the thrust. The idea is, is help us to see it, help us to recognize it, help us to esteem it, and that's what blessing means.
When we bless God, we speak well of Him. When God blesses us, He does great things for us, things for which we are not worthy. The psalmist in Psalm 68 verses 19 and 20 says, Blessed be the Lord. There's that speak well of or ascribe blessedness to the Lord.
Who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation, Selah. He says, Our God is the God of salvation, and to God the Lord alone, or God the Lord belong, escapes from death. He says he daily loads us with benefits. In Psalm 67, God be merciful to us and bless us.
It is not wrong for us to pray for God's blessing. It is not wrong for us to say with the psalmist here, be merciful and bless us. Now, blessing ought to be aligned with God's will. We don't say, bless me with this, or bless me with that, or bless me with whatever it is that'll make me cool and hip among the popular kids at school.
That may not necessarily be a blessing. God bless us with those blessings that are fit and accurate for our lives. It is not wrong. We must, however, align our understanding of what constitutes a blessing with the scripture instead of our own carnal desires.
So he prays for mercy, he prays for blessing,
Third Petition: God's Presence for the Church
he prays thirdly for communion. God be merciful to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us, say Allah. Cause his face to shine upon us, say Allah. I interpret that, I understand that as meaning we want God.
We want his favor. We want his kindness. We want his smile. In Psalm, we want communion with the living and true God.
This is what number six sets forth. This is what the psalmist longed for. Look at Psalm 42, verses one and two. As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? You see, he longs for this. This is his desire.
This is what he wants when he comes to church. He doesn't want to just have the patience to grit it out for the hour. God, help me not to grimace for the next hour and a half. God, help me not to look at my watch incessantly for the next hour and a half.
And those might be good prayers that you might need to consider offering up to the Lord God. Remember, the preacher sees all. I know when you're doing this. You know, kids just turn around and look at the clock.
Adults have to kind of, you know, slyly try and get a view of it. The kid has a watch. He's like, you know, parents are like, I see it. I know what you're doing.
So you might need to pray that. Do you know what you ought to pray on a Sunday morning? God, come down. Come into our midst.
Dwell powerfully by your spirit. Attend to the word. Be in the supper. Be amongst the singing.
Encourage our hearts. Build us up. Strengthen us. May we know a felt, present Christ.
That's what the psalmist says. He says, bless us and cause his face to shine upon us. It is the presence of God most high. that the church desperately needs before she can go out and engage in the missionary enterprise. In Psalm 63, we see a similar sentiment in verses 1 to 3.
He says, O God, you are my God. Early will I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.
So I have looked for you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory." Isn't that beautiful? Where does he go to find God? He doesn't go shimmy up Mount Sham. He doesn't go check himself into a monastery.
He doesn't go into some encounter group. He goes to church. It's the sanctuary where God Most High visits His people in the covenant community. Now we know this was a temple, a tabernacle, but the church is the new covenant dwelling place of God Most High.
When we see the seer in the book of Revelation, in chapter 1, when he gets a vision, when he gets a glimpse of the glorified Christ, where is Jesus standing? He is not standing in the think tank. He's not standing in the seminary. He's not standing in your discipleship group.
He is standing in the church. The Bible is very, very pro-church. You want to find God? Go to church.
You want to know the shining countenance of God? Go to church. You want to know His presence? Go to church.
Now, do not leave here and say, I mean, I can't read my Bible in private. Meet God. Yes, you can. Yes, you absolutely can.
But you certainly meet him in the public place as well. And remember, the psalmist here praying on behalf of the covenant community, praying for what we in the new covenant call the church, says, God be merciful to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us. This is what the church longs for. more of God's presence in their midst. We want God to show up on Sunday.
We want Christ to walk in the midst of the lampstand. We want the Holy Spirit to have reign in our hearts and in our minds. We want Him to take that word. We want Him to drive it home to our consciences.
We want Him to effect positive change in us. If we have unconverted family or unconverted friend, we want to call down the power of the Spirit to attend to the preaching of the Word so that people will be saved. They'll be born again by the power of God Most High. This is what the Church desperately needs.
We need mercy. We need blessing. And above all, we need the shining face of God's holy countenance upon his church. Now notice,
Petitions for the World
secondly, in terms of petition, in terms of area of petition, he prays for the world. And there are three things he prays for concerning the world. The first is for salvation.
Fourth Petition: Salvation for the Nations
That your way, verse 2, may be known on earth, your salvation Among all nations you see the procedure or you see the order rather God be merciful to us God bless us God cause his face to shine upon us that Your way may be known on all the earth You see when people come to church and they meet with the Living God very often they go into the world and they tell people about the Living God and 1 Peter 2 refers to this in this way. It says that God calls us out of darkness into his marvelous light so we can sit there like bumps on a log. No, that's not what it says. Not in any translation that I'm aware of.
I'm sure there might be one eventually down the road that does translate it that way. He calls us out of darkness into his marvelous light that we may proclaim his excellencies. the new American standard, that we may proclaim that we may declare, that we may tell others, you see the specific and conspicuous order, the church at prayer, God bless us, God be merciful, bless and cause your face to shine upon us, that we may therefore go, that we may tell people on the earth, that we may declare your salvation among all the nations. C.H. Spurgeon says, it is the duty and the privilege of a revived church to make that way to be everywhere known.
Beautiful. Listen again. It is the duty and privilege of a revived church to make that way to be everywhere known. The same order with David.
I have received forgiveness that I may teach transgressors. The church at prayer calls upon God for mercy, for blessing, for countenance. And then what does she do? Well, that's great.
We got ours. No, we tell other sinners. We pray for young men in our church. We pray for old men.
We pray that God raise up elders. We pray that God equip men according to 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. We understand the normal means. We understand how God operates in this world.
It's not magic. He doesn't open heaven and drop Spurgeon down into a pulpit. He raises them up from the midst of the ranks. He causes men to take seriously the admonition to study theology, to study their Bible, to get up early and stay up late, to engage in self-denial, to memorize scripture, to memorize doctrine, to read theology, so that they may, by God's grace, go into this world and tell sinners, Jesus saves, Jesus saves.
You see, that's the order. It isn't magic. It isn't dazzling. It isn't sensational.
It isn't as romantic as we might think. It takes hard work. It takes raising men up. It takes some money.
It takes some sweat. It takes some prayer. It takes some effort and energy by the church. Brethren, it can be done, and it should be done, because what is at stake?
That your way may be known on earth. The way of God is his method of dealing out mercy and his glorious government. And the salvation of God is simply his grace in saving sinners. That's what this world desperately needs to hear.
So he prays for salvation.
Fifth Petition: Worship Among the Nations
Secondly for the world, he prays for worship. You see, the psalmist doesn't like to see nations reject God. The psalmist is not content with men who blaspheme God. Remember that instance where the Apostle Paul goes to the city of Athens.
There's an interesting statement. It says that he looks at the city. I've not been to Athens, I've googled it. You know, there's all those old buildings, what we call old buildings.
Doug Boutin is going, those aren't old buildings, those are architectural masterpieces, because he's an architect now. I call them old buildings. In the centuries in which Paul lived, in the time in which Paul lived, they were idle factories. You know what Luke records concerning Paul?
When he looked around this city, he was provoked in his spirit. It's an interesting verb that is used because it's a verb used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament that's applied to God. When God sees idols, he's provoked. Paul felt that.
Paul looked around and he saw this city given over to idolatry and he was provoked in his spirit. So what does he do? He goes to the marketplace and he reasons daily concerning the gospel. The Stoic and Epicurean philosophers hear about him and say, why don't you come on up to the Areopagus?
We'd like to hear about this Jesus and the resurrection that you're preaching. So what does Paul do? He does it. He said the provocation of spirit led Paul, the apostle, to take action by the grace of God to remedy the situation.
And the same order is conspicuous in the psalm. Be merciful to us, bless us, cause your face to shine upon us, so that men will know you, they will be saved by grace, and they'll stop blaspheming, they'll stop rejecting, and they will start to praise and to honor and to worship you." Notice, verse 3, "...let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you, O let the nations be glad and sing for joy." Verse 5, "...let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you." A psalmist, what is it that you want from the peoples on the earth? I want them to praise God! Isn't this the conspicuous order in our Lord's Prayer?
In His instruction given to the Church? In His instruction given to the disciples when they ask, Lord, teach us to pray? What comes first in the order of business? Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
That is the New Testament counterpart to what the psalmist is praying here. We don't want men to trash the name of God. We don't want men to reject the name of God. We don't want men to blaspheme the name of God.
We certainly don't want them to kill people who profess that saving name. So God, change their hearts and let the peoples praise you. He wants worshippers. Note the thrust of the psalm.
God's mercy, blessing and presence given to the church should promote missions and worship. And Piper recognizes a very good thought. He says, missions and evangelism are not absolute. Missions and evangelism are a means to an end.
Missions and evangelism are tasked with creating worshipers. You see, when you get to the eschaton, when we get to the eternal state, when we get to heaven, when the New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven, when the new heavens and the new earth are ushered in, there'll be no more evangelism. There'll be no more missions. You won't have to evangelize your neighbor in the New Jerusalem because he's in the New Jerusalem.
He's there by God's grace. He's believed the gospel. You don't have to go knock on his door and say, let me tell you about Jesus. He's going to say, I'm in the New Jerusalem.
Of course I know about Jesus. But what does exist in the eschaton? What continues? World without end.
Worship. You see, worship is ultimate. Missions and evangelism are means, blessed means, we ought to engage in to be sure. The primary purpose is to create worshippers for our God who is worthy of worshippers.
That's what the psalmist prays. So he prays for the world, salvation, worship, and
Sixth Petition: God's Rule Over Nations
thirdly, for God's rule. Verse 4b, for you shall judge the people righteously and govern the nations on earth. Selah. True gladness and true joy is found in submission to the rule of Jesus Christ.
Pastor Cam read Psalm 2 this morning, and there's an equal sentiment there. In Psalm 2, verse 10, it says, Now therefore be wise, O kings, be instructed, you judges of the earth, serve Yahweh with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.
Who is David calling upon? He's calling upon kings. He's calling upon judges. He's calling upon other nations.
He's calling upon other body politic to worship and bow before the Lord God Almighty. And the psalmist is not content to look at the nations around him plunged into idolatry, plunged into heathendom. He wants them to be saved. He wants them to be worshipers.
And he wants them to be loyal subjects of God's glorious rule. and that they would find true happiness. So those are the petitions. Three for the church, three for the world.
The Promise: Temporal and Spiritual Blessing
Notice the promise finally, verses 6 and 7. Two-fold promise, temporal and spiritual. Temporal and spiritual. Temporal means those things connected to the earth, those things that are temporary, those things that are physical, those things that are material in nature.
Temporal Promise: The Earth's Increase
Notice in verse 6, the earth shall yield her increase. God, our own God, shall bless us." Commentators suggest that the psalm was probably written as a prayer to God for a bountiful harvest. How does bountiful harvest come? Is it just the best science that has taught us how to water and when to water and how much sunlight we need?
Or is the best harvest found in submission to the rule of Jesus Christ most high? Notice, then the earth shall yield her increase. God, our own God, shall bless us. Spurgeon says, sin first laid a curse on the soil, and grace alone can remove it.
Under tyrannical governments, lands become unproductive. Never make that mistake. It's not like North America just got blessed with sewage systems and plumbing and electrical. No.
There's nations in this world that have rejected God. They worship the creature rather than the Creator. And that faith commitment has brought judgment upon their land. It's not that North Americans are just smart to eat cows and Indians are not smart to eat cows.
It's a faith commitment. Listen to Spurgeon. No, we don't always think this way, but the Psalter is filled with it. The prophets are filled with it and there's New Testament evidences as well.
Sin first laid a curse on the soil and grace alone can remove it. Under tyrannical governments, lands become unproductive. Even the land which flowed with milk and honey is almost a wilderness under Turkish rule. But when the principles of true religion shall have elevated mankind, and the dominion of Jesus shall be universally acknowledged, the science of tillage shall be perfected, men shall be encouraged to labor, industry shall banish peonyry, and the soil shall be restored to more than its highest condition of fertility.
For those of you who have been around for some time, you'll remember that story we heard of missions in Haiti. Brothers will go to Haiti and they'll preach the gospel to people. And one time they were preaching not only the gospel, but teaching how to subdue the land. And one of the Haitian pastors that was there learned how to guard it.
He went back to his village and he did a guard it. Next time he came to the conference, he said, what these guys are saying works. I grew food in my backyard. And we just take it for granted that everybody knows you just grow food in your backyard.
But not in these nations, not in some of these places. They don't have this information that they take for granted. We have been blessed by God Almighty, not just with sewage systems, not just with electrical work, not just with some human ingenuity, but with at least some common grace wherein men have recognized their Creator and have sought by the grace of God to do some things well. Spurgeon's quote, I think, is apropos.
It's very appropriate. We need to understand it. But
Spiritual Promise: All Ends Fear God
secondly, the promise of spiritual blessings. Notice in verse 7, God shall bless us and all the ends of the earth shall fear him. There is great expectation in the Psalter. This is one of the reasons why we ought to sing Psalms, why our Trinity Psalter ought to be employed.
I just don't know that many tunes. I'm sure you'll all know. There's expectation, there's confidence, there's hope when these men sang. We saw that in Psalm 72, he shall have dominion from sea to sea.
This is what the psalmist says, God shall bless us and all the ends of the earth shall fear him. John Calvin commented and said, the psalm contains a prediction of Christ's kingdom under which the whole world was to be adopted into a privileged relationship with God. C. H.
Spurgeon said, despite the gloomy notions of some, we cling to the belief that the kingdom of Christ will embrace the whole habitable globe and that all flesh shall see the salvation of God for this glorious consummation we agonize in prayer. Now when we get to the New Testament it ought not to surprise us when Jesus employs this language in Matthew 28. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations. Why?
Because his father gave them to him. Psalm 2 again, Pastor Porter read it this morning. Ask of me, Yahweh sends to the Son, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance. I will give you the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.
So when we get to Matthew 28, Jesus says, go therefore and disciple the nations, the disciples don't scratch their heads, what are you saying Lord? They understand there's a Christocracy. They understand that there is Christ with absolute authority who has been given this gift by his father and their task is to go out and evangelize, to preach the gospel, to call sinners to repentance and faith. This psalm sets forth for us a biblical doctrine of globalism.
Globalism is defined as a policy in which the world is seen as the appropriate sphere for a state's influence. Now, in that definition, it is a horrible concept. It is an absolutely abominable concept. We ought not want the world or the state to enact globalism.
But Psalm 67 pictures a Christocentric, Christ-centered globalism that ought to encourage the saints of God most high. The Father has given the nations to his Son, the Father has given the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. Therefore, as the Church, we pray, God be merciful to us, God bless us, God cause your face to shine upon us, so that the world may know your salvation, so that they may be brought out of darkness into marvelous light to be worshipers, and so that they will submit to your glorious rule.
Application
The church ought to pray in kind. We ought to take this. We ought to adopt it. We ought to take it to our closets.
We ought to pray it on Wednesday night. We ought to pray it on Sunday morning. We ought to conspicuously remember gospel missions for the glory of Christ, for the exaltation of his name, and for the extension of his blessed kingdom. For that is one of the reasons why he has saved us.
It is so that we will go therefore and tell others." Now I'm not supposing that everybody here is going to go to China to tell sinners how to be saved. But you can certainly pray. Please pray. Pray for the missionary enterprise.
Pray for the missionaries that we know and love. Pray for those brethren that we get their letters. Pray for them. Remember them at the throne of grace.
And remember, ultimately, it is because of the cross that the church receives mercy, blessing, and God's presence. And it's because of the cross that the nations will, in fact, be glad and sing for joy. If you have not come to the cross yourself, then by God's grace, look to the Lord Jesus Christ, believe and be saved, and then pray with the psalmist, God be merciful to us, bless us, cause your face to shine upon us, so that we may propagate your glorious truth. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for your word, we thank you for this psalmist prayer for the church and for the world, and I pray, God in heaven, that you would just help us to take these things to heart, Help us, Father, to pray these things back to you on a regular basis. Help us to be concerned with what is going on in this world when we see political oppression, when we see governments that tyrannize. May we come to you before the throne of grace and ask and beseech and pray that your gospel would be proclaimed in these lands. We ask, our Father, that you would be merciful to us as a church. that you would in fact bless us and that you would commune with us on a regular basis.
Forgive us for all of our sins and our transgressions. Send us from this place with a desire to glorify you in this world. And we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.