The Hope of the Nations
sinners by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Basically, that promise of salvation is first announced in the proto-gospel in Genesis 315. It's communicated to Noah, it's communicated to Abraham, it's explained in the prophets, it's celebrated in this altar, and it's fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection. of our Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 67 is a prayer of the psalmist. First he offers up petitions in verses 1 to 5, and then he assumes promises from God in verses 6 and 7. So I'll read the psalm and then we'll look at it in some detail. So beginning in verse 1, 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. Selah. That your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples praise you. O 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." Well, let us pray. Our blessed God, we thank you for this wonderful psalm. We thank you for what the psalmist prays for. May we learn from this psalm in terms of church life, in terms of prayers, for the nations of the earth, and as well, God, may we have the confident expectation that the psalmist has here in terms of blessing from the God of heaven and earth. We know that you are good and that you do good. So guide us now by your spirit, and we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Well, as I said, the petitions offered by the psalmist in verses 1 to 5, and then the promise assumed by the psalmist in verses 6 and 7. And when you look at the petitions, they're broken down into two sections. First, he prays for the church, and then secondly, he prays for the nations. And the backdrop to verse 1 is the Aaronic Blessing in Numbers chapter 6, verses 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. That is precisely what we see there in verse one. And notice in terms of petition for the church, he prays first for God's mercy. He says, God be merciful to us. The language, as I said, is taken from that Aaronic blessing, and mercy is foundational for the well-being of the church. It is foundational for each and every Christian. It is foundational for everybody. If God deals with us according to strict justice, we will be in hell, suffering as a result of our sin against a holy God. And so we stand in constant need for mercy. As Spurgeon says, mercy is a foundation attribute in our salvation. The best saints and the worst sinners may unite in this petition. So he prays for mercy. It's no accident that many of the New Testament epistles, Paul pronounces grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ. We always stand in need of mercy. And then notice he goes on to pray for blessing. God be merciful to us and bless us. The church blesses God by speaking well of Him. In fact, in Ephesians 1.3, that's how Paul puts it. He says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and then he changes directions in terms of God's blessing of us. So our blessing of God is to speak well of him, to magnify his name, but God's blessings of us is to confer good things upon us. So he says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. The psalmist says something similar in Psalm 68. You can look over in your Bibles to verses 19 and 20. Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits, the God of our salvation. Our God is the God of salvation, and to God the Lord belong escapes from death. So the psalmist, with reference to the church, prays for God's mercy. He then prays for God's blessing. And then thirdly, in verse one, he prays for God's communion with the people of God. So notice again in verse one, God be merciful to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us, Selah. That's what that means. It is to commune with the living and the true God. If you look in Psalm 31, specifically at verse 16, you see the same, sort of a motif with reference to communion with our God. Psalm 31, verse 16, make your face shine upon your servant, save me for your mercy's sake. And then over in Psalm 44, specifically at verse three, for they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword, nor did their own arm save them, but it was your right hand, your arm and the light of your countenance because you favored them. So it wasn't their power, it wasn't their savvy, it wasn't their ability, but it was the presence of God communing with his people. Same that we see in Jephthah's speech to the king of Ammon there. Wasn't Israel, it was the God of Israel that had vindicated his people. It was the God of Israel that had shut down Sihon. It was the God of Israel that shut down Og. And then Jephthah rightly asks if Chemosh was to bring judgment to bear upon a people's and a land, Wouldn't you take that land? Of course you would. So Jephthah says, our God has blessed us. Our God who is present with us is the God who has vanquished our enemies. He treads them down. And as a result, he blesses us profusely. Turn over to Psalm 80, which is something of a Psalm concerning revival. The people of God calling upon God to revive them, to know that nearness of God as their good. Psalm 80, verse 3, restore us, O God, cause your face to shine, and we shall be saved. Verse 7, restore us, O God of hosts, cause your face to shine, and we shall be saved. And then over in verse 19, a similar emphasis, restore us, O Lord God of hosts, cause your face to shine, and we shall be saved. For the psalmist, as he goes to pray with reference to the church, he wants mercy, he wants blessing, and he wants communion. He wants that presence of God Most High. The psalmist individually longs for this. Turn back to Psalm 42, specifically at verses 1 and 2. Psalm 42, verses 1 and 2. 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? My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually say to me, where is your God? See what animated the psalmist? It was the nearness of God. It was the presence and communion of God. Yes, we want mercy, foundational attribute. We must have it. Yes, we want blessing. We want good things coming from God toward us. Not cars and boats and houses and all those sorts of things, but we want those spiritual blessings that he conveys upon the blood-bought children of God. But we want communion. We want to know His nearness. We want to know His presence. We want something of Revelation chapter 1. We see Jesus in the midst of the lampstand, on the Lord's day. This is what we hope for. This is why we come to church. It's great to see one another. It's great to sing. It's great to pray. It's great to hear from Scripture. But it's great to know the nearness of God as our good. Listen to David as well in Psalm 63. You can turn there. Psalm 63, this longing to be with God, this longing for communion with God. Psalm 63, verse 1, a Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah. Oh 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. Now notice in verse three, because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you. David was an old covenant saint, a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ to be sure, but David knew great experience in terms of spiritual blessing with reference to the living and true God. I mean, in many respects, this old covenant saying far exceeds the new covenant reality that you and I engage in. David knew the nearness of God as his good, and when he comes to pray in Psalm 67, he is praying that God be merciful to us, that God bless us, and that God cause his face to shine upon us. So that's the particular petitions for the church. Now notice for the nations, and there are three here. First, salvation. He wants the nations to know Israel's God. He wants the nations to know the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants the nations to experience that mercy and that blessing and that communion. In other words, the psalmist's heart is right, not only with God, but with men. He wants to see sinners brought nigh through the blood of Jesus to Israel's God. So notice in verse two, God be merciful, back to verse 1, God be merciful to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us. Note first that, verse 2, that, God be merciful to us, God bless us, God cause your face to shine upon us, that, that we may just sit on the couch and revel in the blessings that you've conveyed upon us. That we may just hole up in the midst of the context of the local church and just delight in those things. Yeah, those are good things. But that, he says, your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. The word that in the beginning of verse two highlights the connection. The church receives mercy, the church is blessed, and the church is communing with God in order that she may communicate this way of God to the earth and this salvation of God among all nations. It's a blessed reality. He prays for the church to be blessed so that the church can in turn be a blessing to others. This was always God's purpose. If you look back at Deuteronomy chapter 4, Deuteronomy chapter four, Old Covenant Israel was to mediate the blessings of God to the nations around them. They obviously failed, and so it's that new covenant Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ, who mediates the blessings of God to the entirety of the world. But notice in Deuteronomy four, verses five to eight, surely I've taught you statutes and judgments, just as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. Therefore, be careful to observe them. For this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us for whatever reason we may call upon him? And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? In other words, as Israel is supposed to function in the land that they were dwelling in, they were to be a demonstration of God's grace and goodness to them, such that it would provoke the nations to search out this God, to ask the questions about this law, to wonder about the promises that this body politic was founded upon, to wonder about this God who had vindicated his people. Similarly, we read in 1 Peter 2 at verse 9, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people. All that's great. Our status, our position, our blessed favor in the sight of a holy God. But he goes on to say that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. You are these things such that you proclaim His excellencies to those who stand in need. In the psalm, 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. Alec Mottier says, it is of course true that he blesses us for our own enrichment, because he loves us and delights to share himself with us. But there is another side to blessing. It comes to us for the sake of somebody else. Blessing puts us under responsibility. whether it is that we so respond to God's blessing that others see the difference in our lives, or that there is someone waiting to be told of this generous God. Blessing is granted in order that the world may know His salvation. So God, be merciful to us. God, bless us. God, cause your face to shine upon us so that we may make known your way throughout the earth, your salvation amongst the Gentiles. Spurgeon says it is the duty and privilege of a revived church to make that way to be everywhere known. So that which was communicated by God, Genesis 3.15, moved along by farther steps, come to full realization in the New Testament under the new covenant of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is what the psalmist wants for the nations of the earth to hear. But then notice in terms of the second petition, worship. He wants the nations to worship. He wants the nations not to worship Chemosh, not to worship Baal, not to worship themselves, but to worship the living and true God. Why did God make the world? To glorify him, to enjoy him forever. And so notice that the psalmist wants the nations to be saved, and he wants those saved nations to then worship God. Notice in verse three, let the peoples praise you, oh God, let all the peoples praise you. Verse 4a, oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy. And then notice in verse five, let the peoples praise you, oh God, let all the peoples praise you. The church receives mercy, blessing, and communion. The church communicates the glorious ways of God in terms of salvation so that those saved in the various nations of the earth, instead of blaspheming God, instead of cursing the Lord Jesus Christ, they may praise Him. See, the saints of Christ want to be joined by other saints of Christ. It's always a blessed thing. It's one of the high points of the conference, isn't it? When we get, you know, more people singing God's praises. It's not just because we like loud singing. I mean, I guess we do like loud singing. Loud singing is good. But it's the purpose for the loud singing. We know that God is glorified in it. Isn't that the end game? I hope it's not, oh, let our singing be so wonderful that it's only pleasant to our delicate ears. No, we want God to be glorified. We want God to be enthroned. The Psalmist says that God is enthroned upon the praises of Israel. That's what we long for on the Lord's day. That's what we long for in conference. That's what we long for when we gather our voices together, when we raise up the hymn book and we sing unto our God. And if we are those who have been shown mercy and blessing and communion, and we are those who are, if not going to make known the way of God and the salvation of the Gentiles, at least praying for those who are engaged in that particular activity, God make worshipers out of the heathen. Turn the pagan from their useless idols to the true and living God. We as conquered sinners saved by grace, we can pray that prayer, can't we? If you know your own heart rightly and you know that you are saved by grace, there's hope for the heathen in the bush. There was hope for you. There was hope for me. There's hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we pray, God, may your salvation be known so that the nations of the earth will be worshipers, will be glorifying you, will be honoring and praising you. So for the nations, he prays for their salvation. He prays that they would worship, but he also prays for God's rule amongst them. Notice in 4B, for you shall judge the people righteously and govern the nations on earth. You shall judge the people righteously and govern the nations on earth. Spurgeon made the observation in his treasury of David. wrong on the part of governors is a fruitful source of national woe. Now, I'm just gonna tell you here with reference to verse four and six, we probably need to think a bit more like an old covenant Israelite. So I'm not sure we think like old covenant Israelites when it comes to earthly blessing, when it comes to temporal provision. I mean, there's a Walmart, what? 30 seconds from here, there's a Costco. I mean, we have to drive 30 minutes to get to Costco. That's rough. We got to take one for the team going to Costco. We just don't think about earthly blessing. We just always have rain, especially in Chilliwack. We just always have grain. We just always have milk. We just always turn on the tap and there's water. We just always have gas. How many of us actually pray, God, please cause the sun to shine. Now I know we're in an agrarian community. There's probably actually statistically more of that kind of praying around here than perhaps elsewhere. But God, cause the sun to shine, cause the rain to fall, cause the dirt to work, cause the trucks to run, cause the pipes to work. Do we ever think that? We're kind of detached. We think New Covenant blessings, and while they are primarily spiritual, it's a blessing to eat every day, brethren. It's a blessing to have water. It's a blessing to have clothes. Come to a prayer meeting sometime and listen to what's going on in Myanmar. I mean, a handful of rice a day is what lots and lots of people are living on throughout the world. So, you know, transport your mind a bit and think from the vantage point of the psalmist, who, if not King David exactly who wrote the psalm, King David approved the psalm for inclusion in the Psalter. The book of Hebrews refers to the Psalter as David. He's a king in Israel. He's the reigning monarch. He knows what nations need. He knows what nations stand in need of. He has benefited from Yahweh's direct rule over Israel through David's monarchical reign. He wants that for the nations around him. He doesn't want to see those pagans worshiping their gods through child sacrifice. He doesn't want to see those pagans dancing in the fire to their god. He doesn't want to see those pagans who are gashing and cutting themselves to invoke Baal to bless their land. He doesn't want to see that. He wants to see the righteous rule of Yahweh come down upon the earth. And that's the essence of his prayer there in verse 4b. And you or for you shall judge the people righteously and govern the nations on earth. So back to Spurgeon. Wrong on the part of governors is a fruitful source of national woe. But where the Lord rules, rectitude is supreme. He doeth ill to none. His laws are righteousness itself. He writes all wrongs and releases all who are oppressed. Justice on the throne is a fit cause for national exaltation and govern the nations upon earth. He will lead them as a shepherd, his flock, and through his grace, they shall willingly follow. Then there will be peace, plenty and prosperity. It is great condescension on God's part to become the shepherd of nations and to govern them for their good. It is a fearful crime when a people who know the salvation of God apostatize and say to the Lord, depart from us. There is some cause for trembling, lest our nation should fall into this condemnation. May God forbid. He's not invoking some particular eschatological position. It's hard to nail down Spurgeon, honestly, on eschatology. He's not advocating for a particular form of government in the British Empire, but he is simply making the observation that blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, right? To say that today, then you've got to fight about eschatology. Then you've got to fight about political theory. Then you have to qualify what you're not saying. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. That should be as obvious as two apples plus two apples equals four apples. It should be as obvious as the sun is hot. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. So as the psalmist is musing, as the psalmist is reflecting, he wants the nations to be saved. He wants those saved people in those nations to be worshipers. And he wants them to receive the blessings of God Most High that up until his time, David, have been confined specifically to Old Covenant Israel. He wants these things to go. He wants these things to be prospered. He wants the nations, the Gentiles, the heathen, the pagan, to turn from their useless idols to the true and living God, and to know something of the joy of the Lord as their strength. It is a blessed model for prayer for the church of Jesus Christ today. So those are his petitions for the church, mercy, blessing, communion, for the nations, salvation, worship, and rule. Now notice, finally, the promise assumed by the psalmist in verses six and seven. Verse six, then the earth shall yielder and grace, God, our own God, shall bless us. Turn to Psalm 103. Psalm 103, David's rehearsing why he ought to bless the Lord. Psalm 103. Verse one, a Psalm of David. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. First notice that David talks to himself. David talks to himself. David calls upon himself to do the right thing. David, bless the Lord. And David, don't forget all of his benefits. In fact, rehearse his benefits as the very reasons why you should bless him. It's a beautiful thing. Bless the Lord, O my soul, all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. What are those benefits? What do you think starts the list? Who forgives all your iniquities. That chief boon of gospel blessing is the forgiveness of sins. to be able to pillow your head at night knowing that if you should die in your sleep, you will awake in the presence of God most high. There's nothing better. Nothing makes a pillow softer than the forgiveness of sins. There's nothing that makes life better than the forgiveness of sins. I mean, life can be tough, temporally, family, friends, whatever. There's always challenges. There's always a pebble in the shoe of life. Not to sound too mystical here, but too wisdom-oriented, but you've always got forgiveness. Son, your sins are forgiving you. That's as good as it gets. That's the most blessing. But then notice he goes on, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction. I could take the form of, God, thank you that I didn't get smashed to bits driving down Yale Road yesterday when I could have very well gotten smashed to bits when that guy ran the red lights. Do we see God in those sorts of deliverances? Certainly in the forgiveness of sins, certainly in the imputed righteousness of Christ received by faith alone, but do we see the goodness and the graciousness and the kindness of God in that we're still breathing, we're still drinking, we're still eating, we're still, you know, living? This is what David sees. Life is all about God's blessing. Who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the children of Israel, The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. So certainly spiritual blessings are there as a reason for him to bless the Lord. to forget not all of his benefits and to bless the Lord. But so those temporal provisions, so those temporal gifts. And so back in our psalm, when he says, then the earth shall yield her increase, God, our own God, shall bless us. This psalm was conceivably written as a prayer to God after a good harvest. Psalm 65 is the same sort of a psalm. God blesses, what do they do? They respond in song to praise him and glorify him for his kind provision. It's a good pattern. It's a good pattern even for us who have Costco's and Walmart's and gas stations. Listen again to Spurgeon. And I think he makes an interesting observation here. I think at times we have this idea that the Western world just came complete. with sewage systems and pipes and infrastructure. It didn't. men who had faith in the God of the Bible. I'm not saying every one of them were Christians. I'm not saying every one of them were savingly united to God through faith in Jesus Christ. There was this operating assumption that the God of heaven and earth controlled the earth, and if you use means, there would be blessing. You put pipes in. You figure out electricity, you figure out oil, you figure out gas. Listen to what he says. 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 penury, and the soil shall be restored to more than its highest condition of fertility." Again, I don't think that Spurgeon is saying in the New Covenant, there's the promised blessing of good irrigation. No. But he acknowledges that the rule of God extends to the spiritual man, but to the physical as well. We eat because God is good. We have electricity because God is good. We have oil because God is good. We have blessing because God is good. And so as David is praying for the nation scattered about him, he wants them to be saved. He wants them to know that rule and that favor of God. and he wants them to be worshipers. And he prays with this confidence that God's blessing will be upon the earth. But of course, he ends on the high note of spiritual blessing. Notice in verse seven, God shall bless us and all the ends of the earth shall fear him. There is this mindset scattered throughout the Psalter, throughout the prophets, and it makes its way into our Lord's great commission of the church to go there for and to make disciples of all the nations, to baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, to teach them to observe all that Christ has commanded with the sure promise that, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. The psalmist expects God's blessing. 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. Calvin says the psalm contains a prediction of Christ's kingdom under which the whole world was to be adopted into a privileged relationship with God. Spurgeon made the observation, 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. Notice what he says at the end, we agonize in prayer. We agonize in prayer. Sounds like those men in Psalm 80. Restore us, cause your face to shine upon us. We want more of you, God, so that we may testify to others about more of you, God, expecting your blessing upon the earth, expecting your blessing upon the sinful hearts of men, that they would know that every spiritual blessing in the heavenly place is in Christ. Justification, sanctification, glorification. The Psalm ends on a high note. God shall bless us and all the ends of the earth shall fear him. Well, in conclusion, I believe that this psalm is the hope of the nations. We ought to be praying it. We ought to be thinking through it. We ought to understand. We pray for ourselves that as blessed men and women, as a blessed church, we turn our attention to the nations. Again, we may not all go. We may not all end up in Timbuktu standing on a street corner. declaring the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. But we can sure pray for those guys who are doing that. We can pray for our young men that they'll get the call of God upon them to go into these nations to proclaim Christ and Him crucified. As well, we need to understand the mission of the church. It is to the nations. It's also to our own community. to our friends, it's to our families, it's evangelism, it's telling others about the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then I would suggest that message of the church, primarily seen there in verse 2, that your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. We preach Christ in Him crucified. We preach Jesus' life, death, resurrection, and that there is full and free forgiveness in Him. Gill explains it this way, God's way and method of grace in the salvation of sinners, the contrivance of it in Christ, the impetration of it by him, and the application of it by his Spirit, and the way of sinners to him through Christ, the way, the truth, and the life, the new and living way to the Father, and the way of life and salvation, which is grace and by Christ alone, and the gospel, which points out this way, and is itself called the way of God, together with the ordinances of it, which are the ways of pleasantness, a pleasantness and paths of peace. All this was made known by the apostles and first preachers of the gospel, not only in the land of Judea, but throughout the whole earth." And as I said, I think that Jesus, when he speaks that great commission to his church, he's got a lot of Bible in the background. He's got a lot of Bible. Psalm 2, ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession. So when he says, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, the disciples are going to say, well, how could that be? Because the father already gave it to the son. The task is for the church now to pray, to go, to do, to call sinners, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and to know the way of God in salvation. Well, let us pray. Our father in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the Psalms and what they tell us about Christ. But they tell us about the extent of Christ's kingdom. And may these things encourage us, and may we take them to our prayer closets, to our family altar, to our our church prayer meeting, may we pray for your mercy to be upon us, your blessing, and as well, your communion with us. And may we pray for the salvation of the nations. May we pray that they would know that worship that is so appropriate and fitting for the true and living God. And may they know that rule, that blessing of God in his providence and in his kindness and in his goodness to his people. We ask that you would go with us now into this new week, cause us to bring glory and honor and praise unto you, and we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Well, let us stand and we'll sing the doxology, page 568 in your hymn books. We'll stand as we sing together. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures in the earth. O Israel, hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is abundant redemption, and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Amen. Well, please be seated for a brief time of meditation.