Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 67. Psalm 67, I want us to consider gospel missions this evening, or the missionary enterprise, the fact that the nations of the earth stand in need of the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord. Psalm 67 is a missionary psalm. It describes for us how we ought to pray, and it sets forth promises that God will, in fact, do great and glorious things in the earth.
Psalm 67, I'll read verse one, beginning in verse one, and then we'll look at the petitions and the promises held forth in this psalm. 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 law 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.
Let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Father, thank you for this psalm. We pray that you would give us understanding into it now. We pray that you would bless us as a church, cause us to realize we're just one small part of a much larger whole, that the kingdom of Jesus Christ is advancing on the earth through the preaching of his word. We thank you that our blessed Redeemer rides on a white horse with a sword that proceeds from his mouth, conquering and to conquer. and that he is enthroned at the right hand of God Most High, where he exercises absolute authority, absolute sovereignty over heaven and earth.
And we just pray, Most High God, that these things would be a means of encouragement to us to live and to pray. Help us to be a prayerful people concerning the cause of God and truth throughout the world. And we ask in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Introduction
The Bible is a book of promise. The Bible sets forth to us specifically God's promise to save sinners by Jesus Christ unto himself. That promise is established in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 3 verse 15.
After Adam and Eve God comes and deals with that, and institutes the covenant of grace, or at least begins to show how he will, in fact, put enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, that the woman's seed would crush the head of the seed of the serpent, demonstrating by and whom redemption would come, even our Lord Jesus Christ. That promise is expanded when we get to Abraham in Genesis 12. God says to Abraham that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed. It won't just be one tribe, it won't just be one people group, but rather in Adam all the nations, all the families of the earth will in fact be blessed.
That promise is expounded or explained in the prophets. You read through the prophets and they give us more information. Specifically, the prophet Isaiah shows us this servant who would come and would suffer, and by his knowledge he would justify many. That promise is exalted in the Psalter.
That means it is rejoiced in, or it is delighted in, and we're going to see that here in just a moment. And then, of course, this promise of salvation is experienced through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So that promise runs from Genesis to Revelation. that God has promised to save his people through the Redeemer, even the Lord of glory. And here's Psalm 67 takes that idea or takes that that that that promise of that statement concerning the peoples, the nations, the Gentiles and the psalmist praise for them to enjoy the blessing in the favor of God.
Petitions for the Church
We're going to break up this psalm into two primary sections. The first are the petitions, the things that the psalmist asks for. When you pray, there is that time when you adore God, when you confess your sins. But as well, you need to petition the Lord.
You need to ask God. You set before Him your requests. And that's what we find in verses 1 to 5. And then verses 6 and 7 set forth promises.
God will indeed do great things. God will indeed bless his people. God will do this. And this ought to inspire more prayer, more petition, more earnest and treaty on behalf of the peoples.
So as we come to the petitions, we see them broken down further into two primary categories. First, for the church and secondly, for the world. He prays first for the church notice or the people of God. He says, God, be merciful to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us.
So there's three things that the psalmist prays for here with reference to the people of God. If you're thinking biblically, you'll hear the Aaronic blessing from Numbers chapter 6, verses 24 to 26 in the background. That says, 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. So, the psalmist prays first for the people of God, for the Church of Jesus Christ, for mercy.
Petition: Mercy for the Church
God, be merciful to us. There is never a time in our history as a Church There is never a time in our being as Christians that we do not need the mercy of God. We are a sinful people. Even as redeemed Christians, we sin against the Lord.
We need his mercy. This ought to be a petition that we pray constantly. God be merciful to us. Mercy, as C.H.
Spurgeon says, is a foundation attribute in our salvation. The best saints and the worst sinners may unite in this petition. God be merciful to us. There is a progression here before the church goes out and publishes the good news concerning Jesus Christ.
She must herself be a quick. She must walk in the mercy of God. She must know his grace. She must know the forgiveness of sins.
She must know his goodness and his kindness toward his people. If we don't know those things, if we don't understand those things, it's like trying to preach something we have never felt the power of. When we understand that power, when we've been brought out of darkness in the marvelous light, the progression is natural. We will want to go publish abroad.
We will want to tell others of his mercy. David indicates this in Psalm 51. You can turn there for just a moment again to see this sort of progression that the best witnesses, the best missionaries, the best evangelists. are those who have tasted firsthand the very mercy of God that they are setting forth before sinners. Notice in Psalm 51, the occasion was when David repented from his sin.
David is crying out to the Lord for forgiveness. David is rehearsing his native depravity. David then calls upon God to cleanse him, to wash him, to purify him. Notice the progression here.
Verse seven. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness that the bones you have broken may rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. created me a clean heart of 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. What is this but a cry God be merciful to me, is what he says.
Now, notice verse 13. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners shall be converted to you. You see the progression there. The same thing is true in Psalm 67.
This is why the church must rehearse those great redemptive events all the time. Because it's as we see God's mercy. It's as we see God's grace. It's as we receive fresh forgiveness for fresh sins.
We then go and tell others. We publish abroad. The good news that God is in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. Mercy is a foundation attribute in our salvation.
The best saints and the worst sinners may unite in this petition.
Petition: Blessing for the Church
Going back to Psalm 67, the second petition for the church, he says in verse one, God be merciful to us and bless us. Bless us. That's not a bad thing to say that it's a very good thing. We just need to align ourselves with what a blessing is.
See, oftentimes when we say bless us, we want promotions at work. It's not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself. When we say bless us, we want freedom from any sort of ill or trial or difficulty. We want to just sort of run through life without any problems whatsoever.
No, bless us is as God sees fit. When we bless God, it means we speak well of Him. When He blesses us, it means He gives us benefits. He pours upon us those things we stand in need of.
Paul highlights this in Ephesians 1. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That means speak well of Him. Praise pronounce good things concerning his name and then he says why blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ was blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ and then he highlights the fact that the father chose us.
He highlights the fact that the Father predestinated us unto adoption as sons. He highlights the mission of the Lord Jesus. In his blood, we have redemption. And then he highlights the person of the Holy Spirit, who is the seal and guarantee of our redemption.
Those are the blessings that we ought to be seeking after, those spiritual things. Notice over in Psalm 68, beginning in verse 19, it says, Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits. The God of our salvation, Selah. Our God is the God of salvation, and to God the Lord belong escapes from death.
So, here in Psalm 67, the psalmist says, God be merciful to us and bless us. Again, I think the progression is simply this. As we receive mercy, as we receive blessing, we will then in turn be a vehicle to communicate those great truths to others. This was supposed to be the case with Israel.
If you look at Deuteronomy chapter 4, God raised this nation up. They were to shine as a light to the nations around them. They were to conduct themselves in such a manner that the other nations would say, what kind of a nation is this that has such a great God with such a great law? But, of course, Israel failed in that particular mission.
So God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law. Now we in Him, we united to Him, we as the Church are to mediate those blessings to the nations around us. through missionary enterprise, through evangelism, through being faithful stewards of the gospel mystery that has been entrusted to the Church of Jesus Christ. It is not wrong to seek God's blessing. It is wrong not to seek it.
However, make sure that you align yourself with Scripture and define blessing the way God does. So the Church, he asks for mercy, for blessing, and then thirdly, the petition is for communion.
Petition: Communion with God
He says, God be merciful to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us. What does that mean? But the favorable presence of God in our midst communion with him. Isn't this the best thing about redemption?
I will be your God and you shall be my people. They will know the Lord from the least of them to the greatest of them. Isn't this what God held forth to Israel and what is realized in the new covenant through Jesus Christ, our Lord? God is our God.
And it is a legit and a consistent expression of the church to pray. Yes, for mercy. Yes, for blessing. But yes, for God, we want you in our midst.
The prophet in Isaiah 64, he cries out to God. Oh, rend the heavens and come down. He says, tear open the sky itself and come down. We get to the book of Revelation.
One of the most encouraging things in chapter one is that Jesus is in the midst of the lampstands. This is the prized possession of God's people. We come to church to meet with the Lord. We come to church to enjoy his special presence.
He causes his face to shine upon us. This is being held forth. This is, as we might say, the blessing of all blessings, the presence of God with His Church. This is what the psalmist longed for.
We saw this this morning in Psalms 42 and Psalm 63. I long for you. As the deer pants for the water, so my heart pants after you, God. This is what those who hunger and thirst after righteousness desperately desire.
They want God. You see, this ought to be the way we pray. This ought to be the way that we speak to the Lord. Yes, pray for those physical needs.
Yes, pray for those troubles that people face. Yes, pray for the calamities and tragedies that go on in this lower world. But we mustn't neglect the place of mercy, blessing, communion. These things are what we fetch when we go heavenward.
This is what we're seeking from the Lord God. We want his presence in our midst so that we would be encouraged and strengthened for the task at hand.
Petitions for the World
And now he moves from the church to the world. Notice three things he asks for first for salvation. Notice in verse two. that your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations."
Petition: Salvation for the Nations
Notice that the church does not stop with petitions for themselves. Right? Everybody follow along. I know it's hot.
I know you're tired. But listen. Notice the church doesn't say, okay, prayer meeting's over now. We fetch mercy, blessing, and God's countenance upon us.
Let's go home. Right? We've done our duty. We've laid it out before the Lord.
They don't stop there. They fetch these blessings so that they will be a means of encouragement and blessing to the world. That's the significance of the way. Verse two begins that God give us mercy.
God bless us. And God, cause your face to shine upon us that your way may be known through or on Earth, your salvation among all nations. Who's going to tell the world If it isn't God's people, who's going to tell those people in various continents or various countries or various cities or various neighborhoods about the Lord Jesus, except for Jesus people? Isn't this the thrust of first Peter chapter two?
God calls us out of darkness into marvelous light. Why? So that we can just chill in the light. Bask in the light.
Relax in the light, just enjoy the light. We have the light. Praise God for the light. No, he calls us out of darkness into marvelous light that we may proclaim his excellencies, that we may proclaim His praises that we may tell others about the glory of God most high.
He saves us to speak for him. He saves us to communicate. He saves us to say things at times as simple as that man born blind in John nine. I was blind, but now I see.
And it's because of that man, Jesus. You don't need to be able to preach like Spurgeon. You don't need to be able to preach like Whitfield. You don't need to be able to preach like any great preacher in the history of the church to say this much.
I was dead in my trespasses and sins, and he made me alive together with Christ. By grace, I have been saved. Do you see the flow? Do you see the pattern?
Do you see fetching mercy first for the church, blessing, countenance, and then going forth to tell others about the salvation of our God Most High? Spurgeon, again, says it is the duty and privilege of a revived church to make that way to be everywhere known. People that have responded or people that have been graced by God to respond to this message cannot but speak the things they've seen and heard. You can't silence somebody that knows the mercy of God.
As Spurgeon says in another place, I think it's on Psalm 132, he says there's no dumb saints in Zion. He doesn't mean dumb like we're not tracking all the way. He means dumb. We don't speak.
There's no such thing as a dumb saint in Zion. You will speak for God. You will praise God. You will proclaim the excellencies of God.
That's the progression. The way of God is his method of dealing out mercy and his glorious government. The salvation of God is what he prays for here. Notice that your way may be known on Earth, your salvation among all nations.
Isn't it amazing when we get to the New Testament what that salvation looks like? Who's thinking Luke 2? Anybody thinking Luke 2? Why would you think Luke two, because Simeon grabs the babe Christ and he starts to praise God.
He starts to rejoice in God. He was a man who was just. He was devout. He had been waiting for the consolation of Israel.
And when Joseph and Mary brought the Lord Jesus to the temple to be circumcised in accordance with the law, this man, this old man, Simeon, walks over to Mary, grabs the baby out of her arms, and begins to praise God Most High. And he says, Master, now you can let your servant depart, for my eyes have seen your salvation. So when the psalmist prays your salvation among all nations, he wants us to publish the gospel. He wants us to speak the truth, those great redemptive events.
He doesn't want to hear first and foremost about your experience, about your upbringing, about your... No, preach Christ. Talk about the good news. Talk about the doing and dying and rising again of the Savior.
Talk about his power, his glory, and his majesty. Talk about the fact that death could have no dominion over him, that he went into that grave to be victorious over death and sin, to render a judgment upon the devil and upon all those things the scripture sets forth. That's the salvation that the psalmist prays that the world would know. So that's the first petition.
We want the world to be saved. We want the peoples to know God. We want them to understand the gospel. We'll just be honest, Brethren, in your own heart.
Does this find its place in your prayer life? Do you pray for the nations? Do you pray with lots? Pity the nations, O our God, and constrain the earth to come.
Is that something that makes your heart beat? Is there a longing? Is there a desire to see even turn on to the Lord? Jesus doesn't even have to be over there.
We got enough even right here. We got enough people that have no knowledge whatsoever of the living God and of this price or be merciful to us. Bless us. Cause your face to shine upon us so that we may make known your way. so that we may make known your salvation, so that we may open our mouths and testify concerning the great things that God has done in the person and work of the Lord Jesus.
Petition: Worship Among the Nations
He prays for salvation. Notice, secondly, he prays for worship. He wants the peoples to be saved, so they'll worship. Let the peoples praise you, O God.
Let all the peoples praise you. Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy. Look at verse five. Let the peoples praise you, O God.
Let all the peoples praise you. Notice the thrust. Notice the movement. Notice the focus of the song.
God's mercy, God's blessing, God's countenance. We go out and publish the truth of the gospel. We let sinners know God's way. We let sinners know God's salvation.
God in his grace and mercy saves them. And what happens? He makes worshippers. Right?
That's the goal of the psalm. Is that people wouldn't blaspheme God. That people wouldn't use Jesus as a curse word. That people would speak ill of the Lord God Most High.
That people would take a few moments each and every day to bow their heads and thank the Lord for the good things that he gives them. That's the focus, is that through the preaching of the gospel, worshipers would be made. John Piper hits this nail right on the head. He says that missions is not the ultimate goal of the church.
Worship is. Listen to this, this is perceptive. Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is.
Missions exist because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions. Because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more.
It is a temporary necessity, but worship abides forever. You see, in heaven, in the eternal state, there won't be evangelism and missions. It's a temporary necessity, a temporary necessity geared toward making worshipers. You see, that ought to focus or ought to be a goal in our hearts as well.
Lord, turn those people to you so that you would be worshiped. So that you would be glorified. Yes, we love men and we don't want to go off to hell. That's legit.
That's a decent motivation in our hearts to pray for them to be sure. But God turned these centers on to you, that they may praise you, that you may receive the glory, the honor and the praise that is due to your great name. You see, to the degree that we value, prize, and adore God, that's the degree we'll pray for the advancement of God's gospel. It's the gospel that brings God glory.
It's the good news of Christ and Him crucified that redounds to the praise of God. Missions is a temporary necessity. Worship abides forever. That's perceptive.
He prays for salvation, he prays for worship, and
Petition: God's Rule Over the Nations
he prays for God's rule in the world. Verse 4b, For you shall judge the people righteously and govern the nations on earth. Now, before you start saying, well, this will never be realized on this side of heaven, this could never be the case, wasn't it our Lord who taught us to pray this way? Pray that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Right now, currently and presently, we ought to be praying that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In other words, God's rule, God's power, God's reign, God's authority be moving in the hearts of men on a large scale. We ought to pray that God would close down abortion clinics. We ought to pray that God would stop the senseless killings that are going on in the world.
We ought to pray for the intervention of this divine government. We're not told, pray only if you think it'll ever be realized. We are simply called to pray it. pray that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Those are the petitions for the church for the world.
Promises: Temporal and Spiritual
Let's look at the promises. Verses six and seven, two categories here, temporal and spiritual. Temporal is in verse six. Then the earth shall yield or increase.
God, our own God shall bless us. You know that this missionary song was probably written at the time of harvest. Probably a time of praise and thanksgiving for God to give an abundant harvest to Israel. That's pretty cool, or pretty good, isn't it?
They're not just saying, God, load up our barns. God, just give us, give us, give us, give us. No, first God, first God, his blessing upon the church, missionary endeavors, pray that the world, or that the nations would, in fact, be glad. And then he says, then the earth shall yield her increase.
God, our own God, shall bless us. Spurgeon said this, and I think this is perceptive. He said, 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. You've got to track with this, because there's a sense where we don't believe this. There's a book by David Chilton, it's called Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt Manipulators. He's talking about the problem of the third world.
He says the problem with the third world isn't that they didn't get sewage systems built in. They didn't get freeways built in. They didn't get semitrots. They didn't get industrial plants.
It's not as if certain parts of the world already had these things and these other parts of the world just got gypped and didn't get them. So that makes them third world. He says the problem there is a problem of faith. When men reject God, when men refuse God, when men despise God, God does not bless.
Now, we need to be careful because we don't want to fall into a health, wealth, prosperity sort of thing that if we just do the right things, God will always bless us. No, we don't want to fall prey to that. But we don't want to fall prey to this idea that God is not involved with this world. Spurgeon recognized 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 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 poverty and the soil shall be restored to more than its highest condition of fertility. He sees this cause and effect issue. When you reject God, when you despise God, you reject the biblical worldview. I remember hearing several years ago about Haiti.
Men were going over there from the Dominican and preaching things like, you see those fields? Go plant crops, water the crops, and God will cause it to produce. Pastors were doing that, coming to the conferences and saying, these guys really know what they're talking about. So we take a lot of that for granted.
But in other parts of the world, they don't know these things. They have rejected it. So they cannot say effectively, then the earth shall yield her increase. God, our own God, shall bless us.
Now, again, I don't want to go into the health, wealth, prosperity cake. I don't want to go that way. But at the same time, there's another there's another problem to avoid the other side that God isn't involved in his creation. That God doesn't bless his people.
That God isn't active in the affairs of men. The psalmist recognized this, and I think Spurgeon highlights it as well. But he doesn't stop there.
Promise: Spiritual Blessing to All Nations
Notice verse 7, the spiritual blessing. God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear him. all the ends of the earth shall fear him. That doesn't mean universalism doesn't mean that each and every person will be saved, but it does mean that that promise made or that promise expanded to Abraham does include all the nations of the earth. It does include all the families of the earth.
It does include Gentiles along with Jews. The Psalter is filled with this. 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. Psalm 2, God installs his holy hill on Zion.
And then what does he say to the son? Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession. Why do you think Jesus could say, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples.
Jesus wasn't playing games there. The father already gave him that the father already deposited it to him. Jesus is simply calling the church to act based on what Jesus already received. Spurgeon says, with reference to Psalm 67, verse seven, he says, 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. Is this what we agonize in prayer for? So I think the song like this is very important to get us to lift up our eyes very easy to just get focused on ourselves. You know what Psalm 67 is calling upon the Free Grace Baptist Church to do?
Lift up your eyes. Behold, the fields are white unto harvest. Despite the gloomy notions of some, we cling to the belief that the kingdom of Christ will embrace the whole habitable globe. Turn back to Psalm 46 for just a moment.
Another Spurgeon quote. I'm not trying to hide behind Spurgeon and Calvin, by the way, but I certainly think they make the point very effectively as they expounded the scripture. Psalm 46, verse 10, Be still and know that I am God. We love that verse, don't we?
It's such a comforting and encouraging verse. Though there's trouble, though there's trial, though there's difficulty, though there's hardship, we can always rest in this reality and truth. Be still and know that I am God. Notice what he goes on to say.
I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. Spurgeon says, I will be exalted among the heathen. They forget God.
They worship idols, but Jehovah will yet be honored by them. Reader, the prospects of missions are bright, bright as the promises of God. Let no man's faith fail him. The solemn declarations of this verse must be fulfilled.
I will be exalted in the earth among all people. Whatever may Whatever may have been their wickedness or their degradation, either by terror or love, God will subdue all hearts to himself. The whole round earth shall yet reflect the light of his majesty. All the more because of the sin and obstinacy and pride of man shall God be glorified when grace reigns unto eternal life.
I believe we need to pray that God will increase our faith. that God will cause us to appreciate these grand promises of Scripture. One more quotation. This is from James Henley Thornwell, not Henry, but James Henley Thornwell, Southern Presbyterian in the in the eighteen hundreds. This is what he said.
If the church could be aroused to a deeper sense of the glory that awaits her. She would enter with a warmer spirit into the struggles that are before her. Hope would inspire devotion. She would even now arise from the dust and like the eagle, plume her pinions for loftier flights than she has yet taken.
What she wants and what every individual Christian wants, he means here lacks, is faith. Faith in her sublime vocation. Faith in her divine resources, faith in the presence and efficacy of the spirit that dwells in her, faith in the truth, faith in Jesus and faith in God. With such faith, there would be no need to speculate about the future that would speedily reveal itself.
It is our unfaithfulness, our negligence and unbelief. Our low and carnal aims that retard the chariot of the Redeemer. We need to get songs like these in our minds and in our hearts and pray them to God. We need to get the Great Commission in our minds and in our hearts and pray it back to God.
Jesus doesn't say some authority. He says all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and disciple the nation. Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Teach them to observe all things that I have commanded you and, lo, I am with you even to the end of the age. He not only grounds it in his absolute authority, but he promises his presence when the church goes about the missionary enterprise to call the nations to the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, brethren, we need to pray for us. We need to pray for the world.
The missionary enterprise must be a part of that. We must long for it and we must pray to God to raise up laborers to send them forth so that they can, in fact, publish the way and the salvation of our God throughout the nations. If you have not come to Christ tonight, the first thing you need is his mercy. You need that mercy of God.
I hope and I pray that your prayer is, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. God, be merciful to me, the one who has offended in all points. God, be merciful to me, the one who has broken your law. If the nations are to be glad, God, let me be glad even tonight.
Cause your face to shine upon sinners here and let us go into this week with fresh resolve to pray that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for this song. We pray that you would indeed continue to be merciful to us, that you would bless us and that your face would indeed shine upon us. We pray, Father, for the nations of the earth, that they would know the salvation of God. They would know the way of the Lord.
They would know your sovereignty and your majesty and your excellency. They would know your graciousness and kindness. They would know the cross. Father, we pray for missionaries all over the earth. that they would tirelessly proclaim Christ and Him crucified and Him resurrected.
And we pray, Father, that You would do a great work for Your glory's sake, that You would create a whole multitude of worshipers to bless, to praise, and to honor You. We ask now that You would go with us in this coming week. Again, we just pray, Father, that You would cause us to walk in obedience to Your will and Your Word. We pray for our brother John, that You would just watch over him, and Quenell, We pray that everything would go well for him in this new week of work.
We pray that you would bless him and cause him to draw nigh unto you through this time. And we ask through Christ the Lord. Amen.