Studies in the Psalms - Psalm 67

Many people think the mission and the purpose of the Church, and of us as Christians, is to lead people to salvation. Certainly, that is one of our commandments. But the ultimate purpose of man and the church is to glorify God. Mission work, just like any true work of the Church, has at its end goal, the glorification of God. Psalm 67 reminds of us this.

Psalm 67:1-2

 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah  that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.

We pray for God’s blessing to be upon us. Stop and ask yourself why? Is it simply so that you can then go out into the world and offer praise and worship? Are you light and salt to the lost world? We must consider our motives in prayer. It is a primary reason, according to scripture, our prayers go unanswered.

James 4:3
You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.

We should pray for the things that will show in us, the Glory of God.

The reason for our salvation is not simply that we get to go to heaven.

Psalm 67:3-6
Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You.  Let the nations be glad and sing for joy; For You will judge the peoples with uprightness And guide the nations on the earth. Selah.  Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You.  The earth has yielded its produce; God, our God, blesses us.

The reason for our salvation is so that the world would see God’s glory in and through us.

Psalm 67:7
God blesses us, That all the ends of the earth may fear Him.

The world does not fear God. Well, it thinks it doesn’t. Yet the headlines in the news this very day are filled with things men fear. Hurricanes, world leaders with their fingers on the buttons of thermo-nuclear weapons, and diseases that cripple and kill, strike fear in the hearts of man. Guess what? According to scripture, all the things we fear are under the sovereign control of God.

Bless God. Bless Him that the ends of the earth will fear Him, before it’s too late.