Psalms 67:1

It was one of those inspiring moments. There were 4,000 of us, maybe more, gathered in that auditorium. Musicians and singers were on stage, and 4,000-plus people had their arms lifted up, singing in unison with loud voices. In that moment, I couldn't help but imagine what it will one day be like, as the Scriptures speak of in the New Testament, as well as in the Old Testament, picturing a day coming in the future.

The last book of the Bible speaks about this. In Revelation chapter 7, it says there is going to be a multitude so large that no one could number it. People from every tribe, every nation, and every language group will be represented there, gathered before the throne of God, all of them worshiping and singing a new song to the Lord, as Revelation chapter 7 says. Now, 4,000 people pales in comparison to a multitude that cannot be numbered. However, we have all experienced that large gathering of people at some point or another.

Maybe it was in a stadium somewhere, like what has been happening the last few days at Angel Stadium for the Harvest Crusade, where many people gathered with one voice, singing together with arms lifted up. There is an inspiring nature to that, and I look forward to the day that is prophetically described or revealed to us at the end of the Bible.

I'm sure that the psalmist who wrote the passage of Scripture we are going to look at today, some 3,000 years ago, a composer himself, a songwriter, had that similar picture in view. Psalm 67 is where we will be today. If you have your Bible, open to Psalm 67. If you don't have a Bible, just raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one. The Psalms are right about the middle of your Bible. There are 150 of them, so it's hard to miss the Psalms. Find Psalm number 67. As you do, if you wouldn't mind standing with me, we will read from the Scriptures—a short Psalm, just seven verses.

The heading of which says, "To the chief musician on stringed instruments, a psalm, a song." We're not entirely sure who authored this psalm 3,000 years ago, but some composer had in mind musicians playing and accompanying music or tune to these words.

"God, be merciful to us and bless us. And cause His face to shine upon us, Selah. 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 the 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."

Father, would You speak to us today and give us wisdom by Your Spirit to be able to see here in the Scriptures Your inspired word, which is living and powerful. Lord, help us to see application here in the text that, in some way, maybe small, but maybe even in a big way, would transform the way that we understand Your nature and our task in light of Your nature in this world.

So, God, would You speak to us today? Help us to yield to the work that You want to do in us as we consider it here in Psalm 67. We just ask for Your presence in Jesus' name. And all those that agreed said, "Amen."

You can be seated.

"God, be merciful to us and bless us. Cause Your face to shine upon us, Selah." That last little word, as I've mentioned in previous weeks in our series here in the Psalms, "Selah," is a musical pause, a silence, if you will. But for us, it's kind of a meditative pause. When I read it, the words that come to my mind are, "Think about it." Just think for a moment about these words: "God, be gracious or merciful to us and bless us."

Cause His face to shine upon us. In thinking about those words, the reader of these words, 3,000 years ago when they were first penned, would have immediately acknowledged the association. The connection, the correlation with another passage of Scripture in the Old Testament. If you've been a part of Cross Connection Church for any length of time, then you might even hear a connection.

The passage in the Old Testament that the psalmist has in view when he says, "God, be merciful to us and bless us and cause Your face to shine upon us," are words that I share almost every single week following every single service. I give a benediction at the close of the service from Numbers chapter 6 in the Old Testament. You can turn there if you'd like. There are five books that open the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

So, the fifth book of the Bible, Numbers chapter 6, contains a blessing. A blessing which God ordained that Moses—if you've ever seen "The Prince of Egypt" or "The Ten Commandments," you know Moses—was to give to his brother, a guy by the name of Aaron, who was a priest over a nation called the nation of Israel. God said, "Moses, I want you to tell Aaron, the priest, that this is the blessing he is to pronounce over the worshipers of God when they come to appear before God at the tabernacle where they would worship."

Numbers chapter 6 is what is referred to as the Aaronic blessing. Aaron was the priest, and this was the priestly blessing for the worshipers of God. Numbers chapter 6, verse 22, states, "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to Aaron and to his sons, his descendants, saying, This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them, verse 24, The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. So you shall put My name on the children of Israel, and I, God says, will bless them.'"

This was the blessing thousands of years ago that the priestly class of people were to pronounce over the worshipers of God: "The Lord bless you and keep you and cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you."

Lift up His countenance upon you and give you His peace. The psalmist, hundreds of years after that was instituted for the priest to say over the people, has this blessing in mind when he writes this song: "God, be merciful to us and bless us and cause His face to shine upon us." That's what is in his mind as he thinks about this song that he is going to sing.

Notice that he changes it. It was a blessing that the priests were to pronounce: "The Lord bless you." Now he prays it as a prayer: "God, bless us." That sounds like an audacious prayer. I was having a conversation this last week with a brother in the church here, and we were talking about praying for people. He said, "You know, sometimes I find it easier for me to pray for other people than to pray for myself." He feels that when he prays for himself, he is being selfish. Have you been there? Has anyone ever felt like if they pray for themselves, they are being selfish?

I was trying to encourage him that Jesus taught us to pray for our daily bread, so it is legitimate to pray for ourselves. There is obviously an out-of-balance way that we can pray for ourselves, where all we ever do is pray for ourselves as if we were going through the drive-thru: "I'll have this, and I'll have this, and I'll have this, animal style." Sometimes it can be completely self-focused, and that surely can be out of balance. However, to never pray for yourself, on the other side of the spectrum, because you feel that it may be somehow selfish or arrogant is also not correct.

I can imagine that someone, maybe even sitting here right now, could feel a little bit uncomfortable praying the prayer, "God, be gracious to me and bless me," and feel like, "I don't know if I should pray that prayer." We are accustomed to saying, "God bless you." I noticed recently that one of my kids sneezed, and when they sneezed, they said, "I bless you," because they know every time we say, "God bless you," after they sneeze. We have this tradition, this custom, don't we? We don't always even know where it comes from; we just do it.

It's a cultural custom that we follow. So now, it's not just a sneeze; it's a "bless you." We are accustomed to saying, "God bless you," but we are not so accustomed to praying, "God, bless me." In fact, there is a way in which we have almost been trained under the Scriptures to feel weird about saying, "God bless me." If you prayed that in a gathering of people, during a corporate prayer, people might look at you like, "What is wrong with this person?"

God bless me. Be gracious to me. Cause your face to shine upon me. Let's just pause and think about that. It seems a little strange, right? The psalmist did not feel uncomfortable without it at all. God be gracious to us, merciful to us, and bless us.

Now, that word "merciful" in verse 1 is translated in several other English translations as "gracious." It's the very same Hebrew word that is used back in Numbers chapter 6, where it says in verse 25, "The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you." So, it is equally right to say, "God be merciful to us" or "God be gracious to us" and "bless us" and "cause Your face to shine upon us." The psalmist had no problem praying like that, even though some of us might feel uncomfortable praying like that.

God be gracious to me and bless me. Point number one that we find here in this passage, as noted in your sermon guide in your bulletin, is that God's people should seek and expect God's blessing. Immediately following that statement, it has to follow the question: Do you? Are you seeking, in prayer and by your obedience and by your way of life, for and expecting God's blessing in your life?

For some reason, and I can come up with a number of reasons as to why, there are a lot of people in churches like this all over the country and all over the world who have a bit of a problem with that statement: "God's people should seek and expect God's blessing." I think one of the primary reasons that people have difficulty with that statement is a response to what is commonly referred to as the prosperity gospel or prosperity theology, which, in many ways, originated in our wonderful nation. There are a number of people who identify as Christians and have churches that preach this thing called the prosperity gospel. It's a small segment of the church, and there are many people in the church who have an aversion to it.

And rightly so, because unfortunately, there are people within the church who have taken many of the promises of the Bible out of context. As they take these promises out of context, they can wrongly interpret them in a way that is improper or not in line with the Scriptures.

Equally unfortunate is that there are many people in churches like ours who, in response to or as a reaction to those who improperly apply certain promises of the Bible, have a hard time accepting ideas like God's people should seek and expect God's blessing. We have developed an aversion to that mindset, even though I don't think we should. The psalmist did not. He is very openly praying, "God, be gracious to us." He includes himself in that prayer, asking God to bless us and cause His face to shine upon us.

It may seem self-centered, and whatever people group he identifies as "us" might be seen as ethnocentric, but we might have an issue with it. However, notice what is going on in this passage, because there are some important things happening here. The psalmist says, "God, be gracious to us and bless us."

Thousands of years ago, the priests were told by God that they were to pronounce a blessing over the worshipers of God: "The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord be gracious to you and cause His face to shine upon you." The shining of His face upon you signifies the showering of His glory upon His people. The priests were to pronounce that as a blessing, as recorded in Numbers chapter 6, verses 24, 25, and 26.

That blessing did not originate there; it started several hundred years before and is recorded for us in the very first book of the Bible, Genesis chapter 12. If you turn there, please, Genesis is the first book of the Bible. In Genesis chapter 12, God is calling a person to follow Him. This person's name is Abram, or Abraham, who is historically recognized as the father of the nation of Israel, the Jewish people. God is calling this man Abraham to follow Him, and He says this in Genesis chapter 12, back in verse 1.

Now the Lord had said to Abram, or Abraham, "Get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house to a land that I will show you." Breaking that down, God called Abraham to follow Him. He wanted Abraham, by faith, to leave everything that he knew—everything that was common and comfortable—and come follow Him. That was risky, but Abraham did it. He followed the Lord, as we are told later on in this passage.

Why did he follow the Lord? It might seem kind of ludicrous. He was 75 years old at this point and had everything set up where he was living. Then God came to him, and a voice spoke to him, saying, "I want you to leave everything. Come follow Me to a land that I'm going to show you." Why would he even do that? The answer lies in verse 2. The same voice said, "I will make you a great nation." That sounds good, doesn't it? "I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and will curse him who curses you. In you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

Hundreds of years before Aaron and his sons were commanded by God to bless the people—the descendants of Abraham—with this blessing, "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you," God spoke to their father Abraham. He said, "I want you to follow Me, and I will bless you."

The nature of this blessing to Abraham, and through Abraham, has been interpreted for hundreds of years as being for Abraham and his descendants only. However, if we look at what is being said in Genesis chapter 12 and how the psalmist interprets it in Psalm 67, we will see that this blessing has a much wider scope than just Abraham and his descendants. This is really important for us to grasp as we study through the Scriptures.

In Psalm 67, the psalmist says, "God be merciful, be gracious to us, and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us." Selah. Think about it. In reflecting on this, we discover that he is connecting it with the priestly blessing of Numbers chapter 6. Stepping back even further, we see the Abrahamic blessing that God gave to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12.

And so he's pointing back to those things: God be gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us. But then we're led immediately in the next verse to the result of this blessing. He is praying, "God bless us." He is seeking the blessing of God.

Now, the result is found in verse 2 of Psalm 67: "That your way may be known in the earth, your salvation among all nations." I think all of us would acknowledge that words, even little words, are really important. There is a small word that begins this verse that is very important: the word "that." In the New International Version and the HCSB version, it says "so that." Would you circle the word "that"? You can lean over your neighbor's Bible and just circle it for them; they won't mind.

"That your way may be known in all the earth, your salvation among all nations." That little word "that," or those two words "so that," are super important because they identify the motivation behind this audacious prayer. This is an audacious prayer, but there is a solid motive behind it. "God be gracious to us and bless us. Cause your face to shine upon us so that, for the purpose of, your way will be known in all the earth, your salvation among all nations."

The motivation behind this audacious prayer is the glory of God among the nations. All people should see and know the fame and the glory of God.

This blessing, point number two on your outlines, is for all peoples. God's blessing is for all peoples. We are blessed to be a blessing. This was true thousands of years ago with the first follower of God by faith, Abraham. He is called the father of the faith in the Scriptures. He was the first one who followed God faithfully. Thousands of years ago, Abraham followed God by faith to receive a blessing, but it was a blessing for the purpose of being a blessing.

We see that there. Let me just read it to you again. Genesis 12, verse 2 states, "I, God, will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing." So, Abraham, thousands of years ago, was blessed by God to be a blessing. If you today are the recipient of the blessing of God, you are blessed to be a blessing. As we'll see in a moment, you are the recipient of blessings from God, and we are blessed to be a blessing.

God went on in Genesis 12, verse 3, to say, "I will bless those who bless you and curse him who curses you. And in you, or through you, all the nations, all the families of the earth shall be blessed." God is saying, "I'm going to put a blessing on you so that others are blessed." God's people should seek and expect God's blessing, and then they should seek and expect to be a blessing. They receive the blessing to give the blessing.

One of the most tragic outcomes of being the recipient of blessing can be summarized in three points. You might want to write these down. The most tragic outcomes of being a recipient of blessing are:

1. To think that you deserve it. 2. To think that it is exclusive to you. 3. To hoard it.

First, to think that you deserve it. God blessed Abraham because of God's grace. If you notice in Psalm 67, verse 1, the mercy or grace of God comes before the blessing: "God, be gracious to us and bless us." You can absolutely make the case that grace is a blessing, and it is. However, the further blessings of God are only accessible by His grace. The blessings of God are not accessible by your works. This is clear throughout the Scriptures. From Genesis to Revelation, across the 66 books of the Bible, it is evident that God's favor, His blessing, comes upon people not by their merit.

It is unmerited, undeserved favor—grace. If you're a Christian here today, that is, if you've received the blessing of God in salvation and the further blessings of God, the benefits of salvation, you have received that not because you're a good person or because you've done anything meritorious at all. It is simply that God has given it to you out of His grace.

If you're not a Christian here today, and we're so glad that you're here, don't think that you have to do A, B, C, D, E, and F before you can receive the blessing of God. If you just get your life better, if you just start working these things out, then you'll get God's grace. No, the Bible is clear: "For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." This is found in Ephesians 2:8-9. Any blessing we have from God is according to His grace.

One of the major pitfalls, the traps of being a recipient of God's blessing, is to begin to think, number one, that you deserve it, and number two, to think that it is exclusively only for you or the people around you. This is always man's default because man has fallen; we are sinful. Our default is to think we deserve it and then to think that it is ours because we are something really special, and it is not for the rest of those people.

God wanted to make sure that the people He selected—Abraham, Abraham's son Isaac, Isaac's son Jacob, Jacob's twelve sons, the twelve tribes of Israel, the nation of Israel—understood that this is not exclusively for them and that they do not deserve it. At the very beginning of their preparation to come into the land that God was going to bless them with, known as the Promised Land, God gathered the whole nation of the people of Israel, hundreds of thousands of them. Moses then delivered a huge message, which is recorded in the book of Deuteronomy.

If you think my messages are long, read the book of Deuteronomy; it is one long message. God gathered all the people together and said, "I’m going to give you this great land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey. It is an awesome blessing that I am pouring out upon you and your descendants. It is for you as a people." Then, in Deuteronomy chapter 7, He says, "I don’t want you to think that I’m giving this to you because you’re something great, because you’re not. I’m merely giving this to you because I love you." This is unmerited, undeserved favor. He gathered them all together and made it clear: "I don’t want you to think that this is yours exclusively."

Now, as I said, the default tendency of sinful people, and we're all sinful people, is to try to make things exclusive. If you fast forward from Deuteronomy 7, where God says you’re not getting this because you’re special, just because I love you, you fast forward 2,500 years almost. Then you get to the time when Jesus came to the earth.

During that time, many of the people in the nation of Israel, living in the land that God had given to them, thought, "This is ours only, and it's not for other people." In fact, some of the things that Jesus did and said that made them the most angry were when he spoke to people who were not Jewish, the Gentiles. He said, "I have not found such great faith in all of Israel as I found in you, Gentile." All the Jewish people present would respond, "How dare you? Kill him! It's ours only, our blessing. Not for everybody else." This was never God's intent.

The first pitfall of receiving God's blessing is to think that you deserve it. The second is to think that it is exclusively yours. The third is to hoard it, which is the logical outgrowth of believing you deserve it and that it is exclusively yours. Therefore, you might think, "Let's hold it for us alone. The rest of the world can't have it." That is not God's heart.

It wasn't only the Jewish people 2,000 years ago who came to that wrong conclusion. Many Christians have also fallen into that trap. How does it manifest? It often appears in statements like, "This is the only right church. You are not saved unless you're a part of this church or baptized in this way." It manifests in people thinking or saying, "We and our family and those like us are the only elect, and the rest are, well, sorry, you're reprobate. You're going to go to hell."

According to our fallen nature, we always move towards exclusivity and hoarding. But God is not like that. He said to his disciples, "Freely you have received, freely give." We are to be those who are conduits of this blessing. We do not deserve it. It is not exclusive to us. Therefore, we cannot hoard it but must give it out.

In summary, so far, of verses 1 and 2 of Psalm 67, we are moving really quickly. We, the people of God, should seek and expect God's blessing. If you are a follower of Christ and have put your confidence and trust in Him, then you should seek and expect God's blessing. The result of that blessing is that you should also seek to be a blessing. We are blessed to be a blessing to others—others not like us, others outside of these walls, others in this county, and others in other parts of the world and in other countries. We are to be a blessing.

The second result is found in verse 3 of Psalm 67: "Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you." Point number three on your outline is that God's blessing should result in worship. It should result in worship in my heart and in your heart. If you are the recipient of God's blessing, it should stir you to praise God for what He has given to you. We read in the Scriptures and sing songs like "Praise God from whom all blessings flow," which is called the doxology. Because we have received blessings, we should worship God.

God's blessing should also result in worship globally. It should extend the worship of God. "Let the peoples praise you; let all the peoples praise you." Again, circle the word "all." It is a small word with great importance. This blessing is not exclusive. We should seek and expect God's blessing, and we should seek and expect to be a blessing as a result of receiving that blessing. Consequently, we should seek to extend the worship of God.

The psalmist here recognizes and understands that God's blessing upon Abraham and Abraham's descendants—Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve sons of Jacob, or the twelve tribes of Israel—was for the purpose of global praise and glory to God. It was so that all the nations would ultimately worship and glorify God, the one who gives the blessing.

Let the peoples praise You, O God. Let all the peoples praise You. The blessing to Abraham was to be a blessing through Abraham to bring about worship of God among all nations, among all peoples. Any other reading or interpretation of Genesis chapter 12, verses 1, 2, and 3, commonly referred to as the Abrahamic covenant, as being exclusively for Abraham and his descendants, is a wrong reading of the passage. It is for the glory of God among all nations. That's the purpose, both thousands of years ago and today.

In summary of these first three verses, we should seek and expect God's blessing. As a result, we should seek and expect to be a blessing. Furthermore, God's blessing should produce praise in us and in others. The next result is found at the beginning of verse 4, Psalm 67, verse 4: "Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy." The ultimate purpose of God's blessing, which is point number four on your outline, is that God's blessing is for global joy and gladness.

At this point, it is important to backtrack just for a moment and think about what this blessing is that I am talking about. I have been using the word "blessing" a whole bunch of times. What exactly is this blessing of God that we should seek, expect, extend, and praise God for, which should ultimately bring the joy and gladness of all nations? Again, look at the beginning of the passage, Psalm 67, verse 1. He says God blessed the people of Abraham, Abraham's descendants, as stated in Genesis 12, verses 1 through 3. He blessed the nation of these worshipers of God, as seen in Numbers chapter 6, verses 24, 25, and 26. He blessed these people so that through them would come the blessing to all nations.

What is that blessing? It is the way and salvation. Who is that blessing? Jesus.

The blessing that is to come to and through the descendants of Abraham to all nations is not the nation of Israel; it is the Messiah, Jesus. He is the blessing. This is why this really simple point, point number five, is that God's blessing is Jesus. He is the way that God's way may be known in all the earth, your salvation among all nations.

What does the name Jesus mean? Jehovah is salvation. The psalmist, a thousand years before Jesus comes to earth, says that the purpose of God's blessing, causing His face to shine upon His people, being gracious to them and blessing them, is that the way, Jesus, and the salvation, Jesus, would be known to all nations.

Now, how many non-Jewish people are here today? Look around and raise your hands. This prayer is being fulfilled because the great majority of us sitting here today are not Jewish. The psalmist prayed, "God, bless us." He is praying at this moment as a Jewish person living 3,000 years ago, asking God to bless His people so that they would be a blessing and that God's way and salvation would be known among all nations.

In 2015, the focus of the Abrahamic covenant is Jesus. Genesis 12:1-3 states that if you can read Genesis 12:1-3 and you miss Jesus, then you've missed the point. God blessed Abraham and his descendants to bless the world with Jesus, who ultimately, as the psalmist says in Psalm 67:4, brings global joy and gladness.

How does He do that? Well, first, He does that by ushering in the gospel, which is good news for all nations. It is good news that brings great joy. That's what the Scriptures say: the gospel is good news that brings great joy. So Jesus came; God became a man. That's called the incarnation. He lived a sinless life and died a brutal death.

He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven to begin to fulfill this prayer of blessing. Jesus is the decisive fulfillment of this prayer of blessing to all nations. In His incarnation, in His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, He fulfills it in the future with His second coming, which is what the psalmist is looking for.

At this point, the psalmist says that this gospel is going to bring joy and gladness to all nations. If you are a follower of Jesus today, you are to be one who works for the joy of all people. The purpose of our lives as followers of Jesus is to extend, experience, and express joy and gladness, bringing it into the world. We are to work for the joy of all peoples.

The Apostle Paul, in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians, says, "I am a worker together for your joy." That was his task as a pastor—a worker together for joy. Therefore, Christians should be involved in tasks in the world that spread gladness. That is a fun job. As a Christian, your job is to make people happy in Jesus.

The best and most primary way we do that is by sharing the good news that brings great joy: the gospel. This is the primary way we extend gladness and happiness to the world—through the preaching of the gospel. The secondary way would be to do good things, such as bringing fresh, clean water to people who don't have it. Would you say that makes people in other countries happy? Yes, that is a good thing that the church should be about.

By eliminating things like malaria in the world, we contribute to making it a glad place. Addressing issues like HIV in Africa or taking care of social justice matters around the world are all good things that we should support and be committed to because they increase the joy and gladness of the nations. However, the primary focus must be the declaration of the gospel, which is good news that produces great joy.

So here the psalmist prays, "Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy." Oh, that the world would be happy! How many of you would agree that the world is experiencing a significant lack of gladness? We, the people of God, are to be those who extend gladness through the gospel to all nations.

That's good work. Enjoyable work. It takes place in your workplace, on the construction site where you work. It takes place on your campus if you're in school. It takes place wherever God carries you to be a worker for the joy of other people, primarily through the extension of the gospel, the good news that brings great joy, but also by doing things that increase joy. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy.

Then the psalmist moves prophetically to the future. For you, God, shall judge the people righteously and govern the nations on the earth. Think about it. This is the compelling thing that brings great joy. There is coming a day, church, when Jesus shall rule and reign with righteous judgment. We live in a great nation that even has one of the best justice systems in the world. However, all of us sitting here today would recognize that sometimes even the greatest justice systems are unjust.

We look forward to a day when He rules and reigns in righteousness. The psalmist says, "Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy." Why? For, there's that connecting word, you, God, shall judge the people righteously and govern the nations on the earth. When will that take place? Well, it's not happening yet, so it's something to look forward to: the advent, the second coming of Jesus, when He fulfills this blessing being spoken of here.

Every orthodox Christian, that is, Christians who believe the right things, believe in and look forward to the second coming of Christ. There is coming a day when you shall judge the people righteously and govern the nations of the earth. This is pictured in other passages of Scripture. You can look later if you'd like at Isaiah chapter 11, verses 1 through 10. It looks forward to a day when Jesus, the son of David, who lived 3,000 years ago, is promised by God to have the Messiah, the Christ, come through his descendants.

Jesus did come through his descendants. In Isaiah 11:1, written 700 years before Jesus came, Isaiah says, "There is going to come one, the son of David." He, with righteousness, shall judge the poor. Verse 4 of Isaiah chapter 11 says, "And will decide with equity for the meek of the earth."

So we look forward to that day when it comes. The psalmist sings with joy as he anticipates the moment when God will judge the earth with righteousness and be enthroned over all nations, not just one nation, but for all nations.

In verse 5, the psalmist returns to the chorus: "Let the peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples praise you." At a great conference I attended back in 2011, where 4,000 of us were worshiping the Lord, a pastor stood up. He is also the author of a book called "Let the Nations Be Glad," which is based on this passage of Scripture. He spoke on Psalm 67, and it was great.

The same author begins his book with the statement, "Missions exist because worship doesn't." What is the purpose of the church's endeavor to spread the gospel to all peoples? The purpose is the global praise of God.

Point number six on your outline is that God's people should seek to experience and extend God's blessing. Until when? Until all the peoples praise God. "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.

The psalmist looks forward to the day when God wraps all things up and brings this global blessing among all nations. If you are a follower of Jesus today, you should be committed to the task of experiencing and extending God's blessing through the gospel and through any endeavor that increases joy and gladness in the world.

We should be dedicated to that work with our time, energy, talents, money, and everything we have. You may never go to a foreign country, and that's okay, because right here in this area, that is your task. Our job is to increase the gladness of all peoples, whether they live in Burma, India, or San Marcos. I can tell you that people in San Marcos need their joy increased, and people in San Diego County need their joy and gladness increased as well.

And it doesn't come through a new Chargers football stadium. Hate to break it to you, but it comes through the gospel of Jesus Christ. The task is unfinished. Many Christians today look at the Old Testament of the Bible, the first two-thirds of the Bible, only for what those passages might have to say about future things, eschatology.

I have two things I know for certain as it relates to future things. Number one, Jesus will come back. Number two, He hasn't come back yet. That's right, which means the task is not done. There are more than 6,000 distinct ethnic groups, people groups, that still do not know, hear, or have the gospel. There are a lot of unhappy people.

So, Father, would you stand with me? Father, we ask that you would stir our hearts to be conduits of blessing for all nations. That we would not be those who think that we deserve the blessing of salvation or that it is exclusively for just this church. Lord, we pray that the good news of the gospel would go out from this church and other churches in our area so that the 3.2 million people here in San Diego County, more than 90% of them, are not a part of an evangelical Bible-teaching church.

Lord, that the 3.2 million people of San Diego County would know the gladness of the good news of the gospel. And, Lord, we pray that you would cause this church to grow for your glory and for your praise. We ask that you would cause Emmanuel Faith, Mission Hills, North Coast Church, Maranatha Chapel, and all the other churches in our area that are committed to the task of preaching the good news of the gospel to grow for your glory in the world.

We desire to see people continue to go to the unreached for your namesake and for the joy of all peoples. God, enable us to be that conduit of blessing this week, even if it seems in such a small way in an office building here in San Diego or at a school campus here in Escondido. Help us to be conduits for your blessing.

Amen. In Jesus' name, and all those that agreed, say Amen. Amen. Amen. Together, Amen. Malay. Amen.