John Piper on Psalm 67. Hear the sermon here
Main point in the text is found in the link between v1 and v2: the link between God blessing you, and you being a blessing to the nations:
May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face shine upon us,
so that your ways may be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.
NIV drops the most important word – the conjunction: that.
One point to make from this: God blesses his people for the sake of the nations.
This picks up a thread all the way through the OT, stated in Genesis 12:1-3; the Psalmist takes a promise and turns it into a prayer. That’s the way we ought to pray – then we can have confidence we’re praying in the will of God!
This point can be re-inforced by telling the story of Bethlehem Church over the past ten years to show how it is true.
A sub-point: if it is true – that God blesses his people for the sake of the nations – then it’s also true that God’s people will be blessed if they pray, long and plan to be a blessing to the unreached peoples. We don’t earn the blessing of God by giving to mission, but we jump into the river of blessing that is flowing to the nations – and it’ll continue to flow whether we are a part of it or not. We ought to jump in!
How we have jumped in – 10 ways in which God has blessed his people for the sake of the nations (fulfillments of connection between v1 and v2): Read the rest of this entry »
