The Shining Face of God

[00:00:00] Let's pray now and ask for God's blessing on the reading and preaching of his word. [00:00:05] Our Heavenly Father, as we come now to the reading and preaching of Your Word, we ask that you would illuminate our minds, that you would soften our hearts and our wills, that we might praise you as we ought. Give us now this opportunity to meditate on what it means to be blessed by you. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. [00:00:31] Let's turn to Psalm 67, please. [00:00:35] Psalm 67. [00:00:50] Thank you to the choir master with stringed instruments, a psalm, a song. [00:01:03] May God be gracious to us and bless us, and make his face to shine upon us, that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you. The earth has yielded its increase. God, our God, shall bless us. God shall bless us. Let all the ends of the earth fear Him. Amen. Please be seated. [00:02:02] When songwriters sit down to write a song, there's a number of ways that they approach it. And one of the ways that they'll think about these things is they'll think about a certain event or a theme or a hope that they want to write about. Maybe it's someone that they have a love for, a love song. Maybe it's a particular struggle that's going on. Whatever it is, we have something similar to that going on here in Psalm 67. [00:02:34] There's a moment in history when God got the attention of a man, a man named Abram. Later his name changed to Abraham, and God promised to bless him. And not just bless him, but bless the whole world through him. And the songwriter here has this in mind, this promised blessing from God. And he wants to write about it, he wants to pray about it, sing about it. And in doing so, he gives us not just good theology, but good ways to express ourselves and teaches us the kinds of things that should flow from reflecting on God's promises to Abraham. [00:03:22] So well, you should begin by thinking about the Abrahamic promise, as we can call it. Sometimes in Genesis twelve, verses one through three, I'll read it to you. This is the beginning of that story. [00:03:35] Now, the Lord said to Abraham or Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your Father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse. And in all the families of the earth, or and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. [00:04:07] So God calls to abram. He says to Abram, I want you to leave this place, this place that you're familiar with, this place that you're comfortable in your country, your kindred, your father's house, and you're going to go to the land that I will show you. [00:04:24] And there God promises to make Him a great nation, to build his own family, that he would be this great and mighty father. And more than that, God is also going to bless those who bless him and those who dishonor him, God will curse. And through Abraham, through Abram, all the families on the earth would be blessed. [00:04:50] Well, this psalm is rooted in that promise of blessing. And it expresses the wishes and the desires of God's people to see that promise fulfilled. You might think about it this way. If I read Genesis twelve, one through three, if I think about God's promise to Abraham, what are the kinds of things that should pop up in my heart? What are the kinds of desires and prayers that I should have? This psalm gives us some instruction in those things. [00:05:22] It begins in verse one with a request for blessing, and then it's completed in verses two through seven with what that blessing produces. [00:05:34] It's a psalm that's about outreach. It's a psalm that's about missions. It's a song that's about world peace and a great hope for the future. Because of this promise, because of what God has done in the past and through it all. Psalm 67 teaches us that the way of blessing and happiness in many other things comes from God, our God. [00:06:00] So let's think about some of the things as we look at this psalm, what are some of the things that God's blessing leads to? [00:06:09] The first thing God's blessing leads to is general knowledge. We could say knowledge of all kinds and in all ways. [00:06:17] We read in verse two that when God is gracious, when God makes his face to shine upon us, when he turns his attention toward us and blesses us, his way is made known on earth. [00:06:32] Knowledge of God, knowledge of his ways come through his blessing doesn't come any other way. It comes through his blessing. And to put it another way, it's a blessing to know Him. [00:06:45] We have evidence of this all over, both in nature itself and in the scriptures which speak about nature. Romans one, verse 20, for example, says this about God for his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world. In the things that have been made. [00:07:12] In the things that have been made. [00:07:14] In the things that have been made. God's eternal power and divine nature are not just perceived, Paul says, but clearly perceived. Well, how does that happen? Because God has done it. He is the one who has made it. He has made himself known. This is true of special revelation as well, the ways in which God reveals his saving works. As we'll come to in the second part of verse two, that your saving power is known among all the nations. We have a good example of this in Acts, chapter 18, verse 24, Apollos, we read that he had been instructed in the way of the Lord and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. [00:08:09] So what do we see here in Apollos? We see simply this he came to know the Lord and it was a blessing. He became a man who knew the truth and spoke the truth with what he had and with the things he didn't have, he gained. We read further on from there he gained more instruction. [00:08:32] All this to say that when God is gracious to us, one of the things that happens is that he is made known. It's a blessing to know Him. And we can't know things really apart from Him because it's from Him that all things are, and through Him and for Him. [00:08:53] A lot of times people separate that of course, they'll deny the God that made the things that have been made. They'll deny the One who is making Himself known and still go study and learn and all that, but to their loss they look at the very things and the works of the Lord and they do not know the Lord. [00:09:12] That's sin and it's sad. [00:09:16] But when we study the world and when we study the Scriptures, when we study God's work and meditate on it as he has done things in history, even the tiniest bit, what the Psalmist is telling us is that we are coming into contact with God and with his blessing. [00:09:36] This, I think, ought to move us to be a people that are curious and learners and listeners and filled with humility. Not people that think we already know it all, but people that think we desire to know the things that God has revealed, to know Him and his way in the world that he has made. [00:09:58] For you students and teachers who are about to return back to school after a week of fall break, I hope this is encouraging to you, that when you go and you study, whether it's math or music, your science classes or computers, when you're studying this world, you are coming into contact with God and with his blessing. Be curious, be excited, and don't take it lightly. Be good stewards of the things and the opportunities that God is giving you. [00:10:34] God's blessing leads to knowledge of Him and his ways on all the earth. [00:10:41] The second thing we can add is that his blessing leads particularly to saving knowledge. [00:10:48] It is a good thing to know the things of this world and it is a greater thing to know the things of the world to come. [00:10:56] Deep, deep blessing comes in knowing the saving power of God, knowing a general knowledge and knowing what we might call saving knowledge is the difference between having a dollar and having trillion dollars. Now, both are a gift. We can say thanks to God. But there is a difference, isn't there? It's one thing to know and enjoy the things of this world. It's another thing to be saved unto eternal life. And that's what God does, is he blesses the world through Abraham and hinting to what is to come, through his offspring, through Jesus, the one who has fulfilled these promises. [00:11:45] One of the ways this happens is in the Scriptures, on every page of the Bible, or we could say every page of the Bible is a demonstration of God doing this, a very thing, making his way, his saving power. Known two, Timothy 315 through 17 says this of Timothy Paul says how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training and righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. [00:12:31] When God turns his face towards us and blesses us and is gracious to us, we come to know his saving power. And this ought to be our prayer as well. Not just one time, but increasing in wisdom and knowledge of the grace of Jesus Christ and the strength and the power of the Gospel. [00:12:52] So, so far we've seen that blessing leads to knowledge in two different ways. We can also say now thirdly, that blessing leads to praise. [00:13:03] Praise is a very strong theme in this psalm, isn't it? When we get to verse three, it comes to us, let the peoples praise You, O God. Let all the peoples praise you. Verse four, let the nations be glad and sing for joy. Verse five, let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you. [00:13:24] And then similarly, at the very end, all the nations and let all the ends of the earth fear Him. [00:13:33] Praise is that happiness of heart in the recognition of something that is worthy. [00:13:40] It's recognizing God as worthy, who deserves acclamation, deserves the praise of man, that we say good things about Him, or to use the language of Scripture, we bless Him. We say of our Lord that he has done this and he has done that, and that these things are good. [00:14:05] That leads us to the fourth thing. That blessing leads to joy, to gladness and to joy. [00:14:13] When we experience God's blessing, often the sadness and weakness that fills our heart can be swept away. [00:14:22] When we know the blessing of the Lord, it's like his mercy comes in and he just blows those clouds away. [00:14:31] When we come to know the Lord, when he turns his face to shine upon us. We turn to Him and feel good. Kind of like sunflowers do, right? The way they face the sun, they just look happy. [00:14:45] Plants do this, and animals too. [00:14:49] And servants, when they look to their master, as the psalms describe, a servant looks to his or her master, eagerly waiting, looking for instruction. There's this gladness and joy in our hearts when God turns toward us and when he blesses us. [00:15:09] Verse four, as we continue on grounds that gladness and joy in something very particular here. There's all kinds of reasons to be happy about God. But here, notice what the reason is for you. Judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon the earth. [00:15:27] Here, the psalmist points our attention to the fact that God is a judge and he's a shepherd. [00:15:34] Yes, blessings pour out from God in great and abundant ways. But God, if I could put it this way, is he's not a pinata that we just hit and demand things out of, and then the blessings sort of shower down randomly. No, when God showers his blessings down on his people, he does it with great generosity, but also intentionality and purpose. Shepherding judging knowing. [00:16:06] You might imagine the next time it rains, every single raindrop being directed to the exact place it needs to go from the hand of the Lord. [00:16:18] You might think about the way in which every ray of the sun goes exactly where it needs to go at exactly the right time. [00:16:28] All of God's mercy in our hearts, in our minds, in the earth itself, each promise is going exactly where it needs to go. Because God is a good judge and he judges the people with equity. There are people in the world who give good gifts, but they give good gifts for bad reasons. [00:16:50] Bribes, right? This is one way we describe those kinds of gifts. And there are others as well. There's a way in which you can give things that are not from a good place. But God is never that way. When he blesses the world, he blesses with equity and he blesses with wisdom. As he guides us upon the earth, god leads us and he frees us. And for this reason, we can have joy in Him, gladness in Him. [00:17:22] Next, and I only have two more on the next, is that God leads to promiscuous praise among all peoples just for fun. Promiscuous praise among all peoples. Notice the way that peoples is plural here. I'm getting a little crazy now. Verse three. Let the peoples praise you, O God. And again, let all the peoples praise you. We have the same thing in verse five. Let the peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples praise you. There's an emphasis there, right, on the expansiveness of this god's promises god's mercy are not just for this select person or that select person, this people, or in that time, but they are spread far and spread wide. [00:18:12] Any fear that is in your heart that maybe you don't have a right to the promises of God because of something that defines you, you should just put that to rest. When you read verses like this, when God turns to us in Christ and spreads his message to the whole world, to male and female, Jew and Gentile, rich and poor, slave and free, we see how good God is and why it leads not just to the spread of the word to all peoples, but the praise of all peoples. [00:18:53] People respond to that word. They respond to that blessing. When God blesses, when God shines his face upon us. [00:19:04] So far we've seen that blessing leads to knowledge and the way of the Lord, both in general ways and in special saving ways. We've seen that blessing when God blesses us, it leads to praise and to gladness and to joy, and to a kind of widespreadness of that blessing as well. And finally, we see that blessing leads to fear. [00:19:32] Maybe a surprising way to end that is, if we don't understand what he means, this fear. Let all God shall bless us. Let all the nations or all let all the ends of the earth fear him. [00:19:52] Is not a fear of pure terror a fear of damnation, a fear of crushing power. All which God could rightfully give to people who are his enemies and who are sinners. [00:20:09] But a fear that is in the context of blessing, a fear of humility, a fear of respect, a fear of honor and a fear of understanding. That the one that we respect. The one that we honor, the one that we praise is not just some great man or idea but he is the God who made the heavens and the earth. The one who has all righteousness in his hand, all power in Himself. [00:20:44] The one who was from beginning to end. The one who is called a consuming fire. [00:20:51] The one who knows how to open and close the earth open and close the skies. The one who knows how to make all of the animals and feed them in all their places. The one who rules strong and supreme. [00:21:09] We do not honor the Lord as a nice idea or as a good thing, but we honor and fear Him as our God and as God. [00:21:24] One of the reformers, Wolfgang Muscalis, writes this note how joy in God and fear in God or fear of God are combined by joy, the sadness and anxiety of diffidence are excluded, but by fear, contempt and false security are banished. [00:21:46] Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling, says Psalm two. [00:21:52] These things go together in the heart of the Christian. [00:21:56] We rejoice with joy, and in the Lord find happiness and pleasure. [00:22:03] But we don't do it in a way that trusts in ourselves or thinks in a little way of God, or even despises him for the things he gives, as some people do. [00:22:18] This and therefore is a blessing. A blessing to have reverence before the Lord. A blessing no longer to treat him lightly, to no longer sin against him, to no longer lack care for him, but instead to fear him, to love him, to rejoice in him, to honor and give him reverence. [00:22:40] These are the things that blessing leads to. When God turns his face on us and shines upon us, this is what happens. And not just in an individual life here and there, but all over the world. [00:22:58] Before we close, we have to note one more very important thing, and it's from verse one grace, precedes, blessing. [00:23:08] Or we could say blessing comes in the context, and only in the context of grace. [00:23:16] Verse one says, may God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us. [00:23:24] There's no blessing to us, brothers and sisters, friends, humans, there's no blessing to us apart from the grace of God. [00:23:34] Because when we come before God, we come before Him as those who have sinned against Him, as those who owe Him our obedience and yet have failed to give what we owe. We come as debtors. [00:23:47] And so in order to have forgiveness of our debts, in order to have blessings of closeness and joy and praise and fellowship and peace in the world and all of these things, the only way we can have those is if God is first gracious to us. And this forms the way in which we pray these prayers, isn't it? Much like we thought about the Lord's Prayer earlier, we come as those who are people who need to be forgiven. [00:24:18] This also should be an encouragement to us. Because as I said earlier, there are lies that we believe sometimes things that we tell ourselves or other people tell us that say we don't deserve this or that blessing. I don't deserve it, I've sinned in this way, or I was born in this family, or we didn't deserve it. We can look at ourselves as a family or as a country, as a community, in any shape or form, and recognize that not only in our individual lives, but corporately. We've failed in massive ways throughout all of history, over and over and over again. [00:24:57] And it's true, we don't deserve God's blessing. There's no way in which we can demand it of Him or think that we owe it or he owes it to us. [00:25:09] But that's not how this psalm starts. It says, may God be gracious to us. May he give us what we don't deserve and bless us and make his face to shine upon us. [00:25:22] And because God gives us his blessing in this way and is implicitly making a promise to us in this way, it means that we can come to Him despite our failures, despite our falling short and many other things, and pray for this. [00:25:40] We can go before the God of all the world, of all the universe, of all time and pray and ask for his blessing, knowing that because he is gracious, he will give it. And we see this not only in all kinds of works and in a sort of principal way here in verse one. But of course, we see this most preeminently in the work of Christ, in the work of Jesus who comes into this world. God reveals his grace to us. He reveals to us how far he is willing to go to bless us, even the death of His Son, even Jesus giving his life for the forgiveness of our sins, so that we might be blessed in Him. [00:26:30] Listen to these words in one Peter, chapter one, verse three, the Bible says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading kept in heaven for you. [00:27:04] You who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. [00:27:14] This is another way of describing blessing. And these are the kinds of blessings that God promises to us and to the world, all who trust in the Lord Jesus. [00:27:24] When we trust in Him, god gives us an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and kept in heaven for us. And how do we have it? Because we are born again according to the mercy of God. [00:27:42] So when you consider the troubles of this life and the blessings that you might desire, the word of encouragement to us here from Psalm 67 is to look to the Lord that his face in Jesus would shine upon you, that in Christ you would be born again and would be continued. That his work in you would continue to be restoring you, sanctifying you, and one day glorifying you. [00:28:13] Our prayer ought to be always that God's light would be shed in the world and in our own hearts that we might receive and enjoy his blessing through his grace. Let's pray. [00:28:26] Our Heavenly Father, how amazing you are and how blessed you are. We praise you for all the blessings that you give to us when you turn to us, we do not deserve these things, and yet you give them so freely, simply by trusting in the sacrifice of Your Son. We ask, O Lord, that you would help each and every one of us to be those who are born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. As we look to the promises that are made in the Old Testament, promises that are fulfilled in Christ as we see that work through the apostles and in our own time spreading and indeed filling all the earth, we look forward then, Lord, to that last day when peoples upon peoples upon peoples will be praising you and honoring you for the great work that you have done. [00:29:27] May this encourage our hearts, strengthen our prayers. And through each day this week, may we ask of you and lean upon you for all that we need, through Jesus Christ, our only Savior. Amen.