A Closer Walk
We have previously discussed in this space how, at times, our God chooses to bless us. Psalm 67 talks about this. “Let the peoples praise Thee, O God; Let all the peoples praise Thee. The earth has yielded its produce; God, our God, blesses us. God blesses us, That all the ends of the earth may fear Him, Psalm 67:5-7 NASB. Let the peoples (plural) praise Thee, O God. Let all the peoples (plural) praise Thee. The psalmist hopes that all peoples everywhere will praise our God. Why should peoples everywhere do that? Because He IS God. Further, the earth has yielded its produce. And all peoples should praise Him for that. God, our God, blesses us. We should praise Him for His blessings upon us. Again, why does this God, our God bless us? That all peoples everywhere, even to the ends of the earth, may fear Him. Fearing God is often equated with reverence or awe for God. But it can also include actual fear.
We should be praising God for His abundance of magnificent blessings. How does He bless us? Well, where did you wake up this morning? The USA? That is a blessing. Did we wake up in a house or apartment building? That is a blessing. When we woke up were we able to get ourselves something to eat without leaving the house? In other words, we had food in the house. That is a blessing. Do we have clothes on our back? That is a blessing. Do we have clothes we can change into, say hanging in a closet? That is a blessing.
If we believe we have not been blessed it likely is because we are not recognizing the Blessings our God had already given us. A person from a foreign country once stated that the greatest blessing on earth was to be an American citizen. Do we take that for granted? People in other countries certainly don't. If we are traveling abroad and are kidnapped or taken hostage we have an unwritten agreement with our government that they will send someone to rescue us. Whether that is Navy Seals, Army Green Berets or Rangers, a detachment of Marines, or some other group, they will send someone to come get us. And the folks just mentioned are ready, willing, and very able to pull this off. Our military has the capability to land these people anywhere, or close to anywhere, on planet earth that they need to go. And bring them home again.
The Psalm opens with asking our God to bless us. “God be gracious to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us— Selah. Don't fret about the meaning of the word Selah. The Book of Psalms in our Bibles are actually real songs, hymns so to speak. But none of us know the music that would be used to accompany them. Because they are songs, some Bible scholars have espoused the theory that Selah means musical pause or interlude. But so far as I know, no one has ever declared an unequivocal definition for the word. So don't fret about not knowing the meaning because no one else does either. Instead of focusing on the one word we don't understand we should be focusing on all the other words that we do understand.
Why does the Psalmist ask our God to bless us? “That Thy way may be known on the earth, Thy salvation among all nations,” Psalm 67:2 NASB. So that all the earth will know His ways. And that His salvation is offered among all the nations. Blessings from God seem to be a form of testimony to the world pointing them to, and informing them about, His ways. In addition, His blessings seem to be a testimony to His offer of salvation to all peoples everywhere.
“Let the peoples praise Thee, O God; Let all the peoples praise Thee. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy; For Thou wilt judge the peoples with uprightness, And guide the nations on the earth. Selah,” Psalm 67:3-4 NASB. All people everywhere should be praising our God, and the nations should be glad and singing for joy. Why? For our God judges the peoples with uprightness, or integrity. The American Heritage Dictionary, 5th edition (meaning it has been revised and updated five times and we are using the latest edition) defines integrity as: “Steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code.” And remember that our God cannot lie. “In the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago,” Titus 1:2 NASB. Our God is literally incapable of lying. So His Word the Bible is truth. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Because He cannot lie. We should be praising God for His blessing of His own uprightness. He can always be trusted.
If you haven't already, and you missed last week's column, may I suggest you look up President George Washington's “Thanksgiving Proclamation.” It can be found at “founder's/archives.gov.” Enjoy.
May “The LORD bless thee, and keep thee: The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace,” Numbers 6:24-26 KJV.