that you desired these words to be written,
that you had these words written in such a way
that in every generation and for every people group,
they could speak to us.
They can only do this, Father, because it is ultimately your word.
And we confess before you, Father,
that we cannot understand your word purely by our minds.
Father, we know you want us to use the best of our mind,
but even the best of our mind is not enough.
We need, Father, your Holy Spirit to humble us
and create within us a hunger to know your word
and to hear your word, to know you and to hear you.
And, Father, this we ask, that you would so bless us
that we have a desire to know you and to be known by you
and to hear you speak to us and have you speak into our lives.
Father, we ask that you would do this at this time.
As we open your word.
And all this we ask in the name of Jesus,
your Son and our Savior.
Amen.
Please be seated.
I might disappoint a lot of you this morning.
You might find this sermon boring.
It's a very unusual sermon for me.
It's not one that I do very often.
And it's going to be on Psalm 67,
and you're going to need your Bibles if you have them.
But here's what happened.
This is our last Sunday of doing Psalms, at least for a season.
Next Sunday, we go back into the book of Luke,
and we'll be doing Luke for quite a long season.
And so I, with the other people who've been speaking over the summer
in the different Psalms,
I asked each of the speakers to pick a Psalm.
And I just sort of asked them to not all pick laments
or not all pick happy Psalms,
but have a bit of a variety.
And after they had picked,
I've been praying about what two Psalms I would pick.
And one of the Psalms I decided that I felt led to preach on
was Psalm 67,
which is what we're going to look at in a moment.
And the reason I chose Psalm 67,
I mean, apart from the fact that I was praying
and asking God to tell me what it is that we,
the congregation,
needed to spend time thinking about and hearing,
was I knew a little bit about this Psalm
in terms of how it's been important
in other generations of Christians.
that when the English Reformation was going on,
and though Thomas Cramner,
who ended up being martyred
as part of the English Reformation,
as he was trying to order
and put together how it is that Christians should worship,
not only on Sundays, but throughout the week,
and he wanted to try to create a means
by which ordinary people
could worship throughout the week,
and also how they could worship on Sunday.
He was very aware of the fact
that throughout Christian history,
whenever there were reform movements
within the church before the Reformation,
there was always reform movements,
and that many of the monastic movements
had been part, when they first started,
they were part of a Reformation movement
within the church to call the church
and call Christian people to pray,
that throughout the centuries,
a psalm,
there were several passages of scripture
that were important,
and one of those passages of scripture
that had been important
in earlier reform movements,
and whenever people had a heart to pray,
and one of those psalms that they,
one of those passages of scripture
that earlier reformers thought
was very important was Psalm 67.
And so, if you go back to Cranmer,
and it was important in the Anglican tradition,
in Canada,
up until 1962,
if you were to have done evening prayer,
you would have found the text of Psalm 67
in the evening prayer service.
And Cranmer just took it out of,
he was aware of the fact
that earlier reform movements
saw that this was an important prayer,
an important psalm,
for Christians to pray,
and to sing,
and to hear,
and to think about.
And I knew this about Psalm 67,
so I thought,
well, we haven't talked about Psalm 67,
so I'll pick Psalm 67,
and that's what I picked.
But here's the thing
which is a bit different about this sermon.
If you come to the church,
you know that I,
you know,
I do a sermon,
and usually there's,
like,
on the screen there'll be points,
and I sort of come up,
and I set tension,
and I come up to the point,
and then,
and all,
but here's what happened to me this week.
I sort of had a bit of a struggle
with God all week,
because,
you know,
I,
I don't have Hebrew,
so I have to depend upon
academic commentaries
that will help me with the Hebrew,
and,
and make sure that I understand the text,
and I,
I've done all that work all week,
but,
what,
here's the funny thing,
that,
what kept happening,
kept happening to me,
is that I wasn't able to think of,
like,
points,
I kept having to,
pray,
now,
you see,
this is a little bit of an awkward thing,
for a sermon,
because,
you know,
you have to get up,
and,
and actually sort of have points,
in a sermon,
but,
I couldn't keep thinking of,
really clear points,
I just keep,
kept feeling that I had to pray,
Psalm 67,
and so,
you know,
me being a,
a typical,
uh,
male Canadian,
I,
um,
I sort of wanted to maybe,
you know,
get,
try to get the right thing going on,
I kept,
of course,
praying,
you know,
I always pray for God's direction,
guidance,
and I'm praying for God's guidance,
and direction,
and,
and every time I come and spend time on Psalm 67,
I keep praying,
the Psalm,
and trying to figure out how to pray the Psalm,
and realizing how I'm not praying the Psalm,
and how I have to learn from praying the Psalm,
and,
and then finally,
I realized that,
that I wasn't really to do a proper sermon with you this morning,
was that I was to sort of share with you Psalm 67 in such a way that hopefully you would want to pray it with me.
Amen.
So if you have your Bibles,
please turn in them to Psalm 67,
and,
and that's what we're just going to do,
and if you're not really interested in praying Psalm 67,
then I,
I guess you can have a little bit of a nap for a period of time,
but I'm,
not that I'm going to spend the whole time praying,
but I'm going to sort of just share sort of how God was teaching me this week about the importance of praying,
and,
and for some of you,
if you,
if you manage to track with this whole time,
you'll hear that every time I prayed this morning,
my prayers have been all informed by Psalm 67,
and,
and I really actually,
I,
the,
part of the thing I could see about this Psalm is I struggled with it.
You know how in,
in our modern day,
people talk about moral compasses,
often with ethics courses and stuff like that,
and,
and people saying we need ethics in business,
or ethics in government,
or ethics in,
in,
in the workforce,
and people talk about the,
the need to have a moral compass,
and,
and I realized that Psalm 67 is a type of moral and spiritual compass that the,
the Christians and the church regularly need to have.
So I'm going to read all of 67,
Psalm 67,
it's just seven verses,
and then,
then we'll go back,
and we'll sort of look at how we can pray this Psalm.
So,
Psalm 67,
if you don't have a Bible,
there's always extra Bibles up here at the front,
and,
uh,
you're free to have one.
And here's how the Psalm goes.
Actually,
the,
the little introduction to the Psalm goes to the choir master with string instruments,
a Psalm,
a Psalm.
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,
but all the ends of the earth fear you.
And,
uh,
if you were a very old fashioned Anglican at this point in time,
you would say,
glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost,
as it was in the beginning,
is now,
and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
Ha ha.
That's just for the closet old Anglicans in the room.
So here's the thing.
I start to try to pray this psalm.
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,
that the peoples praise you,
O God,
let all the peoples praise you.
And the first thing that I realized was this,
that on one hand,
God was putting within me,
I mean,
he said,
I could really,
I mean,
he wanted me to spend time in the commentaries,
he wanted me to spend time studying the psalm,
and thinking upon the psalm,
but I kept,
I kept having this pressure,
that he didn't just want me to,
to understand it,
he wanted me to pray it.
And,
and so not only while I was sitting there,
in the,
in the Starbucks,
or other places where I was working on the sermon,
but while I was doing other things,
and one of the very,
very first things I,
I realized,
is that it was hard for me to pray the psalm,
because I kept trying to think of what I wanted to say,
rather than remembering the psalm.
And it,
it was as if God was speaking into my life,
that George,
too often you,
and too often the church,
we're filled with what we want to say,
and we're not filled with just actually hearing,
and being formed by what I want you to say.
So I realized I had to start paying far more attention,
to the actual words,
virtually memorizing the psalm,
so that while I was riding my bicycle,
or walking,
or in other places,
that the psalm,
would,
would come out of me as something that I had to pray.
But,
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,
that your saving power among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you,
O God,
let all the peoples praise you.
And as I'm trying to learn how to pray this psalm,
as I feel the pressure of the Holy Spirit,
that I'm called to pray this psalm,
and then it was as if the Holy Spirit convicts me,
that I kept changing the words of the psalm,
in a really important way.
And the way I kept changing the words of the psalm,
is I would say,
God be gracious to me,
and bless me,
and make your face shine upon me.
That's not what the psalm says.
The psalm wasn't asking me to pray this psalm for me.
The psalm,
the word of God was asking me to learn to pray this psalm for us.
And day after day,
I would be trying to pray this psalm,
and it was as if the Holy Spirit kept having to say,
George, what did you just say?
What did you just say?
You said me again.
You shouldn't keep saying me.
There's times when we pray for just ourselves.
I mean, there's times when I should just pray for me.
That it's not as if the Bible says
that there's never times that I should just say,
Lord, please help me.
Lord, please do this for me.
It's not that the Bible never says that we should do it,
but this psalm,
which has been part of reform movements
throughout the history of the church,
that early reformers,
whether it was Gregory or Galatianus
or Benedict or Cranmer,
recognized that learning to pray this psalm
was really important for the church
to have this form how we pray
and how we understand the church
and how we understand the world,
that this part of God's word
has an authoritative power
that's to form how we are to understand
how we are to pray,
and it's asking me to pray for us.
It's asking you to pray for us.
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 or God shall bless us.
God shall bless us.
Let all the ends of the earth fear you.
So one of the things I learned
when I was doing the commentaries
is that it's very intentional in English
that the requests are may and let,
that these are prayers of humble desire.
It's verb tenses of humble desire
and that God wants to form within us
humble desires
and form and channel and grow within us
humble desires as we approach it.
and therefore the first word is may
and then the rest of it is let, let, let, let, let.
And so the very, very first humble desire
that I am to have for us,
that we are to have for us,
is to ask God for grace.
And, you know, I'm thinking about this.
I'm in a Starbucks.
I'm looking around at the room.
In fact, I just had a conversation
with a young guy.
I'd had quite a few conversations with him.
We have a very, very unusual relationship.
He can't get at all
why anybody would want to know anything at all
about the Christian faith.
He's young.
He's good looking.
He's in really good shape.
He's financially successful.
He's a hit with the ladies.
And life is going very good.
Why does he need grace?
I mean, that's what he says.
And the fact of the matter is,
is that a lot of us in the church
are just like that young man.
That we don't really think we need grace.
I mean, we know we need grace sometimes
because sometimes we feel really guilty.
And sometimes we feel like we're really broken.
Sometimes we don't feel like we're very successful.
We feel like a failure.
And so at times like that,
to ask for grace is sort of easy for us,
at least for the moment.
But a lot of the time,
we're sort of like our culture.
And if things are going very well for us,
we don't really think we need grace.
Because grace refers to God
being kind and merciful to us.
And I realized as I'm trying to learn
how to pray this,
how easy it is for me
to actually think that
like there's just sort of me.
And I have these things
and I have these abilities
and I have these powers.
And we have these things
and we have these powers.
And we don't sort of really need
to depend upon God's mercy and kindness
because it's a little bit like
if somebody was to go out with me
after church and offer to buy me a coffee,
they say, no, no, it's fine.
I can cover this.
I don't need your grace.
I don't need your kind.
I can cover this.
And so we sit in church
and we hear language of grace,
but actually sort of in our hearts,
we don't really feel we need very much right now
unless we're very broken.
But this psalm says,
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, God.
Let all the peoples praise you.
The psalm is wanting me to pray for us,
wanting us to pray for us,
that we would receive grace from God,
that we would receive God's mercy and kindness.
Many of us struggle with thinking
that God owes us something.
And we get angry and mad at God
when things don't go the way we want
because we think he owes us.
And this psalm isn't talking about anything like that.
It's saying that who I am is a person.
Who is George?
Who is Church of the Messiah?
It is a community of people
that as a community and as individuals,
we always need the kindness and mercy and grace of God.
That there's no time, no instant
that I do not need kindness from God.
So the psalm says that there's these three things.
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.
And the second thing that this psalm is asking us
to pray for is that God would bless us.
And I realized as I'm trying to think about this
that first of all,
I have a very, very weak understanding of blessing.
And I know, you know, once again,
it's one of the interesting things
about working on sermons in a Starbucks
as you're just observing things going on
and people and maybe hearing snatches of conversation.
And sometimes it's a bit of a reflection
or mirror as to what's going on in my own life.
And the whole idea of blessing
has been sort of lost in our culture.
Like in churches, often now,
when we even talk about when I went to the service
and I was blessed,
I could really feel God's blessing.
It's sort of as if we have a communal time
of a certain type of emotion.
And if we have a communal time
of a certain type of emotion
or in my private life,
I have a certain type of emotion,
I feel blessed.
And the world increasingly has this sense
that if there is a God at all,
he's tiny and puny
and doesn't really matter.
But there's other big forces
that are going on in the world.
And there's things that we can accomplish
and things that just are.
And it's just we take it for granted
that Canada has prosperity.
We take it for granted
that Canada has safety.
We take it for granted.
If we have health, we take it for granted.
If we have minds at work,
we take it for granted.
If our bodies are working well,
we take it for granted.
We take it for granted.
And we don't have a sense,
increasingly,
that we are completely
and utterly dependent upon blessing.
That every good thing that comes to us
is a blessing that comes from God.
And that blessing isn't just an emotion
that we have by ourselves or with others,
but that blessing,
that everything good we have,
whether it's a moral good,
an aesthetic good,
an intellectual good,
a social good,
an economic good,
a physical good,
or a spiritual good,
that every single good thing
that comes to us
only comes from God as a blessing.
That it isn't that there's all these things
that I just accomplished
or that I just earned
or that I just own
or that I just possess,
but that everything that I have
or that we have
is a blessing
that comes from God
if it's good.
Like with no exception.
And that's not denigrating
or making small the spiritual
because it's a,
God is asking me
to understand
and to pray that,
to understand who God is.
This is one of the things
that I realized
as I was praying to God
that what this text was telling me
was to say in a sense,
who's God?
God is the blessed one
who blesses.
And who is George?
And who is Church of the Messiah?
George is one who only,
who always needs blessing
and is always dependent
upon blessing.
Who is Church of the Messiah?
Church of the Messiah
always needs blessing
and is always dependent
upon blessing.
And then we could go on further.
The George and Messiah
often don't think of themselves
as needing blessing
or recognizing blessing.
George doesn't recognize it.
George is more comfortable
with things,
just taking things for granted
that our church
just can desire
to just take things for granted.
But God doesn't say
to pray that way.
He says,
George,
I want you to pray
in such a way
that you ask for my blessing.
That you realize, George,
that you and the congregation
always are dependent
upon God's blessing.
that I want you to pray
to have more blessing.
And I want you to pray that
to recognize
that every good thing you have
is a blessing
that comes from you.
And not to take it for granted
with pride,
presumption,
and arrogance.
Or with anger
when others seem
to have different blessings
or more blessings.
It's all blessing.
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.
May God be gracious to us
to pray that God
would pour out his kindness
and mercy and grace upon us,
that God would bless us,
to pray that God
would pour out his blessing upon us.
That's not only good things,
not only a recognition
that he is giving us good things
and so he loves us,
but also a power
for those good things
to continue to happen.
That's what blessing is.
And then this very,
very funny thing
that he says
that we're to ask
that God would make his face
to shine upon us.
And it sort of struck me
that it's so easy for me
to just think
and for us to just think
that everything just sort of happens
for natural reasons.
That somehow,
I know the rivers just flow
and the sun just shines
and rain just comes
and things just work
and everything is sort of
just sort of impersonal
and there's just me managing
these impersonal things,
but the word of God
is reminding us
it's very, very interesting
that it uses the word face
because it's so easy
just to think of forces
and energy
and things which are impersonal.
But the Bible is asking me
to long for
seeing the face of God
smile at us, upon us.
not to see
the whole world
controlled by impersonal forces
that we try
through our science
and technology
and intellectual abilities
and other types of abilities
to wrestle
and to harness
and to channel for our own good.
It's not telling us
not to try to think,
but to understand
that everything that exists
was created by God
and that God
holds all things
constantly in existence
and that behind
and underneath
and supporting
and upholding
every apparently
impersonal force
is God
who has a face
who is a person
who upholds it
and causes it
to happen
and to be.
That I do not live
in an impersonal
empty universe.
I am not
a ghost
and a machine.
that the world
is held
in the hands
of the personal God
who maintains it
who is bigger
than all things
and that I am
to come to God
understanding
that he is bigger
than all things
and he is a person
that he desires
to smile upon me
and to smile upon us.
May God be gracious
to us
and bless us
and make his face
to shine upon us.
God wants us
to pray this.
He wants you
to pray it
in your private devotions.
He wants us
to pray it together.
He wants us
to pray
may God be gracious
to us
and bless us
and make his face
to shine upon us.
But he doesn't want us
to pray these things.
He doesn't want me
to pray these things
so that people
will think well of me.
Or that,
I don't know,
or that necessarily
our church
will get bigger
or we'll have
a particular reputation
or that all
of these blessings
that we're to ask
for God
to show his grace
and mercy upon us,
to shower upon us,
that he's asking us
to shower his blessing
upon us
and he's asking us
to have an awareness
that we're living
our lives
in such a way
that he smiles upon us
that we're dealing
with shame
and sin
and other types
of things
in our lives
so that he will
smile upon us
and that all of this
is not about us.
That for the entire
rest of the song,
it's all about
God blessing us
so that we can be
a blessing
so that as a result
of the blessing
coming into us
and taking root
in us
but flowing out
of us
to not only
just people
who are like us
but people
who are even
radically different
than us
that the result
will be not
that they are
so grateful
for us
but that they
will be grateful
to God.
So listen to
the psalm again.
Listen to how
he wants us
to learn to pray.
The first three
things that were
in a sense
looks like it's
a very type of
self-centered
things for us
but then the
entire rest
of the psalm
is how this
impacts us
to flow out
of us
to affect
every single
people group
on the planet.
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.
Why?
For you
judge the
peoples with
equity
and you
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 you.
may God
be gracious
to us
and bless
us and
make his
face to
shine upon
us.
Why
father do
we ask
this for
ourselves?
Why is
this that we
ask this for
our brothers
and sisters
in Christ
for this
local church
and for
me and
you as
part of
it?
We ask
this father
not so that
people will
think that
we are really
anything at
all but we
ask this
father in
such a way
that your
way your
way and
it's singular
will be known
on all the
earth and
your saving
power among
all nations.
You know
one of the
real big
challenges about
this prayer
for us is
that it's so
easy for us
in our private
prayer life just
to pray about
ourselves and
the people we
like.
And it's so
easy for us
just to pray
for people who
are sick to
get better
and we
don't in a
sense pray
for the
people groups.
It's easy for
us not to
pray for
missionaries
and people
bringing relief
and it's
easy for us
to not
maybe say
it's easy
for me to
not say in
my prayers
father in
this community
I just look
at the people
groups even
father in
this community
I look at
the gay
community
I look at
the music
community
I look at
the theater
community
I look at
the embassy
community
I look father
the poor
communities
I look
father at
the different
immigrant
communities
and peoples
I look
father upon
the different
language groups
in this
community
father I
look at the
unemployed
community
I look at
the high
achieving
high tech
community
and father
as I look
at these
communities
I ask
people groups
and the
people groups
of our
cities
and our
country
and the
ends of the
earth
it is so easy
for us to become
spiritually self-satisfied
narcissistic black holes
and actually feel it's a sign of spiritual maturity
Why? So that my way
will be known
throughout the entire time.
And every single
people,
every single people
will come to know my way.
And every single people
will come to know my Savior.
And I want you to do it
not so people will have you to think about you
or remember you or anything like that.
Why do I want
in the gay community and in the
banking community and the immigrant
communities and in
the artistic community and the high
achieving high tech community
and in the mentally ill community
and then outside of Canada that I
wanted in Kenya and I wanted
in remote parts of China
and Mongolia and Tibet and Kazakhstan.
I want
all the earth to place.
I have
people in all these communities
and my
Holy Spirit is at work
to bring them to a point
where they will know my way
and know my saving power
and praise me.
And I'm going to use
imperfect people like you.
And I want you to pray for that grace
and pray for that blessing
and pray for the shining of my face.
So that all these communities
communities really not even
forget to pray that that would happen,
but I just call you to pray.
Pray for grace and blessing.
Every people group,
the people groups you like,
the people groups you despise,
the people groups you hate,
I'm not asking you to hate them
or like them or despise them.
You definitely shouldn't hate them.
You definitely shouldn't despise them.
Pray for my grace and life
and my blessing
and the shining of my face
is so tall upon you
and present upon you
that every people group
will have people who praise me.
and not only that,
not only that,
I kept reading the first three verses,
but what I want them to know,
verse four,
the nations,
the people groups,
be glad and sing for joy.
I,
you know,
I,
I wanted to,
I wanted languages
that we haven't even heard of yet
because nobody's come across them.
And I want them to sing my praises
and to be glad
and sing for joy
in their heart languages.
That's the desire of God's heart
is that from the heart language
of human beings
that they would sing
and praise God
that they would recognize
that he is the perfect judge
and that he is sovereign
over every people group.
He's not just sovereign
who wants to be sovereign
over Canada or the United States.
It's not that he wants Canadians
or Kenyans
or Chinese
or Russians
or others,
that he is to be the sovereign guide
of every people group
and listen to me
to cry in our heart.
That every people group,
let the people praise you,
oh God,
all the people praise you.
The earth is healed
and it's increased.
God,
our God,
shall bless us.
God shall bless us.
Let all the ends of the earth
appear.
Praise to you.
That every people group
would have people
who would recognize it.
Whatever bounty comes
from the earth,
whether it's the bounty
of plants,
it's the bounty
of clean,
the bounty
of clean water,
it's the bounty
of oil
or mineral resources
or the bounty
of education,
ability of factories,
that all of the
increase in the earth
comes from the hand
of the living God
who is the perfect judge
and the sovereign God
of every people group.
And the prayer
of our hearts
should be
that God
forces grace upon us
and that as he blesses us
and as we have
a hundred of his face
to shine upon us
so that God's way
is known upon the earth,
is taking power
to all people groups,
that the result of it
is not just
that people will praise him,
that they will know
that he is
the creator
and sustainer
and gift,
gift giver
of all blessing,
that he is
a perfectly just judge,
that he is
the sovereign
five nations,
but that we will know
him truly
that the theory
God is.
God shall bless us
that all beings
and fear
that every human,
that the people
and every people
group will know
God
in humility,
no arrogance,
no panic,
no presumption,
no confusion
between who God is
and who I am,
no attempt
from within me
to think that I am God
and that God is not God,
that God is dead
and he somehow
gave me the job,
to think that my desires
and his desires
and what will make me
prosper will be
what made God prosperous,
that the fear of God
is an ever-increasing
knowledge of who I am
and who God is
and that God is God
and that I am not man,
I know the boundary
between me
and the boundary
between him
and knowing the boundary
between him
and the boundary
between me,
I desire to know him
and as I know him
to bow my knee
forth
because he is God,
that's what the fear of God
is.
And that's what the song
that has been us
to pray about.
Not that we know
liturgies,
not that we know
rituals,
not that we know
praise songs,
but that we know
God
and are known
by him
and that as we know
God who is invisible,
we do not confuse
ourselves with God
but have this
ever-sharpened,
ever-deepening
understanding
of the difference
between him
and me,
that that difference
is good
and the cat-differs
should lead
both humility
and hunger,
hunger from word God
and humility
before him,
I know that I am not
God
and I am not
praise him.
One final thing
about this prayer
that has
addressed this week,
may God be gracious
to us,
bless us
and make the space
to shine upon us,
that your way
may be known
on earth
for saving power
among all nations,
but the people's
praise you,
O God,
that all the people's
praise you,
that the nations
be glad and sing
for joy,
that you judge
for the peoples
with equity
and guide the nations
upon earth,
let the people's
praise you,
O God,
that all the people's
praise you,
the earth is yielded
and it's increased,
God, our God,
shall bless us,
God shall bless us,
let all the ends
of the earth
fear him.
That's verse 2,
you're saving power,
you know what it is
in Hebrew?
Yeshua.
Keep connected to Jesus.
I'm not making this up.
It could be translated
your Jesus
among all nations.
This song is written
before Jesus.
It's a promise
that God will send
in saving power.
And the very,
very part of
Christian faith
is that God
gives power
of only
need to give
and gives
the power
of the same
and it comes
from Jesus'
death
on the cross.
It's great.
Jesus.
The Bible uses
many different
images
and metaphors
to try to help us
understand images
of ransom,
images of forgiveness
and images
of proficiation
and images
of cleanliness
and images
of reconciliation
and images
of prosperity,
images of
deliverance
from duty
and many,
many images
all the time.
But in all
centers around
this idea
that
Jesus
is the one
who comes
to God
whose death
on the cross
is a saving
power.
And I don't
add to that
saving power.
I don't create
that saving power.
All I can do
is receive
a power.
Receive something
that comes
from God
that when I receive
it is actually
a power
from God,
a power
that reconciles
me to.
See,
even as this
song was written,
even as it's
calling us,
it's not
calling us
to religion.
This song
is calling me
to religion.
This song
is calling me
just to my
own efforts.
It's not calling
me to develop
mental habits
whereby I,
by myself,
just always
remember that
everything is a
blessing and that
God is ultimately
the giver of all
the blessing and
that God is the
one who gives
you grace and
kindness.
That's what
religion is.
That's religion
and spirituality
is just where
it's all somehow
about now me.
Religion takes
songs like this
and turns it
into being all
about me
and my
accomplishment.
And this
song,
it,
you know,
use modern
language,
it deconstructs
it.
On one hand,
it's teaching me
how to pray
at the same time
that it's
pumping me
for knowledge.
That just as I
am praying
that God's
saving power
will be more
among the
nations.
If I need to
receive that
saving power,
it's never just
my accomplishments
that I need to
receive something
that only God
can do and
only God has
done,
and that
is something
that's a
saving power.
It's that the
point of God
saying,
I need to
receive it.
I need to
show blessing.
It's a
gospel.
I realize
that that's
why I need
grace all.
That's why I
need to know
that you need
grace all.
I'm going to
be show
grace.
And that's
not really
what,
and that
saving power
that grips
me,
and I realize
that's a
blessing that
comes from
God.
And if I
am completely
not dependent
upon the
blessing that
comes from
God,
it's a
saving power,
I need to
show blessing.
And that
saving power
that comes
from God
is the
means by
which I'm
reconciling
to God,
so that I
am no longer
in hostility
against God,
in anger
against God,
in rebel
against God,
but that
it's a
saving power
that reconciles
me to God
so that I
can stand
only because
of that
saving power
before the
smiling face
of God,
that I
believe
that
smiling face
was.
And as
the gospel
grips,
I
learn on
one hand
that this
is just
a prayer
that I
need to
pray,
but also
that it's
not just
about me
and my
power,
it's about
the power
of accomplishment.
So the
psalm
constantly
brings us
back to
the beginning.
May God
be gracious
to us
and bless
us,
and make
his face
to shine
upon us.
Why,
Father,
we ask
this,
we ask
this,
that your
way may be
known on
our earth.
We ask
this so
that your
saving power
might be
known among
every people
here.
We ask
this so
that all
the peoples
will praise
you,
God.
We ask
this so
that all
the peoples
will praise
you.
That's
Father,
heal our
hearts,
so that
is our
desire.
Heal our
hearts,
so that
is our
desire.
Heal our
minds,
so that
is our
desire.
That all
nations will
have a
gladness.
people in
every people
group will
have a
gladness and
joy knowing
that you
are a
perfect judge,
that you
are a
sovereign
God.
Father,
we ask
this so
that all
the world
will know,
people in
every people
group will
know that
you are
the giver
of all
the things
that are
on earth
and down
to you.
We ask
you to
bless us
so that
we in
all the
earth will
know you
as you
really are.
We only
know you
as you
really are
because
the saving
power
will only
you can
do.
That we
grow more
and more
day by
day more
than we
need to
receive.
That we
can never
hold,
that we
can never
possess,
that we
can never
create,
that we
can only
receive.
Be
said.
Lord,
please pour
out your
grace
for us
and bless
us.
May your
face
always
shine
in us.
Please do
this in
us so
that your
way will be
known on
earth and
your saving
power will be
known among
every people
group on
the planet.
Lord,
as your
grace and
blessing falls
upon us,
heal our
desires.
Create in
us a strong
desire that
people from
every people
group on
the planet
will praise
you.
Lord,
as your
grace and
blessing falls
upon us,
heal our
desires so
that we
will join
the people
from every
people group
in singing
with joy
that you
are the
perfectly
just
judge and
the sovereign
God for
any and
every people
group that
calls upon
us.
Lord,
as your
grace and
blessing falls
upon us,
heal our
desires and
heal our
minds.
We praise
you for all
the ways you
have blessed
us and will
bless us.
We praise
you that you
are the
blessed one
who blesses.
We desire
to join
with people
from every
people group
in knowing
you truly
with no
hint of pride
or presumption
or arrogance.
We thank
you that your
son Jesus by
this depth
upon the
cross for
us is that
promised saving
power comes
from your
home.
And we
receive as
saviors and
Lord and in
his name we
pray.
Amen.
It's time to
take a
posture of
prayer.
for now.
You
may have
some
fruition,
too.
In
our
fulfillment,
again we
won't
come up
in
but he
every
we
will
and
see you