WELCOME TO WELLING: for your spiritual health and growth. Blessed Beyond is our series. We are focused on the fact that God has given us so much blessing that we cannot but do something with them. From the Book of the Psalms, the second book of the Psalms, and Psalm 67, we are basing the reality that you become the first link in an aggressive chain contagion, which is going to reach into the whole world. And this is not just a personal psalm and a communal psalm. It’s not just a national psalm, it is a global psalm. We are blessed and blessed beyond what we deserve, because it is a blessing of grace that which we did not merit. God has caused His face to shine upon us.
In verse two of Psalm 67, we find the reason. The reason God has blessed you is not because we are anything great or strong or deserving, but it’s for the global knowledge of His saving ways. So if you take verses one and two, they are a unit.
The benediction in number six finished with just the first verse. But the psalmist talks as to the reason why you and I have been blessed. We are blessed not for our own sake. We are blessed as means and instruments for the sake of the whole world.
Let me read verses one and two for you. God. God. God. I said this is a theocentric psalm, is not a psalm which is egocentric. It’s always us, us and us. But you will notice that this theocentric psalm is also geocentric in this episode.
Be gracious to us. Bless us. Cause Your face to shine on us. And here’s verse two: That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation may be known among all nations. That’s why God’s blessed me. He’s blessed me with so much that His way be known on the earth, His salvation among all nations. You know, in the Old Testament, just like there are many words for God, and there’s one word for God that’s used in the psalm, Elohim, there are many words for the whole world. The three major words for the world are used in this psalm. In verse two,
Your name may be known on the earth, Your salvation among the nations. Earth and nations: this little earth planet on which we live will reverberate with the knowledge of God, because you’ve been blessed and I’ve been blessed.
The word earth is for the third rock from the Sun. It seems like we are really a third world situation. Somehow, God, in His economy, has decided in His plans, that as we know this earth, while it is not the geographical center of the universe, it is the redemptive center of the universe. The earth became the visited planet by the incarnation. As one author has titled his book, God Himself came to this earth, this little ball of 248 million square kilometers where you can get on a plane and be anywhere in the world in the next 24-some hours. Your bag may not get there, but this earth. “Nations,” that Your way may be known on the earth. “Your salvation,” this is a salvation-based distribution system. You and I have salvation and more. That means we become more responsible to bless more. Salvation is our commonality. But the economic, material disparity between us built on our salvation makes us more a blessing beyond our blessing to others. You know, the word “nations” is interesting because constantly new nations are birthed. About 30 years ago, there were 25 or so new nations which were birthed when the former U.S.S.R. countries split. Currently, there are about 248 nation states, new territories. We don’t know how many new nations will come to be, but the word “nations” there is not just political nations. It is how people consider themselves to be nations.
In history, colonialists actually drew lines between nations and said, “You’re one country or another.” The same people, families, were divided. For example, Rwanda and Burundi, India and Pakistan, just neighbors, families–a line, and they were now in different nations. God says because you’ve been blessed … all the nations, all the nations, the whole earth … because you’ve been blessed.
Some time ago, we lost a great man, a scientist-astronaut by the name of James Irwin, who flew an Apollo mission into the moon. And he said as he left the planet, the size of this earth began to shrink … the size of a basketball, the size of a football or soccer ball, the size of a volleyball, the size of a baseball, the size of a tennis ball, size of a ping pong ball, golf ball, so on. Then he started fiddling with his pants, trouser, pockets, and he pulled out a marble and said, “This is how it looked from there.” A blue marble. He also said, “It suddenly dawned on me that everything that is precious to me is on that little blue marble.”
Ladies and gentlemen, my brothers and sisters, everything that’s precious to God is on that little blue marble we call Earth, which we inhabit for a short time, blessed with salvation and more. He blesses us for the sake of global knowledge, that the ends of the earth may know His saving ways. “That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among the nations….” That’s why God blessed you and me, especially me and especially you. If you came to our offices at RREACH, you’ll find globes all over, strewn, because we don’t want to forget the scope of God’s vision and plan. That we don’t want to forget the reason and the purpose for His blessing. God, be gracious to us, bless us, cause Your face to shine on us that Your way may be known on the earth, that your salvation among the nations. The reason God’s blessed you is so you become the first link in a reverberation, a ripple across the whole world.