Turn to Psalm 67. Let me get there. Psalm 67. I titled this Psalm 67, a prayer for God's blessing. After reading it before coming down, I thought that I could title it a universal psalm because he prays for the nations and the people, the peoples of the nations, that they would bless the Lord. Well, it's evident the Lord has answered that prayer, isn't it? Because here we stand. We are the nations He's talking about, the Gentiles. Now in this Psalm, He asked God to bless, cause His face to shine, and make His way known. I don't know of anything to be more desired than for God to bless us, and make His face, His favor, shine upon us." And the translation of that is, to shine with us. You can see that over in the margin, it's to shine with us. Over in the Gospels, Christ's name is called Emmanuel, God with us. If we have the Gospel here, and we do, I believe with all my heart we do. If this is not the Gospel, there's not any. There's not a Gospel. But this is the Gospel. And having the Gospel, we have Christ. And having Christ, we have God's favor. If you have Christ, you have God's favor. And God's face has shined. upon you and is with you." Think of that. God with us. God is with us. He's for us and He's with us. Now this psalm is also a prayer for Israel, and it's a prayer for the salvation of the Gentiles. And think of this prayer as the prayer of our Lord as the High Priest. That being so, this prayer is answered. It's going to be answered. And it is being answered right now. Gentiles are being saved. And it's interesting how this ties in with Romans 11, when he talked about when the fullness of the Gentiles come in, and he's going to turn again to that nation. And here he's praying for that nation, Israel, at that time. He's praying for Israel. He's asking God to bless Israel and then to bring salvation to the Gentiles. Now, the Jews had this. They read this. When our Lord came, and he was despised and rejected of them, and Paul preached the gospel to some of them, and they turned away from it, and Paul said, seeing that you count yourselves not worthy of it, we turn to the Gentiles. Right here it is. And they read it day after day. That shows you what it is to be spiritually blind. The light can be shining and you don't know it. You don't know it at all. If you're spiritually blind, the light shines, the gospel being preached, you can't see. One of the things that I remember distinctly when I heard Henry, the very thing that I said, and I don't know that I said it to anyone, but I said it to myself, I see. I see what you're saying. I see. I see the Gospel. I see it. I see Him in the Gospel. In the Old Testament and the New Testament, I can see Christ. Listen to this. The reason I think of this as a prayer of Christ, turn over to Numbers chapter 6. This is familiar once you see it. But this the priest was to pray. Listen to this. In Numbers chapter 6, starting in verse 22, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his son, saying, On this wise you shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. They shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them. And then we come over here, and the first thing he asks the Lord to do is bless us, to bless us. And another reason I say that this applies to the Lord Jesus Christ, over in Psalm 2 verse 8, God speaking to His Son, God the Father speaking to the Son, says, Ask me, and I shall give thee the heathen, that's us, for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Now, seeing that we have been made kings and priests unto God, let us also pray this prayer sincerely. And this prayer is also a song. It's also a song. It's a prayer and then it turns into a song. And we'll see here in a minute, it was given to the chief musician and he was to put it upon the stringed instruments. You know, David put his psalms to music. Now, one of the things as we go along here we'll notice is how broad his prayer is. And our prayers ought to be broad. If you'll notice, there's nothing selfish about this prayer. In his prayer, he speaks of us Nations and people. When our Lord taught His disciples to pray, He taught them to pray, Forgive us our sins. Forgive us. Lead us not into temptations. Our prayers ought to be broad. They ought to include more than just me and mine. Thy kingdom come. We pray for God's kingdom to come, that we pray for this prosperity of God's kingdom. Part of it's here, part of it's in other parts of the world, in other parts of this country. We pray thy kingdom come. Now here in verse one, the psalmist makes three requests and they're very important, the way he starts out here. Now it says here, to the chief musician on Neganoth, a psalm or a song. And he starts out and he says, God, be merciful unto us. We give him so many reasons not to be merciful, don't we? Honestly, I give God so many reasons not to be merciful, and yet, He's merciful and merciful and merciful. He bathes us in mercy. Be merciful and bless us and cause His face to shine upon us. The psalmist starts with a plea for mercy. This is how we start our prayers. Isn't this the best way to start prayer? Lord, have mercy on me for what I'm about to ask for, because I don't deserve it. I've never deserved one thing I've asked for. Never. And this is where we start. We acknowledge our need of mercy. Don't lose that. Don't ever lose the fact and the feeling of your need of mercy. In fact, if you start to lose it, ask God to have mercy on you and make you know it. It would be in God's mercy to make you to know, to give you a great knowledge and understanding and feeling of your need of Jesus Christ. That's mercy. Repentance. A broken heart. A broken heart is of the mercy of God. Repentance is of the mercy of God. Oh, that God be merciful to us. He be merciful. No blessing, now listen, no blessing ever comes to us except it comes by way of mercy. No blessing except by the sovereign mercy of God to us in Jesus Christ. Have mercy upon us, forgive us, pardon us, hear us when we call. David asked God in Psalm 51 to be merciful to him according to his mercy and his lovingkindness. The multitude of his mercy. He's got plenty. He's got plenty. Grant us, in mercy, grant us an ever clearer knowledge of Jesus Christ and my need of Him. Lord, make me to know that. Keep that before me. And Lord, by Thy mercy, lead us by Thy Spirit. Do you know which way to go? You've got decisions to make. You're going to get up in the morning. You've got decisions to make every day. Do you know exactly what decisions to make? Decisions to me are like having children. You don't know what they're going to grow up and be like. That's the reason I don't like to make any more than I have to. Lord, lead me by thy Spirit, guide me." And then the second request in this first verse is, bless us. This is how mercy is conveyed to us, is that God bless us. Have mercy and then show it by blessing us. Bless us. These blessings that the psalmist is asking for are spiritual. I've learned this, it's taken me a while. There's some things you do have to get older to learn. There's just some things you've got to wait until you grow up to learn. And I've learned that my greatest blessings and need are spiritual. And if God blesses me with spiritual knowledge and understanding, if He blesses me spiritually, I know this, everything else will be taken care of. Everything else is taken care of. If He just blesses me with spiritual understanding, spiritual knowledge in Christ, spiritual growth, if He just gives me spiritual blessings, everything else will be taken care of. In fact, everything else pales in comparison to my need. of Him blessing me spiritually. And then bless us in making us to know and comprehend what we have in Christ. You know, you hear it. You hear it from the pulpit. I heard it for years from Henry, from the pulpit, week after week after week. Don't let that become, and I don't know what better word to use, don't let that become mundane. Because of sin, we do that. Because of sin, we hear the same thing over and over, and after a while, it's like we don't hear it no more. And that's why the Lord has to bring us through trials to wake us up and get our attention. But let us never grow weary or cold or complacent in hearing the gospel and really grabbing a hold of all that we have in Christ, to really get a hold of that. Today and yesterday, the thought had been on my mind of standing before the Lord and seeing Him and actually experiencing heaven, paradise. It just seems like, it's one of those things you almost like wake up from a dream. I mean, it's like, am I, pinch yourself. Did the Lord really love me and choose me? Did he really redeem me from my sins? Am I really gonna stand in heaven, in paradise, like he said to that thief, today shalt thou be with me in paradise? Is it really gonna be when the second I close my eyes in death, I'm gonna wake up in heaven? Many don't. Many don't. And as a tree falls, so shall it lie. It will not change position. And I think, my soul, don't ever grow cold. Don't ever let these things grow cold. And then third thing he asks is this, and calls his face to shine upon us with us. The blessing is completed. The blessing is completed when God makes His favor to us known in Jesus Christ. There are so many people out there who don't know Him in any way, shape, or form. And you do, and I do. We have God's favor if we know the Lord Jesus Christ. We have His favor. We couldn't have it. We couldn't have God's favor any greater in any other way. than having it in Christ. All things are yours in Christ. All things are yours. It's just the wisdom of our Father, how He deals it out to us. Because in this life, we couldn't handle it. We couldn't handle it. Now, pause. Selah, this musical note, this is for the music to take a pause and think about it. David put these in the Psalms because the Psalms are so serious and the Psalms are inspired by God. David wasn't just a good poet now. He was not just a good poet. David's writing things concerning Jesus Christ. The Psalms speak of Christ. This is Christ speaking. The greater David. But David wrote these so after he made these statements, it would be like Paul's. Pause and think, give real thought to this. Serious, sober thoughts to this. And then it's also a pause so that the music can take an even higher, an even higher note, Spurgeon said. Takes the next lines or stanza and just take it up even higher because it's gonna get better. Now look, the prayer now expands from Israel to the Gentiles. Us. He's praying for us. Just as our Lord did in John 17. He's praying for us. He says here, cause His face to shine upon us. Pause for a minute. Now take this up higher. That thy way may be known upon earth." What's he talking about, thy way? Well, it's his way of mercy. Moses said, Lord, show me your glory. You know what he showed him? I'll be merciful to whom I'll be merciful. I have compassion on whom I have compassion. Sovereign mercy. That's why he started out with mercy. The way God saves sinners, the psalmist is asking God to make it known. Think about the time this is written. This is written when our ancestors were in darkness. The greatest part of our ancestors, according to the flesh, I'm not talking about spirit, I'm talking about according to the flesh, went to hell. Most of my ancestors are in hell, as far as the flesh is concerned. But 2,000 years ago, this prayer was answered, and it's still being answered. The gospel was sent throughout the world, throughout this earth. And Gentiles from every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation under heaven have now been saved. Where at one time, they perished. They perished under the wrath of God. They didn't have this. They didn't have it. And he's praying here. that God would make His way known to sinners throughout the earth, that the gospel would run well, and sinners from all nations would be brought to faith in Jesus Christ. We see that. In reading this psalm today, I thought this thought to me today was, most of the time our thinking is negative. Isn't it? Most of the time, it's gonna get worse and worse. It's just gonna get worse and worse. But boy, when I was reading this Psalm today, it just turned my thoughts in a different direction. This is God's earth. This is God's earth. The people are His. He said, the earth is mine and everything in it, and they who dwell therein. It could be, especially after looking at Romans 11, that God turned and saved that nation Israel, and then He said, if the diminishing of them be the riches of the world, what would be their turning around and them being saved? What would that do to the world? That's what He's talking about. And here this prayer, if you take it as the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ, He's saying here, make your way known upon the earth the way God blesses sinners and saves sinners. Make it known. And we know that way. Which is that way? Who is that way? That way is a person. It's Jesus Christ. I am the way, the truth, and the life. The way God blesses and saves flows to sinners through Jesus Christ. The way God can be a just God and a Savior is through Jesus Christ. Make that known. Make that known. And listen to this line, Thy saving health among all nations. Thy saving health. Now, the translation of that is this, Thy salvation. among all nations. Make thy salvation known among all nations. One of them said, John, I believe it was John Gill said this, thy Jesus among all nations. That thy way, who we know as Jesus Christ, may be known upon earth, thy Jesus among all nations. Because Jesus is what? What's his name mean? What's Jesus mean? It means Savior. Savior. David said, God has become my salvation. God has become my salvation in Jesus Christ. Make thy salvation known among the nations. Oh, wouldn't that be great right now? You know there's nothing that this world It doesn't need policies. We don't need more laws. The last thing we need is another law to break. We don't need more policies. We don't need more committees. We just need God to send the gospel out in power. And people would get along. People would love each other. The gospel he's praying here would go throughout the world. I tell you this, spiritual health, and I like that word health, that's saving health. That's what I need. I need saving health. I need spiritual healing is what I need. I need spiritual healing. But spiritual health starts with God. It doesn't start in a monastery. It doesn't start with some guru sitting on a mat. It starts with God, Christ, and our need of Him. Now brethren, if that is given to you, God has given you spiritual health. He's making you spiritually healthy. Jesus Christ is the saving health of His people. He is. And all those who know it, all those who know this by experience, they know this. They have tasted that the Lord is gracious. If you and I have tasted that the Lord is gracious, you want someone else to taste it also, don't you? I can't tell you how many times Vicki and I have been sitting at a restaurant, and she usually orders something different than I do. She'll go, mm, this is good. Taste this. You want to taste this? I always say, you want to taste this? I usually say no, because I got what I got. But she'll say that, and I've done it too. I've done it to her. I said, man, this is good. Taste this. That's the way it is. If God has really saved you and me, we want others to taste also. Taste and see that the Lord is good. It's not a religion, it's a person. It's a person. Taste and see that he's good. Someone told me that when he heard the doctrines of grace, it changed his theology. I said, well, you can't change your theology without changing God's. You can't do it. It's a study of God. You want others to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul's a great example. Listen to this. This is so good. Acts 26, 27 through 29. I'll read it to you. Paul standing before Agrippa. He says, King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest. I know you believe what they say. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian, almost. And Paul said, and this is beautiful, and this is the heart of every believer. Everyone has grown up and matured in Christ. And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but all that hear me this day, everybody sitting here, just like when I preach, Now, on Sundays, I would to God everybody believed the gospel. But he said here, I would to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these bonds. He said, I wish you had what I have. Oh, he said, I would to God you had Christ. I wish you had the one I have. He said, I would to God that you were saved and you knew the Redeemer. He said, except for these bonds, I don't wish that on anybody. I don't wish that on my enemy standing right in front of me. He said, I don't wish that my bonds on you, but I wish that the Lord Jesus, you knew the Lord Jesus Christ. I would to God you knew him. Oh, that thy saving health, that the divine reign of Christ would be universally acknowledged. Wouldn't that be something? Do you believe God is able to do that? When you look at the world, you look at North Korea, Russia, China, when you look at that, do you believe God's able to conquer them and bring them down and make them acknowledge Him? Absolutely. Absolutely. The very fact that this is prayed, and I see this as a prayer of Christ, we may yet see that happen. I don't know. I don't know. You know, the Lord said, I tell you these things that when they come to pass, that when they come to pass, you'll know I told you. That's how you and I know prophecy. We don't look in the Scriptures and say, well, this is what's going to happen to happen. No, we know prophecy after it's happened. We say, that's what it means. That's what it means. And then he says here in verse 3, Let the people praise Thee, O God, let all the people praise Thee, from all nations, all ranks of life. Let them all praise Thee. I thank God He prayed this. Because I can see myself in all the people. Let them praise Thee. Let them sing praise to Your holy name. Can you imagine what it'd be like? Can you even imagine what it's going to be like in heaven when the whole host of heaven, angels and the redeemed, sing at the same time in unison to His praise? That'd be something. It'd be something if all the nations praised God from whom all blessings flow. All the people, none are so far off that the grace of God can't reach them." You know, I don't find... The only people I find who feel they're so far off that God can't reach them are the ones that God has reached. Everybody else don't need Him. I don't find anyone that really needs Him. I don't find anyone saying, I'm such a wretch and He can't save me. That's usually a good evidence that the Lord's already begun to work. Because everybody, even the lowest, are so self-righteous, they don't need a Savior. But I've been looking at this word, just this one word, and it's mentioned like three times. The people praise Thee. One translation said, make. Aren't you glad God made you fall down on your face? Aren't you glad God made you acknowledge Him as Lord and Savior? Aren't you glad God made you able to praise Him? Let. And here's another thing. Let them pray. You know, God let us come here tonight. You know that? God let you come here tonight. He let you come in here, sit down, open that Bible and listen to His Word. He let you do that. This is a privilege. The highest privilege in your life is this. And let, it takes the work of God for it to happen, but He's able. We see here in verse 4 how His heart is just into this. He says, oh, I mean, you can just feel something of His heart here as He prays this. And He gets to verse 4, and it's just like a groan. It's almost like a groan. Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy. I want them to have what I have. Not just Israel. Not just this little nation. Oh God, I want all the nations at one time, and in unison, and in agreement, and in harmony, sing and praise You. Do you want that? I would to God I could see that in my lifetime. I do. God's able. I tell you, one of our problems is that we don't expect much of God. We don't expect great things of God. Henry said one time, expect great things of God and He'll do great things. It's written in the Gospels, He did not many mighty works there because of one reason, their unbelief. They didn't believe Him. And He packed His bags and left town. Well, we can't do this, we can't afford that. Expect great things of God. And I'm speaking to me, as well as you. Let the people praise thee, O God, let all the people praise thee. Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy. And here's the reason for the praise and joy. Now listen. For thou shalt judge the people righteously. Thou shalt judge the people with equity and govern. I wrote under that word, shepherd. That's what it means. Shepherd the nations. Guide and lead the nations. govern the nations upon earth. When I read that, the first thought came to my mind was this, oh, for a just judge in our day, this world is starving for one who judges with equity. There's so much corruption in government, so much corruption in the courts, so much corruption. Oh, but here we have something to rejoice in. We have something to rejoice in because it says, "'For thou shalt judge the people righteously.'" This is not talking about the end of time and the great white throne judgment. This is now, judge the people righteously, govern the nations. You know why that man over there in North Korea hasn't pushed the button? Because God is governing the nations. He's shepherding the nations. That's why. He will shepherd the nations and He will govern them in righteousness. Oh, I love that. I love that verse when I read it today. He will govern in righteousness. There was a time I would not have liked that verse. There was a time when righteousness would not have been in my vocabulary. But I thank God that he will judge the people righteously. He'll guide his people, and he'll govern the nations, and he'll do it for the elect's sake. He'll do it for the elect's sake. Now, pause and think about that. Pause and think about that. Take it home with you. Chew on it. Chew on it. And He's so passionate in His prayer, He repeats it. Let the people praise Thee, O God. Let all the people praise Thee. When we sing, don't we repeat the chorus? This is like the chorus. We will repeat the chorus, and this is the chorus here. Let the people, let all the people praise Thee. Put this to song. Sing it aloud. Put it to the stringed instruments. And here's what will happen when all the people praise God. Then shall the earth yield her increase, and God, even our own God, shall bless us. You know, many times the earth has been kept from yielding her increase because of sin. Don't think drought is just something that happens once in a while. If it's a drought, God caused it. God still causes this earth to increase or decrease, not give forth her fruit. He holds it back. And He holds it back because of sin. Look right now over in the Middle East. What's that place look like? A desert. A desert. Now, at one time, the gospel was over there. The gospel was over there in Turkey and all those places, and it was preached, and it was preached in power, and it was sent out. And now look at it over there. Now look at it. It's a desert. But you know, God can turn that place green again. He can turn them to Christ and bless the earth and the seed that's in it will just grow, flourish, flourish. This earth is His. It's His. Then shall the earth yield her increase. I tell you this, though, when Christ has put down all rule and all authority and righteousness and peace reigns, the earth, Especially that new earth will yield its increase. That earth will always yield her increase. Always. There'll never be a desert on that new earth. I got something here. I don't remember who I read it from, but it was a good example. And he was talking about here praising God, you know, back up in verse 5, let the people praise Thee, O God, let all the people praise Thee. And this man likened it to the vapors that go up from the ocean. It's carried and it comes down and it goes into the... it waters the ground, goes into the rivers and the creeks and goes back to the ocean. It's just like this. And he made this observation, the more we praise God, it's like the vapors that go up and then they come down. The vapors go up, our praise goes up, and the blessings come down. The praise goes up, the blessings come down. The more the vapors go up, the more the rain comes down. And the more we praise God, the more the blessings come down. And I thought, how simple is that? But it's true. It's true. Then the earth shall yield her increase. God will bless us. Even our own God shall bless us. You know, a man's God is his glory. So who's your God? Who's your God? Our own God. This is more than just saying, God who created all things will bless us, but our own God, this God is our God. I am His and He is mine. God is my God. Something's your God or someone's your God, something or someone's my God. The God of heaven and earth, the God of salvation is our God. And if we can say that God, even our own God, shall bless us, then we will eat of the fatness of His blessings from that covenant of grace. Mercy, grace, forgiveness. And then God shall bless us in verse 7. God shall bless us. And all the ends of the earth shall fear Him. First it talks about praising Him and joy, and now it's talking about fear. But there is a right fear that's joined with joy and praise. Now here in verse 7, His prayers turn into a song. God shall bless us and all the ends of the earth, shall fear Him." What comfort! What comfort, especially in our day. I think we're living in a dark day. I do. But what comfort knowing with absolute confidence that God shall bless us. Why? For Christ's sake. All our blessings were purchased by the blood of Christ. And we're going to have them. What comfort in knowing that God shall bless us because He's going to bless us for Christ's sake. That's how I know it. That's how I know it. I know that whatever God does, He does for Christ's sake. And we have a promise However dark the days may be, we have a promise, we have God's Word on it that He will bless us. And I tell you, that psalm lifted me up. It did. It lifted me up. All right.