Psalm 67
May 22, 2022
Father in heaven, your design is beautiful: you bless your people so that all the peoples of the earth will know you and praise you. Thank you for your concern and care for all the nations of the earth. Praise be to you for ruling them with equity and guiding them. You are not a narrow and local god; you are the Lord of the nations, drawing them to yourself by showing them yourself through your covenant people.
Thank you for the blessings you bestowed on ancient Israel. Thank you for your faithfulness to them, your promises to them, your many deliverances of them. Thank you especially for blessing them—and us—with the promised King, the Messiah, Jesus. Thank you for blessing us with his life, death, and resurrection. Thank you for blessing us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms through our union with Christ. Thank you for giving us these blessings so that, in turn, all the nations of the earth might see and hear and become disciples of Jesus themselves.
Forgive, O Lord, our hoarding of your blessings; our self-centered outlook on your blessings; our neglect of your blessings; our neglect of those who have never heard. Forgive our obstructing the flow of your blessings to the nations—and to unbelievers nearby.
Renew us, Heavenly Father, in this designed pattern of yours. May our lives—our thinking, attitudes, values, words, decisions, actions, relationships—may our lives, the lives of your church around the world, reflect and show forth the blessings we have in Christ and the gospel. As a result, in ways directly and indirectly, may all the nations of the earth come to praise you. May unbelievers far away in the remaining unreached people groups of the world, as well as unbelievers close by in our spheres of influence, see the reality of Christ and his blessings in our lives, and may they embrace Christ for themselves, joining the age-long chorus of praise in your church.
We pray for our global partners, Lord, and the peoples of North Africa, Asia, and southeast Asia. In the work of our global partners in Bible translation, media communication, seed sowing, and church planting, prosper them in the fulness of your Spirit, that these nations of the earth would come to praise you.
And Father, connect the wonderful events of this special day—the Nelsons with us; David’s candidating; our interaction with him and Abbie; our meal together; our congregational vote—connect these events, Lord, with this global design of yours. Bless us today with wisdom, discernment, protection, and guidance so that nations far away and unbelievers close by will praise you.
Then, going forward as a church, Lord, refine us, prune us, humble us, teach us. May our culture around us see in us a counter-culture, a people possessing unusual blessings and wonderful news—that Jesus Christ offers truth and life, now and in the age to come.
May all the peoples praise you, Lord; may all the peoples praise you!
And all God’s people said, “Amen!”