Psalm 67: Joy Loves Company

Have you ever encountered the guilt mongers, those people who want to make you feel guilty for enjoying something while someone else in the world is deprived of it? If your family is able to enjoy exchanging nice gifts and a feast at Christmas, the guilt-monger pounces, “How could you do such a thing when there are children around the world who don’t have but two grains of rice to eat per day?” In recent years this has happened around Mothers’ Day quite a bit. People publicly express love for their mothers and celebrate their relationship only to be reminded that all of their celebrations are hurting those women who can’t have children. If there is one person in the world who is miserable because of some sort of deprivation, then you have no right to be joyful and celebrate. You must be miserable.

Since there is never a time in which someone will not be deprived of something that he thinks or others think he should have, the world must live in misery. This type of guilt is not just about interpersonal relationships. It is used politically to create class envy, to foment racial tensions, and to manipulate the rich into playing the proper political games. This guilt is used in geo-political relations as well. Any country that has prospered should not be allowed to enjoy prosperity but must feel guilty and send money to irresponsible governments of countries whose policies and general culture have kept the citizens or subjects poor.

In contrast to these guilt manipulators stand the Scriptures. God chooses one family and nation out of the entire world, blesses them beyond measure, commands them to construct an ornate house for his name, and demands that they celebrate with feasts eighty days (at least) out of the year. God commands that his people indulge in the richness of his blessings, enjoying them to the fullest, while sharing with those who are less fortunate, not because of guilt but because of joy and gratitude.

God’s people are instructed and taught to pray for these blessings in Psalm 67. With echoes from the Aaronic benediction in Numbers 6, the Psalm begins with the refrain that will be peppered throughout at every Selah: “God be merciful to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us.” From what we sing toward the end of the Psalm, these blessings for which they were praying were material things; the blessing of the Lord was the produce of the land.

God’s face shining upon us speaks of his pleasurable disposition toward us. It is the opposite of turning his face from us in displeasure. When God’s face shines upon us, he pours out his abundant blessings at the proper time.

For God’s face to be shining upon us, we must be living in a way that pleases him. God promised his people through Moses in the last of his addresses to Israel in Deuteronomy that if they will obey him, living according to his commandments, he will bless and not curse them. We pray for these blessings.

Why do we want God to bless us in this way? It is not so that we can hoard and simply build bigger barns, so to speak. We desire that the nations will look at us and say, “Hey, look at what happens when you live in obedience to their God. Look at the blessings they enjoy. Look at the joy in their lives and how they can live together in peace. Look at how wise the ways of their God is” (see Deut 4.5-8). We desire to be blessed, for God to glorify us, so that “Your way may be known upon the earth / Your salvation among all nations” (Ps 67.2-3). Our desire is that through the blessings of our God upon us that the peoples will praise our God, that they will be glad and sing for joy.

They don’t have to be excluded from this joy, but in order to participate, they can’t keep submitting to the dictates of all of those false gods out there. In other words, they can’t keep living the way they are living and expect to enjoy what can only be enjoyed in obedience to our God.

We rejoice because our God judges righteously and governs the nations of the earth (Ps 67.4). He and he alone among the gods is the one whose ways are right, and it is only under his guidance that people may enjoy these blessings. It is through the demonstration of God’s blessings upon his people that the nations will receive a witness of God’s goodness, stirring up the desire to be a part of his people. Through the blessing of God upon us, all the nations will come to fear him. This “fear of God” (Ps 67.7) is that healthy respect that heeds his words, trembles at his punishments, quakes at the thought of displeasing him, and worships him. This fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, and living wisely ultimately results in receiving God’s greatest blessings.

As with all of the other Psalms (indeed, all of Scripture), this Psalm is fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ who lived faithfully before the Father and was blessed with resurrected life and reigning glory. The Father’s blessing upon him means blessing for the nations. These blessings only come if the rulers of these nations come and “kiss the Son” as Psalm 2 exhorts. But if they will pledge fealty to him, then they will enjoy glory with him.

What is true for the Person of Jesus Christ, in particular, is true for his body, the church. One way that we witness to the world is through joy; especially gratefully enjoying the gifts that God has given us as we have been obedient to him and not envying others and coveting what God has given them. As Christians, we can enjoy, not only what God has done for us but also what he has done for others, being genuinely happy for them.

There is a great deal of guilt and misery out there. Let us be faithful in enjoying God’s goodness to us without guilt or shame, all the while inviting people to join the party.