A REASON FOR BLESSINGS
PSALM 67:1-2 NKJV
1 God be merciful to us and bless us,
And cause His face to shine upon us, Selah
2 That Your way may be known on earth,
Your salvation among all nations.
When I came back to the Lord in the early 80s, I connected with some wonderful Bible teachers. One of the areas that they revealed to me was God’s desire to see His children blessed. And not simply blessed spiritually. These instrumental mentors taught that God would also bless materially. Just having graduated from college and taking on the full financial responsibility that comes with adulting, I was happy to hear that God wanted me blessed.
Over the years, I stayed with the belief that God would bless those who loved and served Him. And thankfully, I was taught that giving into God’s kingdom would benefit others and produce a harvest in my own life. Joy and I have lived this way for over 40 years, and we have seen the blessings of God make a difference in many areas of our lives.
So is there a problem here? Would wanting to see God’s blessings be a wrong thing? Why do people get all upset at the so-called prosperity gospel?
Whenever a dispute arises in the Body of Christ, I start looking in two areas. First, is Satan stirring up lies and distortions in order to rob God’s people of God’s best? Is Satan doing his best to divide the Church?
The second area I look to is people. Have we missed the real reason for the blessings? Have we become so caught up in what God can do for us that we forget to be caught up with our love and honor of Him? Once again, I am not pointing fingers. I have to look at my own life first. It is far too easy to succumb to the allure of things and miss the reason behind the blessings.
David, the author of this psalm, gives us a short, sweet, and to-the-point reason for the blessings of God. When God is merciful to us and causes His face to shine on us, we are blessed. God’s mercy and favor in our lives accomplish much more than we could do on our own. He blesses us so that, and here is the reason, God blesses us so that His way, the knowledge of Him may be known on the earth. He blesses us so that His salvation will be known among the people.
There it is in a nutshell. God’s blessings in our life are to point back to God. His blessings reveal His involvement with His people. The end result is that salvation can come to the nations. David had to be speaking prophetically in this psalm. The idea of God going outside of Israel was foreign to most Old Testament writers.
God’s blessings are a sign that points back to God. And because His blessings can touch so many areas of our lives, it’s a wonderful testimony to those who don’t know Him with how good He is. Add to that the simple reality that when we are blessed, we have a greater capacity to be a blessing. The blessed are better equipped to spread the knowledge of God’s grace and the gospel of Jesus Christ to the nations of the world.
APPLICATION
In the last month, The Ark Church has been able to give extra to ministries in the South Sea islands, Israel and Romania. All of these ministries were faced with needs that caught them by surprise. Because of God’s blessings on The Ark, we were able to help. And that is such a blessing. But that’s what this is all about. We are blessed to be a blessing.
PRAYER
Lord, thank You for Your blessings. May I use them to help point people to You!