Psalm 67

 Psalm 67

If you don’t know the proper use for something, you will end up abusing it, misusing it, and ultimately losing it.  It is difficult to imagine a case where this is not true.  We often ask God for blessings in our lives without knowing the purpose of those blessings.  As a result, many of those blessings are abused, misused, and ultimately lost.  This Psalm explains the purpose of blessings in our lives.  The first two lines in verse 1 are the quintessential Hebrew blessing.  But the purpose for blessing is given in verse 2, that God’s way and salvation can be known worldwide.  We are blessed to bless others, not to acquire luxury, pleasure, and ease for ourselves.  This Psalm is an evangelistic Psalm and directs that our blessings are for a testimony and witness to the world.  It is natural that under the new covenant of the Cross and in the community of evangelism and faith of the church that we would see the support of missionaries and benevolent efforts as the proper use of our blessings.  

We receive no blessing if we try to keep it only for ourselves and try to use it only to gain more or to be used to gain selfish pleasure; we cut ourselves off from the purpose of the blessing and eventually from the source of the blessing Himself  In contrast to this selfish attitude, we see in verses 5-6 that in the investment in blessing others there develops a repeating cycle of blessings, so that the earth yields its produce.  Stewardship, the godly use of God-given resources, extends not just to our money but also to our environment, indeed to the whole of creation.  This Psalm concludes with verse 7’s summation: God’s blessing came to us so all the earth may fear the one true God. 

“Lord, help me use Your resources to honor You. AMEN”