I vividly remember the early days after I surrendered my life to Christ and He was busy changing my heart and my mind. I was only a freshman in college, and I can honestly say that I had no idea how little I knew! I didn’t even know what it meant to follow God and be surrendered to Him, but I was open to His direction and His leading, wherever it led. In those days, I couldn’t get enough of God’s Word and started reading not just to have information but to know God. And what did I learn about God? Well, the thing that I remember the most is this: God has a desire and a plan to be worshiped by people from every nation. We tend to think of this as a New Testament plan, and of course that is where it finds its fulfillment, but this plan was embedded in the heart of God long before the Father sent Jesus to the Earth. The “Great Commission” isn’t just in the book of Matthew, its in the Old Testament, too!
Where is it? One of the clearest places is Psalm 67.
Psalm 67 begins with this line: “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us.” Does that sound familiar? It should! It is the priestly blessing from Numbers 6. God tells the priests to bless the people with those words. God’s blessing to His people is His grace and His face, i.e., His presence shining on and through His people. But the Psalmist is teaching us an important lesson: this blessing is not an end to itself! So, what is the divine purpose behind it? “That your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.” The purpose of God’s face shining upon the people is that He may be known among the nations. He blesses His people in order that they may be a blessing to others. Just like His covenant with Abraham: “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Just like His covenant with us, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood …” (Luke 22:20). His grace is not meant to find its end with us, but rather be extended through us, like a “jar of clay” that carries a precious treasure.
As you look at the next three verses, what pattern do you see?
That’s right! Verses 3 and 5 are exactly the same, and together they frame verse 4, making it the climax. The climax and highpoint of the entire Psalm is “Let the nations be glad and sing for joy.” Joy, gladness. God wants to bring men and women from around the world into relationship with Him and through that relationship give them the greatest joy they could ever possibly receive. That is incredibly merciful!
Finally, we read these verses:
When the people praise God, then there will be a harvest in the land. And then, because of God’s blessing, the ends of the earth will fear Him. I believe the Psalmist intends us to see a cycle here, that looks like this: God’s goodness is proclaimed to the nations, which results in a harvest (of souls), which then leads to more blessing from God, which again results in His goodness being proclaimed, which produces another harvest, and so on. God Himself initiates it and God Himself fuels it, but we get to be active participants in this cycle of praise.
So then, let’s put it all together and summarize God’s purposes. From these verses, we can see that God’s purposes are:
Each of these four is a part of God’s supreme desire to be glorified among all peoples.
So as a young man whose life was newly surrendered to God, reading these verses was truly life-changing. My eyes were opened to see a theme that runs through all of Scripture — God wants to be worshipped by all. And He begins that process by graciously pouring out Himself. Then, as we receive that grace, we are to make it known to others, in order that more and more people in all the world might have the same joy in God that we have! What a powerful vision for our lives! It is indeed the vision that has captured my heart, consumed my life and directed my paths. May it do the same for you today!