1 May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face to shine upon us,
2 that your way may be known on earth,
your saving power among all nations.
3 Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you!
4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you judge the peoples with equity
and guide the nations upon earth.
5 Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you!
6 The earth has yielded its increase;
God, our God, shall bless us.
7 God shall bless us;
let all the ends of the earth fear him!
This short psalm grabbed my attention this morning. The opening cry uses God’s own words, boldly requesting the blessing that God told the priests to pronounce over the people (Num. 6:24-26). By using the actual words that God gave the priests, it is almost as if the psalmist is saying, “I know you can’t refuse this request, because I am quoting you!” The assurance that God will actually bless his people shows up emphatically in verses 6 and 7. Twice we hear, “God shall bless us.”
We tend to think of blessing abstractly. Happiness, peace, fulfillment—it is hard to nail down exactly what we mean by bless. But it wasn’t abstract for the Jews. God’s blessing meant food, safety from enemies, freedom from sickness, a garden behind the house, and children around the dinner table. We see this concreteness in verse 6. It is because the “earth has yielded its increase” that the psalmist can say so confidently, “God shall bless us.” He might has well have said, “God is good, and will keep being good, because I had enough to eat today and my pantry is full!” Blessing may be abstract to us because we have more than we need of the things for which the Jews prayed. We have safety from enemies, good doctors and medicine, plenty to eat, nice homes, education for our children. We take these things for granted, and forget that they are God’s blessing to us, his face shining upon us.
But the psalmist isn’t asking for God’s blessing just so that his own life will be pleasant! This is what grabbed my attention as I prayed this psalm today. He wants the blessing of God so that God would be worshiped by every person on earth. If God blesses his people, somehow this communicates God’s “way” and “saving power” to other nations and peoples (v. 2). The result of this blessing is the cry that the psalmist repeats four times, “Let the peoples praise you!”
At the very center of the psalm is the reason for this desire. God is the judge and ruler of the earth. It is therefore right that the whole world would praise him. This is supposed to be the very core of creation’s response to the Creator. If we fail to worship God, if the nations fail to praise God, we have lost everything. This is why the first commandment is to worship God above all else. Worship is the beginning and end of a right response to God.
The first challenge of this psalm springs from this relationship between blessing and worship. Very simply, do I worship God because of the blessing of God in my life? Am I “glad” and do I “sing for joy” to him because of the food in my pantry, the plants in my yard, the children around my table, my physical health, and my freedom from enemies? Or do I just take these things for granted as normal life? But there is a second challenge that arises from the psalm—do I enjoy God’s concrete blessings in a manner that communicates God’s “way” to the people around me? Does my own use and enjoyment of food, safety, creation, and my family show my neighbors God’s salvation and goodness? Or do I enjoy these things merely for myself, with no regard for my neighbor?
As I meditated on this psalm this morning, the prayer that came to me was, “Father, thank you for the good things in my life. Let me enjoy them in a way that shows my neighbors that you are God! Let me share my blessings with them, and tell them that they came from you, so that they are more likely to worship you!”
-Steven