You are blessed to be a blessing
Psalm 67:1-2(NIV) May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us— so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.
We immediately notice a connection between God’s blessing of Israel (the us in verse 1) and Israel’s role in blessing the nations (verse 2).
This connection between being blessed and being a blessing to the nations is rooted in Genesis 12:2–3(ESV) “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
John Piper describes this connection beautifully, saying: “So, this prayer in Psalm 67 is not hanging in the air with no connections to God’s historical way of saving the world. It is rooted in God’s covenant with Abraham. It brings that covenant up to date and prays it into reality. That is what we are supposed to do with God’s covenants – his promises. Bring them up to date and pray them into reality.” (www.desiringgod.org/messages)
This promise and its fulfilment were not only for Israel but also for us.
Galatians 3:13-14(NLT) But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to
Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith.
Galatians 3:6(NLT) In the same way, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”
Galatians 3:9(NLT) So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith.
Galatians 3:29(NLT) And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.
God’s plan was that all the peoples of the world be blessed. God fulfilled this covenant decisively when Jesus Christ, the seed of Abraham, fulfilled all righteousness, died for sin, and rose again – so that anyone who believes in Him, from any people on earth, will become a child of Abraham and inherit the blessing of Abraham.
We are blessed to be a blessing. Let’s be a blessing to someone today and fulfil the promise in this Psalm: May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us— so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.