Let’s start the message this morning with a short quiz. On your sermon outline, I’ve given you space to write a definition of missionary. So take a minute or so to write down your definition. Just jot down what comes to mind.
[Give time for people to write down their definitions]
When I looked up that word this week in several different dictionaries I obviously found many different definitions, but since I like to keep it simple, this simple definition seems to me to work best for our purposes this morning:
one who is sent on a mission
Now let me ask you a second question. Based on that definition, how many of you here this morning are missionaries? [Let people answer].
If we’re honest, most of us probably don’t think of ourselves in those terms. We tend to think that term is reserved for those like the ones we’ll be hearing from a little later who belong to a mission organization and who usually go to some remote part of the world to share the good news of Jesus. But just as we saw that every Christ follower is a minister when we studied the ministry of Jesus, this morning we’ll see that every Christ follower is also called to be a missionary as well.
This morning, as we continue our study of the Psalms, we’ll look at Psalm 67, which is a great Psalm that provides us with some practical guidance about what it means to be a missionary. Before I read that Psalm, let me give you a little bit of background.
In the Hebrew, the Psalm, excluding the superscription, consists of exactly 49 words that break down like this:
• Verse 1 – 7 words
• Verse 2 – 6 words
• Verse 3 – 6 words
• Verse 4 – 11 words
• Verse 5 – 6 words
• Verse 6 – 6 words
• Verse 7 – 7 words
That pattern will also help us to identify an important structural component that we’ll be able to observe even in our English translation.
Many Jews associate these 49 words with the 49 days between the Passover Feast and the Feast of Weeks, which we know more commonly by its Greek name, Pentecost. It is significant that the Jews have traditionally sung this Psalm in connection with that feast because it was during that feast that the events recorded in Acts 2 took place and the Holy Spirit came upon all who were gathered, which enabled those Christ followers to be able to share the gospel of Jesus with all the various people groups that were gathered there that day.
With that in mind, we are now ready to read Psalm 67. Normally I’d ask you to take out your Bibles in order to read the passage, but I’m going to ask today that you use what I’ve printed in the sermon outline. You’ll notice that I’ve printed this in an unusual format with some extra lines in there. I’ll explain the reason for all that in a moment, but before I do that, let’s go ahead and read the passage out loud together this morning:
May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face to shine upon us, Selah
that your way may be known on earth,
your saving power among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you!
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you judge the peoples with equity
and guide the nations upon earth. Selah
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you!
The earth has yielded its increase;
God, our God, shall bless us.
God shall bless us;
let all the ends of the earth fear him!
Psalm 67:1-7 (ESV)
I’ve provided the formatting and the lines in order to point out a structure which is also suggested by the pattern of the 49 Hebrew words that we looked at earlier. In technical terms this form is known as a chiasm. In this form, verses 1 and 7 contain parallel thoughts, verses 2 and 6 contain parallel thoughts and verses 3 and 5 are exactly the same.
The purpose of such a structure is to emphasize the middle verse – in this case verse 4:
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you judge the peoples with equity
and guide the nations upon earth. Selah
As we’ll see as we examine this Psalm, that is God’s ultimate desire for all the peoples of the earth – that they would be glad and sing for joy as they experience His rule in their lives, a rule that is just and provides them with the guidance they need as they live upon the earth. The rest of the Psalm lays out God’s plan for how that is to be accomplished. In effect it is His plan for missions.
GOD’S PLAN FOR MISSIONS
God’s plan for missions is:
• Blessing His people…
The Psalm begins with a prayer for God to bless His people and ends with a statement of confident assurance that God will answer that prayer. There is little doubt that the prayer in that opening verse is based on the blessing that God gave to His people through Moses. But see if you can find the one significant difference between the two:
The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,
The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Numbers 6:22-26 (ESV)
You’ll notice in Numbers that it is the LORD who is blessing His people. The Hebrew word there is YHWH, which in the ESV and most other English translations is rendered “LORD” in all upper case letters. It is the covenant name of God used by Israel to refer to the God of Israel.
But here in Psalm 67, the word “God” is used throughout the Psalm. That is the Hebrew word “elohim”, which is used consistently in the Old Testament to emphasize the universal sovereignty of Israel’s God over all others.
That use of elohim rather than YHWH gives us a clue right away about the far-reaching and universal nature of God’s plan for missions. That is confirmed in verse 7 where we see that the result of God’s blessing is that all the ends of the earth will fear Him.
The idea of praying for God’s blessing is certainly not new for most of us. We sit down to eat and we ask God to bless our food. We pray for God to bless our homes and our families. We even like to make our own plans and then ask God to bless them. But we learn quickly here in this Psalm that the purpose of seeking God’s blessing is not just to benefit Israel.
And the same is still true today. The blessings we receive from God are not just for our own benefit. God blesses His people…
• so that they can bless others…
In Genesis 11, we see that up until the Tower of Babel, the whole earth had one language. But when man determined that he could somehow be equal with God, God dispersed the people and confused their languages.
But in the very next chapter in Genesis, God comes to Abram and makes it clear that He is not through with man. In fact, His plan is to develop a new nation that He will bless so that they can in turn be a blessing to all the families of the earth that have now been scattered and have many different languages:
Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 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.”
Genesis 12:1-3 (ESV)
Although about 1,000 years passed between the time that God revealed His plan to Abraham and the time Psalm 67 is written, we see clearly that God’s plan did not change. Israel’s purpose is still to be a blessing to all the other nations.
Over time, however, the commonwealth of Israel lost sight of God’s plan for them. Instead of viewing the blessings of God as something to be passed on to all the other nations, they became proud and inwardly focused, believing that the blessings of God were to be hoarded just for their benefit.
So the Psalmist uses three different words – actually four different words in Hebrew, to be exact - to remind Israel that He had blessed them so that they could in turn bless the surrounding nations.
o In verses 2 and 6, the emphasis is on the earth – a word that refers both to the entire physical world as well as to the people that inhabit it.
o In verse 2 we also see the word nations. This is the same word we saw last week in Psalm 2 that usually refers to non-Hebrews or Gentiles.
o In verses 3 and 5, which are identical, we see the word peoples – a general word to refer to all people – Hebrews and non-Hebrews.
o Then in verse 4, which is the focus of this Psalm, we see nations, peoples and earth. However the word for nations used here is different than the one used in verse 2. It is actually the same word that was translated peoples in Psalm 2. It literally means a gathering or community. Although we tend to think of nations in terms of borders, it is probably more accurate to view this particular word in terms of people groups. The words peoples and earth are the same exact words used elsewhere in the Psalm.
When all these terms are used together throughout the Psalm, the overall picture is quite clear – God desires to bless His people so that they in turn can bless outsiders. And that is still God’s plan for His people today.
But we don’t get to choose how we want to bless others. God laid out a very specific way in which He wanted Israel to be a blessing to the surrounding nations. They were to bless others …
• with the knowledge of God’s way and His saving power
Although at the time this Psalm was written, the Jews were looking forward to the coming Messiah, they certainly didn’t have a complete understanding of Jesus and exactly how He was going to provide a way for man to be saved from his sin. However, because God is the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow, the way to God was exactly the same as it has always been – faith.
We see this clearly when God comes to Abraham and makes a covenant with him to give him a son and to bless him with descendants too numerable to count. Abraham’s response is to believe God, and as a result, God considers him to be righteous:
And he [Abraham] believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Genesis 15:6 (ESV)
Faith was, and always will be the only way to God. But obviously not faith, or belief, in just anything is acceptable to God. As we see clearly in Hebrews 11, even Abraham’s faith was in God’s promise that one day one of his descendents would be the Savior Messiah.
Once again, nothing has changed one bit since Psalm 67 was written. The way of God that we need to help people to know is still faith in the saving power of the Messiah, Jesus.
There are obviously a lot of ways that we can bless other people. Sometimes we do that through providing for their physical needs. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. In fact, we should be doing that. But we can’t stop there. If we are going to bless people in the manner that this Psalm expects, then we have to also do all we can to meet their spiritual needs by helping them to see their need for faith in the saving power of God that is manifest in Jesus. Perhaps Paul had this Psalm in mind as he wrote these familiar words:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
Romans 1:16 (ESV)
The gospel s a blessing to all who have heeded its message and chosen to commit their lives to Jesus. But it is not a blessing just to be cherished for our own benefit, but rather one that is to be shared with all, regardless of their heritage, regardless of where they live, regardless of what language that they speak. God entrusted that gospel message to the Jews first, but now He has given it to all of us and he expects us to use it to bless others.
God’s plan for missions hasn’t changed a bit since the day this Psalm was written. He still blesses His people so that they can bless others with the knowledge of God’s way and His saving power. But today, that task has been given to every single Christ follower who is part of the body of Christ. Although the church has certainly not replaced Israel, God has chosen the church, for this period of time in history, to be the ones who carry out His plan. So if you are a Christ follower who belongs to the body of Christ, His church, then you have been sent on a mission by God. And as we saw at the very beginning of the message, that makes you, by definition, a missionary.
Our mission begins with proclaiming the gospel message right where God has placed us. But our responsibility doesn’t stop there. Our mission is not just to be a blessing to Tucson, or Arizona, or even the United States. We are to be a blessing to the entire world. And being part of that global mission might take several forms:
• For some of us, that might very well mean going to a foreign land somewhere, either for a short-term mission project or as our life’s work. Later this morning, we’ll be privileged to hear from some people who have done just that. Perhaps as you hear from them, God will lay upon your heart the desire to follow in their footsteps.
• For the majority of us, however, God calls us to serve Him right here in Tucson, Arizona. But that doesn’t mean we can’t still have a part in blessing people all around the world. In a few minutes, I’m going to address how all of us can do that more effectively.
I’d like to wrap up our time this morning by focusing on two…
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR US
1. The heart of missions is worship
As I already pointed out, the structure of the Psalm focuses all the attention on verse 4. Along with identical verses 3 and 5 which surround it, there is a beautiful picture here of all the nations and peoples worshipping God. That’s the heart of missions – doing all we can to bring as many people as we can to a place where they can worship God as He reveals Himself to them and they respond to Him. The words of John Piper summarize this idea quite well:
Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal of missions. It’s the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations into the white-hot enjoyment of God’s glory. The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God…
Isn’t that a great way of describing our mission as followers of Jesus - to bring others into the “white-hot enjoyment of God’s glory” by getting people to focus on the greatness of God. The obvious implication of that idea is that before we can bring others to that place, we must first be there ourselves. So if we’re going to be effective missionaries for Jesus, we must first become genuine, passionate worshippers ourselves.
So the question all of us must answer this morning is this:
Do I have a “white-hot enjoyment of God’s glory? If so then, I need to use that blessing to bless others. But if not, then the next question I must ask is this: What do I need to do to get there? In just a moment as we have a time to respond to God I want to challenge all of us to answer those two questions honestly.
2. Effectively carrying out God’s mission requires teamwork
Notice that the pronouns in this Psalm are all plural. The Psalmist doesn’t pray “God bless me”, but rather “God bless us”. As we have seen consistently throughout the Scriptures, God never intended His people to operate in isolation. From creation, He has put his people into communities where he expects them to work together to carry out His plans for them.
It was not good for Adam to be alone, so God created a helper for him and developed the family as the first community where God’s plans and purposes were to be carried out.
Eventually, as we’ve seen this morning, He chose the Hebrews to carry out His purposes and plans and gathered them into the commonwealth if Israel.
And today, God carries out His purposes and plans through the body of Christ, the church.
And even in a local body of Christ followers, like Thornydale Family Church, our mission cannot be carried out without partnering with others. If we are going to be a part of blessing all the peoples of the earth then we need to work with other believers who can help to reach people that none of us will ever have the opportunity to reach.
What that does not mean is that we can merely pay someone else to carry out that part of our mission for us. We can no more do that than we can pay the pastor to do the entire ministry of the church.
So we need to view our relationship with the missionaries we support as one in which we are a partner with them in the work they are doing to be a blessing to people all around the world.
As a church, one important way we do that is by financially supporting missionaries who work to get the gospel to other parts of the world. Because that is an important responsibility as a body, we have committed to using at least 15% of the funds that God provides for us to help support these vocational missionaries. But if we are to truly be a partner with these people, our involvement cannot stop there.
We can also support their work by praying for their ministries. I know many of you subscribe to the periodic updates that all of our vocational missionaries send out so that you can pray for their needs. And if you’re not already doing that I encourage you to do that. I’m sure that any of these missionaries that are here today will be happy to add you to their distribution list and if you need the information for any of the others, let Paul Schneider know and he will get that to you.
One of the reasons that we have days like today is so that we can be more effective in partnering with the missionaries we support by learning about their ministries and finding out how we might be able to assist them in blessing others around the world. So I want to encourage all of you to stay for the “Connections” time after the worship service and hear from these men and women and learn how you can carry out God’s mission for you by being a part of their ministry.
As we close, let me pose to you again the question I asked earlier:
How many of you here this morning are missionaries?
[Wait for answers]
That’s much better. And since it is true that all Christ followers are on a mission to be blessed by God in order to bless others with the knowledge of God’s way and His saving power, then as we have a chance to respond to God this morning, we must also answer – before God – the two questions I posed earlier:
• Do I have a “white-hot enjoyment of God’s glory?
• If not, what do I have to do to get there?
