God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah. That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. (vv 1-2)
The psalmist seeks a blessing upon himself and the hearers of this song, to the end that God's glory might be seen all over the earth. Verse 1 is an assurance from God that we can seek His blessings for ourselves. In fact, what we should seek is that He smile on us (God's Word Translation). What an awesome feeling to have the God of heaven single you out with His smile!
But the psalmist does not ask for this selfishly. Though he will benefit from God's favour, the psalmist's ultimate reason for this petition is that others will see God at work in his life and eventually experience God's saving power. On the day of Pentecost, God smiled down on the 120 disciples in the Upper Room in the person of the Holy Spirit. At this time, they were surrounded by Jews from all over the world, and as the Blessing was poured out on the Christ's disciples, this is what the onlookers said:
“How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!” (Acts 2:7-11 NLT)
Out of this blessing resulted the first crusade meeting in which thousands gave their lives to Jesus Christ!
The psalmist must have felt a similar desire, and passion, as he penned the words of this song. Again, his goal was not that the nations stop at experiencing God's blessings, but that they would know His ways. That He might be revealed to them in all His glory. He asked for the outpouring so that God might be seen not just as a boon-giver, but as a God of justice, a Ruler of nations, a Comforter (Young's Translation) [verse 4] and provider (v 6). He wanted the whole world to know God wholly.
Everyone needs the salvation of God (v 2) and one sure way this can happen is when they see God's blessing working in your life. Consider this psalm a confession and profess it to God often. Let your tongue be that of a prophet used by God to speak His will for revival to sweep through the lands. Let your life be a source through which God reveals Himself to your neighbours. I pray the following over you today:
May the Lord bless you, may the peace of Christ rule your heart and mind, may His glory radiate through your life; and may your light so shine before men that they would see your works and give honour to His holy name.
Amen
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