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The Spreading Circle

September 23, 2012

Scripture referenced 10 passages

The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.

  • Psalm 67 The main text of the sermon, read and expounded throughout

    1 May God be merciful to us, bless us, and cause his face to shine on us. Selah.

    2 That your way may be known on earth, and your salvation among all nations,

    3 let the peoples praise you, God. Let all the peoples praise you.

    4 Oh let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you will judge the peoples with equity, and govern the nations on earth. Selah.

    5 Let the peoples praise you, God. Let all the peoples praise you.

    6 The earth has yielded its increase. God, even our own God, will bless us.

    7 God will bless us. All the ends of the earth shall fear him.

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Numbers 6:24-26

The Aaronic blessing, cited as the source that Psalm 67:1 appropriates

24 ‘Yahweh bless you, and keep you.

25 Yahweh make his face to shine on you, and be gracious to you.

26 Yahweh lift up his face toward you, and give you peace.’

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Genesis 12:1-3

God's covenant with Abraham to bless all families of the earth, connected to Psalm 67:2

1 Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you.

2 I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing.

3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who treates you with contempt. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.”

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Galatians 3:6-7

Abraham believed God and it was reckoned as righteousness; those of faith are sons of Abraham

6 Even as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.”

7 Know therefore that those who are of faith, the same are children of Abraham.

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Galatians 3:11

No one is justified by the law; the righteous shall live by faith

11 Now that no man is justified by the law before God is evident, for, “The righteous will live by faith.”

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Galatians 3:14

The blessing of Abraham coming to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus

14 that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Christ Jesus; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

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2 Timothy 3:15

From childhood knowing the scriptures which make wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus

15 From infancy, you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

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Romans 1:16-22

The gospel as the power of God for salvation, the righteousness revealed from faith to faith, and the wrath of God against those who suppress the truth

16 For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, because it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes; for the Jew first, and also for the Greek.

17 For in it is revealed God’s righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, “But the righteous shall live by faith.”

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

19 because that which is known of God is revealed in them, for God revealed it to them.

20 For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse.

21 Because, knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened.

22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

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Revelation 5:9

A great multitude from every tribe, tongue and nation gathered around the throne

9 They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book, and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your blood, out of every tribe, language, people, and nation,

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Revelation 7:9

A great multitude from every tribe, tongue and nation gathered around the throne singing holy, holy, holy

9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could count, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.

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Recap

The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.

The pastor opened Psalm 67 and traced its imagery of God's blessing outward from Israel to all the nations of the earth, connecting it to the Abrahamic covenant, the Aaronic blessing from Numbers, and the missionary heart of the New Testament. He called it "the spreading circle," borrowing a nickname from Derek Kidner's commentary, and pushed the congregation to see that every blessing God has given them was never meant to stop with them.

What was said

Psalm 67 opens by borrowing almost word for word from the priestly blessing God gave Aaron in Numbers 6, where God told Aaron to bless the people and promised to confirm it himself. But the Psalmist shifts the language in two telling ways: he uses the more formal name for God, Elohim, rather than the intimate Yahweh, and he shifts from "you" to "us." That small move widens the circle before the Psalm has even found its footing.

The key to reading the prayer in verse one is the word that follows it. There is a little connector in the Hebrew, translated "so that" or "in order that," which appears again at the end of the Psalm. The Psalmist is not praying for blessing as an end in itself. He is praying for it so that God's way may be known on the earth and his salvation among all the nations. That single word keeps the whole prayer from becoming self-serving.

Behind that second verse sits Genesis 12, where God told Abraham to leave his country and promised to make him a great nation, to bless him, and through him to bless all the families of the earth. The Psalmist is picking up that older, wider promise and setting it to music. Paul makes the same connection in Galatians, pointing out that the blessing of Abraham was always intended to reach the Gentiles through faith in Christ Jesus.

The Psalm is built in a chiastic structure, A B C D C B A, where the center point is the most important idea. That center is verse four: "Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for You will judge the peoples with uprightness and guide the nations on the earth." The Selah that follows is a sustained pause, a direction to sit with that image. The question it forces is an honest one: what do the nations have to be glad about if they have not heard the gospel?

The repeated refrain, "Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you," is a third-person command, directed not to anyone in the room but to God himself, because God is the one who can actually accomplish it. The Psalmist knows that no preacher, no missionary, no congregation can manufacture worship from the nations. Only God can do that, which is why this is a prayer, not a strategy.

The Psalm closes by circling back to blessing, but the tone has shifted from plea to statement of fact. God blesses us, and then that same little squiggly Hebrew word appears again: so that all the ends of the earth may fear him, meaning revere him and trust him completely. The design is not for the blessing to pool. It is for it to keep moving outward, as the spreading circle reaches every tribe, tongue, and nation, toward the picture in Revelation of a great multitude gathered around the throne, singing.

Doing a Bible study?

Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.

  1. The pastor opened by tracing how Psalm 67:1 is a deliberate variation on the priestly blessing in Numbers 6:24-26. What does it mean to you personally that God told Aaron 'I will confirm it with my blessing' - that the blessing was not just a nice wish but something God himself would back up?
  2. The pastor pointed out that the tiny Hebrew word meaning 'so that' or 'in order that' changes the whole feel of the prayer for blessing. How does knowing that God blesses us with a purpose - so that His way may be known among the nations - change the way you think about the blessings in your own life?

and 3 more questions in the guide

Open the study guide

Read the full transcript 5,777 words
0:00 It's a song of the forgiven, drowning out the Amazon rain. Alright. You may be seated.
3:09 Hello. Just let me just yell. Just yell. Okay. Good morning.
3:13 Good Good morning. Morning. Can everybody hear
3:15 me? Yeah.
3:16 Did everybody wake up this morning? No. No? Okay. Well, those who woke up were doing great.
3:23 So, well, we have a How does that sound? Okay. Okay. Thank you. Now, don't have to strain my voice.
3:36 I'll sound good this afternoon. Thank you for coming. It's a great great here to be here and to worship the Lord. We have a few announcements. To this week, we are starting life groups.
3:48 As a matter of fact, one is starting just between services today. So, if you haven't signed up, you still have plenty of time to sign up, they are starting. And that will be exciting, a good time to get together and be with our friends. I'm gonna have Dan come up and make a a really quick announcement on something that's coming up really quick.
4:15 Okay, guys. Pull out your bulletin. There's an insert that looks like that, and pull out your smartphone device that has your calendar on it to plug in men's fraternity. It's it's fall, and it's hunting season, but that also means that we start up our men's group. So we launch another twenty week session next Wednesday, October 3, not this coming Wednesday, but the following Wednesday right here in this room at 06:00 and every Wednesday for the next twenty weeks.
4:45 I understand that for some of you, 06:00 might be a little early but sleeping in is not an excuse not to come. We do have breakfast and coffee here and it's free. So, if you think of somebody that you could invite, do it and all men are welcome. You don't have to have been to the first two years to come to this one and the focus of this session will be on understanding your unique design the way God's created you so that you can serve the world around you and glorify God the way he designed you to do and have a fulfilling life outside of the boredom of mediocrity and and going through the motions. So that's the focus of this session.
5:24 I hope to see you there. You won't regret coming. I promise.
5:29 Thank you, Dean. This week, I needed to, I I was talking with my wife, I said, you you know that person, that, oh, what was his name? So, we decided, well, we'll look it up in the directory and we we got out the directory, the church directory and look, we started looking and and the picture wasn't next to the name. So, we didn't know who, I mean, we never answered our question. Now I made that story up a little bit.
5:54 But these are are we're updating our directory. If you don't mind, would you please would you please look at the information that's in here and correct it if it needs to be corrected and, add to it if it needs to be I'm gonna put one on both sides. K. Here you go. Thank you.
6:12 And then, if you don't mind, we'll have the operatory team come up, and, I'm gonna read a psalm this morning in preparation for the service. Service. This is Psalm 67. God be gracious to us and bless us and caught and cause his face to shine upon us. That thou that that that they may boy, this is good for the heart, you know?
6:49 That thou may that thy way may be known to the earth, the salvation among the nations. Let the people praise thy name, oh God. Let all the people praise thee. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy and thou wilt for thou wilt judge the people for with uprightness and guide the nations on the earth. Let the people praise thee, oh God.
7:14 Let all the people praise thee. The earth has yielded its product. God, our God, blesses us and blesses us that all the ends of the earth may fear him. Let's bow our hand our heads in prayer. Thank you.
7:30 Father in heaven, we want to thank you for this opportunity. Wanna thank you for this morning. Wanna thank you for your son and that we can come together and visit about him and learn more about him and father, we we ask that you will take this offering that's about to be received and bless it for your purpose and your kingdom. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.
9:33 Alright. Please stand again with me. If you're a visitor here today, we wanna welcome you. Thank you for choosing First Baptist this morning, and hopefully you feel welcome. Let's go ahead and praise our God.
13:49 You have my heart, and I am yours forever. But my strength, you've a grace and power. And you're holding your hand, still you make time for me. I can't understand. You
20:08 may be seated.
20:26 Good morning. Can you hear me now? Good morning. That's better. Thank you.
20:30 I see them getting up and going. The middle school down to kids fourth through fifth grade, four four years old to fifth grade are welcome to come downstairs for children's church right now. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for a beautiful morning. Thank you for for that wonderful praise, lord.
21:00 I pray that you would center our hearts on yours, that you would center our will with yours, that you would center our mission with yours. It's in your son's precious name that we pray. Amen. Alright. Well, this morning, yesterday, actually, I was listening to the song, the first song that they sang and I was thinking, I really wish I could get the guys convinced to singing that song but it's got all kinds of horns and drums and all sorts of stuff on it.
21:26 I thought it's kind of wicked to spring it on him at this moment. Didn't talk to him and that was the first one they let off with this morning. Let it rise above the four ends, rise above the African Plain, drown out the Amazon rain. It's about the nations. We're gonna go.
21:41 Our text is gonna be Psalm 67. A guy who's written a commentary on this kinda nicknamed the Psalm, the spreading circle and I like that. I'd I'd like holding on to that. So, Derek Kidner's commentary about Psalm 67 or about the Psalms. He nicknames this one the spreading circle and I just love this one.
22:01 Y'all know about me and about Tanya, my wife that we met in art school twenty something years ago, twenty years ago and we we were both art majors. The key elements in music, the key elements in art, the key elements in song, poetry, our repetition, and variation. Repetition, I've I've said before is the is the key to learning. If you don't hear it repeatedly, you're probably not going to latch on and grab onto it. So, the Psalm has understood that.
22:30 God understood that. So, he gave the Psalmist these songs in order to help Israel to remember the things about him. So, the key elements are repetition and variation. Themes and motifs are appropriated from the past. They're nuanced in various ways.
22:48 The progress of redemption as God was unfolding his plan, there's a little bit more that needs to be nuanced in in stuff that has happened before. Now, the cannon is closed. I'm not saying that we're ongoing revelation. We just need to keep on tweaking and tweaking the Bible. That's not what I'm saying.
23:06 I'm saying that inside of God's holy word, from the beginning, he starts off with broad strokes and he gets more and more and more narrow until he gets down to the redemptive one, Christ Jesus. We're going to work towards that. We're going to do it from Psalm 67. So, repetition, variation, for effect. So, how does it open?
23:28 I'm supposed to have the clicker. I forgot all about it. Do you have a clicker back there? I probably do have it. So, well, Dan, I'm just going to give you the Alright.
23:45 So, next slide. Check my pockets. I'm supposed to have the clicker. God be gracious to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us. What else does that sound like?
24:02 For the first three weeks I was here stammering at the benediction. I said, the Lord bless you and keep you and cause his face to shine upon you and give you peace. Yes. That's what it is. But that, see, that's why I'm supposed to have the clicker.
24:20 It's actually a spirit informed paraphrase of numbers six twenty four to 26. If you wanna flip there, you're welcome to. It's written right up there. Number six twenty four to 26. I'm gonna read a couple verses ahead of that and the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to Aaron and his sons.
24:43 Saying, this is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you. Thank you. And be gracious to you.
24:54 The Lord lift up his countenance or shine his face upon you and give you peace. So, they shall put my name on the children of Israel and I will bless them. I will confirm it with my blessing. He's saying, Aaron, I want for you as the priestly one to bless my people this way. But I'm going to confirm it by blessing them.
25:18 So, that's where we're starting. Repetition and variation. He has picked up something or appropriated it from Moses at that point and made it into Psalm sixty seven one. God, be gracious to us and bless us. And cause your face to shine upon us.
25:37 Now, I don't know what to do with this thing. There we go. It is glorifying to God when he carries out his promise to bless his people. It is glorifying to God when he carries out his promise to bless his people. He will confirm the blessing, the ironic blessing.
26:00 He'll confirm it by blessing. I would start to get nervous if I were y'all right here. If I was hearing the preacher and he starts talking this much about blessing, I'd start to get a little nervous in our day. Just stick with me for a few minutes. So, this is appropriation of previous material.
26:15 It repeats a theme but in a varied form, there are some differences. What are the differences? Numbers, the ironic blessing says, lord, Yahweh. That is the intimate and personal name for God. This is what his covenant people called him.
26:32 When they called on him, they would call on him Jehovah Yahweh. That's the way. It was someone that they knew closely. He was their God. Psalm says, God, Elohim.
26:45 There is a slight difference but this is a more formal name for God. It's less personal. It's less intimate. If you are getting to know him, mister God. It's a little bit more formal than Yahweh.
26:59 It's for people that don't know him as well. Numbers says, you, the Lord bless you and keep you. Psalm says, us God be gracious to us. He's not speaking as a priest. He's speaking as one of the blessed, the one that will be blessed.
27:21 Bless us, cause his face to shine upon us. Now, I'd be really if I were y'all. Hearing this much talk about blessing and then it being on us. Oh my goodness. This is prosperity gospel.
27:31 I gotta hit the door. The spreading circle. The reason Kidner calls it the spreading circle is because the Psalmist under inspiration of the Holy Spirit is praying a promise He's praying a promise of God to Israel. God's people. But he's modified it to include others.
27:53 He knows and we can tell this by the very next verse but let's don't get there yet. God be gracious to us and bless us. Causes face to shine upon us. And then the very next word that you see is probably a musical direction. If you look it up 12 different places, you'll find 15 different answers.
28:15 Selah, the most common things is stop, pause, let it sink in, ponder that, think about it, pay attention, dwell on this, ruminate, all of those things. That's what Selah means. When you see it, it's always in musical songs. It's not in the ones that are not set to music. When it says, for the director of the choir stringed instruments those are the ones that have Celah.
28:39 So it's probably some sort of musical notation. It is a sustained chord to let it dwell for a minute. It's something like that. It may be that tacit pause where all of the music drops out and only the voices keep going but it's telling you to stop and pay attention to whatever it was. Selah.
28:58 And this is what it was. God be gracious to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us. Now, when you hear that, I don't know if you think of the ironic blessing but there's no doubt the children of Israel would have thought of that. They have heard it after every, basically, every sermon they've ever heard. So, that would have been what they thought.
29:14 Repetition but with some variation. So, is this an ungodly prayer for prosperity? I'd be nervous about it. Yes. It seems like it, maybe.
29:26 Well, first of all, it's biblical. So, that's leaning towards no. So, even when you don't trust the preacher, you can trust the Bible and that's probably not it. So, no. How can we know that it's not an ungodly prayer for just physical prosperity for us?
29:46 Next verse, it gives us the reason why he's praying it and that orange, that, that's there. That's not something they made up. It's not something translators put in there. It's just a little squiggly in Hebrew. It's not much.
29:59 Just a bloop. Jot or tittle. Just a squiggly but it says that which means so that, in order that. God bless us. Be gracious to us and bless us and cause your face to shine upon us so that your way may be known on the earth.
30:19 Your salvation among all nations. That's how we can know. He is praying for God's promised blessing which God has already said before he would do and he has confirmed it throughout the ages up to this point. And he's praying so that. His ways may be known on the Earth, his salvation among all nations.
30:42 So, what does that one sound like? I'm asking this. These are rhetorical questions. You can answer em if you if you want to. So, he went back to Moses and Aaron for that first verse.
30:55 He's picking up another. He's appropriating. He's picking up another element, another theme, another motif. In the second verse, that your way may be known on the Earth, that your salvation among all nations. He's picking up there.
31:09 God's promised Abraham in Genesis twelve one through three. Now, by the time we get to Genesis 12, Genesis 11 is a power packed series. We have the creation of man, the fall of man, the flood, and the flop of the Tower Of Babel. So, we've got the flood, I mean, the the fall, the flood, and the flop precede this but God is all through all of that. He's working out his plan to reconcile man to himself.
31:38 After all of us sinned in Adam, God is working out a redemptive plan and he's doing that progressively. So, he goes back from Moses and theme he picks up next is even further back. It's back to Abraham and this is it. Go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land which I will show you. That's God to Abraham and I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great and so you shall be a blessing.
32:11 I will bless you. So you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you and the ones who curses you, I will curse. And then you, Abraham, all of the families of the earth will be blessed. So he's picking that up in that second verse.
32:28 So, sixty seven one, sixty seven two. God chose Abraham to be a great nation and be a carrier of his blessing to the nations. So, in the first movement, we have the reference to the ironic blessing from the time of Moses. The second movement, second verse, we have an even older, more all encompassing worldwide theme. It's not just about you.
32:56 It's not just about me. Paul clarifies this for us and he does so. He's talking about God's plan to reconcile us. In Galatians three, funny way to get, we would hit on this since we've been preaching from Galatians three for weeks after weeks after weeks. Even so, Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.
33:18 Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. That's Galatians three six and seven. My favorite verse according to Psalms. Galatians three eleven. Now, that no one is justified by the law before God is evident for the righteous man shall live by faith.
33:35 He's talking about believing God. It wasn't. If you if you look back to Abraham, when he made that covenant with Abraham, he made it before he gave Moses the law. A long time before the law came into existence. It was about believing God, agreeing with him, and walking according to what you believe about God.
33:53 Does that make sense to you? Yes? Am I confusing y'all? Musical variation repetition too much. Galatians three fourteen, so that we know that this is the way through Abraham, through Abraham's seed which is Jesus, capital S seed.
34:10 Galatians three fourteen, but he says, in order that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we would receive the promise of the spirit through faith. I wanna flip again to second Timothy three fifteen. We quote second Timothy three sixteen all the time. Second Timothy three fifteen In order that in Christ Jesus, this is Galatians three fourteen. In order that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we would receive the promise of the spirit through faith.
34:57 Second Timothy three fifteen says, and that from childhood, you have known the holy scriptures. Now, since the Psalm was the Israelites and they have been taught and taught and taught and taught through Psalms and hymns, spiritual songs. They've been taught the scriptures. From childhood, you've known the scriptures which are able to make you, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. So, Psalm 67 is picking up these older themes and it's bringing more life, new meaning to em.
35:28 Paul even goes more because he's on the backside of the cross and he knows what's happening. He knows what is what Psalm 67 is after. Paul felt that. That's the missionary spirit that was within him. So, God's plan to reconcile us is through Abraham.
35:48 And if you have placed your faith in Jesus, then you are part of this spreading circle of blessing. That came from God through Abraham. It came the only way through Jesus and it came to you. We go back. God be gracious to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us.
36:12 Selah. Think about that. Why? That your way may be known on the earth. Your Your salvation among all nations.
36:20 Again, if you place your faith in Jesus, you're part of this spreading circle blessing. It came from God through Jesus to you. So, where does it go from here? Well, I'm doing the whole Psalm so it must go to verse three. Psalm sixty seven three says, let the peoples praise you, oh God.
36:45 Let all the peoples praise you. Where does it go from here? It goes to the peoples. Weird thing about this is in English at least. Third person commands.
37:01 Y'all know I'm a grammar nut. Can't help it. Let the peoples praise you in English. We don't normally do this in English. We don't normally say to somebody who's not here what they should do.
37:15 Does that make sense? We don't do third person commands. If I say, Wendy, please get up and close the door. I say it second person, too Wendy. Or I say, let us pray because I'm involved in that and you're here, let us is us, that's a hortatory.
37:31 Let us pray. So, I can say that but if I say, I don't know. Bill Gates, send us money. I don't know. If I were to say that, it would do no good because Bill Gates is not listening.
37:45 Do y'all, do you understand what I'm saying? That's that's a third person command. We don't normally do that in English. It's a command to someone else that's not listening but if we think about it in the context of a Psalm, especially a Psalm that starts off with a prayer, it makes sense. The reason it makes sense to do this is because God is the one that leads, he is the one that directs by his spirit, he is the one who motivates people, and he is the one who can accomplish the mission that this guy is wanting and that God is wanting to see happen.
38:20 So we translate it using let so and so like, let the nations. Let the nations praise. Let all the peoples praise. What does that sound like? Oh, sorry.
38:39 I let that go. Alright. I know this is not seminary. I know this may not sound like it's for everybody, but keyastic construction is the way that a lot of the Bible is written, especially the Hebrew poems and psalms. Hebrew poetry, a lot of it is written this way.
39:02 And because of that, and so many of the Greek thinkers that wrote the New Testament, they had Hebrew thinking in Greek language. So they started making kiastic construction. This is ridiculous. I know it, but stick with me. Point one a or point b, it'll be a b and then it'll repeat exactly the same thing but it'll do it in opposite order.
39:24 B a. You can tell what is the most important thing in a psalm if it is a Psalm. You can tell the most important thing going by what's in the center of that. We would wanna lead strong, you know, tell em what you're gonna tell em, tell em, and then tell em what you told em. That's the way we think But the way Hebrew thinkers and the way that the Bible, a lot of it is written is the center most thing is the most important idea.
39:52 So in Psalm 67, it's actually a b c d c b a, and d being the main focus of this whole Psalm. It starts off with God blessing us. It actually ends up with God blessing us too. But what's the middle part of it? That's the most important thing in the Psalm.
40:10 The rest of the of the couplets are couplets. This one's a triplet. It's got three points in the middle. It is very very symmetrical this Psalm. So A, B, C, D, C, B, A.
40:26 Are you with me? Kind of. This is Psalm sixty seven four. This is the main focus of this Psalm. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy for you will judge the peoples with uprightness and guide the nations on the earth.
40:43 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy for you will judge the peoples with uprightness and guide the nations on the earth. And the next thing that it says, say lie. He wants you to dwell on that. He wants you to think about that. So, if you are thinking about the nations, all of em.
41:10 The peoples, the words for peoples, nations, ethnicities, and families. Those are all the same word. Every family of the earth, every group of people. In 1974, Ralph Winter is kind of credited with coining people groups as rather than saying families or ethnicities or nation states. He's kind of credited with saying, what the Bible is saying is a group of people, whatever, they self identify as a people.
41:42 They're Broncos fans. They're people. I mean, really. That's a group of people. That's the way that they self identify some more than others.
41:51 There are little groups like Tanya and I have experienced with the death of Northeastern Mexico. When we started in Mexico in 2000, the death of Northeastern Mexico were an unengaged people group. They were not entirely unreached, but they were unengaged. There were not any Christian workers working among them to see them come inside of this spreading circle. So, unreached or unengaged people groups.
42:21 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy. This again a third person command. Nations, be glad, sing for joy. For God will judge the peoples with uprightness and guide the nations on earth. And if you say lie and think about that, this is this has to be your next question.
42:40 What do they have to be glad about? Selah. I'm going go to Romans one This is a little more somber than I thought it was gonna be this morning because I see the Psalm being very exuberant. Hopefully, it'll go that way as we head down the backside of the hill here that we're over the hump. Romans 116 through 22.
43:11 So, what do the nations have to be glad about? Romans 116 says, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God, the salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek, for those other families. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith that as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Funny how often that comes up. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven.
43:40 Wait a second. What are the nations had to be glad about? For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and unrighteousness because what may be known of God is manifest in them. For God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even so that they are without excuse.
44:06 Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God nor were thankful but became futile in their their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened, professing to be wise. Became fools. They're without excuse but the Psalm is a happy, exuberant psalm about a spreading circle. There is but one name under heaven whereby we must be saved. This is not saying small g gods.
44:39 It's not saying praise your God and be happy. It's not saying just lift yourself up by your bootstraps and be alright. It's saying praise God almighty, the only one. What do they have to be happy about if they don't know Jesus? Good rule to live by.
45:01 Only be redundant when you need to say something more than once. The next verse, Psalm sixty seven five. Let the peoples praise you, oh God. Let all the peoples praise you. Does that sound familiar?
45:15 Repetition and variation. This is a straight rip on verse three. It's exactly the same as verse three because of construction. A, B, C, D, this is C again. Exactly.
45:28 It's exactly the same thing. Don't have to explain it again. Maybe I do. Third person command. You have to remember that.
45:35 It's the chorus of the song. It is the refrain. This is what should be ringing in our ears. Let the people praise you, oh God. Let all the peoples praise you.
45:43 We don't want to hoard this blessing. We have been given this blessing for a reason. Let us do what we should with it. And then it goes to this, the earth has yielded. Another one of those great perfect tense verbs.
45:59 This has happened. The earth has yielded its produce. God, our God blesses us. It is a variation. It's new.
46:11 It mentions Earth just like the bee in the second verse did. Mentions the Earth, all the nations of the Earth. Has yielded its produce but note that this is not a spiritual blessing. This is tied to the material blessings that God has provided. I'm more uncomfortable speaking about money than anything else I speak about and I avoid it but you can't avoid it when it's there.
46:38 That's what it's talking about. God has blessed us. Whether it's us in America or us in our family, us in our individual ability to do whatever it is that you do. God has blessed us. Moving right along.
46:59 The last verse, repetition, variation. God blesses us. This is not the earnest plea of the first verse. It's not that bless us imperative. This is a statement of fact.
47:13 It's summary action. Meaning, it is what God does. God blesses us. But why? If you haven't gotten it by now, he's going to tell you in the second part of this verse.
47:31 God blesses us that that little squiggly in Hebrew is huge. That, so that, in order that, all the ends of the earth, every family, every tribe, every tongue, every nation may fear him. God blesses us. So that the ends of the earth may fear him. In the Bible, fear has two meanings.
47:58 One is terror or fright. We know the same one. Fear when we think of fear. Normally, we think of terror or fright. Well, in this sense, it's most common for God's messengers as angels to say, do not fear.
48:09 Fear not. I bring you good news, great joy. That's a do not fear but the second one is to place total trust in or to revere and that's the sense in which it's meant in Psalm 67. The whole point of this whole Psalm is that God blesses us and the so that being right there in the middle. I'm doing my own kiosk construction right now.
48:34 God blesses us so that they may revere and put their trust in him. God has provided the way. Paul told us that that way was Jesus. Jesus told us that that way was Jesus. Peter told us that way was Jesus.
48:51 John told us that way was Jesus. All of the New Testament tells us the way. We have been grafted in. The spreading circle has spread. If you've accepted accepted Jesus as your savior, as the way.
49:06 We have been included into that spreading circle. Therefore, we've received blessings. Spiritual blessings, material blessings too, I'm sure. How have you been blessed? Have you been blessed with peace that you did not have before?
49:25 Have you been blessed with joy that you did not have before? Have you been blessed with understanding what the word says that you did not have before? However, it is that that God has blessed you. I pray that you would bless others. That's what the design is for.
49:43 Now, it does go on and on and on and on and on about the nations. God has provided the way. It's up to us to include the nations in the spreading circle. What does that sound like? It's going the other way this time.
49:58 Instead of going back to Genesis 12 or back to numbers, it's going forward this time. It's going to Revelation five nine. Revelation seven nine where it says, and behold, a great multitude were gathered around the throne. From every tribe, every tongue, every nation, and they were singing, holy, holy, holy is our God. At first B, I would like for us to be a part.
50:24 It needs to be a growing concern for us, for the nations. Unreached people groups, unengaged people groups, under engaged people groups. I don't know if you all know it, but this, as far as The United States goes, is the most under engaged area between Las Vegas, Nevada, and Canada on I 15 is the least engaged with evangelical Christianity. It's in your backyard. I came here because it was in your backyard.
50:55 Praise God that he's doing this. He has included us in that tent and he is spreading the tent and he wants it to be enveloping this globe. We are working towards greater and greater missional thinking, missional activity. So, God has provided the way. It's up to us to us to include the nations in the spreading circle.
51:18 Selah. Y'all want to come on back up? Let's pray. God, if there's anybody here who feels a rumbling in their chest right now that they need to go. I pray that you would strongly convict them, their friends, their small group, their neighbors, everyone around them that they must do as Abraham and leave the place that they know and go to a place that you'll show them lord.
51:42 For your glory, thank you for your blessing. We're thankful for it. Lord, let us not hoard it or waste it but let us put it to good use for your kingdom. And grow that spreading circle. In Jesus name, we pray.
51:53 Amen.
51:55 Let's stand for one last song.
52:08 Come thou fount of every blessing to my heart to sing thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing. Call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melody song. Praise his Let thy goodness like a fetter find thy wandering heart.
54:00 Take and seal it seal it for thy courts above
54:10 Alright. One more time. God be gracious to us and bless us. Cause his face to shine upon us and give you peace. Y'all may go.

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Written up from the message given at First B Jackson. If something here reads oddly, the recording is the record.

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