A Devotional Thought From Psalms

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. Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah. Let the people praise thee, O God: let all the people praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.     Psalm 67

The Psalms were meant to be sung in the worship of God’s people, and the strange word Selah which appears frequently in these worship songs represents a  “dramatic” musical note played at the spot it appears in the song. For an instant it stops the singer and the hearer and gives them a moment to think about what they have just sung or heard.  In the first verse David is asking God to be merciful, to bless, and to cause his face to shine upon his people, and as it turns out the people of the whole world. So stop and think about that, he says (Selah, v. 1). As we proceed through the song you notice that David is desirous that God’s way may be known upon the earth and His saving health among all nations (v. 2), and I think that health here speaks to physical and spiritual and emotional health that would make human society a virtual heaven on earth. Verse 4 gives the indication that if God does this the nations of all the world will be glad and sing for joy because God will be judging the people of the whole world righteously and He will actually be the leader and governor of the nations of the world, and certainly with Him in charge the nations will be able to get along and live peacefully and prosperously. Within that peace the prosperity will come from the fact that the earth will yield her increase and God will bring blessing (v. 6). Think of the biggest produce department you have ever seen in a grocery store and multiply it by a hundred to get an idea of what it may mean for the earth to bring forth its increase all over the world:  bumper crops in the usual farming belts, deserts blooming like the rose, mountains yielding up high atmosphere crops, sea farms bringing forth edible sea weeds and fish of all sorts. This all feeds into a world without warring conflicts, violence in the streets, dread and deadly diseases, or hungry children at a table with no food.

This is possible through the true God, the God of the Bible, and He alone can bring it to pass. One day all the peoples of the earth will praise Him. The more people who praise Him now the better world we will live in now.