May God be gracious to us and bless us, and make his face to shine upon us that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.
– Psalm 67:1–2
These two verses have had a monumental influence on my life. In such a way that these two verses are what I pray over my kids every night. And what I pray over my life and others’ lives all the time. The reason these verses have had such an imprint on my life is because I remember the first time someone explained them to me. The wonder of verse one. That God would be gracious to us and bless us. And listen to the imagery make his face to shine upon us. What a thought. The face of God shining upon you and me with favor, with blessing.
Psalm 67:1–2 teaches us that God wants to be gracious to us.
Yes, that’s totally dependent on God’s grace. That’s not what I deserve. That’s not what we deserve. What a picture of God’s love for us and a prayer for God’s mercy in our lives. Think about everything in your life, family, or work to start the day by praying for God’s face to shine upon you. And to know that God desires to do that as our father delighting in his children.
So yes, may God be gracious to us, bless us. Make his face to shine upon us in every facet of our life. But then verse one doesn’t end with a period, it ends with a comma. And then this selah, which would just be a pause in this Psalm to let that soak in. And then verse two says, so there’s a purpose to God’s blessing and grace and mercy in our lives so that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.
So that is life-changing, to realize that God’s grace and blessing and favor and love in your life is personal and true and genuine and awesome and supernatural and purposeful. That God loves us in a way that leads to his way being known on the earth, and his saving power among all nations. God blesses us, is gracious to us, shows favor to us in all kinds of ways so that we might glorify his name among all the nations. This is the purpose of God’s blessing in your life.
Psalm 67:1–2 reminds us that God blessed us to achieve his ultimate purpose in the world.
And so often we disconnect God’s blessing from God’s purpose, thinking that his blessing is intended to center on us, instead of spread through us, to the people around us today and ultimately to all nations. That’s the prayer that your way maybe known on earth, you’re saving power among all nations, which is why, well, why a million things in our lives, but why are we praying on this podcast every day for unreached people, for the saving power of God to be made known among all nations? Why?
Because this is why God has blessed us. This is what we live for. It’s what we pray for. We give our resources toward. We dream about how can we make the way of God known on earth, his saving power known among all nations? Okay, I could talk a long time about these verses. But let’s pray according to them. Well, let’s just pray them.
This verse challenges us to seek God’s grace for every facet of life.
God, in our lives today, we pray that you would be gracious to us, and bless us, and make your face to shine upon us. We pray this directly according to Psalm 67:1. Lord, we need your grace, your favor, your blessing, your help. We need your strength, your wisdom, your comfort. God, we need your joy. We need your life, your face to shine upon us. God, we pray for that in every facet of our lives, in every way, all made possible by the blood of Jesus, shed for our sins.
And God, we pray that through your blessing, your way may be known on earth today through us. We pray that we would live as a reflection of who you are. We pray that we would point people to you so that they would know you. God, we pray, help us to lead people to know you today, to see you, to be drawn into relationship with you, to grow in relationship with you so that you and your ways may be known on earth.
Prayer for the Jat Gil People
And ultimately, oh God, for your saving power to be made known among all nations through our lives. God, we pray for that. We pray for that specifically today among the Jat Gil people of India, for all 279,000 of them, no known followers of Jesus. God, may your saving power be made known among the Jat Gil of India. We pray for that, oh God. And we pray that you would bless us toward that end.
God, please bless us so that the Jat Gil and thousands of other people, groups like them that don’t yet know your saving power would be reached among the nations. Lord, please use our lives toward that end, your blessing in our lives, your resources in our lives, your gifts in our lives, the opportunities we have to make your way known on the earth around us, and you’re saving power known among all nations. God, we pray Psalm 67:1–2 over our lives on this day. And we pray that this would be the story of our lives every day. Your grace on us, for your glory, through us among the nations. In Jesus name we pray Psalm 67:1–2, Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
