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
Whenever I come to this verse, I can’t help but lead a Pray the Word episode on it. These two verses have had such an impact on my life. These are the verses I pray over my kids every night, over my family all the time. Because I’ll never forget hearing and understanding these verses for the first time. I say hearing, maybe I’d heard them before but not understood them. And the depth to which they summarize God’s grand purpose and passion. In all the Bible, and in all of history. That God desires to show grace, and blessing, and favor his face to shine upon his people.
Psalm 67:1–2 shows that God’s grace leads to His glory among the nations.
What a picture. We don’t deserve this. The blessing of God, his face shining upon us as sinners. What a picture of grace. And yet, Psalm 67 makes clear that grace, blessing, and favor are not intended to stop with us. Verse two says, “So that your way may be known on earth, your saving power known among all nations.”
God loves us for the spread of his love, grace, favor, and blessing to all the nations of the earth. This is why we pray every day on this podcast for unreached people. Because this is the purpose and passion of God. And this is why he has saved you and why he saved me. For the spread of his glory, goodness, grace, and blessing to all the peoples of the world. So we intercede for all the peoples of the world. And we live for the praise of God to be made known among all the nations.
Psalm 67:1–2 pictures a life lived for the glory of God among the nations.
We say, God, whatever part you want me to play, help me to spend my life today for the spread of your favor, your blessing, your glory, your saving power, to people around me and, ultimately, to people around the world. And so we pray this, so I pray this over you, just like I pray over my kids all the time, and pray this over all of our lives. God, be gracious to us, we pray. Lord bless us. God, make your face just shine upon us.
I pray that over every single person listening right now, even as I pray this over my life. I pray for your grace and blessing, and your favor over every single person listening right now, so that your way may be known on the earth, so that your saving power may be known among all the nations, through them.
God, I pray that you would help them to live today for the spread of your saving power. To the nations right around them, to the peoples you’ve put right around every single person who’s listening to this right now.
Prayer for the Sindhi People
And God, for the people far beyond all of us, we pray that you would help us to live for the spread of your blessing, grace, and favor to them.
God, for the Sindhi people of South Asia, India, Pakistan, and different places in the world. Lord, when we pray for these unreached peoples, and we think about how so many of them have scattered into our neighborhoods. God, we pray help us to make your saving power known among the nations, in our neighborhoods, and to places where the gospel has not yet gone. We pray for the Sindhi people to be reached with your grace, your blessing, and your favor in Jesus. Oh God, may Psalm 67:1–2 your purpose and your passion here be our purpose and our passion.
God, I pray specifically you would guard every single one of us from living a Christianity that centers around us, or our nation, and ignores your purpose and your plan to use our lives for the spread of your glory among all the nations. Lord, help us, save us from a Christianity that so often ignores the nations. God, help us each to live our Christian lives for the spread of your glory among all the nations for the purpose you’ve placed us here on this planet. We pray. Psalm 67:1–2 would be the reality of our lives that we’re stewarding your grace, your blessing, your favor. And through our lives, your way is being made known on the earth, and your saving power is being made known among the nations. We pray this straight from your Word in Psalm 67:1–2. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
