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May God Be Gracious To Us

                                                 May God be gracious to us and bless us

    and make his face shine on us—

so that your ways may be known on earth,
    your salvation among all nations.

 

May the peoples praise you, God;
    may all the peoples praise you.

May the nations be glad and sing for joy,
    for you rule the peoples with equity
    and guide the nations of the earth.

 

May the peoples praise you, God;
    may all the peoples praise you. 


The land yields its harvest;
    God, our God, blesses us.
 May God bless us still,
    so that all the ends of the earth will fear him.

                                                                   (Psalm 67)

         

            The first verse is used as a benediction at Christian gatherings. (By the way, do you know that benediction and eulogy mean the same thing – saying something good to or about…) We all feel warm and fuzzy. The person is asking for us to be blessed. He’s asking for God to make it known that we are His. And then we move on to the verse that’s not quoted: so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. God’s being gracious to us and His face shining on us isn’t so we can feel warm and fuzzy. It’s so that God may be revealed to the world. Then there’s the chorus, calling for the people to praise God.

          Next, the nations are to rejoice, not because they’re victorious, but because God reigns. And after that, the land yields its harvest and God blesses us – so that the ends of the world will fear Him. It keeps returning to the simple fact that it’s not about us. It’s about Him.

          And as I fume about difficulties with cell phones or rejoice about having accomplished this or that, I have to remember that somehow, it’s all about Him. Truth told, I don’t want it to be about Him now. Not if it means things not working right quickly. Not if it means an interruption of my plans. I’m being petty and childish, I know. Patience? What’s patience? I just want to be able to live on auto-pilot again. But that’s not what all this is about. This is about God, and while I am going through a Yuck Phaze or petty proportions in my life today, in the end, it's not about me.

 

 

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