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Psalm 67:1-7 “This is, in the highest and most spiritual sense, a Mes sianic psalm.”—Speakers’ Commentary. “This brief psalm tells us of the fullest blessings in store for Israel and the whole earth, when the new day has dawned and the King reigns. If this little Psalm in its prophetic message were understood it would end forever all post-millennial misconceptions as to the conversion of the world. Israel prays that the Lord may be gracious to them as He will in that coming day. 4 As a result of Israel’s conversion by the coming of the Lord, His way will be known upon the earth and His salvation among the nations. Then the peoples will praise, and the nations will be glad and rejoice. The Lord will be King of nations (verse 4) and the earth yield her increase. Here is God’s way for the full blessing, the earth and the race needs. Israel prays “God shall bless us” and as the result “all the ends of the earth shall fear Him.” But Israel’s Blessing is inseparably connected with the return of our Lord. No blessing and restoration till He comes again.”-—-A C. Gaebelein. Psalm 100:1-5 The dominant thought of this psalm is that Jehovah is Lor.d of the whole earth and has now entered upon the manifest Kingship of all the world...........Jehovah’s temple in Jerusalem is to be “a house of prayer for all people” (Isaiah 56:7)—Jehovah purposes to “gather together all nations and tongues to come and see His glory” and “all flesh shall come in and bow down before Me,” saith Je hovah (Isaiah 66:18, 23).—It may be forgiven any Chris tian if, with bowed head, he here sends up to heaven his welcome to Jehovah-Christ as Barth’s Coming King.— J. B. Rotherham. One thought common to the three Psalms given for this lesson is that of the universal reign of the Lord and the consequent blessing upon all the peoples of the earth. (See Psa. 47:2, 3, 7, 8; Psa. 67:1, 2, 7; Psa. 100:1, 2). This, no doubt, led to the selection of DEVOTIONAL these portions for the lesson on “Some COMMENT Missionary Teachings of the Psalms,” John A. Hubbard as it is the popular conception that missionary work will ultimately bring about the conversion of the world. We need, however, to carefully note that it is in connection with God’s dealing with Israel as a nation that this universal reign and bless ing is to be brought about. “He shall subdue the people under us, and the nations under our feet.” (47: SJ. The “us” and “our” undoubtedly refer to Israel. The same truth is clearly set forth in Ps. 67. “God be merciful unto us (Israel), and bless us (Israel), and cause his face to shine upon us (Israel); with this result, “That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations” (vs. 1, 2). “God shall bless us (Israel), and all the earth shall fear him” (v. 7). According to our understanding of God’s plan as revealed in His word, the preaching of the gospel in this present dispensation will not directly result in bringing about the universal blessing spoken of in these Psalms; but will re sult in the gathering out from the Gentiles “a people for His name” (Acts 15:14), the elect which make up the body of Christ. When, through the calling out of the last mem ber, this body is complete, He, the head, will come. Then shall be fully answered the prayer of Psa. 67. God shall bless, and cause His face to shine upon-, restored Israel, and, as was pointed out in a previous lesson, Israel will become the greatest evangelizing power the world has ever seen. God’s way shall then be known upon earth. His saving health among all nations, and all the people will praise Him. In the meantime let us Christians lay to heart the great, unchanging principle revealed in Psa. 67, namely, that God blesses us that we may be a blessing to others (read again vs. 1, 2, 7); and that the real measure of real spirit
ual life and power will be seen in our desire to pass on to others, even to the ends of the earth, the good news of salvation through His blood. A“He has little possession of God’s grace who has not felt the, necessity of speech, and the impossibility of the lips being locked when the heart is full.” (Alexander Mac- laren) Everybody Praising God. Psa. 67:1-7. Memory Verse.—“Serve the Lord with gladness; come be fore His presence with singing.”i Psalm 100:2. Approach.—How happy we all look this morning! Let us sing, “Happy greeting to you all.” Did you have a good breakfast this morning? Did you say, “Thank you” to mother for the good breakfast? Whom should we thank most of all for our good food? Shall ELEMENTARY we thank God now? (Repeat softly) Mabel L. Merrill “God is great and God is good, and we thank him for our food. By his good ness all are fed, Give us, Lord, our daily bread.” Amen. I wonder if we have anything else for which to thank God this morning. Our homes, father and mother, well bodies, and O so many blessings, we can not count them all. Let us bow our heads and tell the Lord, “Thank you.” Lesson Story.—I wonder if any of you boys and girls can tell me what real happy day is on the way this month? What do we do on Thanksgiving day? (Let children tell home plans for keeping Thanksgiving at this time). You know I am afraid some people think so much about the good things they are going to eat, they forget to say “Thank you,” to God for all the good things they have. We want to always remember that all the good things we receive are gifts from God, our heavenly Father. I know a little boy who calls Thanksgiving day God’s “Thank you” day. I like that name, don’t you? In the beautiful Psalm in the Bible where our story is found today, the people are prais ing God, and in their song of praise, they say, “Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.” Listen, boys and girls, there is a wonderful verse in this song, telling one reason why God loves to hear our praise and thanks, that others may come to know Him by hearing us say thank you to God. When God is so good to people, do you not think they should tell of his goodness to all the people about them, and to thank God? How would you feel if you did something nice for some friend, or gave them a nice present, and they never said “Thank you”? Of course you would feel badly, and you would think the friend was very unkind and rude. I wonder if any of us are unkind and rude to God, by forgetting to say “Thank you”? This beautiful song also tells us that if all the peo ple would praise God for his rich blessings, the earth would bring forth better and more abundant harvests. Being thankful makes us feel better, and thankful people are happy people, so you see it makes God happy, and makes us happy when we remember to say “Thank you” to God. How many of you think we should just be thankful and sing praises once a year, on Thanksgiving Day? Clara says we should say “Thank you” every time we receive a blessing, and she is right. If we do that we will have' Thanksgiving every day in the year, and then we will be happy all the year. Isn’t that a fine way to live? That is the way God wants us to be, happy all the time. If we stop to think of all God had given to us, we will be glad to serve him, and that is what our memory verse tells us. Let us learn it. Closing Prayer.
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