Bird's-eye view
Psalm 67 is a compact, power-packed missionary hymn. It moves from a plea for God's blessing upon His covenant people to the ultimate purpose for that blessing, which is the worship of God by all the nations of the earth. These final two verses serve as the triumphant conclusion and confident affirmation of this central theme. The psalmist sees a tangible sign of God's favor, a successful harvest, and immediately connects that earthly blessing to its heavenly purpose. The logic is straightforward and profound: God blesses the saints so that the world might see and fear Him. The material prosperity of God's people is not an end in itself but is rather fuel for the fire of global evangelism. This is a psalm that overflows with postmillennial confidence, seeing the fruitfulness of the land as a down payment on the future fruitfulness of the Great Commission.
The structure is a beautiful crescendo. The psalm opens with a prayer for blessing modeled on the Aaronic benediction (vv. 1-2), moves to a call for universal praise (vv. 3-5), and climaxes here in verses 6-7 with the grounds for that praise: God's blessing has come, and its ultimate result will be the conversion of the world. It teaches us to view every blessing, from our daily bread to our spiritual gifts, through a missional lens. God is good to us so that, through us, His glory might extend to the ends of the earth.
Outline
- 1. The Harvest as a Token of Blessing (Ps 67:6)
- a. The Earth's Obedient Yield (Ps 67:6a)
- b. The Covenant God's Gracious Hand (Ps 67:6b)
- 2. The Blessing as a Tool for Mission (Ps 67:7)
- a. The Confident Declaration of Favor (Ps 67:7a)
- b. The Ultimate Goal: Global Worship (Ps 67:7b)
Context In Psalms
Psalm 67 is one of the great missionary psalms, standing alongside others like Psalms 2, 22, 47, and 72. It is set for the choirmaster with stringed instruments, indicating it was intended for corporate worship in Israel. Its central theme is the relationship between God's particular grace to Israel and His universal saving purpose for all nations. The psalm begins by echoing the high priestly blessing from Numbers 6:24-26, but it immediately adds a purpose clause: "that Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among all nations" (v. 2). This psalm refuses to let Israel's blessings terminate on themselves. The entire song is an exercise in thinking covenantally and globally. The final verses (6-7) are the confident conclusion, where the prayer for blessing is seen as answered, and the result of that answer is declared to be the fear of the Lord spreading to the ends of the earth.
Key Issues
- The Missional Purpose of God's Blessings
- The Relationship Between Creation (Harvest) and Covenant
- The Meaning of the "Fear" of God
- Old Testament Foundation for the Great Commission
- Postmillennial Eschatology
From Local Harvest to Global Worship
One of the central errors of the modern church is to treat God's blessings as a private affair, a cozy blanket for our own comfort. We pray for God to bless our family, our church, our nation, and when He does, we breathe a sigh of relief and settle in. This psalm is a direct assault on that kind of thinking. It teaches us that God's economy is one of blessing for the sake of mission. He fills our barns so that we can be a beacon to the nations. He gives us peace so that we can be a city on a hill. Every gift from God comes with a tag on it that reads, "For Export." The logic is inescapable: God blesses us so that the world may know Him. If we sever the blessing from the mission, we have misunderstood the blessing entirely.
Verse by Verse Commentary
6 The earth has yielded its produce; God, our God, blesses us.
The psalmist begins with a simple, concrete observation from the material world. The harvest is in. The crops have grown, the barns are full. In our secular age, we attribute this to good weather, proper farming techniques, and a bit of luck. But the man of faith sees the hand of God. The earth yielding its produce is not an autonomous act of nature; it is an act of God. This is a direct fulfillment of the covenant promises found in places like Deuteronomy 28, where agricultural abundance is a sign of God's favor and blessing for obedience. The land itself is responsive to the covenant. When the people are faithful, the land is fruitful. When the people are unfaithful, the land vomits them out.
He then moves from the effect to the cause, from the gift to the Giver: God, our God, blesses us. Notice the intimate, possessive language. This is not some generic deity; this is "our God," the God who has entered into a covenant relationship with His people. The harvest is not random; it is a specific, targeted blessing from our covenant Lord. It is tangible proof of His faithfulness and His favor. The psalmist sees the hand of God in his daily bread, and this recognition is the foundation for everything that follows.
7 God blesses us, That all the ends of the earth may fear Him.
This final verse is the theological climax of the entire psalm. It begins by repeating the central fact for emphasis: God blesses us. This is the engine that drives history forward. God's unmerited, gracious, powerful blessing upon His chosen people is the starting point. But it is not the ending point. The verse immediately provides the ultimate purpose, the grand goal for which the blessing is given: That all the ends of the earth may fear Him.
The word "that" is a purpose clause. It tells us the reason why God blesses us. He blesses the church so that the world will be converted. The blessing is not for our own private enjoyment. It is a divine strategy. God makes His people prosperous, joyful, and fruitful as an advertisement for His own glory. When the world sees a people so manifestly blessed by their God, they are drawn to inquire, and ultimately, to worship. The "fear" spoken of here is not craven terror, but rather reverential awe, worship, and submission to the one true King. This is the Great Commission in its Old Testament form. The fruitfulness of the land in verse 6 is a type, a foretaste, of the fruitfulness of the gospel, which will produce a great harvest of souls from every tribe, tongue, and nation.
This is not a wish or a faint hope. It is a declaration of what will be. The blessing of God is powerful and effective, and it will accomplish its intended purpose. It will result in all the ends of the earth fearing Him. This is the confident, optimistic, postmillennial vision that the Word of God holds out before us. History is headed toward the global worship of Jesus Christ.
Application
This psalm forces us to reevaluate how we think about every blessing we receive from God. When your business prospers, do you see it as a means to fund the Great Commission? When your family is healthy and at peace, do you see your home as a launching pad for hospitality and witness to your neighbors? When our church is blessed with sound teaching and vibrant fellowship, do we see that as a resource to be exported for the planting of other churches and the strengthening of believers elsewhere?
The logic of Psalm 67 is the logic of the gospel. God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Eph 1:3). He has shone the light of His face upon us in the person of Jesus Christ. And why? So that we might hoard this light for ourselves? No. He has blessed us so that we might be the light of the world. He has given us the bread of life so that we might share it with a starving world.
Therefore, let us receive every blessing with gratitude, and let us immediately ask the question this psalm answers for us: "Lord, you have given me this gift. How do you want me to leverage it for the advancement of Your kingdom and the glory of Your name among the nations?" The purpose of the harvest is not just full barns in Israel; it is a full house for the wedding feast of the Lamb, with guests from every corner of the globe.