Psalm 67: Bless

“God bless you!” We all say it, and have it said to us. We say it after someone sneezes, when we do a kind act or have a kind act done to us. We say it in church, it’s like the Christian version of “Aloha”, we say it in greeting and in departing. We pray for God to bless us, to bless our families, to bless our neighbors, to bless our country. We know we need the blessing of God, most of us know we want the blessing of God, but I have to wonder, do we know what it means to be blessed? Do we know the purpose of blessing?

The psalm begins with a quotation from the priestly blessing found in Numbers 6:24-26. God told Moses, “Speak to Aaron and his sons (the priests), saying, Thus you shall you bless the people of Israel; you shall say to them . . .” The greatest way we can bless one another is with a word from God. The LORD didn’t tell the priests to bless the people with a sacrifice, with a miracle, with a prophetic utterance or with an explanation of the law, He told them to bless the people by telling them what God had said. The priestly blessing is not a prayer that Moses developed on the mountain, it is not a vision that Aaron had or a catechism that the priests developed in the Tabernacle, God spoke it because God doesn’t just command our blessing, He desires it, but even more, He defines it.

“The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” That’s the priestly blessing. That’s what God wanted the priests to speak to Israel because that’s what God wanted Israel to know He desired and planned to do for them. Blessing is not something we need to convince God to do, it’s something God desires for us. It’s not something we need to work toward, it’s something we need to rest in. Blessing is not when we get what we want from God, it’s when we discover the truth, that we are what God wants.

My favorite part of the entire passage in Numbers 6 is what God says the outcome of the blessing is: “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.” God told Moses that those words, spoken by the priests would put His name, the LORD, upon the people of Israel. Why do we put our name on something? It’s to show ownership, to take both credit and responsibility for. We sign our name to a letter so that the reader knows who has written to them. Artist’s sign their work so that it is understood whose creativity has produced it. Think of this, art signed by a known artist is far more valuable than art that is unsigned, even if it’s from the same artist. The signature provides authenticity, it reveals the care, the concern, the passion and even the love that was put into the piece. God didn’t simply want to bless Israel, He wanted them to know that His blessing was that He was putting His name on them, they were His, they would known by Him. The beginning of blessing is bearing the name of the One who calls us blessed. 

This is where we go back to Psalm 67. The psalmist began by reminding Israel that they are blessed, they have heard from God and He has put His name on them. He then continues to explain the purpose of blessing. “That your (God’s) way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.” We are not only blessed to be known by God; we are blessed that God would be known through us. We’ve all heard the saying, “We are blessed to be a blessing”. There is truth in that, but the greater truth is that we are blessed so that the blessing of salvation can be made known to the world through our lives. In Exodus 19:6 God said that Israel would be a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Priests stood between God and man, they interceded to God on behalf of man and they revealed to man the goodness of God. In the same way that Aaron and his sons put the name of the LORD on the people of Israel, Israel was called to put the name of the LORD on the nations that surrounded them.

Twice in this short psalm there is a prayer, “Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the people’s praise you.” The reminder of blessing must lead to a commitment to calling. Our names have been written in His book, but His name has been placed upon our lives. I believe this is what the psalmist was saying in Psalm 107:2, “Let the redeemed of the LORD say so”. We are redeemed to join the work of redemption; God’s name has been placed on us so that His glory can be seen through us. These are “the good works which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them”; know Him and make Him known, bear His name and spread His fame, light up the darkness, salt the earth, live for Jesus by living like Jesus. Our blessing is not what we get from God it’s that God has given us Himself. We don’t bless others by giving them of ourselves, we bless them by giving them Jesus in the words we say and the way we live.

The end of Psalm 67 speaks of the harvest, but it’s not about grain, it’s about souls: “The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, shall bless us. God shall bless us; let all the ends of the earth fear him!” Our blessing is not when we get more from God, He gives all we need. It is not when we get more of God, there is no more of Him to get. Our blessing is when God’s name is put on more lives through us. God gives blessing and He seeks souls and He is blessed when the souls He’s gathered go out into the field and gather more souls to bear His name.