Have you ever had a déjà vu moment—one of those “I swear I’ve been here before” experiences? If you read the opening verse of Psalm 67 carefully, you ought to have such a déjà vu moment: “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us.”
“Isn’t this Aaronic?” we are meant to think (Ba-dum-tss).1 Psalm 67 harkens us back to that culminating event in the Wilderness of Sin where Aaron, Israel’s high priest, bestows a blessing upon the people of God. The benediction, though short, is thick with grace; it includes provision (“The LORD bless you. . .”), protection (“. . .and keep you. . .”), favor (“. . .the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift his countenance upon you. . .”), and peace (“. . .and give you peace.”). Even in the midst of a dry and arid wilderness, God would pour boundless grace and mercy upon Israel through the ministry of his chosen servant, Aaron. This is one of the central themes of Numbers—for Israel to enjoy the blessing of God dwelling in their midst, his blessings would need to be mediated through Aaron. He was the only go-between, the one through whom Israel would not only not be consumed (think Korah and the 250 wannabe priests), but flourish and thrive (think Aaron’s blossoming rod). In this, Aaron’s person and work is a clear preparation for the person and work of Jesus Christ who, as the light of the world, causes his face to shine upon us in the gospel, and we, in turn, bear spiritual fruit.
That the LORD is the fountain of all blessedness is clear from the three-fold repetition of “The LORD . . . the LORD . . . the LORD” in Numbers 6:24–26. There is no grammatical necessity for this repetition. Aaron is simply emphatic that, as the Doxology says so beautifully, God is the one “from whom all blessings flow.” And with this, the writer of Psalm 67 agrees; hence why he reworks Aaron’s pronouncement of blessing into a petition addressed to God, “May God be gracious to us and bless us. . .” He asks of God what he knows only God can supply: blessedness.
What Psalm 67 gives us that Numbers 6 does not is a powerful, multi-faceted rationale for why God should bless us, his people: “. . .that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!” (v. 2) The psalmist asks that God’s blessing would flow down to his covenant people in order that it might flow through them to the nations and unto the praise of his glorious grace. “Bless us God, so that the nations might be blessed!”
In this, we see that Psalm 67 is not just Aaronic—it is also Abrahamic.
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen 12:1–3)
This was God’s intention all along: through the salvation of Abraham, God would bring salvation and blessing to all nations. God saved Abraham, first and foremost, for his own glory and in order that Abraham would extend the blessing of knowing God as our God (Westminster Shorter Catechism 44) to the families of the earth. And this is still God’s intention for all of Abraham’s children according to faith. Instead of damming up God’s blessings, hoarding them all to ourselves, we are to allow the current of God’s grace to flow freely through us to the nations in order that they might repent and believe in the gospel.
But how does this happen, practically? In two basic ways: first, through the nations observing the deliverance of God’s people, and second, through the personal witness of God’s people to the nations.
Rahab’s conversation with the spies in Jericho is a prime example of this first way of knowing, what we might call the immediate way, when the nations see:
I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction. And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath (Josh 2:7–11)
Even though they were not eyewitnesses themselves, Israel’s crossing over the Red Sea, their defeat of Sihon and Og, and the parting of the Jordan River, evidenced to the citizens of Jericho that the Lord was “God in the heavens above and on earth beneath” and that he fought for Israel. What else could explain the arrival of this mighty host on the city’s doorstep? Like wax before a flame, so did the hearts of the inhabitants of Jericho melt before this display of God’s lovingkindness shown to Israel. Their deliverance made God’s name known.
Though God is certainly capable of toppling down towering walls and splitting violent seas, his people should not expect or demand him to effect such miracles in the post-apostolic era. We do not need new signs and wonders to know that our God is God in heaven above and the earth beneath. We have the empty-tomb—and that is enough. Nevertheless, God continues to move in remarkable ways that witness directly to the world that our God is the Savior of his people. Consider the alcoholic who lays his bottle down for good, or the drug addict who finds his soul’s satisfaction in God and not the next high. Or take the man or woman who breaks their life-long enslavement to pornography or repents of sinful anger toward their spouse and children. And think of the Christian whose child is lost in an act of senseless violence, who forgives and pursues the offender in love and mercy. “How do people change like this? What’s gotten into them?” These are the questions unbelievers are forced to ask. When God does his saving work in and among his people, the nations will take notice. Sadly, they do not always praise God as they should. Like the crowds who witnessed Jesus cast out the legion of demons into the herd of pigs, they “beg Jesus to depart from their region” (Mark 5:17) instead of ascribing the glory, laud, and honor due to his name. But do not lose heart. There will be Rahabs, Rahabs who see Israel’s great salvation, reach out to God in saving faith, and experience the blessing of God for themselves.
The second way that the world comes to know the ways of God is through our personal testimony, sharing with the world what we have seen and know. Jesus said this was to characterize the lives of his followers in the sermon on the mount:
You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matt 5:13–16)
Notice that Jesus does not say that we ought to be salt and light—he is speaking of who we are. We, at our core, are meant to have an effect upon the world around us. We are not to be dead ends of God’s grace. As salt, we season the world. We are God’s means of preserving humanity from the ravages of sin and pervading the world with the sweet savor of the gospel. As light, we shine, beckoning those living in spiritual darkness to him who is light and life itself.
Jesus would not have warned his hearers of the dangers of becoming bland and dim unless these were real and perennial dangers. Who among us has not succumbed to a bunker mentality at some point or another in the Christian life, hunkering down, holding on for dear life until Jesus gets back?
This is a rejection of who we are. God made us and saved us to extend the blessings of his salvation to every tribe, tongue, and nation. We have God’s commission—“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:19)—and we have his promise—”And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt 28:20). So let us do what Psalm 67 calls on us to do: having received the blessings of God’s grace in the sending of his Son, the embodied benediction of the Father, let us go and make known God’s saving way upon the earth. Let God’s blessings flow.
Note
- I will be astounded if this dad joke survives the cutting room floor.
©Stephen Spinnenweber. All Rights Reserved.
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Stephen Spinnenweber
Stephen has been the pastor of Westminster PCA in Jacksonville, FL since 2019. Stephen earned his Masters of Divinity from Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and is a General Council member of the Gospel Reformation Network. Together with friends he hosts several podcasts on the Westminster Standards (The Shorter and Larger for Life podcasts) and is also the author of a forthcoming book from Christian Focus Publications on the three uses of the Moral Law, set to be released in 2025. Stephen and his wife, Sarah, are high school sweethearts and have been married since 2013. They are proud parents to four covenant children.
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