Singing Psalm 67 you entrust your heart to God who gives you grace
Can you be blessed to know, truly know, and entrust your heart to the one who has defeated death?
God gives you his Word so that you could understand him, who he is, where his heart is, what he is about, what he has done, is doing, and will do.
Singing Psalm 67, God gives you every reason there to entrust your heart to him.
What you’ve got to love about God is that he not only made everything, but he gave you evidence upon which to build your faith. He does not expect you to trust him blindly.
He gives you Himself, his Son, and his Holy Spirit to dwell with you and keep you from unproductive solitude.
What’s not to love about him?
When you entrust your heart to anything or anyone else, you still have death looming over you. No one and nothing can conquer that one. No one, that is, except God.
You rekindle your affection and entrust your heart to the one whose heart is for you, to the one who showed you mercy when you were an enemy as far from him as you could be.
How much more does he shower you with mercy now that you seek him and desire to be a friend of God?
“O God, give us Your blessing, Extend to us Your grace,And cause to shine upon us The radiance of Your face;” ~ Psalm 67:1
Singing Psalm 67 you entrust your heart to God who guides you
“In order that your pathways Would through the earth be known,That You to every nation Would Your salvation show.” ~ Psalm 67:2
Illness, accidents, death. Who likes this?
But in your repulsion of death, don’t withdraw from God. Refuse to live independent of God which is what brought about death in the first place. He made you in such a way that you must entrust your heart to him and depend on him to live.
When things happen that you do not understand, there are elephants in the room blocking your view that would lead you to misunderstanding. The biggest elephant is allowing your misunderstandings to keep you from seeking the source, the only one who brings real understanding to things.
What if people know all about what goes on politically, financially, how certain groups oppress others and yet their connection with God and his people are severed. Going to church either doesn’t happen or it isn’t meaningful. Attempting to escape from dark realities of life and its lies, you can unwittingly or intentionally play, eat, drink, and game yourself to death.
What is going on is death on a grand scale and individually as we move farther and farther away from depending on God. Once dependence on God was broken, death came into the world, and it will find you in the most unlikely places, in every corner where you go to hide.
And death doesn’t just go after the body. If that were the case, it wouldn’t be so devastating because God plans to give us new bodies anyway.
No, death goes after the soul more than anything because souls continue to die eternally when they are separated from God.
What good is it to gain the whole world and lose your very soul?
Because of sin, we are separated from God, and yet, because his heart is one of mercy, he made a way to rescue us from its penalty, from its wages, which is death. As much as you hate death, God hates it more.
Be a part of the solution by drawing near to God in dependence on him and entrust your heart to him. Objecting to the penalty of death and living independent from the source of life only adds to the problem, causing more separation and death.
“Thus says the Lord: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.’” ~ Jeremiah 9:23-24
What entices you toward independence from God? What is the bait that covers up the hook for you that would make you unwilling to entrust your heart to God?
David was tempted to take matters into his own hands when he was treated poorly. The the Lord intervened. He initiated and guided David by sending someone to redirect him, one who was prepared and unafraid to avail herself to serve right when the situation called for it.
“And David said to Abigail, ‘Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! Blessed, be your discretion, and blessed to be you, who have kept me this day from blood guilt, and from working salvation with my own hand!’” ~ 1 Samuel 25:32-33
Death and everything leading up to it, physical or mental illness, vocational or financial woes, relationship challenges, prejudice and oppression, failure of one kind or another, even entertainment and fun that turns out not to be so much fun after all—all began with man’s broken covenant with God in the garden.
That one event determined that it would be counterintuitive for you to entrust your heart to God. Your biggest problem and mine is the result of one decision made there—the decision of who to listen to.
God chose to make us in his image in an inseparable relationship to himself, one where we are utterly dependent upon him for our physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and vocational vitality. When we separated ourselves from him, by default, we brought death upon ourselves.
Does not the potter have the right to do what he wants with the clay? He designed you and me to be dependent upon him, to look to him to guide us. Working against that, you inherited the tendency to fight God’s good design to look to him for everything. This leads to pride and separation from God and from one another.
He did not make you for yourself. He made you for himself. Only when you entrust your heart to him are you able to function as you were created to.
The pathways to death are many in our independence from God. Self-interest pervades relationally, financially, socially, intellectually, and vocationally.
Those who depend on him have God’s face shine on them. Steady on his pathway to life in their relationships, they show generosity and service toward the poor and oppressed. This is the group work of his body. The church transcends distinctions of ethnicity and color, male and female as each one is following Jesus, obeying God.
When thinking right, you soberly and unabashedly acknowledge your need for and entrust your heart to the one who made you, who shows you undeserved favor, who provides good things to meet your needs, and who guides you into paths that lead to life not just for you and your family but also for those from places you might’ve never heard of before.
He joins the hearts of his people together so that you speak of his goodness to anyone who will listen. People tend to listen better when they see you at peace and hopeful when life is hard, “considering it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds.” The Lord guides you using the very trouble that is in your life.
Is there any other way to show a watching world that there is a God worthy of your allegiance? How else will they know that you are not only serving him because of all the good things he does for you? Trusting him through tribulation offers hope to those who would otherwise expect you to “curse God and die” when you are in tough times.
No matter how down and out you may be at this moment, no matter what nation you are from, no matter how well-received you are or aren’t, singing Psalm 67 you entrust your heart to God who ensures that the contents of his word are true for you. You are blessed by his grace. Your response is praise.
Your great need is obvious, especially when relationships turn sour and you are not the recipient of encouragement but of scorn.
“When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.” ~ 1 Peter 2:23
More obvious still is the one who meets your great need. His judgment addresses our sin by punishing it in Christ so that he can do what his heart desires, which is to give mercy to his people in relationship even as they suffer for a time.
You entrust your heart to Jesus who put death to death when he died on the cross, was buried, and rose from the dead. To the one who conquered death for you, you dare to entrust your heart to him as he guides you in any and every circumstance.
“And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely…About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them…” ~ Acts 16:23, 25
“O God, let peoples praise You;Let all the peoples praise.Let nations come rejoicing,And songs of gladness raise;
“For You will judge the peoples With perfect equity;You will for all earth’s nations Their guide and leader be.” ~ Psalm 67:3-4
Singing Psalm 67 you entrust your heart to God who has global generosity
Bless in the face of death?
Praise. Blessing. These are what flow from grateful mouths toward the one who satisfies your needs as you look to him for your sure reward. Your eyes are fixed on the one who is rescuing you from death you earned and giving you everlasting life in its place. That reality has already begun.
You await its complete fulfillment by faith, trusting in the triune God, knowing he is good for every word he has spoken for your benefit, every promise he has made. You bless the source of all goodness. Your mouth will bless him and not curse him as you wait for the generous stream overflowing from his fountain to reach you.
If you consider the multitude of misunderstandings that snuff out the candle of your affection, you would wallow in darkness for a long time. The Lord leads you out of darkness to guide you by the light of his face shining on you and on the pathways where he would have you go in your mind and in your body.
This is especially important when you see others treated as less because of the way they look, the way they sound, or where they are from. Perhaps you yourself are treated this way at times.
In his book, Talking About Race—Gospel Hope for Hard Conversations, Isaac Adams teaches you to listen well, pull up alongside those who are misunderstood, prejudged, and unjustly judged while you entrust your heart to Jesus who placed himself in situations where he was treated just that way:
“Our job is not to completely eradicate the world of racism; it is to faithfully follow the One who will.”
Talking About Race looks at many kinds of people from many different angles and offers a multitude of practical steps you can take asking the triune God to help you to entrust your heart to him meanwhile.
Adams points you to faithfully follow Jesus and do all you can to end the temporal injustice that, until it is abolished, is achieving an eternal weight of glory that far outweighs suffering under oppression.
“Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen.” ~ Acts 28:28
You don’t have to be fearful as if a victim of unjust laws. You’re in good company when falsely accused. Entrust your heart to the Lord continuing to do good in whatever situation you find yourself in. God’s law stems from his heart of mercy. You love his law as you entrust your heart to him out of gratitude for that torrential mercy.
Death surrounded Ruth, a foreigner in Israel, and yet she embraced the true God. When you entrust your heart to God, you become a generous, kindred spirit with those whose background might differ greatly from yours as Boaz extended himself as a kin to Ruth.
Knowing the Lord is the tie that binds those who would otherwise have little to nothing in common.
Again, if I draw away from God because I don’t like that death is all around me, I am acting in line with what brought death to begin with. Understanding that God has the power to destroy me and that I’ve given him every reason to, yet his heart is for me, to restore me to himself, it is him I will fear. It is him I will seek.
Entrust your heart to him whom you will love as you love those who receive his bountiful, undeserved blessings throughout all the world to every corner of the earth.
“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;” ~ Isaiah 55:6
“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” ~ Jeremiah 29:13
“And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” ~ Matthew 28:18-20
“And he made from one man, every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods in the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us…” ~ Acts 17:26-27
All people from every nation — no exception, no exclusions— are to seek God.
Entrust your heart to God and you will find him a rich rewarder.
You bless him for enabling you to entrust your heart to him and for helping you find every good thing in knowing him.
“O God, let peoples praise you; Let all the peoples praise.The earth has brought its bounty Throughout its harvest days;
“Since God, our God, will bless us;
Yes, God will blessing send,
That all the earth may fear Him
To its remotest end.” ~ Psalm 67:5-7
April 28 – May 5, 2023
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