Pastor Billington's Blog

Psalm 67:1-7 “For the Chief Musician. With stringed instruments. A Psalm. A song. May God be merciful to us, bless us, and cause his face to shine on us. Selah. That your way may be known on earth, and your salvation amongst all nations, let the peoples praise you, God. Let all the peoples praise you. Oh let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you will judge the peoples with equity, and govern the nations on earth. Selah. Let the peoples praise you, God. Let all the peoples praise you. The earth has yielded its increase. God, even our own God, will bless us. God will bless us. All the ends of the earth shall fear him.”

Is it fair to pray for God to bless us so that the world will know and follow Him? There are many who say so. How parallel are the promises given to the church and Israel?

Here the blessing seems to be physical and material, relating to the harvest. That seems typical of the blessings connected to the nation of Israel. Spiritual obedience brought physical blessings.

Today, however, our blessings seem to be more focused on the spiritual. Take the fruit of the Spirit for example:

Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control.”

And one such “fruit” was singled out by Jesus as being an example to the world:

John 13:35 “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Rather than physical blessings, it seems that people will see our spiritual blessings and be attracted to God. So yes, pray for people to see God’s blessing in our lives and for them to be attracted by it!

Note too that the God of Israel is not just the God of Israel. All peoples will one day worship before Him!

For additional worship: Lord Dismiss Us with Thy Blessing (Olive Tree Hymns)

Psalm 66:16-20 “Come and hear, all you who fear God. I will declare what he has done for my soul. I cried to him with my mouth. He was extolled with my tongue. If I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord wouldn’t have listened. But most certainly, God has listened. He has heard the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer, nor his loving kindness from me.”

We should always be ready to give a testimony of how God has heard and helped us. God does hear and answer prayer! But our own lives can hinder that.

Isaiah 59:1-2 “Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it can’t save; nor his ear dull, that it can’t hear. But your iniquities have separated you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”

Our sin does put up a barrier between us and God. Even though Jesus has taken away the eternal penalty for sin, our day-to-day relationship can still be affected by it. In truth, there is probably enough day-to-day sin in our lives that it’s a miracle God is ever willing to listen to us! But that’s the miracle of grace. And we need to remember that we also have a sinless advocate making intercession for us!

Romans 8:34 “Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”

For additional worship: Give us Clean Hands (Chris Tomlin)

Psalm 66:8-15 “Praise our God, you peoples! Make the sound of his praise heard, who preserves our life amongst the living, and doesn’t allow our feet to be moved. For you, God, have tested us. You have refined us, as silver is refined. You brought us into prison. You laid a burden on our backs. You allowed men to ride over our heads. We went through fire and through water, but you brought us to the place of abundance. I will come into your temple with burnt offerings. I will pay my vows to you, which my lips promised, and my mouth spoke, when I was in distress. I will offer to you burnt offerings of fat animals, with the offering of rams, I will offer bulls with goats. Selah.”

Praise God for testing? Yes! Because it brings about a refining process in our lives.

James 1:2-4 “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

The offerings we bring are the offerings of praise and the offering of ourselves.

Hebrews 13:15 “Through him, then, let’s offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which proclaim allegiance to his name.”

Romans 12:1 “Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.”

For additional worship: Praise to the Lord, the Almighty

Psalm 66:1-7 “For the Chief Musician. A song. A Psalm. Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth! Sing to the glory of his name! Offer glory and praise! Tell God, “How awesome are your deeds! Through the greatness of your power, your enemies submit themselves to you. All the earth will worship you, and will sing to you; they will sing to your name.” Selah. Come, and see God’s deeds— awesome work on behalf of the children of men. He turned the sea into dry land. They went through the river on foot. There, we rejoiced in him. He rules by his might forever. His eyes watch the nations. Don’t let the rebellious rise up against him. Selah.”

Why should we sing and praise God? We remember the awesome deeds that He has done in our own lives, as well as the deeds that He has done historically for His people. He dried up the water so that the Israelites could escape from the Egyptians, and the Egyptians had no choice but to give up and submit themselves to His will! He is sovereign, mighty, and will rule forever. Anyone (or nation) is silly to try to go against Him!

For additional worship: From All That Dwell Below the Skies (Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow)

Psalm 65:6-13 “By your power, you form the mountains, having armed yourself with strength. You still the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations. They also who dwell in faraway places are afraid at your wonders. You call the morning’s dawn and the evening with songs of joy. You visit the earth, and water it. You greatly enrich it. The river of God is full of water. You provide them grain, for so you have ordained it. You drench its furrows. You level its ridges. You soften it with showers. You bless it with a crop. You crown the year with your bounty. Your carts overflow with abundance. The wilderness grasslands overflow. The hills are clothed with gladness. The pastures are covered with flocks. The valleys also are clothed with grain. They shout for joy! They also sing.”

The title for this Psalm could be, “God’s sovereignty and blessing seen in the harvest.” A shorter title for our purposes should be, “God gives good gifts.” Of course, the greatest gift of all is our salvation!

A tidbit: when an unbeliever glimpses the glory of God, it can be a very frightening thing! “They also who dwell in faraway places are afraid of your wonders.” It can even be a frightening thing for a believer, if the angelic announcements we see in the Bible are any indication!

For additional worship: Eternal Source of Every Joy

Psalm 65:1-5 “For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. A song. Praise waits for you, God, in Zion. Vows shall be performed to you. You who hear prayer, all men will come to you. Sins overwhelmed me, but you atoned for our transgressions. Blessed is the one whom you choose and cause to come near, that he may live in your courts. We will be filled with the goodness of your house, your holy temple. By awesome deeds of righteousness, you answer us, God of our salvation. You who are the hope of all the ends of the earth, of those who are far away on the sea.”

God has given the rain that has resulted in a full harvest, so praise resounds. And yet, what praise! God is savior and salvation. He is hope and righteousness. And we are especially blessed if we can come into his house to praise Him!

For additional worship: Praise Awaits You (Sons of Korah)

Psalm 64:7-10 “But God will shoot at them. They will be suddenly struck down with an arrow. Their own tongues shall ruin them. All who see them will shake their heads. All mankind shall be afraid. They shall declare the work of God, and shall wisely ponder what he has done. The righteous shall be glad in the LORD, and shall take refuge in him. All the upright in heart shall praise him!”

It seems like God directly intervenes here, but it could also be a case of the evildoers eventually being shown for what they are by their own words and actions. People will recognize their evil, rejoice that they are revealed, and ponder and praise the work of God! This is what happens in a godly society. But what about a society that isn’t godly? While there is still some recognition of particularly heinous sins, much of what God sees as evil is winked at or engaged in today. All we can do in those cases is cry out to God and recognize that one day all will be forced to recognize His Lordship and His rule!

Philippians 2:9-11 “Therefore God also highly exalted him, and gave to him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

For additional worship: I Will Sing of My Redeemer (Fernando Ortega)

Psalm 64:1-6 “For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. Hear my voice, God, in my complaint. Preserve my life from fear of the enemy. Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked, from the noisy crowd of the ones doing evil; who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and aim their arrows, deadly words, to shoot innocent men from ambushes. They shoot at him suddenly and fearlessly. They encourage themselves in evil plans. They talk about laying snares secretly. They say, ‘Who will see them?’ They plot injustice, saying, “We have made a perfect plan!” Surely man’s mind and heart are cunning.”

We struggle against evil in this life. Evil people. Evil spirits. Even our own evil thoughts. It’s appropriate and necessary to pray to God and ask Him to hear our prayers for mercy and to preserve us from, not just the enemy (which we see Jesus model in the Lord’s prayer), but our own fear of that enemy!

Matthew 6:9-13 “Pray like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. Let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.’ “

For additional worship:  Psalm 64 Song – Oppressed but Rejoicing

Psalm 63:5-11 “My soul shall be satisfied as with the richest food. My mouth shall praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you on my bed, and think about you in the night watches. For you have been my help. I will rejoice in the shadow of your wings. My soul stays close to you. Your right hand holds me up. But those who seek my soul to destroy it shall go into the lower parts of the earth. They shall be given over to the power of the sword. They shall be jackal food. But the king shall rejoice in God. Everyone who swears by him will praise him, for the mouth of those who speak lies shall be silenced.”

God will ultimately judge the wicked and rescue the righteous. Until then He will help and strengthen His people. When we lie in our beds and think about Him, we should rejoice and praise His name. Nothing should satisfy us more than to dwell on God’s nature and works!

For additional worship: Psalm 63 – Better Than Life (Shane and Shane)