Saturday, October 24: Psalm 67- .

I love the Old Testament Aaronic blessing:

The LORD bless you

and keep you;

the LORD make his face shine on you

and be gracious to you;

the LORD turn his face toward you

and give you peace (Numbers 6:24-26).

As a pastor I use variations of this blessing often as I close a worship service. It is a beautiful blessing.

One concern I carry is that in our ‘me’ generation I wonder sometimes if this blessing feeds the ‘it’s all about me’ distortion of this generation. I wonder if we have forgotten the ‘blessed to be a blessing’ lesson of Abrahams call (see Gen 12:1-3).

Well, all of these thoughts race in as I read verses 1-2 of this mornings Psalm:

May God be gracious to us and bless us

and make his face shine on us—

so that your ways may be known on earth,

your salvation among all nations.

Verse 1 is clearly a reflection on the Aaronic blessing. Verse 2 reminds us that God’s blessing of us has a reason beyond that He wants us to have a happy, good life. The reason is so that the world comes to know God and His salvation.

Many people I know wrestle with purpose… what’s the purpose of my life?!. For me my purpose is summed up here… so that God’s salvation will be known throughout the earth.

Lord, keep me on Your path. When I am distracted by this or that or another thing, cause me to make whatever course connections are needed to get back on Your path… so that the world will know that You are God! Amen.

 

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