During 2025, Peachtree Church is focusing on the Book of Psalms with a series called Dwell, through which we seek to deepen our conversation with God and open ourselves to hearing his response. The practice of praying three times each day will unite the voices of our hearts and souls as we seek the day when we will see the full realization of the Kingdom of God, promised in Revelation 21:3: “…Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”
We will email devotionals twice weekly with Monday’s providing an overview of the Psalm as a whole, and Wednesday’s focused on that week’s Daily Dwell.
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.May the peoples praise you, God;
may all the peoples praise you.
May the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you rule the peoples with equity
and guide the nations of the earth.
May the peoples praise you, God;
may all the peoples praise you.The land yields its harvest;
Psalm 67:1-7
God, our God, blesses us.
May God bless us still,
so that all the ends of the earth will fear him.
Devotional
Shortly after each of our children was born, I held them in my arms and looked into their still barely opened eyes. As I held them, I whispered a prayer over them: “May you always remember who you are, and Whose you are.” That prayer is one that I have offered not only over my own two children but over many other children, but it is a prayer that is different in that it is a blessing over their lives, an attempt from the earliest moments possible to point their lives toward something much greater than we can begin to comprehend.
Our Psalm this week is a blessing in the same sense. It is not a blessing in the way that the majority of twenty-first-century American Christians use the term. Rather, it is a blessing in that it is a prayer that one hopes will guide the lives of those who read it, who pray it, and who offer it as a blessing over others. Most of us tend to think of a blessing as a material possession that we might not deserve or an unexpected positive occurrence. However, in the context of the Old Testament, a blessing was a prayer offered over someone that would help to guide their lives. A wonderful example of this can be seen in Genesis 27, when Isaac blesses Jacob (though the context of how Jacob received the blessing leaves a bit to be desired).
The first and final two verses of this psalm contain the traditional elements of a blessing. The opening lines of the passage reflect the traditional, priestly benediction, pointing toward what the priest hopes that God will do for the people receiving the blessing. This part of the blessing reflects the idea that as God blesses the Chosen People, the whole world will begin to see and know the presence of the Almighty. We can see a similar understanding of God’s blessing and the manner in which it will glorify God in the final verses of the Psalm.
The interesting piece of Psalm 67 from the perspective of a blessing is the middle three verses, which show us what our response to God should be. We should offer praise. We should praise the Lord for the good which He has showered upon us. We should praise Him for the simple fact that He is our God. We should praise Him, and as we praise Him, the day will come when all of the world, all aspects of Creation will join in His praise, as we all live into His blessing.
For Reflection
- When has someone blessed you? What did they say in their blessing?
- How might you share God’s blessing (as we understand it from these words) with those around us?
Prayer
Lord God, you desire to bless us, yet so often we desire to be blessed not with the grace that you offer, not with the goodness of living in right relationship with you, but with material things. Forgive us of our misguided eyes and help us to live as people who praise you, for you are the blessing that is above all else. Amen.
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Devotionals