Christmas 2011 #1: An exposition of Psalm 67. This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday morning, December 4, 2011.
Intro:
It is an overwhelming task. There are now 6,750 identified people groups listed as “unreached.” That means that less than 2% of the population is evangelical Christian of any stripe. Of those unreached 3,684 are listed as “unengaged.” That means there is gospel work being done in their midst. These are people who’ve never heard the simple story of Jesus. Many living lives of quiet desperation in the face of famine, disease, war and genocide. West Africa alone has more than 150 million lost people. That 150 million is broken down into 1,612 people groups speaking 1,100 different languages. Currently Southern Baptists have 242 missionaries working in the midst of that population of 150 million. That is one missionary for every 619,834 people!
We are a mission people. We were born “on mission.” Missions has always been at the heart of who we are. Evangelism and missions is said to be the life- blood of the SBC. Through the Cooperative Program we have 4,952 missionaries serving around the world. Last year Southern Baptist established 29,237 new churches, baptized 360,876 people. Our churches impact the globe every day. 11% of our undesignated gifts go directly to the Cooperative Program impacting the work of the gospel here in Oklahoma, across our nation and around the world. Just last week we began our emphasis on the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for International Missions. We believe in missions. But why do we believe in missions? What is it that motivates us to be on mission? Why should you care? Why should you give sacrificially to this offering? One great reason – we desire to display the glory of our God throughout the world!
When you think of “mission texts” what texts come to mind?
Do you think of the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:18-20?
Perhaps you think of Acts 1:8.
I’m not a betting man, but if I were, I’d be willing to bet when you think of missions you think New Testament. We are New Testament believers and understandably we tend to focus there. I remember my grandmother saying, “Oh yeah, that’s in the Old Bible” when she was referring to the Old Testament. We have a tendency to think that God thought “locally” in the Old Testament and that he thinks “globally” in the New. God thought only in terms of Israel in the Old Testament and thinks in terms of the world in the New Testament. But our God is the same yesterday, today and forever.
It is true that God singled out a people, the Jews, in the Old Testament to enter into a unique relationship. But that was not to the exclusion of all other peoples. Yes Israel had great privileges but with those privileges came great responsibility. And they were not to keep the revelation of God to themselves. Missions is not a New Testament concept. It is a biblical concept. Abraham was told that his seed, singular, would be a blessing to the nations of the earth. Jonah, the prophet of God was called to go and preach to the people of Nineveh. In fact a great revival came to that wicked city after Jonah finally arrived via the belly of a great fish!
This morning I want us to consider a great mission text found in Old Testament.
Text: Psalm 67:1-7
You know it never fails. When I’m interested in a certain text or have questions – when I go to the commentaries they have little or no information on the text I’m interested in! Psalm 67 is one of those texts. Very few commentators spend much time on it. In fact Martin Luther skipped this psalm entirely in his commentary. He wrote 5 volumes on the Psalms but did not address Psalm 67.
Yet I’m convinced there is a valuable lesson in this Psalm for us.
Keep in mind we are looking at Israel’s hymnbook.
These words where given by the Spirit of God to be sung back to God in worship.
In this Psalm we learn that…
Thesis: Worship and missions are inseparably and essentially linked.
Remember the context of the birth of the mission movement – Acts 13?
The church was in worship when the Spirit of God set apart Barnabas and Saul.
John Piper says the goal of history is the worship of God – therefore missions exist because worship does not! There are people around the world who do not actively engage in the worship of God. How can they worship a God they do not know? And how can they know unless there is a preacher? How will there be a preacher unless we go? Worship and missions are inseparably linked.
Alexander Maclaren says of this psalm, “This psalm is a truly missionary psalm, in its clear anticipation of the universal spread of the knowledge of God, in its firm grasp of the thought that the Church has its blessings in order to evangelize the world, and in its intensity of longing that from all the ends of the earth a shout of praise may go up to the God who has sent some rays of his light into them all, and committed to his people the task of carrying a brighter illumination to every land.”
Spurgeon commented that, “The great theme of the psalm is the participation of the Gentiles in the worship of Jehovah.”
The hymn is divided into three stanzas.
- Through worship we seek God’s favor in order to be a blessing to the peoples of the earth. (67:1-2)
- A genuine encounter with God imparts a passion to see others come to a saving knowledge of Christ. (67:3-5)
- Our overwhelming passion is to be God’s glory above all else. (67:6-7)
What Can You Do?
- You can go – long term, short term, mission trip – opportunities available. Can you say with certainty, “God has not called me to give my life to mission service?” Who knows but that sitting in this service this morning is the person that God will use to open to the door to some distant unreached people?
- You can also recognize that you live in a mission field. One of the great foreign mission fields right now is the college campus!
- You can give – Lottie Moon, – your tithe. Give enthusiastically, joyfully to the work of God. If you cannot go – you can make it possible for others to go.
- You can pray –
- What you cannot do – remain indifferent.
God grant that we become passionate about missions. That we come to the point we are so enamored with the glory of our God we will not rest until the world joins us in praise to his glorious name.