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The psalm was intended, commentators tell us, for some great temple festival, possibly the Feast of Tabernacles, in a year of exceptional increase. But what strikes me as I read it is its universal note. There is nothing local, particular, or Jewish about it. The psalm is as much at home in the Christian Church as in the Jewish Temple, as much at home centuries after Christ as it was centuries before He came.

I. The first remark I wish to make is that this psalm, in the scope and sweep of its petitions, supplies us with A PATTERN AND EXAMPLE FOR OUR PRAYERS. "God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause His face to shine upon us." That is how the psalm begins. The psalmist's first thought is for his own people, for his own kindred, according to the flesh. But that is not where the psalm ends. In the very next verse the horizon recedes, the outlook broadens, the national need gives Way to the universal need. He has scarcely offered up his prayer for his nation before his compassions are running out to the countries beyond, and in the very next breath he is interceding for all nations and for the wide earth. There is nothing local, there is nothing exclusive about this prayer. The psalmist overleaps all national boundaries, and brings the wide world before God. He has all Christ's passion for those other sheep which are not of the Jewish fold. He has all Paul's desire that the Gospel may be preached to those who have not heard it. True prayer is always world-wide and universal. It is right to begin where this prayer begins — at home; it is not right to finish there. You must enlarge the scope of your petitions, and you must not rest till you have brought the "ends of the earth" before God. I pity the man who in his prayers never gets beyond "God be merciful unto us, and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us"; for he has simply not learned the elements of prayer. For that is a marred prayer, a narrow prayer, and a selfish prayer. And whatever Christianity is or is not, it is the very antithesis of selfishness. "Let this mind be in you," said the apostle, "which was also in Christ Jesus." What was the mind that was in Christ Jesus? It was an unselfish mind. Our Lord was always thinking about other people. His thought travelled far beyond His own kindred to those peoples lying in ignorance and sin; to all the millions who lived without God and without hope. Am I wrong in thinking that, speaking generally, Christian people do not possess our Lord's wide-world outlook, that our affections are cramped by national and racial differences, that we do not realize that men everywhere are the loved of God, the redeemed of Christ, and that we do not pant and yearn for their enlightenment and salvation as our Lord did? Some do, I know. David Brainerd — his enthusiastic spirit had no rest in his passion for prayer for his Indians. This lack of concern for the salvation of the world results in parochial and narrow and selfish prayers. "God be merciful unto us, and bless us" — we begin there, and there oftentimes we finish. None of Christ's melting passion for the "other sheep" creeps into our prayers. The psalmist's prayer, while beginning with himself, expands till he embraces the whole earth.

II. But notice EVEN IN HIS PERSONAL PRAYER HE HAS GOT THE UNIVERSAL GOOD BEFORE HIS EYES. "God be merciful unto us, and bless us" — what for? "That Thy name may be known upon earth, Thy saving health among all nations." He does not ask for personal blessing for merely selfish ends. He asks for it that it may serve the universal good. He asks God to bless Israel in order that through Israel, so blessed, God's way may be known upon earth, His saving health amongst all nations. The psalmist has grasped this truth, that Divine favours and blessings are never bestowed upon men or nations for merely selfish enjoyment, but they are always bestowed upon them for service. Our Lord appointed twelve, "that they should be with Him, and that He might send them forth to preach." He chose these twelve men that they might be with Him to be His friends and associates, to accompany Him in all His journeys, to share His intimate fellowship. He conferred upon these twelve the highest privilege ever bestowed upon mortal men. The high privilege conferred upon the twelve was meant for the enriching of the world. "He appointed twelve that they should be with Him, and that He might send them forth." That illustrates a law. God's blessings are never for selfish ends, they are always meant for the benefit of the wide world. For instance, God reveals to a doctor, let us say, some secret that makes for the health and wellbeing of mankind. He reveals it to him, not that he may hug it to himself, but that he may share it so that the whole world may be the better for it. The manifold religious privileges that this land of ours enjoys were never meant for England's sake only. They have been conferred upon England in order that through England they may become the possession of the wide world. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God which you and I enjoy is not for our own personal gratification merely. It has been given to us that we may share it and diffuse it. You have the light. Have you shared it, diffused it, spread it abroad? Or have we, like some stagnant pool, tried to keep that Which we have received? My brethren, the Christian ought never to be represented by the pool; he ought always to be represented by the stream. The pool takes all it can get and gives nothing; receives everything, parts with nothing; and reaps the penalty of its own selfishness in putridity and stagnation. The stream is always giving itself away. It runs down the hills, and as it runs down it gives greenness to the fields, cleansing and refreshing to the dwellers in the towns. Starting in the mountain, where all is at its sweetest and loveliest, it does not linger in its mountain home. It says, "There are thirsting people crying out for me; there are parched lands crying out for me," and so it hurries down the mountain slope, past the village, into the valley, through the town, on and on, so long as there is a single yard of land to be blessed by it; on and on until the great sea is reached.

III. And now, just for a moment or two further, let me ask you to notice THE WORDS WITH WHICH THE PSALMIST DESCRIBES THE BLESSINGS THUS GIVEN TO THE WORLD THROUGH THE AGENCY OF ISRAEL. It is really the blessing of salvation, but he uses two figures that describe it. He first speaks of it as "God's way," and in the second place as "God's saving health." Just look at these two figures for a moment. First, he asks that Israel may be blessed in order that "God's way" may be known upon earth. Now, you see that the psalmist uses a figure which is familiar to all Old Testament writers — the figure of a man as a traveller, a wayfarer, a pilgrim; a traveller, as John Bunyan has put it, from the City of Destruction to the City Celestial. Or, if you like to put the same truth in a rather different form, let us say man is a traveller whose goal is happiness and peace, and there is a certain way along which he must travel if he is ever to reach that goal, if life is to be ever happy and peaceful in its course and triumphant at its end. Enoch walked with God — that is the way. He is the only successful traveller who walks with God. When the psalmist looks around him he sees multitudes of people out of the way. Like sheep they have gone astray, they have turned every one to his own way. That means misery, wretchedness, despair. God's way is the only right way. There has been no other way discovered. But as I look out upon the world to-day I see millions of people out of the way, turning every one to his own way and reaping misery and unrest as the result. Now, did you never feel any desire to bring these wandering people back? He has blessed us just in order that His way may be known upon earth. And the second figure the psalmist uses is this — "God's saving health." "Thy saving health among all nations." And if the first figure of "the way" suggests a lost and wandering world, this figure of "saving health" suggests a sick world. Here is the world from the Bible standpoint — "The whole head is sick, the whole heart is faint; from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and festering sores." And it is not the Bible only that says it. Modern literature says it in equally plain and emphatic terms. Listen to this from Thomas Hardy: "Did you say that the stars were worlds, Tess?... Yes." "All like ours?" "I don't know, but I think so. They sometimes seem to me like apples on our tree, most of them splendid and sound, but a few blighted." "Which do we live on, Tess?... A blighted one." A sick world, that is what the Bible says, that is what literature says, that is what experience says. And this is how God's salvation comes to us — it comes as "saving health." God's purpose is wholeness for every man. God's end for you and me is to make us morally sound. God's salvation restores unto perfect soundness and complete health. Life becomes absolutely normal. It is "saving health." The evangelist Matthew emphasizes the healing work of Christ again and again. "He healed all manner of diseases and all manner of sicknesses." But it was not bodily sickness alone that Christ healed. He healed the broken and the sick soul. To the sick of the palsy He said, "Thy sins are forgiven thee." It is for the Christian Church still to make God's "saving health" known among all nations. Wherever the missionary goes you find a hospital. Jesus can give what no doctor can give — He can give healing to the soul. There are people who preach in these days a religion of healthy-mindedness. They tell us to ignore sin and evil and death. But sin and evil and death are here. They will not be ignored. An ostrich policy of that kind does not get rid of these things. "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin." "He that believeth on Me shall never die." Well, ought we not to get the good news about God's "saving health" known amongst all nailers? The world to-day is full of sick souls. India, China, Africa, are full of men and women burdened and troubled and oppressed with sin, haunted by the fear of death. Ought we not to tell them to come to Jesus Christ? Pass on the good news. Do you not think that we ought to tell every stricken soul about Him who is able to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease? Now, I lay the case of these sick souls upon your consciences — blighted by sin, and you and I know about the blood that can cleanse from it; all their lifetime in bondage through fear of death, and you and I know who can give them the victory over it. I lay the ease upon your consciences. God has blessed us and caused His face to shine upon us and been gracious unto us simply in order that His way might be known upon earth and His saving health among all nations. May He help us to spread the news, that we may share thus in the icy of the Cross that makes Christ's kingdom come.

(J. D. Jones, M. A.)

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KJV: {To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm or Song.} God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.

WEB: May God be merciful to us, bless us, and cause his face to shine on us. Selah.