Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Beauty of Blessing | The Writings | Psalm 67

Episode Date: May 30, 2024

Do you bless others? Are you habitually praying for the people in your life? In today's episode, Patrick teaches on Psalm 67, reminding us of God's command to bless the people around us. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 67

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. Do you bless those around you? I don't just mean bless them figuratively, like doing nice things and making them feel cared for. I mean, do you literally bless people around you? Last week, I was out of town for five days, and when I got home, my five-year-old son ran up to me. He gave me this big hug.

He wrapped his arms around me. And, of course, I loved that because I'm his father. giving him hugs. I love seeing him excited to see me, but I was shocked by the first thing he said to me. He looked me straight in the eyes and he said, Daddy, now that you're back, we can do our truths. Now, that probably doesn't make any sense to you. So let me explain it. His truths are an every night ritual that we do every night before he goes to bed. And while they're all true statements, they're more than that. They're blessings. I'm giving him a word of blessing over his life. and when I tell him his truths, his blessings, he shuts his eyes and he takes it in.

This is what I say to him every night. I say, Oliver, you are my son. I love you. I am proud of you. You have what it takes. Your mommy loves you, your daddy loves you, your Iris loves you, but most of all, Jesus loves you. And then I pray this. Heavenly Father, bless this little boy and keep him and make your face to shine upon him. teach him to walk in the way everlasting. And may he always know your son, Jesus. It's in your name that we pray, amen. Now I was gone for five days, and the thing that he missed the most

wasn't what I expected. He missed being blessed. He missed being blessed by his father every single night. You see, everyone, whether you're five or 55 or 85, everyone loves to be blessed. It's counterintuitive because most people don't believe that words have magical powers, as though speaking a blessing over someone does something. In fact, I don't really believe that either,

but I do believe that God has power and that when we speak blessings over one another, they're spoken as prayers to God. We're essentially asking that God would make our blessing a reality in that person's life. So for my son, I bless him with a promise that he is my son and that he has my pride and that he has what it takes. Now, of course, the truth is that I can't be perfectly proud of everything that he does, and he can't perfectly do everything that he wants to do, but I am blessing him by praying that through the love of Jesus, he would know that he's more than my son, he's God's son, that through Jesus's power, he truly does have what it takes to be a man of holiness, courage, and righteousness. I want to pray that through Jesus's sacrifice,

he has been purified and renewed such that his heavenly father truly is proud of him. As I go on, I pray for the blessing of God's protection. I pray for the blessing of God's presence. I pray that he would have an ongoing journey with Jesus. And again, I don't have the power to make any of my blessings happen. But I trust that God can make my blessings a reality if he so wishes. I think that's the power of a blessing. It invokes the living God to act on behalf of someone for their good.

Psalm 67 is a blessing. Not for an individual, but for an entire people. people group. And it's a blessing that implicitly prays that the people would know God worship him and enjoy good harvest so that the nations around them would come to know God and enjoy him themselves. When a priest prayed this blessing over the people, it wasn't true yet. Everything he's saying isn't yet a reality, but he trusted God to make the blessing a reality. Let's read this blessing together. Psalm 67, verse 1. May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon on us so that your ways may be known on the earth, your salvation among the nations. May the people

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. May all peoples praise you. The land yields its harvest. God our God blesses us. May God bless us still so that all the ends of the earth will fear him. I wonder how many times this blessing was prayed. I doubt that anyone guessed how God would fulfill it in the life of Jesus, that in Jesus people of every tribe tongue and nation truly would enter into God's kingdom, live in his presence, and would give him eternal praise. But here's the part that gets my brain really cooking. To what degree was God's action in Christ? Actually a fulfillment of the blessing spoken in Psalm 67,

a blessing that priests spoke over people for century after century after century. Let me put that differently. Without the blessing, does Jesus come to fulfill the words of this blessing? I suppose no one can know for certain except for God himself, but I do believe that in lesser matters, we can perhaps be more confident. Blessing my son every night isn't simply saying something that makes him feel good or makes me feel good. Those blessings are moments of power in God's spirit. I'm inviting God to make my best, most holy aspirations for my son a reality. Not by my work, not by my son's work, but by the work of his grace and his mercy. So what about you? Who do you bless regularly? This doesn't need to be a child. It could be a spouse, a fiance, a girlfriend,

a best friend, a parent, a sibling. There's lots of people to bless in your life. A practice of regular blessing is one of the best ways for you to grow your trust in God radically. It's also an opportunity to invite someone else to join in that trust. A practice of regular blessing is an invitation to a deeper relationship with God and a deeper relationship with someone else. It will become a part of your relationship with that person in ways that other things don't. This is why my son ran up and said, I missed you, I want to do our truths again. It's part of our relationship. Who can you bless?

Go pray for them. Maybe you start blessing them by simply praying Psalm 67 over them. You don't even have to make up the words. They're right there. It's a blessing for everyone that you can give to someone else. but let me end this podcast by blessing you. May God be gracious to you. May God bless you. May he make his face to shine upon you so that all people would know him, praise him, and sing their joy to him. May your labors yield the harvest you need and may God bless you so that all people will fear him.