Psalm 67 (Let the Nations be Glad)

The Sermon Title from Psalm 67 and Prayer for the Word to Bear Fruit

The title of my sermon today is Let the Nations Be Glad. Isn't that a great title? It's a great title, Let the Nations Be Glad. The reason I say that is because it's not my own. So full disclosure, I am using the words of John Piper there.

That's what makes it so good, Let the Nations Be Glad. I think that might be my favorite book of the many that he's written, the Piper books. But I have to say, I don't mind using that title for my sermon because Piper himself lifted it from the psalmist in Psalm 67, so we're allowed to use it as well.

It's not plagiarism. So let's go to the Lord in prayer and ask that this psalm, Psalm 67, would come alive to us like never before, that it would change the way we think. Let's pray. Lord God, you put this psalm in your Bible for a reason.

It has a purpose. It has something that it's sent to accomplish. And according to Isaiah 55, it won't return void. So I ask in Jesus' name that this psalm would accomplish a purpose in each one of us this morning, that it would change the way we think, that it would water us as Christians, that we would grow because of it.

Lord God, speak to us, your servants are listening. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Our prayer is that the peoples would praise God. Let the peoples praise you. This morning, one of the things that I would like to take away by the time we get to the end of this sermon and you go home, how is it that I would like you to be different?

How do I want me to be different? I want the prayer of this psalm that's repeated again and again. Let the peoples praise you. Let all the peoples praise you. I want you to be praying that as you go. And more often, to understand what that means and for that to become the cry of your heart, one of the prayers that you offer up regularly.

Mothers, Missionaries, and the Cost of Sending Children

Now this seems like an odd topic for Mother's Day. Today we are talking about missions. And I think if some of the moms in here were honest with themselves, you might say, one of the last things that I want for my kid is for him or her to grow up and be a missionary to Erie and Jaya, to the jungle, to some faraway place where I might never see them again or hear from them again.

So it seems like an odd topic for today, but I think it will tie in nicely as the Lord brings it all together. In Psalm 127, verse four, we're told that, like arrows in a quiver are the children of one's youth.

Arrows in a quiver, one of the goals of parenting, of raising children, is not that you would cling to them forever, but that at some point, like an archer, you would string up the bow and your child would be the arrow and that you would shoot that child to the ends of the earth to accomplish a purpose that God has for that child.

Matthew 19, 29 says, this is the words of Jesus, describing missionaries as those who leave houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for my name's sake. To leave behind loved ones for the sake of the name that is above every name, it's a hard thing for mothers to do, to release their kids to the mission field, but it's a glorious thing.

Think of the prophet Simeon in the temple when Jesus was just a few days old and he was brought to be dedicated, according to the purification laws of the Old Testament. Simeon spoke and said, behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel and for a sign that is opposed so that the thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.

Strong words about the Messiah as Mary had come into the temple holding this baby, this mere child. I don't know if Jesus was crying or not. It's not a sin to cry. Maybe he's a crying baby coming into the temple and Simeon declares that he will be assigned and then he goes on to say this, and a sword will pierce through your own soul also.

A sword will pierce through your own soul also. Imagine being Mary, the mother of this child, being told a sword will pierce through your soul. Of course, that speaks of his eventual crucifixion and how that would tear Mary apart.

Mary stood at the foot of the cross to watch her son die. John Bloom explains it in this way. A sword will pierce through your own soul. The most wonderful, gracious event in human history was God sending his son into the world, to the cross, to save his people from their sins.

And this gracious event caused indescribable grief for Mary. This is important to note. The greatest event in the history of the world, the cross of Jesus was also the source of indescribable grief to Mary.

As God works out his salvation of sinners, he leads us along unexpected paths that result in unexpected and sometimes agonizing pain. When it does, we can remember Mary. The darkest moment of her life, the sword that stabbed deepest into her soul was the moment that God used most to bring salvation and joy to the world and to her.

Her greatest joy came because of this moment of her greatest pain. That's how he works with us too. When the sword pierces, all it feels like is terrible pain. But later we discover that our deepest wounding often becomes the channel through which the most profound grace flows.

And of course, the death of Jesus for our sins is the source of our greatest joy. But can we put this in more practical terms for our lives? When have we seen a similar situation like that? I would go to the story of Hudson Taylor.

Hudson Taylor was a missionary, but few people know about his mom. His mom is not a famous mission leader. His mom is Amelia. Amelia raised Hudson to know the Lord, preached the gospel to him. In fact, Hudson did not know this until he became a missionary to China, but when he was yet a baby, his mother and his father dedicated him to the Lord to be a missionary to China.

They prayed that when he was yet a child and offered him up for that purpose, but never told him that they did that. When he was a 17-year-old young man, he had grown up in this godly home, but he went off to work.

And working with some scoundrels that hated God, he began to listen to their rhetoric. And sadly, around 17 years old, Hudson Taylor rebelled against God. His father was very strict and authoritarian, so much of his rebellion was against his father.

His mother recognized that this was a source of the strife and began to pray for Hudson and determined that she would not constantly get in his ear about his lack of salvation and about his wandering from God.

Instead, she decided that she would pray. And she prayed and she prayed and she prayed and she dealt kindly with Hudson, even in his rebellion. One day, she went on a vacation, few days away from home, and Hudson was at home.

On that vacation, she began to pray for him. And a strong sense came over her that she needed to pray intently for her son. She went into a room by herself, she locked the door, kind of like in Habakkuk chapter two, verse one, where Habakkuk says, I will set myself as a watchman on this tower.

She set herself in that room and she said, I am not leaving this room until my son is saved. And she began to pray. For a few hours, she prayed until ineffably, inexplainably, a peace came over her soul and she began to rejoice saying, my son is saved.

My son is saved. She prayed and now that prayer turned into joy. God has saved my son. It wasn't until days later that she came back home from that vacation and Hudson met her and said, mom, I have something to tell you.

And she said, you don't need to tell me, I already know. You were born again. He said, how did you know? While you were gone, I was hanging out in dad's library and I came looking for something to read and everything looked boring until I found this little tract that said poor Richard.

And I opened poor Richard and I began to read it and as I heard about this coal miner named Richard, this poor man who was under the weight of his own sin, he came to the point in the tract where it said, the death of Jesus was sufficient.

It is paid in full. It is finished. And as I read those words, it was as if God was speaking to me. The death of Jesus had paid my sin debt. Reading that tract, he was saved. It happened at the very moment his mom was praying miles away.

He would go on to become a great missionary and found the China Inland Mission. Preached the gospel to many, so many came to faith and then hundreds or thousands of missionaries followed in his wake to China and thus, China became open to the gospel.

But what was the role of Amelia, the praying mother that nobody knows about? Just as significant as the role of Hudson Taylor. So also the role of his praying sister because they discovered in her diary written, this was Amelia Jr., the sister of Hudson.

In her diary, a month before, she had written and committed to pray for Hudson three times a day until he was saved. A month after that commitment, he was born again. I wanna tell you the most heart-wrenching part of the story and yet so good.

It's a story that Hudson Taylor writes from his own pen in his own diary in China about parting from his mom. He describes when he said goodbye because recognize today when missionaries fly across the ocean, there's a good chance they're gonna fly back within a couple years and you'll see him again.

But back then, saying goodbye to a missionary likely meant saying goodbye and tell heaven. I'll see you in heaven. Here's the words that Hudson Taylor writes about that goodbye. My beloved now sainted mother had come over to Liverpool to see me off.

Never shall I forget that day, nor how she went with me into the cabin that was to be my home for nearly six long months. With a mother's loving hand, she smoothed the little bed. She sat by my side and joined in the last hymn we should sing together before parting.

We knelt down and she prayed. The last mother's prayer I was to hear before leaving for China. Then notice was given that we must separate and we had to say goodbye, never expecting to meet on earth again.

For my sake, she restrained her feelings as much as possible. We parted and she went ashore giving me her blessing. I stood alone on the deck and she followed the ship as we moved toward the dock gates.

As we passed through the gates and the separation really commenced, never shall I forget the cry of anguish rung from that mother's heart. It went through me like a knife. I never knew so fully until then what God so loved the world meant.

And I'm quite sure my precious mother learned more of the love of God for the perishing in that one hour than in all her life before. That's a heart-wrenching tale of separation. A mother and son saying goodbye forever for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of the perishing in China that had no light, that had no gospel.

That's a story of pain, but what a story of joy. It's a story of joy. How can that be a story of joy? Turn with me to Psalm 67. Missions is our joy. In God, spilling out from us to the nations. That's my definition of missions.

It is our joy in God, spilling out from us like the tears of a mother saying goodbye to the nations. Missions is the heart of God. Our God is a missionary God, so much so that he sent his son on a mission to ransom us from our sins.

Joy in God That Spills Out to the Nations

So Psalm 67, one to three. First point, we rightly desire happiness in God. It's good when you desire to be happy and fulfilled and satisfied in God, but that joy is for the glory of God and for the salvation of God to the ends of the earth.

It's not meant to be kept forever and alone here. It's a joy that's meant to spill out. It's something that's meant to go to the ends of the earth, and it's meant for God's glory. His joy and our glory fit together like a hand in a glove.

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us. Selah, that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, oh God. Let all the peoples praise you.

The joy of knowing God is something that the psalmist here, we don't know who it is, who wrote this Psalm, but it's something he desires. Look at verse one. May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us.

We want that. We want blessing in God. We want joy in God, but it's a joy that needs to be shared. It cannot be contained in the Christian heart. It has to be shared, because look at verse two. That, the word that there, you can circle it because it draws a connection for why you're being so blessed with this joy in Jesus, that it has something to do beyond you.

That what? That your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. Make a note in your Bible that this corresponds to Genesis chapter 12, verses one to three. Abraham was called to go, like a missionary, go from your people, and I will bless you.

Why? Why was Abraham to be blessed in order to be a blessing to the nations? So that whoever then would bless you would be blessed. The promise given to Abraham had an international promise attached with it.

He would become a nation with a land and an inheritance, and he would know God and represent God on earth. People would come from him, the nation of Israel, but that nation was meant to be a lighthouse to the nations.

So the purpose of God establishing a unique particular people that was his nation was to attract all the other nations of earth to see that the God of Israel is the one and only true God. So the queen of Sheba comes up from Ethiopia and delights in the God of Israel, and Naaman comes and meets with the king and learns about Elijah and goes and dips seven times, not in his Syrian river, but in the Jordan.

The peoples came to Israel. It was a magnet. It was a lighthouse that attracted the nations to see that the true God is the God of Israel. This was meant to bless the nations, and when Christ comes, he reverses this pattern, and instead of everybody coming to a nation, Israel, to find the true God, the particular people are sent out.

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. We then, in the church, are sent out to the world to go to every last ethnic people group, the Great Commission, to the nations, every ethnos.

We're told the gospel must be preached to every last ethnic group in the world. It's our job to get there. This is our mission, the Great Commission. It's finishable because it's defined. It's not until every last person on earth believes in Christ, because to most who hear this news that we preach, they will consider it an aroma of death.

Some will receive it as an aroma of life, but we go to every last ethnic group. That desire was there in the psalmist, and it goes back to Genesis 12. So look again, Psalm 67. May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us.

The blessing that we have received from God has a purpose that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all the nations. Didn't Jesus say something similar in John 15 with the analogy of the vine and the branches?

He is the vine, we are the branches. He says in John 15, eight, by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. In John 15, 11, you have these verses in your notes.

You can look them up later. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. There's a connection between the joy that we have in him and him being glorified as we bear much fruit.

So recognize three things here. One, God desires to bless us. He wants you to experience fullness of joy. So the first issue is joy, but that joy is not meant as an end in itself, rather glory, glory to God in the joy that you have in him.

As you find your satisfaction in God, your life wound up in his and you feel complete and everything is set right in that, your joy is bringing him glory. But the third element is that it's not kept between you and God, although it is personal like that, it's vertical like that, but it's meant to explode out of us to the nations.

That salvation goes from us to others. John 15, 26 and 27, when the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the father, the spirit of truth who proceeds from the father, he will bear witness about me and you also will bear witness.

Do you see that? The joy, the blessing that we have in Christ glorifies him. But we speak it forth to others, we bear witness. He puts it in this analogy in John 16, 21 to 21, the analogy of a mother giving birth.

When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come. But when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a human being has been born into the world.

So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again. And your hearts will rejoice and no one will take your joy from you. In that day, you will ask nothing of me. Truly I say to you, whatever you ask of the father in my name, he will give it to you.

Until now you have asked nothing in my name, ask and you will receive that your joy may be full. The disciples went through a great anguish when they watched the Messiah whom they had followed and given their lives to suffer and die on the cross.

And all hope seemed to be lost, but their joy was made full when he rose from the dead and appeared to them again. And that joy spilled out from every last one of them who believed as they all went proclaiming the good news.

They no longer had him in the person to ask face to face to do things for him. Now he had ascended to heaven and they began to pray. And lo and behold, as this connection between joy and glory and speaking, as that was held together, here's what they discovered.

When they asked anything in the name of Jesus to their heavenly father, he did it. I wanna tell you about unspeakable joy. The joy that each one of us in this room craves, but sometimes miss out on. It is the joy of Amelia Taylor.

When she saw her wayward child wandering off into darkness. And so she shut herself up in a prayer closet and for hours, maybe four hours interceded for her son until this assurance came from God that her prayers were heard.

And seeing that boy saved just days later, her joy was made full. There's power in prayer. We need to remember this. God intends for his people, look at 67 one, to be blessed. His face shines upon us.

You say, wait a minute, I don't feel that blessed. Yeah, grieving and sorrow is part of this walk while we're still in the flesh. But consider how the face of God has shined on us already. That he has given his one and only son to us whose blood was spilled on Calvary and he rose from the dead and now we stand forgiven.

We are like the disciples who saw him risen from the dead. We see that through the word, our eyes are opened. We are saved, we're born again, redeemed at the cost of the blood of the lamb. What more could we ask for?

He has shown his face upon us. A light has burst forth in Galilee. The light to the nations, Isaiah nine. And continuing with Isaiah nine, there's coming a day in the millennial kingdom when the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the water covers the sea.

Habakkuk two, whoever was teaching that through today. 214, Habakkuk 214 says the same thing. God has blessed us. Not to keep it here in this building but to go there to the ends of the earth. And as we go in obedience, in joy, sharing that joy with whomever it is that we see, filled with the Holy Spirit, we begin to pray, we see answers to prayer and our joy only multiplies and increases.

This is the heart of the psalmist. Not to keep that blessing to Israel. Who is us in verse one? That us is Israel, the Abrahamic covenant. These are the chosen people. But he sees Genesis 12 two and three that this is to go to the ends of the earth.

Why Missions Exists Because Worship Does Not

So the first big idea is this connection between joy and glory and sharing that salvation to the ends of the earth. The second big idea is that missions exist because worship doesn't. Now I have to give credit where credit's due.

That is John Piper, his language. I love it. But the big idea is he is worthy of our worship. But the people who worship other gods are worshiping idols that have no power to save. Look at verses four and five.

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy. For you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Let the peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples praise you. The prayer is that the peoples would praise him.

Why? Because they don't. You say, wait a minute. It says he judges the people with equity and he guides the nations upon the earth. Is that true or not? Absolutely it's true. How does he judge the nations who have never heard of Jesus Christ?

He judges them based on the light that they have been given. You say, well, okay. So they can come another way than through Jesus. Absolutely not. Romans one tells us that God has made his power and eternal glory known through the things that are made.

There is a witness from heaven. The creation, the general revelation of God is light from God to show that the one true God is the maker of heaven and earth. All other gods are idols. What do people do with that light that comes to them?

According to Romans one, they suppress it. In ungodliness, they exchange that glory for the glory of images created by them. Things made of wood. They make idols out of wood and then they have to carry those idols and set them up and fasten them to the ground so they don't tip over like Dagon in the temple.

They make idols. So when it says in verse four, you judge the peoples with equity, they're not judged for rejecting Jesus. Because the good news of Jesus hasn't come to their ears yet. They're judged with equity for having received the revelation of conscience and the knowledge of an eternal God who created all things and yet suppressing that knowledge in ungodliness, according to Romans one.

Here is the great hindrance to missions. We live in a culture and sadly, even in much of evangelicalism, that assumes that all paths lead to God. That the worshiper of Allah, who follows the five pillars of Islam, is following a path that will wind up in the same place as the message of Christianity and the worshipers of Buddha or who follow the Buddhist ideology and those who follow the Talmud, a Jewish rejection of the Messiah, that all of these paths wind up in the same place in heaven because surely God judges with equity.

Here's the issue. God does judge with equity. He is a holy God. And the demand of a holy God is nothing other than perfection. Perfection. It's not being good enough in our own eyes as we compare ourselves one with another or as we strive after the man-made codes that we create.

The standard is perfection and all people on earth equitably are given this command. Be perfect as the Father is perfect. Many people will never go to the mission field because they assume that the righteousness of people in their own religions will work out in the end.

Surely they'll be fine. They can't imagine that millions upon millions are dying and departing into everlasting torment in hell on account of their sin. But the perfection that God demands, which we in our sinfulness are unable to meet, is a provided perfection, a perfect one who never sinned, came from heaven to earth, born to a virgin, walked among us, lived the perfect life, died a perfect death, rose from the dead, and now his perfection, his righteousness is offered to all without charge, and that is the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Offered as a gift, free, to those who will believe in him because that faith in Christ is imputed to the believer as righteousness. There is a perfection. There is a righteousness. His name is Jesus, and so God judges equitably, and every person needs the Messiah.

Every person needs him. There is no other way. General revelation does not have the power to save, and certainly man-made, idolatrous systems of religion have no power to save. In fact, they're antithetical to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Where does that leave us? It leaves us with our commission. If this is true, if the world is perishing apart from God, revealing his son Jesus to the perishing heart, if this is true, then we must go.

Thus, our commission, go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is his plan to save the world, and I know it's politically incorrect. I know it is.

It's not my words. It's John 14, six, where Jesus says, I am the way and the truth and the life. That definitive article, definite article. Ha, there is no other. No man comes to the Father except by me.

He judges equitably. He guides the nations, which means they need a savior. Verse six and seven. Last major point. See, this clock in the back is slow, and it's throwing me off. I just remembered it's like seven minutes slow, so I gotta hustle here.

But we'll get done quick. Fortunately, there's only seven verses in the whole psalm, so I can camp out a little longer. The last big point is that God will most certainly bring in the harvest. Most certainly, verse six and seven, the earth has yielded its increase.

God, our God, shall bless us. God shall bless us. Let all the ends of the earth fear him. It is certainly going to happen. God sends the sower, and he sends those sowers all throughout the earth, and by God's grace, this church has about 12 of them out there in the world right now.

12 full-time missionary families preaching the gospel to the ends of the earth. And every one of you are called to go sow that seed in these neighborhoods in which we live. He is sending out the seed.

He also sends waterers, someone who comes alongside it and brings the word of God to water that seedling until it's borne up. Hear the words of Jesus. And Jesus went through all the cities and villages.

This is Matthew nine. Teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.

Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. The Lord of the harvest, he is sovereign.

That's what Lord means. He is working all of these things together and he will bring his elect to himself. His sheep will hear his voice and they will come. And not one of them will be lost according to John 644.

He is sovereignly doing this, but our part in it is to pray earnestly. And those two ideas are not opposed. Opposed. God is doing the saving. He's the waterer. He's the one that makes things grow, but he's using us to go pour that water.

So pray as if it all depends on you, but trust and believe and know that it all depends on him. The Lord of the harvest is bringing in the harvest, but our part is to go out and pray. I heard a silly joke on K-Love about a gardener.

Don't stone me for this one. What did the gardener do when he got overexcited? He wet his plants. One man sows, another waters, but it's God who gives the increase. We are called to go out sowing and watering the harvest as he brings it in, as he makes it grow.

So now we get a chance to close with that deep spiritual thought. In closing, what are we to do? Delight yourself in the Lord and so desire the spread of his fame to the nations. This is a Sunday. It's Mother's Day, but it's about missions.

It's about the sending of the gospel to the end of the nations. Whatever became of Hudson Taylor. Amelia and he wrote letters until 1881 for about 20 something years, encouraging one another in the Lord until she went to be with God.

Who got the joy? Both of them, the fullness of joy. Hudson's son Howard became a missionary like his dad and he married Geraldine and all their children were taught of the Lord. Isaiah 54. Oh, there's joy in that.

I've told you before, Isaiah 59, 21 has spoken to me. I've claimed that as a verse that my children and their children's children and their children down until the return of Christ will walk with the Lord.

That's my desire. Hudson Taylor used to say, and I quoted this last week, "'I never made a sacrifice. "'I never made a sacrifice.'". Same thing David Livingston used to say. And Geraldine, his daughter-in-law said, I think he's exaggerating.

I mean, look what Hudson sacrificed for the gospel. And yet he says, I never made a sacrifice till she writes these words as a missionary herself. "'By now I know,' and I'm closing with this. "'By now I know that such words are wholly true.'".

Talk of sacrifice, there is no sacrifice. There is no such word to the Christian. Count it all joy, all joy. After a riot, when our lives had been saved by a miracle, when we were sitting bruised and bleeding amidst the ruins of our home, speaking about her husband Howard and herself, this is the daughter-in-law of Hudson Taylor.

She's sitting bruised and bleeding in her home, which has been blown up. She says, in that hour, believe me, heaven itself was open to us. And we tasted then and afterwards a joy so marvelous that I scarcely like to speak about it here as we realized that we had been permitted to suffer something for Christ's sake.

No words can tell you the joy which filled our hearts. We've never known anything like it since. And we would not miss that experience of our lives for all that you could give us. Joy is not to be showered with this world's goods, is it?

Because the more you get, the more you want. Joy is to lay aside houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers and children. I know a family that when they finished their career in their 60s, they said goodbye to their grown children and they went to Tanzania.

They've been church planting there ever since and training up leaders, watering. And their joy is full. Their joy comes from knowing Him and sharing Him with others. And as you go, you begin to pray because you need to pray.

When they're blowing up your house, when they're coming for you, when they're trying to kill you, that's when you pray like you mean it. And that's when you see power unleashed like you've never seen before.

And when you see your children taught of the Lord and their children taught of the Lord, that's when your joy is full. And when you're in heaven, remembering this brief mist of a life that you got to live, you will look back and you will rejoice for every time you were counted worthy of suffering for the sake of the name.

You won't remember scoring that goal. You won't care about that hoop or that thing you made or did. You'll care about missions. And that you had a part in it. So let's close in a word of prayer. Worship team, come up.