Psalm 67 God’s Blessings Causes Others to Come

Daily Bible Study for Thursday September 29, 2016

By: Hanny Lynn Stearns

Fish N Loaves Ministries, Inc.

“Multiplying God’s Word Around The Globe”

Chapter Reading for Today: Please read in your Bible before proceeding. Note that most translations are considered paraphrases. The Young’s Literal Translation provides a more accurate translation since he is the one who authored a concordance. Others are helpful for seeing a different perspective, but we cannot always depend on their wording. I hope this is helpful to you. If you are studying in another version, that is fine. I am studying from the KJV, but for the purpose of this study, I will keep it with the New King James Version.

One final note: I will put the scripture in italics to differentiate from my own writing. I am adding red to the letters when it is Jesus talking – just like the Bible. Thank you.

Bible Gateway Verse of the Day

John 3:20-21

For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

Psalm 100:4

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,

and into His courts with praise.

Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

Psalm 67

God’s Blessings Causes Others to Come

In this short but powerful section of verses, we can see a very basic principal in the Bible. When people see how God has blessed His own, they will stand up and take notice. That is what we want. In this world, money talks. It is the currency of life on this earth. God gave us a way to buy and sell – through money. When people who have not yet received their salvation through Jesus Christ see God’s covenant children walking around with piles of money and property, houses, cars, etc., in abundance, they will take notice. Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father:

Thank You for the many blessings You have provided for Your covenant children. Just like the Israelites so long ago as noted in the Bible were blessed, so are those of us today who call You our Savior and Lord. Thank You for using our blessings to cause those who are lost to notice how good You are. Father, I am asking that You continue to bring more people to Your word through this study as it goes out across the globe. Multiply the seed of Your Word Father so that it produces a fruitful harvest that is plentiful. As always Lord, I ask You to give me the anointing and the utterance to bring Your message to the hearts of those who will value Your word and respond to it in faith. Cause this to go out now unhindered and unchecked by any outside force or my flesh Lord. Thank You for always watching over Your word to perform it in our lives when we obey it. Father, we desire to be doers of Your word and not forgetful hearers. Thank You in advance for the fruitful harvest that this message will produce in many lives. I join with my brothers and sisters in Christ to give You all the glory, honor and praise for the answers to this prayer in Jesus mighty and blessed name! Amen. 

This is an exciting chapter. They are all good. What I appreciate about this is the discussion on prosperity. Most Christians do not understand or believe in prosperity. I can’t say I don’t understand how they feel because I was once there myself. All because I had been taught lies from “religious” people and I believed them. What that did for me was to cause me to think I should always be poor, and point an accusing finger at Christians when I saw them driving nice cars and wearing nice clothes and jewelry. All of that comes from the lies of the enemy of our souls. He wants us to think that God wants us broke and sick – that He is trying to “teach us something in that” - all lies!

In today’s chapter we can quickly sum up what was going on this way. The Psalmist was asking for three things.

1.    Mercy

2.    Blessings

3.    Favor

The result that he desired was to have people all around the world see how good God is and come to the Lord for their salvation so they too could receive the blessings of the Lord. In the next set of verses, 3-5, he is showing us why God’s people praise Him. The Lord is a righteous Judge and Ruler. First of all, His judgments are fair. Nobody ever gets a “special favor” with God that doesn’t line up with the rest of His rules. He deals with all people according to their deeds rightly. He never breaks the rules for anyone. Everything He does as the Ruler of His people is right and it is good. How many know that when people ask us why we seem to be so happy all the time, we should have a quick response to that question on the very tip of our tongues?

Finally, the last two verses show us what the end result of being blessed by God will produce. When the world looks at us living a godly life, really, and being financially blessed along with blessing others, they are going to stand up and pay attention. They will ask questions like, “How did you do that?” or “Where did you come up with that idea when nobody else could figure it out?” Things like this happen for those who belong to God and are led by Holy Spirit. When we are so blessed they just look at us and scratch their heads. Then we have their attention. And that attention is what we need to share with them who our Daddy is!

God can take a poor man or woman and make them so wealthy it will boggle the minds of unsaved coworkers, family and friends.  The Jewish people have always been known as being very intelligent and very wealthy. Why is this so? Because they are God’s chosen (covenant) people. As born again Christians, we fall right into that same blood covenant. I believe that God wants everyone in the church to rise up and start to realize who they really are in Christ and what they have been given as His children.

We will look at two main points on prosperity and then dig in to break them down from there. Join me for some eye opening information that can transform your life, both in your finances and in your witness to the unsaved world around you!

1.  God makes it clear throughout His word that He wants His covenant people to have an abundance of prosperity. The blessing says this. The blessing shows us that God will open up for us His good treasury. Let’s look at some verses…

Deuteronomy 15:6

For the Lord your God will bless you just as He promised you; you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow; you shall reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over you.

Next we need to look at how the Lord promised to make Abraham rich, and Abraham’s promise belongs to us as God’s born again children…

Genesis 17:6

 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.

The Lord brought His people out of Egypt with silver and gold and there were no feeble people in their group. In addition to this, God granted them favor in the sight of the Egyptians so they would willingly hand over the goods! Hallelujah! The fear of God’s people fell on the Egyptians. Can you see how that ties into our chapter today? When people see the mighty things God does and the favor that is on His people, it will cause them to tremble in their boots! Praise His name forever!

Exodus 12:35-36

³⁵ Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing. ³⁶ And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.

Psalm 105:37

He also brought them out with silver and gold, and there was none feeble among His tribes.

Next we look at God – our God who keeps His promises. He had promised something to His servant Abraham – and by remembering His holy word and promise to him, the Lord gave them the lands of the nations…

Psalm 105:42-45

⁴² For He remembered His holy promise, and Abraham His servant.
⁴³ He brought out His people with joy, His chosen ones with gladness.
⁴⁴ He gave them the lands of the Gentiles, and they inherited the labor of the nations, ⁴⁵ that they might observe His statutes and keep His laws. Praise the Lord!

It would be really good if you would stop and read the entire Psalm to see the works that God did for His people when He brought them out of Egypt. It is a great review of what happened way back then. His promises are still as good today as they were back then. That is worth shouting about saints! We are God’s people too, and now that Jesus came and finished His redemptive work, we live under a better covenant than they did back then. So in Christ Jesus, we have the blessing of Abraham. Jesus is the seed of Abraham, and we are the seed too through Jesus when we get born again. What belongs to Jesus belongs to you too! That is really awesome news from our “more than enough” God!

2.   The Father God remembers His covenant with His Son Jesus. As a result, He meets all of our needs spiritually, physically and financially. Why? Because we are His very own sons. Hallelujah! Let’s look further at this.

The word tells us that God can make favor and blessings come our way in abundance…

2 Corinthians 9:8 AMP

⁸ And God is able to make all grace (every favor and earthly blessing) come to you in abundance, so that you may always and under all circumstances and whatever the need be self-sufficient [possessing enough to require no aid or support and furnished in abundance for every good work and charitable donation].

Here’s something for you to think about. If God so richly blessed His servants, how much more does He desire to bless His own sons? When we read Psalm 105 a moment ago, we understand that “Israel” is the body of Christ. The church is the spiritual Israel. Isn’t that the best news? The gospel of Jesus Christ is always and only good news to the poor. Let’s look at another section of verses in Ezekiel about God’s covenant and His blessings for His people…

Ezekiel 34:25-31

²⁵ “I will make a covenant of peace with them, and cause wild beasts to cease from the land; and they will dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. ²⁶ I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing; and I will cause showers to come down in their season; there shall be showers of blessing. ²⁷ Then the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase. They shall be safe in their land; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them. ²⁸ And they shall no longer be a prey for the nations, nor shall beasts of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and no one shall make them afraid. ²⁹ I will raise up for them a garden of renown, and they shall no longer be consumed with hunger in the land, nor bear the shame of the Gentiles anymore. ³⁰ Thus they shall know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and they, the house of Israel, are My people,” says the Lord God.’

³¹ “You are My flock, the flock of My pasture; you are men, and I am your God,” says the Lord God.

If more Christians would grab hold of these wonderful blessings from the Lord, they would be living their lives on a completely different plain. When an unsaved person looks at a Christian and sees them miserable, sad, depressed, and flat broke, having no money to spare and a rundown house, why would they ever want to become one of us? They are already experiencing all that misery. In their minds they wonder, “What do they have that I don’t already drag around every day?” It leaves one scratching their head in total confusion.

A broke, busted and disgusted Christian is no sign and wonder to the outside world. 

They need to grow up in the word and understand who they are in Christ and what they have inherited. Then they need to apply their faith to possess what God’s grace has already provided! The Lord can make His covenant people so wealthy -  in their spirit, soul, body and bank accounts. That is what He wants for us! I don’t know about you, but I want everything God has for me. And why? Sure, I like nice things – don’t most people. But the MAIN thing about having nice things is the soul winning and blessing other saints part! That’s what I like the best.

Having abundance means to be well prepared to win the lost and finance the work that God wants us to do. What if God woke you up in the middle of the night and said, “Samuel, I want you to buy Mrs. Jones a brand new house right away. She is getting ready to lose her home and I want you to help her. She is your sister in the Lord.” But if you have not been setting aside any money in your “God account” like a faithful steward, how would you have to respond to that question? It would sound something like this, “Well Lord, I would like to but I don’t have the money. I have had to use everything I have received from you on myself and my family and there just was not anything left over.” What do you think the Lord would say about that? We can find the answers in the parables of the sower Jesus gave in the gospel accounts. The Master would not be pleased with such a servant.

A person in the kingdom of God gets blessed so he/she can be prepared to be a great big blessing to others. We have to be tithers and sowers. We need to reap big harvests and we need to hear what God wants us to do with the money. It should sit there until He tells us what to do. He may ask us to give our house away and move. It could be anything – we should always be prepared. In our hearts the best place to live with the Lord is in a tent. There was a lot more back in the wilderness with the Israelites living in tents than meets the eye. We need to be ready to move when God says move – just like they did. Additionally, we need to hold nothing in this life so dear that we cannot just get up and walk away from it in a moment’s notice when the Lord says, “Go!”

That includes family, friends, whatever He says to leave - we must be ready to cheerfully respond by saying, “Yes Lord.” No “buts” about it. He will supply all of the needs to do whatever He is calling us to do. If we respond favorably to His requests, the waters will part (obstacles) and the manna will come down (provisions) to do everything God wants us to do – hallelujah!

Some final notes about prosperity for God’s people. Let’s look at these verses first. I encourage you to study further on this if this is new to you - on your own in much greater detail. If you will invest the time and ask the Lord to enlighten the eyes of your heart as you study, you will come out on the other side transformed by renewing your mind. Things in your life can only improve when we meditate on the word of God and really pay attention to what God is showing us. Let’s look…

Deuteronomy 8:18

¹⁸ “And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

Remember that God is and always will be our only source. The government is not our source. Our employer is not our source. Neither is our spouse or our parents. The only provider for the Christian is our glorious and gracious Father in heaven – praise His name forever!

Luke 4:18

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed;

When God’s people are poor spiritually and financially, they need someone to preach the good news to them that God is a Savior and a Provider! Who is there that is poor that would not consider this good news? I am anointed to preach this good news to you today – hallelujah! And I count it a great honor, privilege and blessing to be called of the Lord to preach and teach His anointed word to the weary, the poor, the sick and the blind!

The laws of prosperity (increase) are based on the word of God. In other words, our prosperity is produced by God’s word, not the world we live in. The Jews were prosperous in every culture they were living in. Their race or circumstances were not the determining factor. Their position in the word of God was their hope in God – their source. It is vitally important for us to know that it is God’s will to prosper us. Then we need to fully understand why. Like we have already mentioned, we are blessed so we can be a blessing. Freely we have received – freely we give.

Also, it takes money to go preach the gospel around the world. That’s why preachers need airplanes along staff and equipment. Those jets are not meant for the heathen – they were meant for us to take the word around the globe! The good stuff isn’t supposed to be for the sinners. It is for God’s people. But we have to be careful that money and things never “have us” or we have a problem that is bigger than life. Like I said, we should always be living in a tent in our hearts. And Paul said it well when he said this…

Philippians 4:11-13

¹¹ Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: ¹² I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. ¹³ I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

In a world full of religious traditions and men’s teachings, along with the doctrines of devils, many a Christian have left this planet without ever having the abundant life that the Lord had created them to have. They missed their calling, their blessings and their rewards. They missed a lot. We can only imagine what people must think when they stand before the Master only to find out what they were supposed to have done with their time, talents and treasures while here on the earth. It must come as quite a shock to millions! But that’s not going to be us, is it saints? No, we are grabbing hold of God’s promises and we are taking this world by Holy Spirit power to walk into all the Lord has for us, amen?!!!! Then we can find out how many others we can bring into the kingdom. 

Questions:

List the main points discussed in today’s chapter?

What have you learned that you did not previously understand about the blessings of God?

What will you do differently as a result of studying this?

Who can you share this good news with?

There are three main points to consider from today’s study…

God is rich in mercy, favor and blessings for His people

We praise the Lord because of Who He is and what He stands for as He Judges and Rules in our lives

God wants to bless His people financially so they can be used to bless others

                        Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father:

Thank You for the many blessings that come to us as a result of being Your sons! Father, it is my heart’s desire to use all that You have so graciously provided for me so that You can use me to be a blessing to many. Father, if I have not managed what You have given me like I should, I ask You to show me how to reprioritize the affairs of my life – including my finances. Help me to fully understand the laws that pertain to tithes, offerings, sowing and reaping, and how to bring in the big harvests so You can do Your work through me. I thank You in advance for equipping me with every blessing I need to help others. You are the greatest Giver, and I want to be a giver too. Thank You in advance for the answer to this prayer. I believe I receive it Lord in Jesus blessed name. Amen.

Who has the Lord asked you to bless lately?

And God Said… You fill in the blanks.

Proverbs 10:22

The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.