Psalms 67:1

Psalms 67:1 says, To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm or Song.  After the introduction of the Psalm, verse one says, God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.  This should be the prayer of every person today, and especially Christians.  Of course, as Christians God has already been merciful to us by forgiving our sins through our faith in Jesus Christ, but we need His mercy and blessing everyday, and we need God's Light to shine on us always.   Verse two adds, That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.  As Paul said, we need God's mercy and grace so that we can show His way to the world.  This is our commission as followers of Christ and not just something that we are to do to bring honor to ourselves.   All that we do as Christians should bring honor and glory to God.  Verse three states, Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.  David called on all the people to praise God.  We cannot expect all the people to praise God if we do not praise Him ourselves.  If people are truly to see Jesus through us, we need to continually live by His grace and power and to reflect it to the world.  Verse four adds, O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah.  David called on all the nations to be glad and sing for joy because God judges people righteously and for all nations to let God rule them.  This will happen one day, when Jesus Christ returns in judgment, but until then we can only live with Him ruling our heart and life and witnessing to others that they might become a part of God's kingdom.  Verse five continues, Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.  Again, we cannot control whether all the people praise God or not, but we can certainly control whether we do or not, and if all people are to praise God, then that definitely includes us.  We should praise God at all times and not just when life is going well.  Verse six declares, Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us.  David said that when everyone truly praised God that the earth would yield its increase.  If the world seems to be failing to provide its increase today, that is because too many people do not give praise to God and follow His way in life.   Verse seven adds, God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.  As David said then, if we follow God's way through faith in and obedience to Jesus Christ, He will bless us.  Our obedience to God, even in the storms of life, should cause others to fear what will one day happen to them if they don't put their faith in Him.