His Shining Face: Psalm 67-Supplication through the Scriptures

His Shining Face

Psalm 67

The blessing of God’s shining face upon us is an indescribable benefit and guarantees that His Spirit is working among us.
The Face of Blessing, Ligonier

In Numbers 6:24-26, the Lord instructs Aaron and his sons to speak a blessing over the people of Israel. The blessing may be familiar:

The LORD bless you and keep you; 
The LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

In Psalm 67, the psalmist uses some of the language of the priestly blessing at the beginning of the psalm. He is requesting for God to be gracious to them, to bless them, and to make His face shine upon them. To have God’s face shining on them meant the near presence of the Lord to impart His life, His blessing, His favor on His people. What joy and security comes to God’s people when His face shines upon them! 

At times it may feel that God is hiding His face from us. Several times in the psalms we see a desperate plea for the Lord to not hide His face.“Why do You hide Your face and forget our affliction and our oppression?” (Psalm 44:24). “O LORD, why do You reject my soul? Why do You hide Your face from me?” (Psalm 84:14). For God’s people, though there are times where it seems that He hides His face, because we are His, we are guaranteed that all spiritual blessings are already ours in Christ. His presence, His shining face will ever be toward His own children. 

We are called to live in light of God’s presence. We are to walk in the light as He is in the light. His nearness to us, His own Spirit abiding in us, transforms us. When we live with an aim to please Him, we can have confidence that His face is shining on us. Not that we must earn His favor, as Christ has earned in our place all we need, but there is a settledness in the heart of the believer when he is walking uprightly. “The face of blessing shines upon all those who are faithful to His covenant, and if we walk in His ways, we can be assured of His pleasure even when things seem to be falling apart” (“The Face of Blessing,” Ligonier). 

Let’s pray through Psalm 67 today, rejoicing in the blessing of His shining face upon us. 

Daily Dagger: Make Your face shine upon me (Psalm 67:1).

Make Your Face Shine

67:1-3 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! 
Let’s pray:
▫️Lord, You would continue to be gracious to us and bless us. We praise You for Your salvation, and we ask that You continue to bless us with more of Your presence, more knowledge of You and Your ways, more wisdom and insight to live for You.
▫️Lord, make Your face shine upon us. Let us feel Your good pleasure toward us. Cleanse our iniquities, and give us steadfast hearts to love and know You.
▫️We desire for Your name and Your glory to be known. Let Your let shine through us that in seeing our good works others may glorify You (Matthew 5:16).
▫️We praise You this morning for Your kindness toward us. You have been a gracious, merciful, tender, patient Savior.

You Shall Bless Us

67:4-7 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! 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!
Let’s pray:
▫️The blessing of Your presence would be known throughout the earth. All nations, every tribe and tongue and people, would know You, our great God and Savior.
▫️We praise You because You love justice and righteousness and You give guidance to Your people.
▫️We recognize Your great power and sovereignty as You rule in the hosts of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
▫️As You bless Your people, the ends of the earth would fear You. The world around us would see that we have a mighty God who works on behalf of His people, and they would in turn seek Your face.
▫️We would keep before us the joy of seeing Your face (Revelation 22:4). When we are rejoicing, we would realize this rejoicing is just a faint whisper of the greater rejoicing that will be ours in eternity. And when we are sorrowing, we would be comforted to know that all our sorrow will be swallowed up in the beauty of Your presence in eternity. 

May the Lord do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, for His glory and our good. In Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Psalm 67 quoted from the ESV. 
Photo credit to zwaddi

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