Authentic Prayer: Interceding
Psalm 67
This is the sixth week in our series called “Authentic Prayer: Insights from the Psalms.” We’ve covered Seeking (Psa 63), Waiting (Psa 25), Confessing (Psa 51), Asking (Psa 86), and Lamenting (Psa 22).
God has used this series to impact me, as a few times I’ve found myself turning from my to-do list, and giving some more time to prayer. I’ve also had a greater sense of expectancy and earnestness in prayer. And it has been encouraging to hear about the same happening in many of you.
Now this morning I want us to talk about intercession – which means prayer for other people. We’ve talked about prayer for our own needs – we covered that under “asking.” But now we want to talk about prayer for other people – we’ll call that “interceding.”
A powerful example of interceding is found in Psalm 67. So let’s turn there together. If you need a Bible, go ahead and raise your hand and we will bring one to you. Psalm 67 is on page 481 in the Bibles we are passing out.
We don’t know a lot about this psalm. We don’t know who wrote it or why it was written. But we do know that, since it is included in the book of psalms, that it was regularly prayed by God’s people. And when we pray it, we start right off asking God to do something for God’s people as a whole.
Now one comment before I read the first verse. A couple times in this psalm you’ll read the word “selah.” We aren’t sure what that word means. It might indicate a pause for reflection, or a place for an instrumental. We just don’t know.
Look at v.1 --
May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah [we’re not sure what that word means in Hebrew]
So what are we asking God to do in v.1? There’s three requests.
First – “God be gracious to us.” The psalm has us start right off asking God for grace, which means we are asking for something we know we don’t deserve. This is crucial to understand.
Every other religion has us trying to deserve things from God. But that’s not reality. There is a God who has created everything, and we have all rebelled against Him, and as a result deserve only punishment from Him. But – the good news is that He sent His own Son Jesus, to be punished in our place for our sin, so that when we trust Jesus, God loves to be gracious to us and give us good things which we don’t deserve.
This is crucial to understand for prayer. Because in our pride we’re wired to try to deserve good things from God. So, sometimes we pray thinking we can deserve good things from God. But that’s a lie; we can’t deserve good things from God -- so God won’t hear that prayer. Or at other times we don’t pray because we think we cannot deserve good things from God. But that’s a lie; we don’t need to deserve good things from God.
So this psalm immediately puts us on the right footing for prayer. We are asking God to be gracious to us – to give us good things that we don’t deserve; which He will do for us as we are trusting Jesus.
Second – we ask God to “bless us.” Here we ask for specific blessings – all the different good things we long for. This could include a safe delivery for Jenn Wisselink, more work for Strouss brothers and Halstead Drywall. It could include a new job; needed housing; wisdom for parenting. It can include strength in a trial; power over a temptation; comfort during heartbreak.
So here we are asking God to bring specific blessings to His people.
Third, we ask God to “make his face to shine upon us.” Friday night I was doing a wedding up in the Los Gatos mountains. And I stood up in front of the people while the wedding party came in. Now if at that point you asked me if Jan loved me, I would have said “yes.” But at one point I looked out and saw Jan, and we made eye contact. Jan smiled at me. And at that point I did not just know that Jan loved me, I experienced her love for me.
That’s what’s going on here. We know from God’s Word that He loves us. We read about His love demonstrated on the Cross. That’s our rock. No matter how we feel, no matter what’s going on around us, we know that God loves us.
But there will be times when God makes His face to shine upon us – times when He gives us a conscious connection with Him – just like when Jan made eye contact with me and smiled at me. And at those moments we will not just know truth about God; we will experience the very presence of God.
So those are the three requests God wants us to ask for us as His people. Don’t miss the wonder of this. God wants us to ask Him to give His grace, blessings, and presence to His people -- which means God loves to give these to His people. God loves to!
But if that’s true, then why do we need to ask God to give His grace, blessings, and presence to His people? If God loves to give His grace, blessings, and presence to His people – why do we need to ask God to do this for them?
That question is not answered here – but it’s answered throughout the rest of the Bible, like in James 4:2 (“you have not because you ask not”) and Matthew 7:8 (everyone who asks receives). It’s because God has chosen to give His grace, blessings, and presence in response to prayer. So when you pray – intercede – for your husband or wife or children or home group – and ask God to give His grace, blessings, and presence to them – they will receive more of God’s grace, blessings, and presence than if you had not asked.
Let’s get more specific. We can’t predict exactly what God’s going to do. There’s some mystery here.
But generally speaking, when you pray for God to pour His Spirit out on your children, more of God’s Spirit will be poured out on them than if you had not prayed.
When you pray for God to provide a job for a brother in your home group, more of God’s power to provide a job will be given to your brother than if you had not prayed.
When you pray for a sister in your home group to be comforted in a trial, more of God’s comfort will be poured out on that sister than if you had not prayed.
When you pray for your husband to have wisdom at work, more of God’s wisdom will be given to him than if you had not prayed.
When you pray for your wife to have a conscious connection with God, she will have a more conscious connection with God than if you had not prayed.
Do you see how crucial it is that we intercede for each other?
Listen. Even five minutes of earnest prayer in Jesus’ name will bring more of God’s grace, blessing, and presence to other people than if you did not spend that five minutes of earnest prayer.
So intercede for your family: for your wife, your husband, your children. Think through what they need, and earnestly intercede for them. Intercede for those in your home group – take notes when prayer requests are shared – and pray for those requests as well as for the outpouring of the Spirit on your home group. Intercede for the church at large.
That’s why God wants us to ask – because it’s through our prayer that God gives His grace, blessings, and presence to others. That’s the point of v.1.
But now after v.1 the psalm takes a surprising turn, which we can see by asking this question -- why does God give us His grace, blessings, and presence? We know from other passages in the Bible that God does this because He loves us; that He does this to display His glory. But that’s not the answer given in this passage.
To see the answer given here, read vv.1-2 together --
1 May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah
2 that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.
V.2 points to a huge problem: God and His saving power are not known on the earth. Don’t misunderstand this. God has been known by everyone. Romans 1 says that through God’s creation everyone has known enough to turn to God and receive all His goodness. But Romans 1 also says that all of us rebelled against God. Our sin made us blind to God. That’s why God is not known.
But look at what God does. In v.1, God answers our prayer and is gracious to us and blesses us and makes his face shine upon us so that (v.2) his way may be known on the earth and his saving power among all the nations.
Picture it like this. Here we are over here – the church of Jesus Christ – those who have been saved by God’s power. And over here are your neighbors and co-workers and the unreached people groups who do not know God.
So we over here intercede and ask God to pour out His grace and blessing and presence upon us. That’s v.1. And, as God loves to do, He pours out His grace and blessing and presence upon us. But God does that so that your neighbors and fellow-workers and unreached peoples will come to know God’s ways and saving power.
But how does that work? How does God’s giving His grace and blessing and presence to His people have any affect on lost people? Here God provides a job for this person; brings comfort to this person; shines His face upon this person. How will that have any effect on those people?
There’s only one way. It’s by His people going to lost people – showing them God’s grace and blessings and presence by their lives – and telling them the truth of God’s grace and blessings and presence in Jesus.
So one reason God gives us His grace and blessings and presence, is so that as we go and show and tell, lost people will come to know God in Jesus.
So you folks, God’s people, go and show and tell the lost people. That’s how God wants it to work!
But now there’s something else the psalmist wants us to ask for. What are we asking for in vv.3-7? Read those verses to see --
3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!
4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah
5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!
6 The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, shall bless us.
7 God shall bless us; let all the ends of the earth fear him!
So when we pray “let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you!” – which is repeated in vv.3 and 5 -- what are we asking God to do? We are asking God to save them.
We are asking God to use our going and showing and telling to free them from sin’s power, to give them repentance and faith, so they will turn to trust Jesus, have God’s face shine upon them, and respond by praising God!
So in v.1 we are asking for God to give His grace and blessing and presence to God’s people, in vv.3-7 we are asking for God to save lost people. This psalm calls us to intercede for lost people – to pray for God to save lost people.
But why? Why should we ask God to save lost people? One reason is because this will only happen through God’s power.
Salvation will only happen through God’s power. You can go to your neighbor and become friends with your neighbor and show and tell of God’s blessings with your neighbor. But salvation won’t happen, unless God supernaturally frees your neighbor from sin’s power and gives your neighbor repentance and faith in Jesus. If God is not working in the heart of your neighbor, salvation will not happen.
But if God is working in the heart of your neighbor, if God’s saving power is present, salvation will happen. Your neighbor will repent and trust Jesus, have God’s face shining upon him or her, and start to praise God! So salvation requires God’s power.
And God gives His power in response to prayer. That’s why the psalmist wrote this psalm so that through this psalm God’s people would regularly pray and ask God to bring His saving power to people.
Think about this. It’s huge. When you pray for God’s saving power to be brought to your neighborhood – more of God’s saving power will be brought to your neighborhood than if you had not prayed.
When you pray for your workplace – more of God’s saving power will be brought to your workplace than if you had not prayed.
When you pray for Blossom Valley – or Campbell – more of God’s saving power will be poured out there than if you had not prayed.
When you pray for the U people in Central Asia – more of God’s saving power will be poured out on the U people in Central Asia than had you not prayed.
That’s why we should ask God to save lost people. Because God has chosen to pour His saving power out in response to our prayers.
So pray Psalm 67. Let my neighborhood praise you! Let Almaden Valley be glad and sing for joy in you. Let all the neighborhoods in the South Bay praise you! Let my children be glad and sing for joy in you! Let the U people in Central Asia be glad and sing for joy in you! Let the Rif Berbers in North Africa praise you!
So what does this mean for us?
It means that your intercession will be used by God to bring His grace, blessing and presence to your family, home group, and church.
And it means that your intercession will be used by God to bring His saving power to your neighborhood, workplace, city, and the unreached people groups.
This is an astonishing calling and responsibility. So give yourself to intercession. Carve out time for intercession. Make a plan for when you will pray for your family, for your home group, for your neighbors, for your city, for the nations. And then pray – earnestly -- and watch God work.