August 13th - Reflection

Psalm 67 (NRSV)

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

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, has blessed us.
May God continue to bless us;
let all the ends of the earth revere him.

Reflection

A blessing. What a wonderful way to begin a Word from God, in a blessing.

Then a corporate response to how good God is to us. To be followed by a double blessing.

Are you and I mirrors of God? Can people look to us and see our Creator, our King, our Savior, our Spirit? In this psalm we see that God sees us in his mirror. A loving God that looks and is happy to see himself in his children.

But as his children, we are always trying to be like God, but know that we can't be God. God is our Father, our Maker and the Spirit within us and the Savior that saves us. We can't do these things. But we can make sure that we belong to him, are known as his, and act in ways that would be pleasing to God.

Not to butter God up, but because we are so joyful for what God has done for us that our laughter, our joy, our love planted deep within us by our Father has no place to go but out.

Our God has blessed us! Let all the ends of the earth revere God! Thanks be to God!

Prayer

Lord, you are my life. All the blessings you have given me, all the love, all the faith, all the hope, all the courage to step out in your name; overflows me and lovingly goes to those you give to me ... today ... tomorrow ... and forever. --- Amen