[Sadly, the audio recording of this sermon is not available.]

Psalm 67:1-7 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. 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!
INTRODUCTION
Good morning. Welcome to the close of missions week. Let me quickly bring you up to speed on where we’ve been and where we’re going.

For a week each year (thanks to Kyle and the missions team) our church highlights missions (evangelism and discipleship across a significant cultural barrier).

Beginning last Sunday we heard from Kari Gustafson (Wycliffe missionary to Thailand) in Berea. She updated us on her work among the “B” people. She is currently on a home assignment, studying art at Alex Tech. in order to illustrate the bible for less literate parts of the world. She also shared with us of a man from her village in Thailand who recently trusted in Jesus!

Later that morning I preached on the missions from Psalm 67. Specifically, I highlighted the psalmist’s three requests of God (that God would be gracious to his people, bless his people, and make his face shine upon his people), the three ways in which God answered (God judged all people fairly, God ruled over the all the nations righteously, and God caused the earth to be fruitful), and the main reason for the psalmist’s requests and God’s answers (that the glory of God would go before the people of God in telling the nations of the salvation of God).

On Wednesday we gathered together for a movie and prayer night. We watched “East of Everest,” a documentary on a Wycliffe couple who spent their lives in translation work for a people group in the Himalayas. We prayed for our missionaries to be strengthened in the gospel and to make it known fruitfully. Then, the late-nighters also watched “Sheep Among Wolves” which explored the reality of the persecuted church around the world.

Last night, Saturday night, we gathered to taste different foods from the countries of our missionaries, play games, and write letters to our missionaries.

Earlier this morning, in Berea, Arvid Westfall spoke to us about his work with Wycliffe and the new project he’s beginning in Guatemala.

And finally, right now, I’ll wrap up missions week by preaching a second sermon on Psalm 67, highlighting the goal of missions: the fear, joy and praise of the nations.

If this week is to be successful, we all will have grown in our understanding of what missions is and why it exists, what’s happening in missions around the world, and how we can support the missionaries we’ve sent. But for it to truly be successful we all will also have actually grown in our engagement in missions through prayer, financial support, connecting with our missionaries, and even for some, exploring the possibility of going into the field—that is, this week will have been a success if people across cultural barriers would actually hear the gospel through us in ways they wouldn’t have if it were not for missions week.

With all of that, let’s pray that God would sharpen our missionary minds and swiften our missionary feet.
THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF MISSIONS
While many of us imagine God’s blessing to come to us in the form of comfort and health and worldly blessings, and while God does bless in those ways at times, the true blessings of God often come in different form.

More often and more importantly, God blesses his people by giving us hearts to love him, love one another, love caring for the vulnerable, love truth, love beauty, love light, and love justice. He blesses his people by giving us boldness in the face of persecution, love in the face of our enemies, and peace that transcends suffering. God blesses his people by giving us a willingness to leave all that is safe and known and go to the ends of the earth in order to bring message of life to people who don’t know they are dead.

Again, one of the main points of Psalm 67—the main idea that is worth singing about as the gathered people of God—is that as God blesses his people in these types of ways, word of his blessing spreads throughout the world so that, as Christians go into the world declaring the salvation of God, the blessing of God authenticates the message of the gospel.

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, ² that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.

All of that was last week. This week, then, I want to answer the question of what happens when God’s blessing goes before God’s gospel-proclaiming people? Or, what is the result of God-honoring, faithful missions?

I’ve heard all kinds of answers to this question, but rarely do I hear the answers given by the psalmist in this passage. As I mentioned earlier, in Psalm 67 the aims of missions are fear, joy, and praise. Let’s consider each.

The nations will fear God.
The first goal of missions, which is stated in the last few words of this Psalm, is that everyone, even those at the ends of the earth, would fear God.

God shall bless us; let all the ends of the earth fear him!

But fearing God doesn’t sound like much of a blessing, though, does it? I mean, who thinks of being afraid as something good and desirable? Fearing God is perhaps one of the most misunderstood aspect of the Christian faith. Before defining it though, I want to make sure we know how common the phrase is in the bible.

God, through Moses, in the giving of the Ten Commandments – Oh that they had such a mind as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever” (Deuteronomy 5:29)!

God, through Moses in the second giving of the Ten Commandments – “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good” (Deuteronomy 10:12-13)?

Joshua at the covenant renewal service “Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness…” (Joshua 24:14).

“Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil” (Proverbs 3:7).

“The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

Another Psalm, likely another Psalm of David – “Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him” (Psalm 33:8)!

Jesus, instructing his disciples before sending them out to proclaim the gospel – “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28).

The apostle Paul – “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13).

The apostle Peter – “Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor” (1 Peter 2:17).

Fearing God is not simply mentioned one or two times. It is not just an OT concept or merely a warning for those who would reject God as God. It is commanded throughout the bible and, as Ecclesiastes says, part of the whole duty of man. Christians as well as non-Christians ought to fear God—albeit in different ways.

With that, I’d like to offer a few different definitions that others have given before offering my own.

“To fear God is to live in the reality of His holiness, His sovereignty, and His judgment of sin. It is to love God, respect Him, reverence Him, adore Him, hold Him in awe, and worship Him. And that can only be done by loving His Son the Savior” (John MacArthur).

To fear God focuses “on a sense of awe and respect for the majesty of God” and always maintains “a healthy respect and adoration for Him” (R.C. Sproul).

“The fear of the Lord is the fear of straying from him. Therefore it expresses itself in taking refuge in God…There is a real trembling for the saints…But it is the trembling one feels in the arms of a Father who has just plucked his child from the undertow of the ocean” (John Piper).

Here’s how I’d define the kind of fear of God that comes as a blessing of the nations: to fear God in this sense is to be given an appropriate understanding of the majesty and glory and power and might of God, coupled with an appropriate understanding of the fallenness and rebelliousness and inferiority and unworthiness of all mankind. The ability to behold God in his glory and ourselves in our lowliness is a gift from God which produces a holy reverence in us—a holy fear—that is good and right and appropriate, indeed, it is necessary.

While fearing God may sound like a bad thing, it is actually one of the greatest blessings God can give, for it is only once we’ve experienced this that we can be saved.

Pressing this up against our Psalm then, missions begins when God blesses his people, giving them love for God and the nations. It continues as God’s blessing and people reach the nations. Missions begins to bear fruit as God grants spiritual sight and the eyes of the nations are opened. With new eyes, the nations learn to fear God as they glimpse the infinite glory of God and their own rebellious hearts.

Before anyone can experience the love of God, they must first experience the fear of God for that is what leads us to throw ourselves upon God for mercy and grace and forgiveness and salvation. When the news and people of God’s blessing reach the ends of the earth so too will the fear of God; which is a great blessing indeed.

The nations will find their joy in God.
Having experienced the fear of God (and the subsequent, necessary sense of ruin), news of the salvation of God quickly becomes joy indeed; joy in the highest!

This is why the psalmist urges the Israelites to sing, “Let the nations be glad and sing for joy!”

I’ve told you this before, but upon coming to MN I applied for life insurance. On an otherwise normal Friday afternoon I wasn’t experiencing particular fear or joy. Then came the phone call…I was informed that my application for life insurance had been rejected because of a serious health concern. At that moment, I knew fear, serious fear. But it was only because I’d experienced fear at that depth (which lingered over the weekend because, of course, no one was available to answer my questions on a Friday afternoon) that I was able to experience the kind of joy that I felt on Monday when I found out that my test results were skewed because of a benign condition.

In the same way, learning to fear God and the punishment we deserve because of our sin is terrifying, but it is also the gateway to eternal, indescribable joy. Indeed, we can only sing in joy and gladness on the other side of God-given fear and woe.

I’m always concerned when I meet professing Christians who appear to have joy in their salvation, unaccompanied by fear of the Lord. Conversely, I’m always concerned when I meet professing Christians who appear to have a strong fear of God unaccompanied by joy in their salvation.

True joy in God and true fear of God always go hand in hand and always need to be proportional. Where one is absent or one is present in significantly greater measure, something is wrong in our understanding of the gospel, and one of them likely isn’t genuine.

Recognizing their sin-induced, perilous position before God, news of his salvation is sweet, overwhelming, joy-producing news indeed.

Genuine, Holy Spirit birthed fear of God leads to genuine, Holy Spirit birthed joy in God.

The nations will praise God.
Finally, then, as we all know, the greater our joy, the greater our desire to speak of it; to the one who caused it and to anyone who will listen. And so we read…

3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!

5 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!

Fear comes before joy which comes before praise. We can’t find true joy in God before we’ve come to fear him, and we can’t truly praise God until we’ve come to find our joy in him.

The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Fear leading to joy leading to glory-recognizing praise is what missions is all about. The final goal of missions, then, is the joyful praise of God.

Our main aim in missions is not to improve quality of life, increase literacy, provide shelter, teach truth, or even lead people to profess faith in Jesus (although all of those are good in their rightful place). Our main aim, rather, is to see people, through the transforming power of the gospel, praise God above all things—because that is what we were made for.

In my limited experience this is very easy for missionaries and missionary teams to lose sight of. With all of the issues concerning financial support and visas and cultural barriers it can feel like the aim of missions is just to get into or stay in another country. With all the poverty and homelessness and hunger and clean waterlessness it can seem like the goal of missions is to keep people alive. With all of the areas and people of the world who are hostile to the things of God it can seem like the goal is merely to stay undetected or alive. With so many people groups without God’s word in their language, it can seem like the goal of missions is to get them bibles. With the dramatic cultural differences in the world it can seem like the goal of missions is to help nationals sift through the aspects of their culture which are good to keep and good to forsake.

Don’t mishear me, the logistical challenges of missions are real, the need to care for the physical needs of those we love is real, the threat of persecution is real, the need for bible translation is real, the need to help the nations reject syncretism is real. All of these things are real and will rightly take up a good deal of missionary time. However, none of these things are the primary aim of missions.

Again, missions exists ultimately for the glory of God, and God is most glorified in the nations when the nations, overwhelmed by the fear of God, find joy in God, and in their joy sing of the glory of God. Therefore, the work of missions will be done only when the Psalmists words find their mark and all the nations praise God, all the nations praise God!
CONCLUSION
There you have it, Grace. The psalmist, along with the singing people of God, requests the grace, blessing, and pleasure of God to come upon them. The reason for these requests is so that the nations would hear about the grace, blessing, and pleasure of God and be saved. Being saved means learning to fear God, hope in God, rejoice in God, and praise God for his glory.

All of this is possible because of the cross of Jesus Christ. He died in the place of sinful men in order to rescue us from the death we deserve. The Psalmist didn’t know all that we know now, only that God would provide a way of salvation for all who would trust in him.

Let us, therefore, trust in God and declare the glory of God to the nations. Let us pray for and support generously those who have already gone. Let us train up well those who would go. And let us examine ourselves, earnestly considering whether or not we might be used by God to go.

As I said in the very beginning, if this week is to be successful, we all will have grown in our understanding of what missions is and why it exists, what’s happening in missions around the world, and how we can support the missionaries we’ve sent. But for it to truly be successful we all will also have actually grown in our engagement in missions through prayer, financial support, connecting with our missionaries, and even for some, exploring the possibility of going into the field—that is, this week will have been a success if people across cultural barriers would actually hear the gospel through us in ways they wouldn’t have if it were not for missions week.

Psalm 67:1-7 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. 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!

May all of these things increasingly mark us at Grace Church in Wyoming and all of the churches bearing the name of Jesus. Amen.