The Rain Ripens the Harvest

Based on Psalm 67

God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.
We who desire mercy from God are called to show mercy. Most often mercy or lack of it is shown in my facial expression. People may not always deserve a bright smile, but have mercy on them and show one. Having a radiant face does not always happen by itself, for me it will take determined effort to cultivate a habit of a cheerful disposition. If that's what it takes, do it. If you want God to smile on you try smiling on his children. Luke 6:36; Mat 5:7; Prov 15:13
That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.
We need God's mercy so that we can tell everyone about God's way - embodied by Jesus Christ - the way that can save all of humanity from sickness, sin and death. Curing real diseases, saving from real sins and giving real immortality; these are the things God will give us if we follow his way. John 14:6
Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.
All the people should praise God, not just an elite; this principle is contrary to popular "styles" that exclude the majority of people from joining in the praise of God. This can be because the songs are too hard to sing, the lyrics may be suspect, they may be too disorderly to follow along or simply too loud (or too off-key) for people to join in. Praise should be according to truth, reverential, inclusive and orderly. We can praise God without singing, and we should do that more often. Tell each other about specific things God helped you with during the week.
O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah.
There will come a time when every nation on earth will be governed by Jesus, that will be a great time. Think of it; no more injustice, no more incompetent or corrupt officials! That will happen on this earth, not elsewhere; here on this earth that will be restored to even greater than edenic beauty and perfection. It will happen for all nations of earth; not just Israel, not just Rome, not just the USA, not even just Australia. All nations will be ruled by Jesus on this earth for blissful eternity. Rev 21
Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.
That is what we want as Christians; I mean Christians who are missionaries regardless of our profession. We so want all the people to praise God for all the wonderful things he does all the time. We so want all the people to know the love of Jesus and to join us in fellowship with Jesus among us. It's not that we are so determined to make our own organisation the biggest, but that we want the kind of friendship with everyone that we can only have with those we share Jesus with. We long for the loud cry of Revelation 14:6-7, we long for the latter rain of Hosea 6:3, we long for everyone to have the knowledge of what Jehovah is really like as promised in Habakuk 2:14. In Matthew 24:14 Jesus declares that this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world and then the end will come. These desires will be fulfilled, I don't know how, but I know they will.
Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us.
Is this merely describing crops of wheat and barley? In Matthew 13:39 Jesus describes the end of the age of sin as a harvest; when he will return to gather his people to be with him. When the gospel has been demonstrated in all the world, the people of earth will ripen, the righteous and the wicked will be set and determined, all will be ripe and mature in their chosen way. Then Jesus will come - not someone else's Jesus, our Jesus, the Jesus of the Bible - and will bless us, you and me, because we have been faithful. Praise the Lord, I look forward to that day, when I think of it like this.
God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.
Yes, I long for that day now at last, when God will be giving us all the blessings sin has barred from us and everyone on earth, everyone in the universe will fear God alone, the rightful - and now once more the only - supreme ruler in the universe.