November 17, 2025
67 May God show us his favor and bless us.
May he smile on us. (Selah)
2 Then those living on earth will know what you are like;
all nations will know how you deliver your people.
3 Let the nations thank you, O God.
Let all the nations thank you.
4 Let foreigners rejoice and celebrate.
For you execute justice among the nations,
and govern the people living on earth. (Selah)
5 Let the nations thank you, O God.
Let all the nations thank you.
6 The earth yields its crops.
May God, our God, bless us.
7 May God bless us.
Then all the ends of the earth will give him the honor he deserves.
(Psalm 67, NET)
In celebration of the American holiday of Thanksgiving this month, let us turn to one of the Psalms’ hymns of thanksgiving: Psalm 67. This psalm radiates joy and anticipates God’s blessing. Like many others, it was sung in the Jerusalem temple as a liturgy of hope, that God would bless his people and, through them, extend blessings to all nations.
Psalm 67 is crafted in a chiastic structure, a literary pattern in which lines are mirrored in reverse order, drawing attention to a central theme. That center is found in verse 4, the only three-line stanza:
“Let foreigners rejoice and celebrate.
For you execute justice among the nations,
and govern the people living on earth.”
This core idea is framed by the repeated refrain:
“Let the nations thank you, O God.
Let all the nations thank you.”
The outer stanzas (verses 1–2 and 6–7) speak of God’s blessing on his people, each with a striking reference to the earth:
Verse 1: “May God show us his favor… May he smile on us.”
Verse 2: “Then those living on the earth will know what You are like.”
Verse 6: “The earth yields its crops.”
Verse 7: “Then all the ends of the earth will give him the honor he deserves.”
Psalm 67 portrays a reciprocal relationship: God smiles upon his people by delivering and favoring them; they smile back through thanksgiving and honor. But this exchange is not self-contained. It generates a kind of spiritual centripetal force, drawing the whole creation into its orbit. At the heart of this dynamic is a concern for the entire world: that all nations would come to know God’s character and rejoice in his just reign and generous provision.
This is the ultimate purpose of divine blessing, not merely comfort for a “chosen few,” but a global witness to the beauty of God’s kindness, inviting all people to find their place in it.
This vision echoes the imagery of Genesis 2. There, the Lord God plants a garden in Eden, a word that means “delight” and “pleasure.” Into this garden of delight, God places the man. The Hebrew word translated “placed” (Genesis 2:15) can also mean “rest,” suggesting that God settled the man there for peace and communion.
In Eden, God intended to walk with the man and created the woman so he would not be alone in his delight. Eden’s paradise appears to be deeply relational, characterized by communion with God and one another, marked by joy and creativity.
A river flowed from Eden to water the garden, then divided into four headstreams that reached the rest of the earth. This imagery suggests that the delight found in communion with God and with one another was meant to flow outward, blessing the whole world, as evidenced by “the earth yielding its crops” (Psalm 67:6).
Psalm 67 looks back to creation and, through Israel’s priestly liturgy, rehearses God’s enduring desire: that the whole world would bask in His gaze of delight and respond with joyful thanksgiving.
So here’s the leadership challenge: What if our teams and organizations embodied this vision?
What if we cultivated communities of peace at the heart of our leadership—spaces of mutual delight and divine communion—that then flowed outward into our organizations, our teams, our mission fields, and ultimately the world?
It’s a compelling vision. And I believe it’s one God longs to bring to life in us.
