A prayer for God’s salvation

‘God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.
That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah.’

This delightful Psalm can be our prayer in these days. I’m going to make this my memorisation challenge this week.

In these four verses the Psalmist spans the ages from the days of Moses through to Christ’s millennial reign.

Verse 1 is a prayer based on the priestly blessing of Numbers 6:24-26, a cry from the wilderness journey: ‘be merciful to us, bless us’.

In verse 2, we find God’s answer. The words ‘thy saving health’ is the word Yeshua, the Hebrew for the name Jesus. He is the answer to the ancient prayer for blessing, and is still God’s answer today.

‘Thy way’ is a grand concept in Scripture going back to Genesis 3:24, where we find the Way leads to the tree of life, but it is guarded. However, Jesus came to open up that Way, and could say ‘I am the Way’ (John 14:6).

Our prayer, like the Psalmist, should be that by God’s mercy, the Way of Salvation in Jesus Christ ‘be known … among all nations’.

Verse 3 & 4 point us forward to the full answer to this prayer, when Christ will return and ‘govern the nations’. Then will ‘all people … be glad and sing for joy’.

But in the meantime, we can pray for God’s blessing in our day, praying that people will come to know the joy of the Way of Salvation.