FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7
Psalm 67:1-7
1 John 1:8-9

“… forgive, and ye
shall be forgiven.”

THE CHURCH PRAYS FOR FORGIVENESS OF HER SINS, AND FOR SALVATION OF THE WHOLE WORLD

This Psalm may be short, but its scope extends to the whole Church, and from the Church to the whole world. Its scope is as outreaching as the cross, vertically and horizontally.

The cry for mercy (Ps 67:1) “implies the death of all legal hopes or claims of merit ... Forgiveness of sin is always the first link in the chain of mercies experienced by us. Mercy is a foundation attribute in our salvation. The best saints and the worst sinners may unite in this petition” (Spurgeon). When Dr John Sung held his revival campaign in Tientsin and called to sinners to come to the front to confess their sins, the aged Ting Li Mei, who was China’s Moody in his earlier years, also came up to kneel with the first-timers. This public gesture of the veteran revivalist humbled the younger man to the dust. Whether sinner or saint, we are always at His mercy! “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8-9).

Next, the Church begs for blessing. The word blessing is all comprehensive and far-reaching when it comes from God. But that blessing from God which we should most desire is not in the gift but in the Giver. If He will look at us favourably and approvingly, that is enough.

Now the horizontal. As showers which first fall upon the hilltop soon run down into the valley, so the blessing of the Most High God flows to the whole world through the Church. We are blessed not only for our own sakes but also for the sake of the whole world. Outside of the Church, Jews or Gentiles, the crowds of every nation are perishing in darkness. These countless millions of every tribe and tongue are without Christ, “having no hope, and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12).

THOUGHT: (Read Psalm 67:3.)
PRAYER: I thank Thee, Lord for Thy forgiveness, and for Thy blessings.