Psalm 67:1-2 says:
1God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.
2That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.
These verses are calling on the Lord to be "merciful", the Hebrew word, "chanan", which means: to be gracious, to show favor, to have mercy on, to direct favor to; to bless us and to cause His "face" the Hebrew word, "paniym", which means: face, presence, person, to "shine", the Hebrew word, "`owr", which means: to be illuminated, to shine, to become bright, on us. Why? So that His way may be "known", the Hebrew word, "yada`", which means: to know, to perceive, to learn to know, to recognize, to know by experience, to be revealed on the earth and His "saving health", the Hebrew word, "yeshuw`ah", which means: salvation, deliverance, welfare, prosperity and victory among the "nations", the Hebrew word, "gowy", which means: people, usually non Hebrew people. Does this sound familiar to you? Look at Genesis 26:4:
4And I will make your descendants to multiply as the stars of the heavens, and will give to your posterity all these lands (kingdoms); and by your Offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, or by Him bless themselves,
That was the promise that God made to Abraham! The rest of the Psalm is a praise to God for His wonderful blessings.
In Mark 11 we see Jesus entering Jerusalem for the first time as "King"! See Zechariah 9:9:
9Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O Daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you; He is [uncompromisingly] just and having salvation [triumphant and victorious], patient, meek, lowly, and riding on a donkey, upon a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Jesus was entering as King, something He hadn't allow Himself to be called before this. Then we see Him cursing the fig tree for having no fruit that should have accompanied the leaves and cleansing the Temple area of all of the corrupt business dealers. The more that we meditate on the Word, the more that we will see that their is NO coincidence with God! Nothing that Jesus did was without a definite purpose! We know that His #1 purpose was to take OUR place for the judgement of sin, so that we could take His place of eternal Life with Him! Thank You, Jesus!
In Leviticus we continue to see how the Lord gave very specific instructions for dealing with sin. Continue to study this and meditate with a very grateful heart on the fact that once we are born again (receive Jesus of Nazareth as Lord and personal Saviour) we need only obey one instruction when we miss it - 1 John 1:9:
9If we [freely] admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, He is faithful and just (true to His own nature and promises) and will forgive our sins [dismiss our lawlessness] and [continuously] cleanse us from all unrighteousness [everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, thought, and action].
Make sure that you DO this EVERY time you sin or miss the mark. Sometimes things can seem so easy that we neglect to realize the importance of it doing them! Don't allow sin to stay in your life. Confess it and accept and receive His forgiveness and the cleansing from ALL unrighteousness (sin we're not aware of yet). Be right back in close fellowship with Him!
Shalom in Him!
