Devotion 8.10.26

Psalm 67

Make Your Face Shine upon Us

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm. A Song.

1 May God be gracious to us and bless us

  and make his face to shine upon us, Selah

2 that your way may be known on earth,

  your saving power among all nations.

3 Let the peoples praise you, O God;

  let all the peoples praise you!

4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,

  for you judge the peoples with equity

  and guide the nations upon earth. Selah

5 Let the peoples praise you, O God;

  let all the peoples praise you!

6 The earth has yielded its increase;

  God, our God, shall bless us.

7 God shall bless us;

  let all the ends of the earth fear him!

Today marks the sixth time this psalm has been used for a devotion. Twice has been for the three-year cycle in our church liturgy since 2023, and the other four have been because....

God's blessing on his people, then and now, is sought, and his greatness is praised at all times, but especially at harvest (v 6).

We are conditioned to think in terms of seasons for a variety of reasons. Certainly, the four seasons come to mind. In my mind, I think of baseball and football as another form of "seasons." I have to confess that, being from the city, the "harvest" rarely came to mind, if ever. My dad's generation was the last to work the farm in my family. I did have one uncle who farmed in southern Minnesota, but he was the last in our family. 

We moved to Lubbock and cotton fields were just down the street as our home was on the edge of town. I remember jogging early one Saturday morning to a small town on the edge of Lubbock (Wolfforth), and they were preparing for a "harvest festival." Hot air ballons were being inflated, the band was gathering, and I decided my run had run its course, so I turned and came back to the house early to avoid not becoming part of a parade.

The education business in areas like Lubbock and surrounding towns is directly tied to farming/ranching. The harvest is an important facet for a superintendent of schools because it sets the tone for decisions he (or she) will have to make.

"If you have a good football season and harvest, ask for the moon, but if you have a bad harvest, pray for a good football season or start getting your resume in order," one old salt superintendent told me. Most school boards are run by people involved in agriculture, from support businesses to men coming in with dust on their clothes and/or spurs still on. I trained boards for a number of years and experienced it first-hand. Hard-working men, weathered by life outdoors. They laughed and joked but were very serious about the life of their communities, and the harvest season was what made life.

Life is divided by seasons as well, as Solomon so beautifully notes in Ecclesiastes. Take none of them for granted, and give pause and thanks to God for the season we find ourselves in. Today's psalmist is reminding us of that by starting with the blessing from Aaron in Numbers 6 and tying that to our salvation, may God's face shine on us daily.

Pray with me: Gracious God, may your face shine on us and bless us in the season in which we find ourselves, and we give thanks for the salvation you give us through your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen

Hope Men's Ministry is a ministry in service to Hope Lutheran Church and School. Our purpose is to grow, unite, and share God's Word to all men through meaningful activities. These activities center on fellowship, service, conversation, prayer, study and devotion as we seek to become men of God as He created us to be.