Compelling Love

The Psalmist in Psalm 67 begins by asking for God’s mercy and blessings, and then gives a deeper heart cry, revealing God’s will for the nations in verse 2.

Psalm 67 (NKJV)
¹ God be merciful to us and bless us,
And cause His face to shine upon us, Selah
² That Your way may be known on earth,
Your salvation among all nations.

The Psalmist’s desire was that all the nations would praise God and that God would reign in their hearts.

³ Let the peoples praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise You.
⁴ Oh, let the nations be glad and sing for joy!
For You shall judge the people righteously,
And govern the nations on earth. Selah
⁵ Let the peoples praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise You.
⁶ Then the earth shall yield her increase;
God, our own God, shall bless us.
⁷ God shall bless us,
And all the ends of the earth shall fear Him.

Psalm 87 declares God’s desire to receive into His family people from the nations of the world.  Referring to Zion, His special city, He declares of those who know Him in other nations, “this one was born there.”

Psalm 87 (NKJV)
The Glories of the City of God
¹ His foundation is in the holy mountains.
² The Lord loves the gates of Zion
More than all the dwellings of Jacob.
³ Glorious things are spoken of you,
O city of God! Selah
⁴ “I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to those who know Me;
Behold, O Philistia and Tyre, with Ethiopia:
‘This one was born there.’”
⁵ And of Zion it will be said,
“This one and that one were born in her;
And the Most High Himself shall establish her.”
⁶ The Lord will record,
When He registers the peoples:
“This one was born there.” Selah
⁷ Both the singers and the players on instruments say,
“All my springs are in you.”

Psalm 107 gives a key for making God’s way known: “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy” and gathered from the four corners of the earth.

Psalm 107
Thanksgiving to the Lord for His Great Works of Deliverance
¹ Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
² Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy,
³ And gathered out of the lands,
From the east and from the west,
From the north and from the south.

These Psalms were written approximately 3,000 years ago.  The great commission to go into the world and proclaim the Gospel was given 2,000 years ago by the risen Lord to His disciples.

Matthew 28
The Great Commission
¹⁶ Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. ¹⁷ When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.
¹⁸ And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. ¹⁹ Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Jesus told his disciples to pray for laborers to be sent into His harvest field.

Matthew 9 (NKJV)
³⁷ Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. ³⁸ Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

The fulfillment of the great commission starts with prayer, and continues as the Lord directs each of us to participate.  In the next chapter the disciples became part of the answer to their own prayers as Jesus sent them out into the harvest field.

Each believer has a role to play in fulfilling the great commission.  Some are called to go cross-culturally and take the Gospel to a foreign country.  Others are called to be senders to support those on the front lines.  The Apostle Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 5 that each person redeemed by Jesus Christ is a new creation, and is called to be a personal ambassador for Him.

2 Corinthians 5
¹⁴ For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; ¹⁵ and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
¹⁶ Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. ¹⁸ Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹ that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
²⁰ Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. ²¹ For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

God’s will for the nations and the heart cry of His people is, “That Your way may be known on earth, Your salvation among all nations.”

David Krause, dhkrause@neteze.com, https://compellinglove.net/
6/5/2016