All the Peoples, a reflection on Psalm 67

The lectionary passage this week to correspond with the gospel reading, Isaiah 56:1, 6-8, reminds us that God's intent is to include and welcome all people--even those we consider foreigners. The response is Psalm 67.

This psalm begins with a prayer for God's grace and blessing. The reason given for the request is so that God's way be known to everybody everywhere.

A couple of questions arise for me. First, how willing are we to accept the notion that God does care for people that we don't care for? Second, if we do accept the idea that God cares for them, then: are we supposed to care for them as well? Yes, I know what God wants me to do, and yes, I have not always behaved as if I did.

John Goldingay, in Old Testament Theology, Vol 3, says:

What Yhwh does for Israel is what leaads to the nations acknowledging Yhwh; and one of the ways this works is by means of the testimony Israel is to give to what Yhwh has done."

So, I'm reading this psalm this week and I'm listening to the news about famine in Somalia. I can sincerely pray the request, "May God be gracious to us and bless us....." and I'm pretty sure that a way for God to be gracious to the people from Somalia is for me to finally make that contribution through UMCOR that my conscience has been nagging me to make. http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/give/manyways/