That thy way may be known upon earth, thy salvation among all nations.
Verse 2 gives the reason for the prayer of verse 1. The people ask for mercy so that it will spread beyond them. They want God's way and His salvation known where no one knows them. That raises two questions: who are the "us," and how does blessing given to one people reach every nation?
The word "that" points the prayer past the people praying it. One writer sets their request beside a prayer of the Lord Jesus:
They desire blessing so that their God may be glorified among all nations. This is a very high order of prayer. It cannot help reminding the reader of the prayer of the blessed Lord Himself, when He said, "Glorify your Son that your Son may glorify you."
The same note is heard in the psalm as a whole — a people no longer wanting God's favour for themselves alone:
Israel, filled with a zeal that is according to knowledge, desires to spread abroad the name and the salvation of God, so that the ends of the earth may fear Him.
Who are the "us" asking for mercy? One writer names them, and shows why the blessing does not stop with them:
The grace of God flows through Israel. Israel is the channel of it to the nations, and the living example of it before the eyes of all. The first two verses show this. The "us" is His people Israel: "God be gracious to us, make His face to shine upon us, that Your way may be known on earth, Your saving power among all nations."
Commentators see an order here. The world's blessing waits on God's mercy to Israel, not the other way round.
Here the simple truth shines before us with remarkable force and beauty. It is when God has mercy on Israel, when He causes His light to shine on Zion — then and not until then — will His way be known on earth. Only then will all nations know His saving power. God will yet bless the nations through Israel, not through the church that professes His name.
This order is older than the psalm. It goes back to promises made to one family long before:
Such is the order of blessing in the world to come: the Jews in the inner circle, and in the outer circle the Gentiles through them. They will be glad and sing for joy, for God will govern in righteousness. The blessing of the nations was an ancient truth, repeated again and again. God proclaimed it to Abraham (Genesis 12:3), renewed it in the Seed (Genesis 22:18), and repeated it to Isaac (Genesis 26:4) and to Jacob (Genesis 28:14).
A reader may ask what this leaves for the present. One writer answers plainly:
In this day of grace the gospel goes out to Jew and Gentile alike, and "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10). But in this present age, while Israel is in unbelief, there will be no such thing as the conversion of nations.
The older wording "saving health" is simply God's salvation, and both terms are read as pointing to a Person rather than a programme:
In Christ, therefore, God's way will be known on earth and His salvation will be known to all nations (v. 2). For Christ is God's Way (John 14:6) and He is God's Salvation (Luke 2:30).
The verse names two circles at once — the land first, then the nations beyond it:
Psalm 67: (v.1) May God shine out on us so that, (v.2) in the land and among the Gentiles, His way may be known.
The psalm does not stop at knowing God. It moves on to praise from every people, and to a world under righteous government:
Psalm 67 closes this short series by looking for the blessing of the remnant. That blessing is the righteous and merciful answer to their cry. It is also the way of spreading the knowledge of God's ways to all nations. "God be merciful to us, that Your way may be known on earth." So all the peoples will praise God, and He will judge and govern the earth in righteousness... The last verse sums up the result — "God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him." For the repentant Jew is the way of blessing, life from the dead for the world.
- Cause — God's face shining on His people sets the whole psalm moving. Every wider result hangs on that mercy.
- Channel — Israel is not where the blessing stops. Israel is the pipe it runs through, and the living display of it before watching nations.
- Content — "Your way" and "your saving power" point to Christ Himself: God's Way and God's Salvation, made known where He is unknown.
- Reach — The verse states the scope twice over — in the land and among the nations — reaching to the ends of the earth.
- Result — Peoples praising, the earth governed in righteousness, and all the ends of the earth fearing Him. Blessing received becomes blessing passed on. So verse 2 is a pattern for prayer: ask for mercy, and ask for it so that others will know God.
Let the peoples praise thee, O God, let all the peoples praise thee.
This line sits at the centre of Psalm 67, and it comes again two verses later. It asks for praise from every people on earth, and it raises two questions: who are these "peoples," and what has to happen before they sing?
The plural matters. One writer sets out the Hebrew words behind the English, and shows that older translations blurred them:
"Am" in the singular usually means Israel. "Ammim" in the plural means "peoples." Older English versions often turn this into "people" by mistake. I suppose that is because "peoples" is not correct English. But the sense is quite different. I believe the ammim are the peoples in connection with Israel, brought into relationship with Israel. "Goim," on the contrary, are the nations in contrast with God's people.
So the psalm has two circles in view. Verse 4 moves outward from the peoples to the nations. Commentators differ on the details: one reads the first "the peoples" here as Israel itself, then the second line widens it to take in everyone.
The psalm opens by asking for mercy and a shining face. The next line shows why:
They desire blessing so that their God may be glorified among all nations. This is a very high order of prayer. It cannot fail to remind the reader of the prayer of the blessed Lord Himself, when He said, "Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you."
They ask for blessing, but praise is the goal. They do not ask for comfort. They ask that God's name be known.
One writer states the link between the opening prayer and this refrain:
Here the simple truth shines before us. God will first have mercy upon Israel. He will cause His light to shine upon Zion. Then His way will be known upon earth, His saving health among all nations. It is through Israel, not through the professing Church, that God will yet bless the nations.
This order is older than the psalm. It reaches back to the promises made to Abraham and his family:
This is the order of blessing in the world to come. The Jews stand in the inner circle. In the outer circle stand the Gentiles, blessed through them, glad and singing for joy, for God will govern in righteousness. The blessing of the nations was an ancient and often repeated truth. God proclaimed it to Abraham (Gen. 12:3), renewed it in the Seed (Gen. 22:18), and repeated it to Isaac (Gen. 26:4) and to Jacob (Gen. 28:14).
The psalm has seven verses. The middle one is longer than the rest, and everything turns on it.
The sixty-seventh psalm is a bright and beautiful seventh. The psalm stresses that number in the count of its verses too. The central verse has three lines instead of two. That marks it out as the hinge on which everything turns: the reign of God upon earth. The grace of God flows through Israel as the channel of it to the nations. They are the living example of it before the eyes of all.
That reign gives the nations something to praise Him for:
They will see this great King judge the people in absolute righteousness. He will rule the nations on earth in perfect fairness. There has never been anything like this in all history. The best of rulers have failed in many ways. Most rulers have clearly sought laws that benefit their own country above others, or in many cases their own personal advantage. No ruler has ever practised simple, unselfish righteousness.
One writer reads the psalm as prophecy, not as a picture of the world slowly getting better:
If people grasped the prophetic message of this little Psalm, it would end forever all mistaken ideas about the conversion of the world. Israel prays that the Lord may be gracious to them, as He will in that coming day... But Israel's blessing is tied to the return of our Lord, and cannot be separated from it. No blessing and restoration until He comes again.
The refrain returns in verse 5. There the ground yields its harvest, and Israel calls God "our own God":
While it is true that believers are His, it is God's delight to have us know that He is ours. Wonderful grace indeed!
- Peoples, not people — the plural is deliberate. "Peoples" are those brought into relationship with Israel. "Nations" stand in contrast to God's people.
- Cause — mercy shown to one people is the channel; His way becomes known on earth when His face shines on Zion.
- Gift — the prayer asks for blessing so that God may have glory, echoing the Lord's own words: "Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you."
- Reach — the hinge of the psalm is God's reign on earth. He judges in righteousness and rules in fairness, as no human ruler ever has.
- Result — praise from all peoples ends in a fruitful earth and a God who is not only great but "our own."
Let the nations rejoice and sing for joy for thou wilt judge the peoples equitably; and the nations upon earth, thou wilt guide them. Selah.
Psalm 67 is a short prayer: that God would bless Israel, and so make His saving way known to every nation. Verse 4 sits at the centre. One writer notes that the shape of the psalm points to this verse:
The sixty-seventh psalm is a bright and beautiful seventh, and the psalm has seven verses too. The central verse has three lines instead of two. That marks it out as the hinge on which everything turns: the reign of God upon earth.
The nations are called to sing for a reason, and the verse gives it: God judges the peoples with equity. One writer sets that rule against every government the world has known.
The psalmist speaks of "the nations" being glad and singing for joy. What an amazing change for people who have been cold both toward the Lord Jesus and toward Israel! For they will see this wonderful fact: this great King will judge the people in absolute righteousness, ruling the nations on earth in perfect fairness. History has never seen anything like it. The best of rulers have failed in many ways. Most rulers have clearly pushed for laws that benefit their own country above others, or in many cases their own personal advantage. Nobody has ever practised simple, unselfish righteousness. How great will be the relief when the Lord Jesus takes His place of supreme power!
The nations called to sing have not always loved God. One writer describes what changes for them, and what changes in the world around them.
The psalmist looks ahead to what will flow from this witness of God's salvation. He predicts the millennial blessing of the earth. Praise will flow to God from nations that were once in rebellion against Him. Man's self-will brings sorrow and misery. In its place there will be joy and gladness, in a world ruled fairly and subject to the guidance of God.
The verse says God will "guide the nations upon earth." One writer quotes an older wording that reads "lead," and draws two things from it: where creatures find their blessing, and what kind of ruler holds the sceptre.
True blessedness is simple. It is found in being creatures — in letting God be God. "You shall judge the peoples righteously, and lead the races upon earth." That last expression must fix our thoughts on shepherd care, and on the good Shepherd, who holds the sceptre.
One writer describes who is leading the nations now.
There is a striking expression in verse 4: "You shall lead the nations." God now overrules the nations in their ways, but another guide is certainly leading them. There is a bridle in their jaws causing them to go astray. They are held and shaken in the sieve of emptiness, until He comes to whom the government belongs.
The psalm asks mercy for "us" first. Only then does it turn to "the nations." One writer explains why that order matters.
The first principle is this: the blessing of the nations depends on God restoring Israel to His favour... In this day of grace the gospel goes out to Jew and Gentile alike, and "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." But Israel remains in unbelief, and in this present period there is no such thing as the conversion of nations. At the Lord's appearing, the Deliverer will come out of Zion and turn away ungodliness from Jacob, and all Israel will be saved. Then, as our psalm says, blessing will flow out to the ends of the earth.
Starting with Israel is not narrowness. One writer says it is God's route to every nation.
Psalm 67 makes it certain, if only the written word had been heeded, that the Spirit of prophecy treats God's mercy to Israel as His way of extending His "saving health among all nations." Sovereign grace is sure and definite. It is just as rich and free. ... Nothing could stand in sharper contrast to Jewish narrowness. Salvation is not a right people can claim, nor is it earned by merit — it is of grace.
- Hinge. Verse 4 is the centre of a seven-verse psalm. What it names — God reigning on earth — is what everything else turns on.
- Cause. The nations are told to be glad for a reason: a King who judges in absolute righteousness. Even the best human rulers have made laws to suit themselves.
- Gift. Self-will brings misery; joy takes its place, in a world ruled fairly and living under God's guidance.
- Reach. Mercy asked for "us" becomes saving health for all nations. That is the opposite of narrowness: salvation comes by grace, not by right or merit.
- Result. God will guide the nations, not merely rule them, and the sceptre is in the hands of the good Shepherd. Nations now bridled and driven astray will find a Shepherd at last.
Let the peoples praise thee, O God; let all the peoples praise thee.
Verse 5 repeats the call to praise from verse 3, and this time it stands just before the harvest and blessing that close the psalm. So who are these "peoples," and when will they all praise God?
The repeat is not empty. It adds a result, and it names the God who gives it.
Verse 5 repeats what verse 3 emphasized, but this time it adds the precious result of praise from both Israel and all people: then the earth will yield its increase (v. 6). The blessing comes from "God, our own God." It is true that believers are His. But God delights to have us know that He is ours. Wonderful grace indeed!
Hebrew uses more than one word here. Older English Bibles blurred them into one.
"People" in the singular usually means Israel. "Peoples" in the plural is very often translated wrongly as "people" in the King James Version, I suppose because "peoples" is not correct English. But the sense is quite different. I believe the "peoples" are those brought into relationship with Israel. "Nations," on the contrary, are the nations in contrast with God's people.
The psalm asks first for mercy on "us." Only then does the blessing spread outward.
Here, then, the simple truth shines before us. It is when God has mercy on Israel — when He makes His light shine on Zion — that His way will be known on earth, and His salvation among all nations. It is through Israel, not through the church that professes His name, that God will yet bless the nations.
The prayer in verse 1 is not only about their own comfort. It comes with a reason attached.
"God be merciful to us," they say, "and bless us … that Your way may be known on earth," and so on. They want blessing so that their God may be glorified among all nations. This is a very high order of prayer. It is bound to remind the reader of the prayer of the Lord Himself, when He said, "Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You."
The psalm does not only call for praise. It also says what the praise is about.
Then comes the prediction of praise from all the earth: "Peoples shall praise You, O God: all the peoples shall praise You." And then we have the subject of their praise. It is the joy of being free from the misery of self-will and from the wills of others, and of serving God and being subject to Him… It is simple: a creature's blessedness lies just in being a creature — in letting God be God.
The verse after this one speaks of the earth yielding its increase. That harvest undoes a curse as old as Adam.
When Adam fell, the ground was cursed because of him. Whatever easing of that sentence came in Noah's day, it is not fully cancelled until the reign of Messiah… Amos prophesies the same thing: "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed" (Amos 9:13).
One writer ties the whole psalm to a single event. He uses it to rule out the idea that the world will slowly turn to God first.
If people understood this little Psalm and its prophetic message, it would end forever all postmillennial mistakes about the conversion of the world… Israel prays "God shall bless us," and the result is that "all the ends of the earth shall fear Him." But Israel's blessing cannot be separated from the return of our Lord. No blessing and restoration till He comes again.
- Asked — verse 1 asks for blessing with a purpose: that God's way be known on earth. To want blessing so that God is glorified is prayer of a very high order.
- Channelled — the blessing reaches the nations through Israel. God's mercy on His people opens His way to the whole earth.
- Widened — "peoples" and "nations" are different Hebrew words. Peoples are brought near to Israel; nations stand over against God's people. The psalm calls both to praise.
- Praised — the praise is about release from self-will and from the wills of others. A creature's blessedness is letting God be God.
- Harvested — after the praise the earth yields its increase, the curse on the ground lifts, and all the ends of the earth fear Him. Commentators place that scene at the Lord's return, not before.