Psalm 67:3–4 (ESV) … “Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah”
John R.W. Stott explains the motive of the psalmist and his people in these words: ‘They prayed that God would bless them, not in order to wallow comfortably in his blessings themselves, but in order that it might pass from them to others.… We need to remember that Israel made very audacious claims for herself and her God. She claimed to be the special people of God, with whom he had entered into an everlasting covenant. She poked fun at the dead, dumb idols of the nations. She affirmed that her God was the only living, active, and true God. So of course, her heathen neighbors were watching her, now quizzically, now incredulously. They wanted some evidence to support Israel’s contention. “Where is now your God?” they asked. They wanted to know what God could do for his people, what difference he made to them, whether the claims of Israel had any substance to them.’[1]
Today, the nations have conspired to dethrone the Lord, and they want nothing of “his ways” (2:1–3), but the day will come when all the nations will come to the mountain of the Lord and worship the God of Jacob (Isa. 2:1–5).
Until that day let us continue to point the “peoples” of this world to God. Let us proclaim the worthiness of His name. Let us be glad and sing unto the one true God of Heaven and Earth.
[1] Ellsworth, R. (2006). Opening up Psalms (p. 111). Leominster: Day One Publications.