Those who themselves delight in praising God cannot but desire that others may be brought to praise Him,
and long for the day when all nations shall bow before Him.
Psalm 1
1 God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.
2 That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.
3 Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.
4 O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah.
5 Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.
6 Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us.
7 God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.
Psalm 1 – J. Vernon McGee
Psalm 67 – “Let All the People Praise Thee”
Psalm 67, like Psalm 65, was composed for use at an annual festival. “Bless us,” say the saints in yearning prayer. “God shall bless us,” is the certain answer of faith, Psalm 67:1, 7. We desire blessing, not to hoard for ourselves, but that all mankind may share with us. Ask for God’s smile on yourself alone, and you will miss it; ask for it that you may reflect and pass it on, and the Lord will become your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning will be ended.
Four times the psalmist cries, Let all the people praise thee. In answer to his appeal, it seemed as if the whole world had broken out into fresh fertility. Our own God, Psalm 67:6. He has given Himself to us, and each may have the whole of the fullness as an estate of boundless extent and wealth, Numbers 18:20; Psalm 16:5. —Through the Bible Day by Day
Psalm 67:7—God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him.
This psalm is full of yearnings for the salvation of mankind. The selfish desire for the exclusive blessing of the chosen people is lost sight of in the catholic yearning that all the earth should fear Jehovah. Indeed, this is the ground on which the psalmist rests his personal claim for the Divine blessing. It is as though he said, “We only ask for gifts of grace, that through us they may be transmitted to all mankind.” Turn us again, O God, that times of refreshing may come from thy presence to all men; our one desire is that the peoples may praise Thee.
We are reminded of those noble words of Andrew Fuller, to whom the initiation of modern missions to the heathen is so largely due: “We met and prayed for the heathen. We were drawn out of ourselves. God blessed us while we tried to be a blessing. Our hearts were enlarged, and we were baptized into a deeper sympathy with the soul-saving purposes of the Redeemer.”
Are we infected with this noble passion? Do we echo from our hearts the repeated prayer of this psalm: “Let all the people praise thee”? Do we ask for blessing from our own God, that we may be able to be a greater blessing to others? It is because God is “our own God,” that we are so anxious to make Him known. Oh that we might be carried out to sea on the tide of God’s purposes, and yearnings, and pity; and long as the psalmist did that his saving health might be known among all nations!
“Whoso hath felt the Spirit of the Highest,
Cannot confound, nor doubt Him, nor deny;
Yea, with one voice, O world, though thou deniest,
Stand thou on that side, for on this am I” —Our Daily Homily