TRV
Study This Verse
Public-domain commentary
Matthew Henry
From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry comments on passages, not single verses — this entry covers Psalms 67:1–7. His four-level outline is real structure in the source text, so it is rendered as structure.
The composition of this psalm is such as denotes the penman's affections to have been very warm and lively, by which spirit of devotion he was elevated to receive the spirit of prophecy concerning the enlargement of God's kingdom.
I.He begins with a prayer for the welfare and prosperity of the church then in being, in the happiness of which he should share, and think himself happy, Psa 67:1. Our Saviour, in teaching us to say, Our Father, has intimated that we ought to pray with and for others; so the psalmist here prays not, God be merciful to me, and bless me, but to us, and bless us; for we must make supplication for all saints, and be willing and glad to take our lot with them. We are here taught,
1.That all our happiness comes from God's mercy and takes rise in that; and therefore the first thing prayed for is, God be merciful to us, to us sinners, and pardon our sins (Luk 18:13), to us miserable sinners, and help us out of our miseries.
2.That it is conveyed by God's blessing, and secured in that: God bless us; that is, give us an interest in his promises, and confer upon us all the good contained in them. God's speaking well to us amounts to his doing well for us. God bless us is a comprehensive prayer; it is a pity such excellent words should ever be used slightly and carelessly, and as a byword.
3.That it is completed in the light of his countenance: God cause his face to shine upon us; that is, God by his grace qualify us for his favour and then give us the tokens of his favour. We need desire no more to make us happy than to have God's face shine upon us, to have God love us, and let us know that he loves us: To shine with us (so the margin reads it); with us doing our endeavour, and let it crown that endeavour with success. If we by faith walk with God, we may hope that his face will shine with us.
II.He passes from this to a prayer for the conversion of the Gentiles (Psa 67:2):
That thy way may be known upon earth. "Lord, I pray not only that thou wilt be merciful to us and bless us, but that thou wilt be merciful to all mankind, that thy way may be known upon earth." Thus public-spirited must we be in our prayers. Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. We shall have never the less of God's mercy, and blessing, and favour, for others coming in to share with us. Or it may be taken thus: "God be merciful to us Jews, and bless us, that thereby thy way may be known upon earth, that by the peculiar distinguishing tokens of thy favour to us others may be allured to come and join themselves to us, saying, We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you," Zac 8:23.
1.These verses, which point at the conversion of the Gentiles, may be taken,
(1.)As a prayer; and so it speaks the desire of the Old Testament saints; so far were they from wishing to monopolize the privileges of the church that they desired nothing more than the throwing down of the enclosure and the laying open of the advantages. See then how the spirit of the Jews, in the days of Christ and his apostles, differed from the spirit of their fathers. The Israelites indeed that were of old desired that God's name might be known among the Gentiles; those counterfeit Jews were enraged at the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles; nothing in Christianity exasperated them so much as that did.
(2.)As a prophecy that it shall be as he here prays. Many scripture-prophecies and promises are wrapped up in prayers, to intimate that the answer of the church's prayer is as sure as the performance of God's promises.
2.Three things are here prayed for, with reference to the Gentiles: -
(1.)That divine revelation might be sent among them, Psa 67:2. Two things he desires might be know upon earth, even among all nations, and not to the nation of the Jews only: - [1.] God's way, the rule of duty: "Let them all know, as well as we do, what is good and what the Lord our God requires of them; let them be blessed and honoured with the same righteous statutes and judgments which are so much the praise of our nation and the envy of all its neighbours," Deu 4:8. [2.] His saving health, or his salvation. The former is wrapped up in his law, this in his gospel. If God make known his way to us, and we walk in it, he will show us his saving health, Psa 50:23. Those that have themselves experimentally known the pleasantness of God's ways, and the comforts of his salvation, cannot but desire and pray that they may be known to others, even among all nations. All upon earth are bound to walk in God's way, all need his salvation, and there is in it enough for all; and therefore we should pray that both the one and the other may be made known to all.
(2.)That divine worship may be set up among them, as it will be where divine revelation is received and embraced (Psa 67:3): "Let the people praise thee, O God! let them have matter for praise, let them have hearts for praise; yea, let not only some, but all the people, praise thee," all nations in their national capacity, some of all nations. It is again repeated (Psa 67:5) as that which the psalmist's heart was very much upon. Those that delight in praising God themselves cannot but desire that others also may be brought to praise him, that he may have the honour of it and they may have the benefit of it. It is a prayer,
[1.]That the gospel might be preached to them, and then they would have cause enough to praise God, as for the day-spring after a long and dark night. Ortus est sol - The sun has risen. Act 8:8.
[2.]That they might be converted and brought into the church, and then they would have a disposition to praise God, the living and true God, and not the dumb and dunghill deities they had worshipped, Dan 5:4. Then their hard thoughts of God would be silenced, and they would see him, in the gospel glass, to be love itself, and the proper object of praise.
[3.]That they might be incorporated into solemn assemblies, and might praise God in a body, that they might all together praise him with one mind and one mouth. Thus a face of religion appears upon a land when God is publicly owned and the ordinances of religious worship are duly celebrated in religious assemblies.
(3.)That the divine government may be acknowledged and cheerfully submitted to (Psa 67:4): O let the nations be glad, and sing for joy! Holy joy, joy in God and in his name, is the heart and soul of thankful praise. That all the people may praise thee, let the nations be glad. Those that rejoice in the Lord always will in every thing give thanks. The joy he wishes to the nations is holy joy; for it is joy in God's dominion, joy that God has taken to himself his great power and has reigned, which the unconverted nations are angry at, Rev 11:17, Rev 11:18. Let them be glad,
[1.]That the kingdom is the Lord's (Psa 22:28), that he, as an absolute sovereign, shall govern the nations upon earth, that by the kingdom of his providence he shall overrule the affairs of kingdoms according to the counsel of his will, though they neither know him nor own him, and that in due time he shall disciple all nations by the preaching of his gospel (Mat 28:19) and set up the kingdom of his grace among them upon the ruin of the devil's kingdom - that he shall make them a willing people in the day of his power, and even the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ.
[2.]That every man's judgment proceeds from the Lord. "Let them be glad that thou shalt judge the people righteously, that thou shalt give a law and gospel which shall be a righteous rule of judgment, and shalt pass an unerring sentence, according to that rule, upon all the children of men, against which there will lie no exception." Let us all be glad that we are not to be one another's judges, but that he that judges us is the Lord, whose judgment we are sure is according to truth.
III.He concludes with a joyful prospect of all good when God shall do this, when the nations shall be converted and brought to praise God.
1.The lower world shall smile upon them, and they shall have the fruits of that (Psa 67:6): Then shall the earth yield her increase. Not but that God gave rain from heaven and fruitful seasons to the nations when they sat in darkness (Act 14:17); but when they were converted the earth yielded its increase to God; the meat and the drink then became a meat-offering and a drink-offering to the Lord our God (Joe 2:14); and then it was fruitful to some good purpose. Then it yielded its increase more than before to the comfort of men, who through Christ acquired a covenant-title to the fruits of it and had a sanctified use of it. Note, The success of the gospel sometimes brings outward mercies along with it; righteousness exalts a nation. See Isa 4:2; Isa 62:9.
2.The upper world shall smile upon them, and they shall have the favours of that, which is much better: God, even our own God, shall bless us, Psa 67:6. And again (Psa 67:7), God shall bless us. Note,
(1.)There are a people in the world that can, upon good grounds, call God their God.
(2.)Believers have reason to glory in their relation to God and the interest they have in him. It is here spoken with an air of triumph. God, even our own God. (2.) Those who through grace call God their own may with a humble confidence expect a blessing from him. If he be our God, he will bless us with special blessings. (4.) The blessing of God, as ours in covenant, is that which sweetens all our creature-comforts to us, and makes them comforts indeed; then we receive the increase of the earth as a mercy indeed when with it God, even our own God, gives us his blessing.
3.All the world shall hereby be brought to do like them: The ends of the earth shall fear him, that is, worship him, which is to be done with a godly fear. The blessings God bestows upon us call upon us not only to love him, but to fear him, to keep up high thoughts of him and to be afraid of offending him. When the gospel begins to spread it shall get ground more and more, till it reach to the ends of the earth. The leaven hidden in the meal shall diffuse itself, till the whole be leavened. And the many blessings which those will own themselves to have received that are brought into the church invite others to join themselves to them. It is good to cast in our lot with those that are the blessed of the Lord.
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Summary
Psalms 67:5 serves as a fervent and climactic reiteration of the psalmist's profound desire for the universal recognition and adoration of God. Building upon the preceding verses that petition God to bless His people so that His saving power might be known globally, this verse amplifies the impassioned call for all humanity, without exception, to acknowledge, worship, and give thanks to the Creator. It encapsulates a profound theological vision of God's redemptive purpose unfolding across the entire earth, culminating in a harmonious chorus of praise from every nation and people group.
CONTEXT
Literary Context: Psalms 67 is often characterized as a "missionary psalm" or a "harvest psalm," deeply rooted in the prayer for God's blessing upon Israel as a means to a greater, universal end. The psalm opens with a direct petition for divine favor in Psalms 67:1-2, "God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah. That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations." This establishes the foundational premise: God's blessing on His chosen people is not for their exclusive benefit but serves as a conduit for His redemptive plan to be revealed to the world. Psalms 67:3 then introduces the initial call to praise from "the people," followed by Psalms 67:4, which grounds this universal praise in God's righteous judgment and governance of all nations. Verse 5 acts as a powerful, climactic repetition and intensification of the central plea from verse 3, emphasizing the comprehensive and undeniable scope of this desired global adoration.
Historical & Cultural Context: Composed likely for public worship, perhaps associated with harvest festivals or times of national blessing, Psalms 67 reflects Israel's unique covenantal role among the nations. While surrounding cultures worshipped various regional deities, this psalm boldly proclaims Yahweh as the one true God, whose reign extends over all peoples and lands. The concept of Israel being blessed to be a "light to the Gentiles" (Isaiah 49:6) is deeply embedded in the Old Testament narrative, stemming from the Abrahamic covenant where all families of the earth would be blessed through Abraham's descendants. The psalm envisions a future where the nations, having witnessed God's favor upon Israel and His righteous rule, would abandon their idols and turn to the true God. This universal vision was radical in a world dominated by tribal and nationalistic gods, highlighting the expansive nature of God's character and His ultimate redemptive purpose for all humanity.
Key Themes:
Exposition and Analysis
Key Word Analysis
From the primitive root H3034, this verb signifies more than mere verbal commendation. It literally means "to use (i.e. hold out) the hand," and physically, "to throw (a stone, an arrow) at or away." However, in a spiritual context, it specifically means "to revere or worship (with extended hands)." It carries the nuance of giving thanks, confessing, and making a public declaration of God's mighty deeds and character. When the psalmist calls for "all the people" to yâdâh God, it is a call for a comprehensive, heartfelt, and demonstrative recognition of His sovereignty, justice, and saving power through acts of thanksgiving and adoration.
Derived from H5971, this noun typically refers to "a people (as a congregated unit)" or "a nation." While the singular form ʻam often refers to Israel as God's chosen people, its usage in Psalms 67, especially in the plural context implied by "all the people" (KJV), clearly extends its meaning to encompass the diverse "peoples" or "nations" of the earth, distinct from Israel. Its emphatic repetition underscores the universal scope of the psalmist's prayer, leaving no ambiguity: the vision extends far beyond the borders of Israel to include every ethnic and national group on earth.
This plural noun is used in the ordinary sense for "gods," but specifically and most frequently (especially with the article) refers to the supreme God, Yahweh. It can also be applied to magistrates or as a superlative. In Psalms 67:5, its use emphasizes God's universal deity and power, identifying Him as the one true sovereign over all nations, deserving of their collective praise.
Verse Breakdown
"Let the people praise thee, O God;"
This initial clause functions as a fervent prayer or an imperative declaration. "The people" here, as established by the preceding verses and the psalm's overarching theme, refers to the diverse nations of the earth. It is a plea for these non-Israelite peoples to turn from their idols and acknowledge the one true God, offering Him the worship and thanksgiving that is rightfully His. The phrase "O God" (ʼĕlôhîym) emphasizes His universal deity and power, the object of this desired praise.
"let all the people praise thee."
This second clause is a powerful repetition and intensification of the first. The addition of "all" (כָּל, kol) removes any potential limitation or ambiguity, unequivocally stating the comprehensive nature of the desired praise. It creates a crescendo, amplifying the psalmist's longing for every single nation, tribe, and tongue to join in the chorus of adoration. This repetition serves to underscore the central, non-negotiable vision of the psalm: God's ultimate purpose is to receive universal praise from all humanity.
Literary Devices
Psalms 67:5 employs several potent literary devices to convey its profound message. The most striking is Repetition, where the entire phrase "let the people praise thee, O God" is essentially repeated, with a crucial intensification in the second instance. This repetition serves to emphasize the central theme of universal praise, making it unforgettable and highlighting the psalmist's fervent desire. Closely related is Parallelism, specifically Synonymous Parallelism, where the second line of the verse reiterates the thought of the first line but with added force or clarity. The phrase "let all the people praise thee" does not introduce a new idea but reinforces the previous one, broadening its scope with the emphatic "all." This creates a sense of escalating urgency and comprehensive inclusion. Furthermore, the use of the Imperative or Volitional Mood (implied by "Let...") expresses a strong desire, a prayer, or even a command for this universal praise to come to fruition. It is not merely a statement of fact but a passionate call to action, reflecting a deep spiritual yearning for God's glory to be universally acknowledged.
Theological and Thematic Connections
Psalms 67:5 encapsulates a core theological truth: God's ultimate plan is not for the salvation and worship of a single nation, but for a global outpouring of praise from all peoples. This verse beautifully bridges the particularity of God's covenant with Israel and the universality of His redemptive purpose. It reveals a God whose love and saving power extend to the ends of the earth, desiring that all humanity come to know Him and offer Him the worship He alone deserves. This vision foreshadows the New Testament's revelation of the Church as a multi-ethnic body, united in Christ, and serves as a powerful reminder that God's glory is most fully displayed when it is recognized and celebrated by every tribe, tongue, and nation. The psalm's prayer is thus a prophetic glimpse into the eschatological reality of God's kingdom.
Reflection and Application
Psalms 67:5 serves as a profound call to reflection for believers today, reminding us that God's heart beats for all nations. Our personal blessings and corporate worship are not ends in themselves but are intended to be a conduit through which God's saving health and glorious way become known to the entire world. This verse challenges any insular or ethnocentric tendencies within faith communities, compelling us to embrace a global perspective on God's mission. It calls us to cultivate a missionary heart, to pray fervently for the unreached, and to actively participate in the Great Commission, whether through direct involvement, financial support, or consistent intercession. Recognizing that God blesses us so that others might see His goodness and be drawn to praise Him should ignite a passion within us to live lives that authentically reflect His glory, thereby inviting others into His worship. Ultimately, this verse instills hope, pointing to a future where every knee will bow and every tongue confess the Lordship of God, inspiring us to work towards that glorious reality.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why is the repetition of 'let all the people praise thee' significant in Psalms 67:5?
The repetition in Psalms 67:5, particularly the addition of "all" in the second clause, is highly significant for several reasons. Firstly, it serves as a powerful emphasis and intensification of the psalmist's fervent prayer and desire. It's not just a casual request but a deep, passionate yearning for this reality to come to pass. Secondly, it removes any ambiguity regarding the scope of the praise. While the first clause "let the people praise thee" might conceptually refer to nations, the explicit inclusion of "all" ensures that no people group, tribe, or nation is excluded from this divine aspiration. It underscores the truly universal nature of God's redemptive plan and His worthiness of worship from every corner of the globe. This repetition acts as a rhetorical crescendo, building the emotional and theological weight of the psalm's central message: God's ultimate desire is to be known and praised by all humanity, as also envisioned in prophetic passages like Isaiah 45:22-23.
Christ-Centered Fulfillment
Psalms 67:5, with its fervent call for all peoples to praise God, finds its ultimate and glorious fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The Old Testament's vision of universal worship, prayed for in this psalm, is realized through the New Testament's revelation of the Messiah, who breaks down the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile (Ephesians 2:14) and gathers a people for Himself from every nation. Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, offered Himself as a sacrifice not just for Israel, but for the sins of the entire world (1 John 2:2). His Great Commission to His disciples, to "go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19), is the divine strategy for bringing about this universal praise. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, believers are sent out to be His witnesses "to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8), proclaiming the good news that through Christ, salvation is offered to all. Ultimately, the prophetic longing of Psalms 67:5 culminates in the heavenly vision of a great multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!". This is the Christ-centered fulfillment: the universal praise desired by the psalmist is realized through the redemptive work of Jesus, making it possible for all peoples to truly praise God.