The psalm begins with a prayer for God to bless Israel by making his face shine on them. Referring to God’s face is another way of depicting his favour as he looks upon them with delight and kindness. The author was aware that Israel did not deserve divine blessing even although they were God’s people. Since the commencement of the relationship between God and Israel, it had always been based on his grace (v. 1).
The prayer is connected to the contents of the Aaronic blessing recorded in Numbers 6:24-26. The outcome of that blessing is the enjoyment of divine peace. Such peace has many aspects, but the desire of the psalmist here is that God would not only bring such peace to Israel, but that he would also bring the nations to experience it.
If God was to show favour to Israel, then other nations would see it and wonder if such blessings could come to them. The author knew that it could happen because such a possibility is found in the promises that God made to Abraham that through his descendants the world would be blest. While the ultimate fulfilment of those promises would occur when the Messiah came, there could be foretastes of it (vv. 2-3).
The psalmist knew that God was able to bring about such a wonderful global experience. After all, he is the sovereign who judges and guides the nations even when they are not receiving his peace. But when they would be given it by him, then they would experience the joy of the Lord in a profuse manner. So the psalmist intercedes with energy for such a wonderful fulfilment to happen soon (vv. 4-5).
Of course, it helps in such praying to have evidence that God cares for the nations and the Psalmist finds it in the harvests that occur regularly throughout the world. Since the earth had once again yielded its fruits because of God’s involvement, it was evidence that spiritual blessing could come as well from him. The author deduces that the recent harvests were a sign that God could bless his people by adding to their number through all the ends of the earth fearing him (vv. 6-7). This was a powerful argument in prayer because both earthly blessing and spiritual blessing require divine power for them to occur. And there are divine promises about both.
It is evident that the answer to this ancient prayer is connected to the spread of the gospel. Since Jesus ascended to heaven, he has been engaged in drawing people from all the nations to fear him, and is doing so today with great success. It is amazing that we are privileged to participate in the advance of his kingdom through our prayers, as well as in other ways.
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