Psalm 67:2-3, 5-6, 8

Our responsorial psalm for this week comes from Psalm 67, a hymn that celebrates God’s blessing upon Israel while looking outward to the day when all nations will come to know, worship, and rejoice in the Lord.

It is an especially fitting response to our first reading, where Isaiah foresees faithful foreigners joining themselves to the covenant and worshiping in God’s house.

May God have pity on us and bless us; may he let his face shine upon us.

The psalm opens with an adaptation of the blessing entrusted to Aaron and his descendants (Numbers 6:24-26). What the priests once proclaimed over Israel has become the prayer of the whole congregation.

The image of God’s shining face expresses his favor and gracious presence. The psalmist asks that God look upon his people with kindness and bless them.

So may your way be known upon earth; among all nations, your salvation.

God’s goodness to his people will bring glory to his name among other nations. Seeing the blessings he has bestowed upon Israel, they will recognize his saving power and sovereign rule, concluding that only such a mighty and magnanimous God could bestow these gifts.

May the nations be glad and exult because you rule the peoples in equity;
the nations on the earth you guide.

The psalm moves from an acknowledgment of divine rule over one people to an announcement of universal divine governance. All nations will not only rejoice over God’s goodness, they will also be guided by the same God.

In other words, the blessings bestowed on Israel testify to God’s saving power. This, in turn, becomes the means by which God’s salvation is made known to all the earth.

This is the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham that through his descendants “all the families of the earth shall find blessing” (Genesis 12:2-3).

May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you!
May God bless us, and may all the ends of the earth fear him!

The psalm ends where it has been heading all along: with a vision of every nation acknowledging the Lord. God’s blessings were never intended to remain with one people alone. They become the means by which his name is made known throughout the earth.

The psalm’s vision of all nations coming to know and praise the Lord finds its fulfillment in the mission Jesus entrusted to his apostles to preach repentance to all nations (Luke 24:47) and in the birth of the Church, where people from every nation gather to worship the one true God (Acts 2:9-12, 47).