In Part 1 of our study of Psalm 67, we played the part of a biblical cartographer, mapping and tracing the blessings of God to his people. Channeling the language of the Aaronic benediction, the psalmist asks for God’s grace and blessing to flow (“shine”) to him and the covenant community in order that the blessings they receive would flow through them and to the nations abroad—“that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations” (v. 2). And what would this blessed knowledge of God’s saving way cause the nations to do? It causes them to worship the one true God together with God’s people: “Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!” (v.3).
In this, the psalm’s movement is akin to that of the water cycle. God’s blessings come down from above, blessing the church and peoples of the earth, causing them to be verdant, green, and abundantly fruitful; and then, just as water vapor rises to the place of its origination, the peoples raise their voices in exuberant praise, blessing God’s holy name.
Having charted the general direction of God’s blessing, the remainder of the psalm furnishes the reader with particular reasons why the nations will be glad and sing praises to God. To use another analogy, Psalm 67 envisions the nations being drawn to the people of God and joining together with them in praise, just as metal is drawn to a magnet. But what explains this magnetism? What is it particularly that the nations see that draws them in? The psalmist provides three reasons why the nations will come and bless the Lord: because of God’s justice, because of God’s guidance, and because of God’s provision. The first of these reasons will be covered in this article, and the latter two in Part 3.
1. Because of God’s Justice
The first reason the nations will praise the Lord is because (“for”) God “judges the peoples with equity” (4). Admittedly, at first reading, this rationale does not land with us as powerfully as it would have with readers in the psalmist’s day. Why so? There are many possible reasons, but here are a quick few:
First, the church and state no longer exist as one entity as they did under the old covenant. According to God’s sovereign appointment, the way in which justice was administered in Israel as a theocratic nation was unique to them and “expired with the State of that people” (Westminster Confession of Faith 19.4). Under the new covenant, the church has been entrusted with the keys of the kingdom and the state with the power of the sword, each responsible to pursue justice according to the limits of their divinely assigned jurisdiction (temporal and spiritual). In short, the progress of redemptive history has brought considerable change along with it. Things are just different. This prompts the questions: If the theocratic expression of justice is no longer on the table (cough, Recons, cough), then what does justice look like in the modern day? How are Christians to pursue justice if not in the way the old covenant did?
This leads to the second reason why this rationale of God’s judging the peoples with equity feels so foreign to us—because, from where we are sitting, we do not see it happening. We feel acutely the tension of Hebrews 2:8: “Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.” We know that Christ is exercising his mediatorial kingship even now. We believe that the Father has “put all things under his feet and [given] him as head over all things to the church” (Eph 1:22). And yet the nations of this world are still fraught with injustice. They rage. They plot. They seek to burst their bonds apart (Ps 2:1–3). They devise wicked schemes on their beds by night and first thing in the morning they put them into action (Mic 2:1). Where then will the peoples see God’s justice if not in corrupt human governments?1 To whom will the nations look and see God’s judging in equity? The answer is the church.
The people of God are under the dominion of a righteous and holy King. Our King, King Jesus, did not sidestep the justice of his Father in the pursuit of our redemption; instead, through his once offering up of himself as a substitutionary sacrifice in our place, he satisfied divine justice, thereby reconciling us to the Father (Westminster Shorter Catechism 25). And because Christ so esteemed the justice of his Father that he was willing to die the painful and shameful death of the cross, the redeemed of God should be a people committed to doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with their God (Mic 6:8).
This commitment to justice and equity is not the same as the performative justice that has dominated the last five or so years. Blacking out our profile pictures and making impassioned social media posts when everyone else is doing so is hardly what Micah had in mind. Somewhere along the line we confused activism with justice and, unfortunately, even saying the word “justice” now opens one up to undue scrutiny in some Christian circles. Because our God is a just God, we should be a just people. This should go without saying. But if so much of what passes as justice is really only justice so-called, what does justice look like, practically, in the household of God?
When God’s people remember that they are called to be the evidentiary fruits of God’s judging the peoples with equity, that God’s justice is not some ethereal and abstract concept floating somewhere “out there” but is realized in their concrete dealings with one another, then and only then can real justice take root in the church. True justice looks like Christian employers closing their businesses on Sundays so that their employees can enjoy Sabbath rest (20:8–10). It looks like individuals reconciling with and making whole those whom they have personally wronged, whether relationally or materially (e.g., Matt 5:23–26; Luke 19:1–10). It looks like joyful submission on the part of church members to their leaders and selflessness in those called to shepherd the flock of God (1 Pet 5:1–5). It looks like providing for the material needs of the widows, orphans, the poor, and the unborn within the church’s ranks and in their local communities (Gal 6:10; Jas 1:27). Before we can hope for God’s righteous judgment to be known among the nations, we must know it and live it ourselves in the church. In a world rife with cheap imitations of justice, the church has a unique opportunity to be a truly just society, a society that the unbeliever longs join.
Though this call upon the church to be just and righteous is indeed vital to the church’s witness to the world, we must be careful not to allow a zeal for justice to eclipse our zeal for the proclamation of the gospel message, or to read a fruit of the gospel (justice) into the definition of the gospel itself. The good news is not, “Come to Jesus in saving faith and join the church as it pursues the renewal of all things.” Once we insert that “and” into our understanding of the gospel, we have unwittingly believed in another gospel entirely. The gospel is not the work of Christ plus the good works we perform in his name. The gospel of God is the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, living, dying, and rising from the dead for the salvation of guilty sinners. The gospel is Christ’s person and work; and our work, our pursuit of justice is merely a fruit of his greater work on our behalf.
So long as the church keeps these two distinct, we should not hesitate or bristle when called to live justly as Christians, whether from the pulpit or in print. Living under the just rule of Jesus Christ in the church is one of the greatest blessings of the Christian life. Therefore, let us share it by living it, that the nations may join with us in the praise of our just and righteous God.
Note
- This question should not be construed as my succumbing to boil frog syndrome, a defeatist mindset, or to discouraging Christians from exercising responsible political agency to the glory of God. I long and pray for godly civil magistrates. I believe in 1 Timothy 2. Nevertheless, we must not lose sight of the fact that even when things are going relatively “well” civilly, there will always be enough corruption and wickedness perpetrated by the kingdoms of this world that we would be foolish to pin our hopes upon the success of earthly kings. The health and stability of earthly kingdoms is not unimportant, but it is not ultimate.
©Stephen Spinnenweber. All Rights Reserved.
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Stephen Spinnenweber
Stephen has been the pastor of Westminster PCA in Jacksonville, FL since 2019. Stephen earned his Masters of Divinity from Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and is a General Council member of the Gospel Reformation Network. Together with friends he hosts several podcasts on the Westminster Standards (The Shorter and Larger for Life podcasts) and is also the author of a forthcoming book from Christian Focus Publications on the three uses of the Moral Law, set to be released in 2025. Stephen and his wife, Sarah, are high school sweethearts and have been married since 2013. They are proud parents to four covenant children.
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