So far we’ve seen that the Psalms show God the King’s love for all nations. But there’s more. In the Psalms the LORD also calls the nations to come to him.
The promise of the Father in Psalm 2:8 to give his Son Jesus Christ the nations as his inheritance becomes in later psalms an earnest summons to all peoples. For instance, Psalm 33:8 extends this invitation: “Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!” In a group of Psalms in the 60s God shows his desire for the nations to place their trust in him, starting with Psalm 65:5, “By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas.”
Then Psalm 66:1 exhorts not just Israel but “all the earth” to “Shout for joy to God . . . sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise!” Verse 4 takes it for granted that the Gentiles will heed this call: “All the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to your name.” David and the other psalmists wanted the nations to see Yahweh as God not just of Israel but of them too—the one only true God of all peoples!
The inspired poets prayed for God’s blessing over Israel for a very missional purpose: so that the nations might see God’s kindness and grace toward Israel and be drawn to worship Yahweh. Psalm 67 brings this out powerfully:
“May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth” (Ps 67:1–4; emphasis added).
The prayer of Psalm 67 receives an initial answer in Psalm 126:2 where, as the Jewish exiles are set free to return to their homeland, this miracle is noticed with wonder by the Gentiles: “then they said among the nations, ‘The LORD has done great things for them.’”
The King Calls the Nations
The gospel call to the nations is very strong in the Psalms: “I will give thanks to you, O LORD, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds” (57:9). Notice how David sings to the nations of God’s steadfast love and faithfulness—the very thing we do when we speak of Jesus to our neighbours. What is the sending of Christ to save sinners but God’s greatest act of love and faithfulness to the world he created? We have this same anthem ringing out in Psalm 108 (see v. 3) and in the shortest of all psalms, 117:1, “Praise the LORD, all nations! Extol him all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us!”
Psalm 72 is a prayer for God’s special, anointed king—whom we know is ultimately Jesus Christ (see Lk 1:32–33; Rev 17:14)—to establish his rule not just in the land of Israel but over all the earth. That prayer in verse 1 asks, “May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him!” Singing these psalms is a great incentive for us speak to our neighbours about God’s love and faithfulness which is available for them too. And when we bring our contacts to church and sing these songs, they hear the message from God’s own mouth (the Psalms being uniquely God-given songs, his revelation) that God is calling them too to believe and worship him! They will hear of a loving, caring God who rules all peoples and wants them to be blessed under his rule!
There’s still more. There is a group of psalms referred to as Kingship Psalms (93–100). Many of them exhort not just Israel but all people to sing the LORD’s praise. This comes out very jubilantly in Ps. 96:1, “O sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth! . . . Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds to all the peoples.” Psalm 98:2 says it this way, “The LORD has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.” And the well-known and loved Psalm 100 sings out, “Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!” (See also Psalm 148:11–13).
Everywhere the Psalms declare that God is genuinely concerned for all nations and wants them to come to know him and enjoy his salvation. In fact, Jesus’ very command to his disciples in Matthew 28 is rooted in this missional calling woven throughout the Psalter as well as God’s earlier promises to the patriarchs. Jesus didn’t invent the missionary calling but rather came to enact it in fullest measure. The same God who inspired these psalms is the same God who sent his Son, and the same God who commands us not just to sing to the nations but to go out and preach to them, call out to them, and make disciples of them. For this reason singing and reading and praying the psalms with all nations is a perfect fit.