¹God be gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us— Selah. ²That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among all nations.

We take for granted that God is glorified in creation, but that by itself is a limited view of His greatness. He is greater than His artistry and power in nature. This psalm infers that the awesomeness of God (see also Psalm 66) is most excellently seen in His relationship with His people. When He graciously blesses us and makes “His face to shine upon us,” this dramatically enhances His reputation. In other words, it is through God’s blessing of us that our Lord shows Himself in His finest!

The challenge is that our intentions can be suspect; we tend to ask God’s blessings for ourselves because they make life easier and more enjoyable. But the psalmist takes us beyond our self-benefit to a God-focused goal. In contrast to the impersonal and disinterested pagan gods, the true God, as revealed through His people, desires a beneficial relationship with us. We benefit, to be sure, but in the process, His reputation—that He is all about doing good for His people—is enhanced, which is integral to knowing and having a relationship with God.

Our God is all about relationships. The NT understanding of the Trinity views God as perfectly communal within Himself, as one God in three persons. He doesn’t need any other thing or individual to experience this perfection. His community within Himself is essential to His nature; He does not want it to be closed but open. He created us as His image-bearers so we could become like Him and share in that community. We will spend eternity unwrapping this truth in greater light but suffice it to say that we can enjoy this mystery and have a growing desire that others would join us in this communion – because then more and more will see how great God is! That is why Jesus in the Upper Room prayed to His Father …

… that they [believers] may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. (John 17:21)

The psalm writer, therefore, begins by asking God to be gracious to and bless us. And he ends with the confidence that “God, our God, blesses us. God blesses us, that all the ends of the earth may fear Him” (vss. 6b – 7).

In between the request and the confidence is declarative praise. That means this psalm gives us words for praising God apart from anything He does explicitly for us, but simply for who He is. In these words, we tell God that He is great. In a world of so much injustice, our God is a righteous judge, and He guides the nations (vs. 4, see also Rom. 13:1-2, Prov. 21:1, Dan. 2:21). This is the kind of God He is, and therefore He is worthy of all our praises. When God blesses us, this shows Him to be a God who abundantly blesses. And that is to His glory and the expansion of His reputation.

We might well rejoin Aaron’s blessing, which possibly provides literary background to this psalm; let this be our desire for fellow believers, with whom we share wonderful community:

The Lord bless you, and keep you; the Lord make His face shine on you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance on you, and give you peace. (Num. 6:24–26)