Verse 4
4. Oh let the nations The word עמים , ( ammeem,) peoples, occurs in the plural seven times in this short psalm; גוים , ( goyeem,) nations, Gentiles, once; and ארצ , ( ahretz,) earth, the world, four times, always in connexion with the universal knowledge of God, and the happy effect of the universal acknowledgment of him. The verbs which, in our English version, are rendered optatively as expressing a wish, as, “Let all the people praise thee,” etc., should be read as predictions in the declarative future, “All the people shall praise thee,” etc. The psalm is a glorious anticipation of the universal spread of the gospel, and the conversion of the Gentile nations.
Judge… govern The latter word signifies to lead, as in Psalms 22:3; Psalms 77:20, and is the office of a shepherd. As a ruler, God will judge righteously; as a shepherd, he will lead gently; and when he shall be accepted in these offices by the nations, “Truth shall spring out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven.” Psalms 85:11
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