Psalm 66 is a harvest time song-prayer. But we'll see that the psalmist has more on his mind than just the gathering in of wheat and barley.
Verse 1: May God be merciful to us. God's mercy is right up front in the psalmist's mind. It is God's kindness. And in the next line we're told in a poetic way what God's mercy-kindness means: that God would be close to us, so close we can stand in the light of God's face.
Verse 2: The psalmist asks that God's saving health would be shared over the whole world - all the nations - and not only among his own people. No strident populist nationalism here! We could memorize this verse and pray it often throughout the day, as an antidote to the voices of the haters and division makers on the loose.
Verse 3: When we've got a good idea, we tend to repeat it. Here the psalmist invites everyone to the praise of God: not just the Catholics, not just the Americans and the white people, not just the straight, right-partied, law-abiding, wealthy, credentialed, famous people - but all the peoples. That's called inclusion.
Verses 4 and 5: God judges with equity. Maybe the Jewish People - the chosen people - have as their mission to be a kind of symbol or microcosmic sign of what God feels for all people. It is as if God has put them under a spotlight, not because God has in mind something for them that God doesn't have for all, but quite the opposite. The spotlight would seem to say, "Look here, this is how I feel about you too."
Verse 6: The earth has brought forth her increase. The earth is soil and water, which we all have in common. No human person or nation stands on a cloud. And what blessings might the psalmist be asking for? Maybe we've been given the answer back in verse 4: that we would be glad and sing for joy. Don't we need that? Not the idiotic kind of "joy" promised by the products sold on TV, but God's own gladness and joy.
Of course, we must be mindful of those places on earth where there is famine and the horrors that leave people suffering want - where the earth brings forth NO increase. We might begin by dispelling from among us any spirit of greed, hoarding, gluttony and waste.
Verse 7: May the ends of the earth stand in awe of God. Sometimes a nation or a religion can get so turned in on itself, its divisions, bickering and shallow distractions, it loses its true spiritual sense of the things that matter most - like taking care of people. Imagine if a nation which calls itself God-fearing, or a religion which thinks itself to be God-Loving, found itself utterly speechless by the all-embracing kindness of God who has gone to such trouble to be with us. Awe: to have our breath taken away!
