You will judge the peoples with uprightness

Psalm 67 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

The Nations Exhorted to Praise God.

God be gracious to us and bless us,
And cause His face to shine upon us— Selah.
² That Your way may be known on the earth,
Your salvation among all nations.
³ Let the peoples praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise You.
⁴ Let the nations be glad and sing for joy;
For You will judge the peoples with uprightness
And guide the nations on the earth. Selah.
⁵ Let the peoples praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise You.
⁶ The earth has yielded its produce;
God, our God, blesses us.
⁷ God blesses us, That all the ends of the earth may fear Him.

In Today’s New Testament text, from Luke 6:36-38 Jesus says:  “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”   Today’s Proverb, Proverbs 11:27 says:  He who diligently seeks good seeks favor, But he who seeks evil, evil will come to him.   The psalmist says:  God be gracious to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us— Selah.
That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation 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 will judge the peoples with uprightness And guide the nations on the earth.   God will indeed judge people with uprightness. His righteous judgment is in part that, as Jesus says, we will be judged by our own standard of measure.  As proverbs says: He who diligently seeks good seeks favor, But he who seeks evil, evil will come to him.   In John 3:16-21 Jesus says:   “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”   God’s righteous judgment is a judgment based on our own choices; by our own standard of measure, whether we seek and choose good or evil. Because God is merciful, gracious, compassionate and loving, Christ died, He was judged in place of whoever believes. Even the judgments of God in Revelation are not the final, eternal judgments againts those who experience them. They are for the purpose of causing people to repent; to recognize their need of Christ the redeemer. Revelation 16:11 says:  They cursed the God of heaven for their pains and sores. But they did not repent of their evil deeds and turn to God. Each one of us has the choice of whether we will respond to God’s love and compassion, or if we will be judged by our own standard and our choice of darkness over light. The difficult situation and circumstances we face are not God’s judgment against people. They are born from human standards. We each have a choice. Will we be judged by the standards of the world or by the mercy, compassion, love and grace of God, in Christ.

God be gracious to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine upon us, That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation 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 will judge the peoples with uprightness And guide the nations on the earth. Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. The earth has yielded its produce; God, our God, blesses us. God blesses us, That all the ends of the earth may fear Him.  Amen. Thank You heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit. Amen.