The Nations Praise the Lord (vv. 3-5). These three verses form the heart of the psalm and focus on the Gentile nations worshipping and praising the God of Israel. Today, the nations have conspired to dethrone the Lord, and they want nothing of “His ways” (2:1-3), but the day will come when all the nations will come to the mountain of the Lord and worship the God of Jacob (Isa. 2:1-5). The New International Version translates these verses as a prayer, “May the peoples praise you….” When will this occur? When Jesus Christ establishes His kingdom, judges the peoples with justice, and guides (“shepherds,” Mic. 5:2; Matt. 2:6) the nations in the ways of the Lord. The prayer in these verses is the Old Testament equivalent of “thy kingdom come” in the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:9-13). Because there is no king in Israel today, the nations of the world are doing as they please (Judg. 17:6; 18:11; 19:1; 21:25), but that will all change when the kingdoms of the world belong to Jesus Christ (Rev. 11:15).