In the present passage, the apostle has provided the elect exiles with a series of glorious descriptive phrases to highlight what God has made them to be. So this passage is a source of great encouragement to people who are exiles
(1 Peter 1:1, 1 Peter 1:17; 1 Peter 2:11). Their sense of self cannot lie in what their neighbours think of them (or what they themselves think their neighbours think of them) but must lie in what God thinks of them.
Thinking God’s thoughts concerning ourselves gives cause for God’s people to have great thoughts about God and so in turn to talk up his marvellous deeds within the communities in which we live.
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.