Psalms 67 — RVA — Scriptura

For the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments. A Psalm, a Song.

67God be merciful unto us, and bless us, and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah
^{Verse 2}That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.
^{Verse 3}Let the peoples praise thee, O God; let all the peoples praise thee.
^{Verse 4}O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the peoples with equity, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah
^{Verse 5}Let the peoples praise thee, O God; let all the peoples praise thee.
^{Verse 6}The earth hath yielded her increase: God, even our own God, shall bless us.
^{Verse 7}God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.

Commentary

The Psalm begins (Psa 67:1) with words of the priest's benediction in Num 6:24-26. By אתּנוּ the church desires for itself the unveiled presence of the light-diffusing loving countenance of its God. Here, after the echo of the holiest and most glorious benediction, the music strikes in. With Psa 67:2 the Beracha passes over into a Tephilla. לדעת is conceived with the most general subject: that one may know, that may be known Thy way, etc. The more graciously God attests Himself to the church, the more widely and successfully does the knowledge of this God spread itself forth from the church over the whole earth. They then know His דּרך, i.e., the progressive realization of His counsel, and His ישׁוּעה, the salvation at which this counsel aims, the salvation not of Israel merely, but of all mankind.

Now follows the prospect of the entrance of all peoples into the kingdom of God, who will then praise Him in common with Israel as their God also. His judging (שׁפט) in this instance is not meant as a judicial punishment, but as a righteous and mild government, just as in the christological parallels Psa 72:12., Isa 11:3. מישׁר in an ethical sense for מישׁרים, as in Psa 45:7; Isa 11:4; Mal 2:6. הנחה as in Psa 31:4 of gracious guidance (otherwise than in Job 12:23).

The joyous prospect of the conversion of heathen, expressed in the same words as in Psa 67:5, here receives as its foundation a joyous event of the present time: the earth has just yielded its fruit (cf. Psa 85:13), the fruit that had been sown and hoped for. This increase of corn and fruits is a blessing and an earnest of further blessing, by virtue of which (Jer 33:9; Isa 60:3; cf. on the contrary Joe 2:17) it shall come to pass that all peoples unto the uttermost bounds of the earth shall reverence the God of Israel. For it is the way of God, that all the good that He manifests towards Israel shall be for the well-being of mankind.

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