Deeper Commentary

Psa 67:1

For the Chief Musician. With stringed instruments. A Psalm. A song-
This appears to have initially been a thanksgiving song for a good harvest, but it clearly has been developed to understand the harvest as the spiritual harvest of Gentiles for God's Kingdom, with God's blessing of Israel by grace leading to Gentiles being converted to the God of Israel.

May God be merciful to us, bless us, and cause His face to shine on us. Selah-
Heb. 'shine with us', as if God's joy is now that of His people. Blessing is often understood as forgiveness; this was the "mercy" implicit in the promises to Abraham and David. The shining of God's face with His people suggests restoration of fellowship and loving acceptance of them by grace. And this was what led to the harvest now to be celebrated in the Psalm.

The allusion is clearly to the Priestly blessing of the people in Num. 6:24,25. But that blessing was to be shared with all the Gentiles. This is the same idea with which Ps. 68 begins, supporting the suggestion that the Psalms are often paired. This Ps. 67 would thus be an introduction to Ps. 68.

The allusion to the High priestly blessing is very clear: "Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘This is how you shall bless the children of Israel’. You shall tell them, ‘Yahweh bless you, and keep you. Yahweh make His face to shine on you, and be gracious to you. Yahweh lift up His face toward you, and give you peace’. So they shall put My name on the children of Israel; and I will bless them" (Num. 6:23-27). We note the stress is on "and I, I will bless them" (Heb.). Nothing magical was done by the priest himself, just as blessing is not achieved by wearing amulets or jewellery or having certain tattoos. He simply asked Yahweh to bless the people, and Yahweh would do so- and that is the spirit of this prayer in Ps. 67. But the difference is that the people being blessed are to pronounce these words. Not asking God to e.g. "make His face to shine on you", but rather, "cause His face to shine on us". "May God be merciful / gracious to us" rather than asking Him to be "gracious to you". The ordinary people, whoever was praying this prayer, is being given the job of the priests, indeed of the High Priest. Perhaps this was a psalm used by the exiles when the priesthood and temple cult didn't function; we see something similar in Daniel's prayer "cause Your face to shine on Your sanctuary that is desolate" (Dan. 9:17). Perhaps it originated in the prayers of David and his men when they were unable to have access to the sanctuary and priesthood; LXX calls it a prayer of David. This is the path to maturity in us all; for whatever reason, we end up having to be the priest or the pastor. For indeed we are to be a kingdom of priests, and the 'priesthood of all believers' is very real. We are led to be the ones who take spiritual responsibility for others as well as ourselves. Perhaps the local church declines or breaks up, our pastoral figures die without replacement, we become disillusioned with them, or for whatever reason we move out of their sphere. In the bigger picture, that too is all of God. The priestly blessing was not to be repeated just as a form of words- the psalm concludes: "God will bless us" (:7). It's like praying for forgiveness, or a place in the eternal Kingdom of God, and concluding "I am forgiven... I will be saved. Amen! So it is!". The priestly blessing, however, was being prayed by individuals for not just Israel, but the Gentiles too.

Psa 67:2

That Your way may be known on earth, and Your salvation among all nations-
The "blessing" upon "us" God's people was in order that all nations would know God's salvation. Verse 7 concludes the same way. Indeed this is the major theme of the psalm- that God's blessing upon His people leads to the salvation of the nations. And the idea of "blessing" is largely associated with forgiveness, grace, the gift of the Spirit and salvation. The shining of God's face is now the experience of every believer filled with the Spirit: "He shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6). The experience of these things cannot remain with the recipient- we have to share them with the world. This psalm is a prayer that this happens, at least for the individual praying the prayer. Under the old covenant, "blessing" was in terms of the increase of the earth in harvest (:6), but under the new covenant, those blessings are of forgiveness, grace and salvation. I suggest this Psalm was relevant to the exiles, who had been offered the new covenant. Hence the "blessing" is defined as God's face shining upon man- fellowship with Him, with the barrier of sin now dealt with. And all God's people are now individually the equivalent of the old covenant's priests, mediating and pronouncing this blessing upon the world around us. The new covenant is based upon the promises to Abraham, which revolve around the idea of his seed being blessed in order to be a blessing to all nations of the earth (Gen. 12:2,3 "I will bless you... You will be a blessing... All of the families of the earth will be blessed in you"). This idea is clearly central to this psalm.

God's "way" is His "salvation". His driving purpose with the earth, His way amongst men, is in order to bring men to salvation. He is not indifferent but proactive in this work, and we His people are to reflect that and also be part of it. God's grace in forgiving Israel (:1) was to reveal His way to the rest of the nations in the eretz, and serve as an advertisement for the fact that Yahweh is a God who saves; a principle brought to final articulation in the person of the Lord Jesus, Yehoshua, Yah's salvation. This was based upon the experience of David, who wished to advertise to the world his forgiveness and experience of God's grace after his sin. The idea was that the exiles would follow his pattern of repentance and his path to restoration. They didn't, but finally they will, at the last day.

Psa 67:3

let the peoples praise You, God. Let all the peoples praise You-
This may be an invitation for the "peoples" of the eretz to praise Israel's God for His characteristic salvation and mercy (:1,2). "Let" can as well be translated "May...". Although "let" might suggest David was asking that Yahweh extend His saving plan to the Gentiles even at that stage.

Psa 67:4

Oh let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for You will judge the peoples with equity, and govern the nations on earth. Selah-
This verse is at the centre of the Psalm, the verses before and after are the same. The point of the psalm is that the priestly blessing is to be wished by all God's people individually upon not only Israel but the Gentiles too. Sadly the exiles became xenophobic rather than welcoming to Gentiles, so this prayer was not prayed from the heart by God's individual people as intended.

The vision was of God's kingdom or governance being over all the nations of the eretz / earth; and because of their acceptance of this, they would be glad. The justice of His judgments would be a cause for joy. This vision of kingdom or empire building was totally opposite to that understood at the time, where nations were militarily and economically dominated and forced into submission. Yahweh's Kingdom would extend by the choice of the subjected peoples, who would be awed by God's grace to Israel, who would become the parade example of what it meant to have Yahweh as King.

Psa 67:5

Let the peoples praise You, God. Let all the peoples praise You-
"Let" might suggest David was asking that Yahweh extend His saving plan to the Gentiles even at that stage. But David was well ahead of his time in this desire. For Israel failed to be the example of God's kingship over a people, and the Gentiles therefore weren't encouraged to repent. We note the emphasis upon "all the peoples"- including their recent abusers, those whom Israel might consider beyond God's saving purpose.

We began by observing that Ps. 67 is based upon the High Priestly blessing of the people, but every individual Israelite is now asked to pronounce the blessing. We have an example of Aaron pronouncing the blessing in Lev. 9:22-24: "Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people, and blessed them... and Aaron went into the Tent of Meeting, and came out, and blessed the people; and the glory of Yahweh appeared to all the people.  There came forth fire from before Yahweh...  and when all the people saw it, they shouted, and fell on their faces [in worship]". Now, the individual Israelite was to act as Aaron the High Priest, with the intention that "all the people", not just Israel but the entire Gentile world, would be moved to worship Yahweh. Again we see the huge elevation of importance of the individual, to have as much power in blessing as the High Priest, and over far more people.

Psa 67:6

The earth has yielded its increase. God, even our own God, will bless us-
The God of Israel would bless "us", Israel, with great harvests, and this would be a visible testament to His grace toward them- and was intended to lead the Gentile nations to Israel's God (:7). For blessing of harvests was seen then as the function of a nation's God. Therefore the Psalmist envisages a bumper harvest for God's people [we can render "May the earth yield its increase"], so that others would be drawn to Him. But the restored exiles experienced failed harvests; because they didn't repent. Perhaps "God" rather than "Yahweh" is used at this point because this would be the perspective of the observing Gentiles.

The earth / land yielding its increase was a blessing for obedience to the covenant (Lev. 25:19; 26:4); and if the exiles accepted the new covenant, they would experience the same as a visible sign of God's pleasure with them in the restored Kingdom (Ez. 34:27; Zech. 8:12). The idea was that this visible blessing would lead the Gentiles to Israel's God. This wasn't the scenario that happened, but the psalmist wishes for it and prays for it.

Psa 67:7

God will bless us. All the ends of the earth shall fear Him-
This again points up the issue; God would bless Israel ("us") by grace because of their repentance and obedience to the covenant; and therefore all the ends of the eretz promised to Abraham, including the nations like Assyria and Babylon at the very ends or boundaries of that territory, would also "fear Him" in the sense of accepting covenant relationship with Him. The Psalm concludes with another reference to the high priestly blessing (see on :1). We could translate: "May God bless us so that all the ends of the earth shall fear Him".