Psalm 67: Cause Your face to shine!

There are several sections to this small, anonymous Psalm. The writer begins with aprayer that God will bless them. This in turn will cause the way of God to be knowneverywhere. Next, there is a call for the nations to rejoice in God’s coming judgment andgovernment. Finally, there is a prayer for the people to praise Him, and recognition thatthe world will be blessed when we do so.

(1) (To the chief Musician on

Neginoth

, A Psalm or Song.) May God bemerciful to us, and bless us, and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah. (2)That Your way may be known upon earth, Your salvation among all nations.

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Another song for the Chief Musician, this one on the

neginoth

, which is thestringed instruments.

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The prayer of blessing in verse 1 is an echo of the Aaronic Blessing, found inNumbers 6:

And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and to hissons, saying, ‘In this way you shall bless the children of Israel, saying to them,‘The LORD bless you, and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you,and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you, and giveyou peace.’’ And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them.”

(Numbers 6:23-27)

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The power of blessing and cursing was taken seriously in the ancient world and inthe early church. As a curse would release death and destruction, so a blessingreleases life and grace from God.

Psalms Bible Study Psalms 67-68

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The face of God or the king shining was a sign of his favor toward you.

The selahmeans that we should stop and think about the goodness of God and how much we need this blessing.

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The expression “way of God” means literally the road of God, and it means ourentire course of conduct in this life. What road are we on? The Psalmist wants the ways of God to be known throughout the whole earth. The salvation here is the word

yeshuah

– which he desires to see come to the Gentiles, for that is thetranslation here of the word nations, or

goyim

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Paul explains in Romans how the idea of Gentile salvation was always present inthe Old Testament but not fully appreciated. The Church as we understand it,comprised of Jews and Gentiles alike, was a mystery in that time.

(3) Let the people praise You, O God; let all the people praise You. (4) O letthe nations be glad and sing for joy; for You shall judge the peoplerighteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah.

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This is a call for the nation of Israel to praise Him.

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The nations of the world should be glad that God will judge and guide them. As we’ve seen in some of the recent Psalms, the Israelites knew that God wouldeventually reign over the entire world. This would be a kingdom of perfect justice.

Psalms Bible Study Psalms 67-68

(5) Let the people praise You, O God; let all the people praise You. (6) Thenshall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall blessus. (7) God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him.

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The ultimate result of a nation following and serving God is that it will enjoy His blessing, a blessing which will even extend to the fruits of our labors. The blessingof God, being something so obvious, would cause all the earth to fear Him.

Psalm 68: Let His enemies be scattered

This is claimed to be a song of David and we have no reason to doubt it. The song is adeclaration of the power of God against the enemies of his people. We see Godestablished in power on His holy mountain, crushing those who attack Israel, and blessing the people with His favor. It is a fairly well-known psalm that has given rise tomany songs or praise. It has been suggested that it is a song about the Ark.

(1 ) (To the chief Musician, A Psalm or Song of David.) Let God arise, let Hisenemies be scattered; let those also who hate Him flee before Him. (2) Assmoke is driven away, so drive them away; as wax melts before the fire, solet the wicked perish at the presence of God. (3) But let the righteous beglad; let them rejoice before God: yes, let them exceedingly rejoice. (4) Singunto God, sing praises to His name; extol Him who rides upon the heavens by His name YAH, and rejoice before Him.