Psalm 67 is the 67th psalm of the

Book of Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived f ...

, beginning in English in the

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...

: "God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us". In Latin, it is known as "Deus misereatur". In the slightly different numbering system of the Greek

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond th ...

version of the Bible, and in the Latin

Vulgate The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...

, this psalm is Psalm 66. Its theme is a prayer for God's mercy, blessing and light. The psalm forms a regular part of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

and other Protestant liturgies. It has been paraphrased in

hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' ...

s and

set to music Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics *Set (mathematics), a collection of elements *Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively Electro ...

. Biblical commentator Cyril Rodd divides it into three sections: two "broadly parallel" sections in verses 1-3 and 4–5, which seek God's favour and blessing, and verses 6–7, which express universal joy as "all the nations" experience God's blessing.Rodd, C. S., ''18. Psalms'' in Barton, J. and Muddiman, J. (2001)
The Oxford Bible Commentary
p. 385 Verses 3 and 5 are a repeated

refrain A refrain (from Vulgar Latin ''refringere'', "to repeat", and later from Old French ''refraindre'') is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in poetry — the "chorus" of a song. Poetic fixed forms that feature refrains include the vi ...

: :''May the nations praise you, O God. ::''Yes, may all the nations praise you.''

Text

King James Version

# God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah. # That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. # Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. # O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah. # Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. # Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us. # God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.

Uses

Judaism

In some congregations, Psalm 67 is recited before Maariv on

Motzei Shabbat The term Motza'ei Shabbat ( he, מוצאי שבת—literally, the going out of the Sabbath) in Judaism refers to the time in the evening immediately following Shabbat, that is Saturday night. It is a time when, following one's declaration of the in ...

. It's also recited by some before Barukh she'amar and after counting the Omer.

Catholic Church

Saint

Benedict of Nursia Benedict of Nursia ( la, Benedictus Nursiae; it, Benedetto da Norcia; 2 March AD 480 – 21 March AD 548) was an Italian Christian monk, writer, and theologian who is venerated in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Orient ...

selected this psalm as the first psalm of the solemn office at the Sunday

lauds Lauds is a canonical hour of the Divine office. In the Roman Rite Liturgy of the Hours it is one of the major hours, usually held after Matins, in the early morning hours. Name The name is derived from the three last psalms of the psalter (148, ...

. (

Rule of St. Benedict The ''Rule of Saint Benedict'' ( la, Regula Sancti Benedicti) is a book of precepts written in Latin in 516 by St Benedict of Nursia ( AD 480–550) for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot. The spirit of Saint Benedict's Ru ...

, chapter XII).Traduction par Dom

Prosper Guéranger Prosper Louis Pascal Guéranger (; commonly referred to as Dom Guéranger, 4 April 1805, Sablé-sur-Sarthe, France – 30 January 1875, Solesmes, France) was a French priest and Benedictine monk, who served for nearly 40 years as the Abbot of ...

(Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes, réimpression 2007) p. 40 - 41. In a certain number of abbeys which maintain tradition, this Sunday service always begins with it. Saint Benedict also asked to perform this psalm during the lauds of the week (chapter XIII).''Psautier latin-français du bréviaire monastique'', p. 108, 1938/2003 However, other psalms later replaced Psalm 66 (67), with the exception of Sunday, so that all 150 psalms are read weekly. It is one of the four invitatory prayers of the daily office, and is recited at the

vespers Vespers is a service of evening prayer, one of the canonical hours in Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic (both Latin liturgical rites, Latin and Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern), Lutheranism, Lutheran, and Anglican ...

of Wednesday of the second week, 8 and at the

of the Tuesday of the third week of the four weekly cycle of liturgical prayers. It is read or sung at several

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

es throughout the year because of its theme of the universal grace of God: on the Friday of the third week of

Advent Advent is a Christian season of preparation for the Nativity of Christ at Christmas. It is the beginning of the liturgical year in Western Christianity. The name was adopted from Latin "coming; arrival", translating Greek ''parousia''. In ...

, and in the octave of the nativity of Mary. It is also found on the 20th Sunday of the year A (the first of the three years of the cycle of readings intended to ensure that "a more representative portion of sacred Scripture should be read to the people over a prescribed number of years"), the 6th Sunday of

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

in year C and the Wednesday of the 4th week of Easter.

Anglican Church

In the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

's ''

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...

'', this psalm is appointed to be read on the evening of the 12th day of the month, and it may be recited as a canticle in the Anglican

liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

Evening Prayer Evening Prayer refers to: : Evening Prayer (Anglican), an Anglican liturgical service which takes place after midday, generally late afternoon or evening. When significant components of the liturgy are sung, the service is referred to as "Evensong ...

according to the ''Book of Common Prayer'' as an alternative to the

Nunc dimittis The Nunc dimittis (), also known as the Song of Simeon or the Canticle of Simeon, is a canticle taken from the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke, verses 29 through 32. Its Latin name comes from its incipit, the opening words, of the Vulgate t ...

, when it is referred to by its

incipit The incipit () of a text is the first few words of the text, employed as an identifying label. In a musical composition, an incipit is an initial sequence of notes, having the same purpose. The word ''incipit'' comes from Latin and means "it beg ...

as the Deus misereatur, also A Song of God's Blessing.

Lutheran churches

Martin Luther Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...

paraphrased the psalm in the hymn "

Es woll uns Gott genädig sein "" (''May God be gracious to us'', or more literally: ''May God want to be merciful to us'') is a Lutheran hymn, with words written by Martin Luther based on the Psalm 67. The hymn in three stanzas of nine lines each was first published in Wittenbe ...

", used particularly in

churches. In earlier hymnbooks this was set to the old chorale tune "Es wolle Gott uns gnädig sein", but the new

Lutheran Service Book ''Lutheran Service Book'' (''LSB'') is the newest official hymnal of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the Lutheran Church–Canada (LCC). It was prepared by the LCMS Commission on Worship and published by Concordia Publishing Hou ...

also provides a newer tune, "

Elvet Banks Elvet Banks is a modern hymn tune, in the somewhat unusual meter of 87.87.87.87.7, set in the Lutheran Service Book (LSB) of 2006 for the hymns: * ''To Jordan came the Christ, our Lord'', recommended for use in Epiphany and set as an alternative to ...

Musical settings

One English

paraphrase of this psalm is "God of mercy, God of grace" by

Henry Francis Lyte Henry Francis Lyte (1 June 1793 – 20 November 1847) was an Anglican divine, hymnodist, and poet. Biography Youth and education Henry Francis Lyte was the second son of Thomas and Anna Maria (née Oliver) Lyte, whose family came originally fr ...

, generally sung to the tune "Heathlands" by

Henry Smart Henry Thomas Smart (26 October 1813 – 6 July 1879) was an English organist and composer. Biography Smart was born in London, a nephew of the conductor Sir George Smart and son of a music publisher, orchestra director and accomplished violini ...

. Musical settings of Psalm 67 were composed by

Thomas Tallis Thomas Tallis (23 November 1585; also Tallys or Talles) was an English composer of High Renaissance music. His compositions are primarily vocal, and he occupies a primary place in anthologies of English choral music. Tallis is considered one o ...

, Samuel Adler,

Charles Ives Charles Edward Ives (; October 20, 1874May 19, 1954) was an American modernist composer, one of the first American composers of international renown. His music was largely ignored during his early career, and many of his works went unperformed f ...

, and

Alan Hovhaness Alan Hovhaness (; March 8, 1911 – June 21, 2000) was an American-Armenian composer. He was one of the most prolific 20th-century composers, with his official catalog comprising 67 numbered symphonies (surviving manuscripts indicate over 70) and ...

. Heinrich Schütz set Psalm 67 in a metred version in German, "Es woll uns Gott genädig sein", SWV 164, as part of the '' Becker Psalter'', first published in 1628.

References

External links

* * * in Hebrew and English - Mechon-mamre * Text of Psalm 67 according to th
1928 Psalter

Psalm 67 – A Missionary Psalm
text and detailed commentary, enduringword.com
For the leader; with stringed instruments. A psalm; a song. / May God be gracious to us and bless us; / may his face shine upon us
text and footnotes, usccb.org United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

introduction and text, biblestudytools.com
Psalm 67 / God be gracious to us and bless us / and make his face to shine upon us

Psalm 67
at biblegateway.com

sacred-texts.com *

Charles H. Spurgeon Charles Haddon Spurgeon (19 June 1834 – 31 January 1892) was an English Particular Baptist preacher. Spurgeon remains highly influential among Christians of various denominations, among whom he is known as the "Prince of Preachers". He wa ...

Psalm 67
detailed commentary, archive.spurgeon.org {{authority control 067