Psalm 67 (1928 BCP)
Psalm 67 (1928 BCP), Deus misereatur, is a seven-verse prayer for God's blessing upon his people so that his saving way may be known among all nations. In the American Book of Common Prayer (1928), it concludes the psalms appointed for Evening Prayer on the twelfth day of the month. Its movement is deliberately outward: mercy received becomes witness, the nations' praise is joined to confidence in God's righteous rule, and the earth's increase becomes an occasion to pray for the world's reverent knowledge of God.
Prayer Book text
The 1928 Psalter retains the compact, insistent form of the psalm. The opening echoes the priestly blessing of Numbers 6:24–26, but turns that blessing immediately into intercession for the knowledge of God's way among all nations.
GOD be merciful unto us, and bless us, * and show us the light of his countenance, and be merciful unto us;
2 That thy way may be known upon earth, * thy saving health among all nations.
The repeated imperative “Let the peoples praise” keeps blessing from becoming religious possession. The psalm asks not that Israel be insulated from the nations, but that God's gracious self-disclosure issue in their praise. Its reason for their joy is not national superiority but God's equitable judgment and governance.
3 Let the peoples praise thee, O God; * yea, let all the peoples praise thee.
4 O let the nations rejoice and be glad; * for thou shalt judge the folk righteously, and govern the nations upon earth.
5 Let the peoples praise thee, O God; * yea, let all the peoples praise thee.
The closing harvest language is neither a private prosperity slogan nor an escape from the nations named throughout the psalm. The earth's increase is received as God's gift and becomes ground for the prayer that “all the ends of the world” may stand in reverent awe.
6 Then shall the earth bring forth her increase; * and God, even our own God, shall give us his blessing.
7 God shall bless us; * and all the ends of the world shall fear him.
Blessing for the life of the world
Alexander Maclaren notes the psalm's careful construction: its central verse is surrounded by the repeated summons for all peoples to praise, while the opening and close speak of divine blessing. That observation helps readers see that mission is not an added theme; it is structurally at the heart of the prayer.
Its place and its abnormal length mark it as the core, round which, as it were, the whole is built up. Further, it is as if encased in two verses (vv. 3, 5), which, in their four clauses, are a fourfold repetition of a single aspiration.
Maclaren also identifies the first two verses as shaped by the priestly blessing. The connection clarifies the Psalm's theology of election: the people ask for God's face to shine on them so that God's saving health may be known on earth. Christian use of this prayer should therefore form gratitude without possessiveness and witness without coercion.
The priestly blessing (Numb. vi. 24-26) moulds ver. 1, but with the substitution of God for Jehovah, and of “among us” for “upon us.”
The Psalm's worldwide horizon accords with the risen Christ's command that repentance and forgiveness of sins be preached “among all nations” (Luke 24:47). It does not abolish Israel's own voice in the psalm; rather, the Church hears Israel's prayer as Scripture that teaches her to seek God's mercy for the life of the world.
Christian theological reading
Augustine reads the blessing as a call to worship with a true heart rather than mere sound. His image of God as the husbandman develops the Psalm's agricultural conclusion without reducing blessing to material plenty: God gives growth, and human praise is the fruit of grace.
Let us chant these words with no barren devotion, with no empty voice, but with true heart.
On the Psalm's “way” and “saving health,” Augustine offers a specifically Christian reading through John 14:6. This is a patristic interpretation, not a replacement for the psalm's historical meaning. It gives a theological account of why Christians may pray Psalm 67 in communion with the One whom the Gospel calls the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
What therefore meaneth, “We may know on earth Thy Way,” but “we may know on earth Thy Christ”?
His reading of the righteous Judge is equally pastoral. Divine judgment is not imagined as a reason for the nations to despair; it is paired with the divine guidance that straightens what is crooked. The Psalm's joy before the Judge rests on God's mercy and correction, not on denial of sin.
Why should they fear the Judge to come, that have first acknowledged Him for a Corrector?
Liturgical use
The monthly Psalter places Psalm 67 after Psalms 65 and 66 at Twelfth-Day Evening Prayer. The sequence moves from praise for God's care of the earth, through remembered deliverance and answered prayer, to a brief intercession that God's blessing may issue in the praise of every people. In the Daily Office, it therefore teaches a congregation to receive creation, deliverance, and worship as gifts ordered toward God's glory among the nations.
The Twelfth Day. Evening Prayer. Psalm 65. Te decet hymnus. … Psalm 66. Jubilate Deo. … Psalm 67. Deus misereatur.
See Also
- The Psalter (1928 BCP)
- Daily Office (1928 BCP)
- Evening Prayer (1928 BCP)
- Psalm 65 (1928 BCP)
- Psalm 66 (1928 BCP)
External Links
- The 1928 U. S. Book of Common Prayer: The Psalter
- Maclaren, The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Psalms, vol. II
- Augustine, Exposition on Psalm LXVII
References
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer; and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church According to the Use of the Protestant Episcopal Church (New York: Church Pension Fund, 1928), “The Psalter,” Psalm 67, Deus misereatur, printed verses 1–2; The 1928 U. S. Book of Common Prayer: The Psalter.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: Church Pension Fund, 1928), “The Psalter,” Psalm 67, Deus misereatur, printed verses 3–5; The 1928 U. S. Book of Common Prayer: The Psalter.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: Church Pension Fund, 1928), “The Psalter,” Psalm 67, Deus misereatur, printed verses 6–7; The 1928 U. S. Book of Common Prayer: The Psalter.
- ↑ Alexander Maclaren, “Psalm LXVII,” in The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Psalms, vol. II, Psalms XXXIX–LXXXIX (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1893), pp. 273–274; Project Gutenberg transcription.
- ↑ Alexander Maclaren, “Psalm LXVII,” in The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Psalms, vol. II, Psalms XXXIX–LXXXIX (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1893), p. 274; Project Gutenberg transcription.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, “Psalm LXVII,” §1, in Expositions on the Book of Psalms, trans. J. E. Tweed, ed. A. Cleveland Coxe, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1888), p. 282; Christian Classics Ethereal Library transcription.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, “Psalm LXVII,” §5, in Expositions on the Book of Psalms, trans. J. E. Tweed, ed. A. Cleveland Coxe, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1888), pp. 283–284; Christian Classics Ethereal Library transcription.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, “Psalm LXVII,” §7, in Expositions on the Book of Psalms, trans. J. E. Tweed, ed. A. Cleveland Coxe, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1888), p. 285; Christian Classics Ethereal Library transcription.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer (New York: Church Pension Fund, 1928), “The Twelfth Day: Evening Prayer,” in “The Psalter”; The 1928 U. S. Book of Common Prayer: The Psalter.