Verse 1-2
Psalms 67:1-2. God be merciful
to us — Thy people Israel. And
cause his face to shine upon us
— As thou hast hid thy face, or
withdrawn the tokens of thy
favour from us, so do thou now
manifest them to us. That thy
way may be known upon earth —
The way wherein thou requirest
men to walk, the way of thy
precepts, the way of truth, or
the true religion; that by the
peculiar and distinguishing
tokens of thy favour to us, the
heathen world may be convinced
of the truth and importance of
our religion, may be induced to
renounce their idols and their
vices, to believe in thee the
only living and true God, and
embrace thy worship and service,
expecting no good but from thee.
Thy saving health — Hebrew,
ישׁועתךְ, thy salvation, termed,
God’s way, in the preceding
clause, and both expressions,
taken together, signify the way
of salvation, which the psalmist
desires may be known among all
nations. This the ancient and
godly Jews expected would be the
case at the coming of the
Messiah, who is called God’s
salvation, and also the way, the
truth, and the life, Luke 2:30;
John 14:6. And so the sense of
the passage is, Deal thus
graciously with thy people
Israel, that the Gentile world
may at last be allured to unite
themselves to them, to become
proselytes to their religion,
and receive their Messiah for
their King and Saviour, when he
shall be manifested, saying, We
will go with you, for we have
heard that God is with you,
Zechariah 8:23.
Verses 3-5
Psalms 67:3-5. Let all the
people praise thee — O hasten
that time when the Gentiles
shall forsake their dumb idols,
and serve and praise thee, the
living God, as they have
abundant cause to do. O let the
nations be glad — For thy great
mercy to them in rescuing them
from the idolatries and
superstitions, the errors and
vices of their fathers, and in
bringing them to the knowledge
of thyself, the true God, and of
eternal life. For thou shall
judge the people — Shalt rule
them, as it is explained in the
next clause; righteously — Which
is the great commendation of any
government, and the greatest
argument and encouragement to
the Gentiles to put themselves
under the government of God; and
the rather, because they had
found by experience the misery
of living under the unrighteous
and tyrannical government of
Satan, and of their idolatrous
and heathen rulers. And govern
the nations — Hebrew, תנחם,
tanchem, shall lead them,
namely, gently, as a shepherd
doth his sheep, or a general his
soldiers, and not rule them with
rigour, as other lords have
done. “Thou shall hereafter
govern them by righteous and
good laws, who were before under
the government of the prince of
this world, and had nothing to
guide them but some few laws and
tendencies of nature, or some
precepts of an old tradition,
which are now almost
obliterated.”
Verse 6-7
Psalms 67:6-7. Then shall the
earth yield her increase — When
the inhabitants of the earth
shall be converted to the
worship and service of the true
God, he will take away his curse
from the earth, and cause it to
yield them abundance of all
sorts of fruits. Under which one
blessing all other blessings,
both temporal and spiritual, are
comprehended. And God, even our
own God — Who is Israel’s God,
in a peculiar manner, by that
covenant which he hath made with
us; shall bless us — Confer
still further and greater
blessings upon us at the coming
of the Messiah, when all the
ends of the earth shall fear him
— Shall remember and turn unto
the Lord, and worship before
him, Psalms 22:27. |