Devotional Short Note on Psalm 67: Eusebius and Theodoret, we are told by BDB dictionary 664, thought that the first word means in an eschatological sense “the end of the age of the World”. Eusebius was in the time of Constantine and Theodoret just after Jerome but during the time of Augustine. Two centuries before Eusebius, the Greek translators worked with a dictionary understanding using Aramaic and they understood the word to mean “victorious”. That was Aquila in 150 A.D., Symmachus in 170 A.D. and Theodotion in 190 A.D. Jerome in 382 A.D. thought it meant “as an incantation”. The Psalm was a song to be sung with a string instrument. Some scholars thought it is a prayerbook of a synagogue in the Greek period and this Psalm is one of them. That is a bit late and can be shelved.

The verbs are in consideration here and there are two options here: make all the verbs a prayer-request or make all the verbs an eschatological future fulfillment certainty. I chose the second because of the difficulties in translation of 67:7. But let’s look at it later. See, again the verbs are in the future form but scholars prefer to make it imperatives asking or pleading for the action.

Many will argue that you must keep to the Masoretic vowel system attached to the Hebrew and make it imperatives. The Vowel system is a late invention and is not inspired. Judaism has pushed their system, borrowed from Arabic grammar phonetics, over the Hebrew consonants and sometimes they did not know what to do because it did not make sense, so what did they conclude? Errors in the original!

We will consider the verbs as futures and maybe closer in line with Eusebius and Theodoret may opt for an eschatological reading of the Psalm rather than a liturgical prayer as is so commonly translated.

What we are going to do in this Psalm is this. Let us use scissors and cut the Psalm apart like peach farmers do when they prune the tree cutting away some young twigs. Are we going to rip God’s Word apart? No.

There is a liturgical frame around the main picture or content and in order for us to understand what the main content wants to say, let us separate the liturgical frame first. Then after we understand the whole Psalm, we put it back again and enjoy it in total.

I suggest one gets a yellow memo-liner and then color the following verses yellow: 67:4; 67:5; 67:6; 67:8b. These are all the liturgical calls for worship in the Psalm and they are repetitive and similar in shape and form as well as content. This means, if you have read one verse, you have read all.

But, our objective is to get to the core message in the Psalm. We will thus with another memo-liner color the wishes of the Psalmist that “God will bless us” (future form of the verb): 67:2a; 67:7b and 67:8a. They are all repetitive as well. If you have read one, you have read all.

Finally, the message or picture of the Psalm is in front of our eyes. The liturgical frame is off and its decoration.

In the frame that we took off it reads that “God will be gracious unto us, and will bless us. He will cause to shine His face to us” (67:2a-b). In the Eschaton or Latter Rain event shortly before the Close of Probation, Christ will shine His face by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit the second time. That is why it is called Latter Rain. The Early Rain was at Pentacost in Acts 2.

Then in 67:3 the Psalmist uses a “purpose word” in the beginning of the sentence to say that His facial glory will have a result or purpose for us: “that [sothat] Your way will be known upon the earth, in all the nations (goyyim) Your salvation”. Grace, blessing, cause to shine will have this effect, that all nations will know the way of the Lord, His salvation. This is the purpose of the Latter Rain.

Of course the liturgical frame is in 67:4 and 5a. In 67:5a it says that “they will be glad and they will be joyful to the nations” (literal translation). The word for nations here is not goyyim used earlier in this chapter but the Assyrian word ummatu or Aramaic word or Syriac word ummim.

Why would there be this optimism among the nations and peoples of the earth? The Psalmist uses a causal particle “for” and says: “For You will judge the peoples from uprightness and to the nations on the earth You will guide” (67:5b-c).

This evangelism that will be coming from the face that shines from the Lord will make the way of the Lord known, the salvation engine to all nations (goyyim). If the remnant or `ammim give thanks to the Lord then that will be gladness and joy to the other nations (ummim). The Lord will guide the ummim (67:5b).

The Psalmist sees such a successful evangelism that he says “all of them” will give thanks to the Lord (67:6b).

Then the Latter Rain harvest is spelled out, namely, not agricultural success or blessing by the Lord but figuratively the Latter Rain harvest of souls: “the earth has yielded [prophetic past in that time in future] her increase/product/produce (67:7a). Symmachus in 170 A.D. in his Greek translation, translated the word with a prophetic past, namely, “shall give” or δώσει.

As a result of this great event in the future “all the ends of the earth will fear Him” (67:8b).

So let us wrap it up: the remnant or `ammim (people) must give thanks to the Lord for when the Lord makes His face shines upon the earth through the Latter Rain then the goyyim or nations will know His salvation engine and this will lead to make ummim (other nations) glad and joyful and the result is God leads/guides the ummim.

This is a picture of a successful evangelism achieved only if literature evangelists, regular evangelists, Bible workers, missionaries, pastors, members are daily smiling, inviting, showing, handing out pamphlets and booklets about the Way of the Lord. At the right moment, they will answer the call and Joel 2:32 says of that time: “and it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered”. Joel also said that “I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind” (Joel 2:28). Although the Latter Rain will fall on all around the globe, not to have anyone excused that they did not know, only those who yield to the Spirit and answer to remain in the Spirit will be saved. Others unfortunately will willfully reject the Spirit of God to their own detriment. [ps. If pastors wish to see Symmachus rendering for themselves, just download Field, Origenes Hexapla from www.archive.org volume 2 dealing with Psalms page 199].