Psalm 67 Poetics
Poetic Structure[ ]
Poetic Features[ ]
1. Surprise![ ]
Feature[ ]
This Selah (v. 2) appears in the middle of a sentence. Verse 2 presents the beginning of the request, while verse 3 states the reason for the request. It's rare for a Selah to interrupt a sentence this way; in fact, it happens only a few other places in the Old Testament.[1]
Verse 2 draws closely on the Aaronic blessing (Numbers 6), with some slight differences.
Verse 3 (and following) seems to allude to the Abrahamic blessing (Genesis 12), not only in semantic content but also in the use of the 2nd-person pronominal suffix.
Effect[ ]
This Selah highlights the sudden shift from the vocabulary of the Aaronic blessing in verse 2 to an allusion to the Abrahamic blessing in verse 3.[2]
The slight variations on the original Aaronic blessing in verse 2, plus the appearance of the Selah, both set up this surprising and beautiful twist -- a twist that takes the audience back even further than the Aaronic blessing to the original covenant with Abraham and his connection with the land of Israel (see Poetic Feature #3).
As a result, the Aaronic blessing, focused on "us," suddenly expands to include all the families of the earth (Genesis 12:1-3). As the poem unfolds, it becomes clear that the purpose of asking for blessing is so that OTHERS would come to know Israel's God (see Poetic Feature #2 for more details).
Note the return in the final two verses to the word "bless," used in both the Aaronic and Abrahamic blessings. These final verses also refer three times, as in the Aaronic blessing, to the source of the blessing, God himself.
2. Center and Periphery[ ]
Feature[ ]
Three references to "us" occur at the beginning of the poem, with another three references appearing in the closing lines. Meanwhile, almost all the references to people groups occur in the middle of the psalm, especially in verses 4-6.[3] Then, in the central verse, verse 5, the words for "people groups" move progressively nearer the beginning of each line, increasing in prominence -- from the last position in the first line, through the middle position in the middle line, to the first position in the last line. In fact, the middle word of the whole poem is amim in 5b (Van der Lugt 2010, drawing from Labuschagne 1992).[4][5]
Effect[ ]
In ANE thought, each nation tended to depict itself in the centre of the universe, with the other nations around (Keel 1997, 38). In contrast, this poem structures the information precisely the other way around, with the speakers most explicitly mentioned on the periphery and "the others" occupying the centre (Fokkelman 2003, 210). The advancing position of the peoples in verse 5 brings them even more to the forefront.
As a result, the central message of the poem is that others--the nations--would be blessed by coming to know God, recognizing his rule and guidance, and praising him.[6] By doing so, they join Israel in their relationship with God. Verse 8 closes out the poem by directly juxtaposing "us" with all people ("the ends of the earth"), explicitly showing both parties united under the fear of the Lord.
3. What on Earth?[ ]
Feature[ ]
In this psalm, the word "earth" (ארץ) appears four times, each marked in one or more ways:
- In verse 3a, "earth" occurs in an unusual word order, appearing in a prepositional phrase that precedes the direct object. In this line, "earth" seems to refer figuratively to the people of the earth, but it is not clear which people, Israel or the other nations, are intended.
- In verse 5c, "earth" also appears in an unusual word order, this time in a prepositional phrase preceding the verb. Once again, the meaning of this line is ambiguous--"earth" could modify people (people of the earth) or God's guidance (that is, he guides them on the earth). Since the word can also mean "land" in Hebrew, this line could also be referring to God guiding them into the Promised Land of Israel.
- In verse 7a, "earth" appears in a line that seems to change topic completely from the preceding lines. As before, ambiguity surrounds the word--in Hebrew, this word can refer to the soil in which crops grow, the land (area, property) where the crops grow, the whole globe, or the Promised Land of Israel!
- In verse 8b, "earth" appears as the final word of the psalm, which, together with the first word of verse 7, forms an envelope around the final two verses. This time, earth is once again used figuratively to represent the people of the earth.[7]
Effect[ ]
In the Old Testament, the word ארץ ("earth, land") was often used in a covenantal context, referring to the Promised Land. In this poem, this word is highlighted a number of ways -- no other word in the text appears with such colour and variety -- but without any explicit reference to the Promised Land. Rather, the four instances of the word in this poem work together to expand the idea of "the land" far beyond the land of Israel to encompass the entire globe and its inhabitants. In other words, Israel's blessing in the Promised Land will result in the redemption of the peoples all over the earth. The final appearance of the word, the only one not embedded in some kind of ambiguity, states clearly the expansion of this blessing to the WHOLE earth![8]
Line Division[ ]
Line Length[ ]
Repeated Roots[ ]
- ↑ Other examples of Selah within a sentence include Psalm 55:20 and 68:8; it also occurs within a Masoretic verse unit in Psalm 57:4 and Habakkuk 3:3, 9).
- ↑ The promise of Genesis 12:1-3 is reiterated by God in 18:18 and to Abraham directly in 22:18 using "all nations (גוים) of the earth (ארץ)," thereby increasing the connections with Psalm 67:3; the same words are used in Genesis 26:4 for a renewal of the covenant with Isaac; Jacob receives a renewal with the original words (all families of the אדמה) from his father Isaac in Genesis 28:14.
- ↑ Given the strong chiastic structure of vv. 4-6, it's worth considering whether 7a is meant to be in poetic chiastic relationship with 3b. At the very least, it seems like the earth's produce in 7a is seen as an example of God's blessing, but connecting it with 3b strengthens the idea that crops were a blessing, given to Israel, that the other nations could see, and/or the crops were a blessing given to the nations, too, as evidence of God's kindly care for them. In both of these cases, the blessing would be representative of God's salvation/provision/care for people.
- ↑ For this project, we are counting words joined by maqqef as one word, resulting in 45 words; Van der Lugt and Labuschagne count words without reference to the maqqef, so they list 49 words. In this case, both counting systems produce the same central word, amim. This word also serves as the central occurrence of the array of seven mentions of amim and le-umim spanning vv. 4-6.
- ↑ Any other references to "the others" are accomplished through other means, such as the metonymic use of earth (3a), the use of the word goyim (3b), perhaps the debated metaphor of crops/harvest (7a), and another metonymic reference with the ends of the earth (8b). Note that these references are always found directly after the people ask God to bless them--reaching the others is the desired effect of the blessing (Van der Lugt 2010, 227).
- ↑ This desire for the nations' blessing seems directly connected to the Abrahamic blessing (see Poetic Feature #1).
- ↑ As noted, the middle two appearances of the word may embody two different literal meanings of earth, while the first (3a) and final (8b) appearances of the word seem to have figurative meanings, indicating people. Note in particular the human-specific verbs of knowing and fearing that appear alongside these occurrences of the word. These two verbs, often found together in scripture (Proverbs 1:7, 1:29, 2:5, 9:10, and Isaiah 11:2, 33:6) further connect the two verses, as do their inverted line lengths (3 + 2 prosodic words vs. 2 + 3).
- ↑ The ends of the earth play a significant role in the psalms. God's king inherits and rules over them (Psalm 2:8, 72:8), and they see his salvation and worship him (Psalm 22:28-29, 65:9, 98:3).