Psalms 67:7

God shall bless us. The prayer of the first verse is the song of the last. We have the same phrase twice, and truly the Lord's blessing is manifold; he blesses and blesses and blesses again. How many are his beatitudes! How choice his benedictions! They are the peculiar heritage of his chosen. He is the Saviour of all men, but specially of them that believe. In this verse we find a song for all future time.

God shall bless us. The prayer of the first verse is the song of the last. We have the same phrase twice, and truly the Lord's blessing is manifold; he blesses and blesses and blesses again. How many are his beatitudes! How choice his benedictions! They are the peculiar heritage of his chosen. He is the Saviour of all men, but specially of them that believe. In this verse we find a song for all future time. God shall bless us is our assured confidence; he may smite us, or strip us, or even slay us, but he must bless us. He cannot turn away from doing good to his elect. And all the ends of the earth shall fear him. The far off shall fear. The ends of the earth shall end their idolatry, and adore their God. All tribes, without exception, shall feel a sacred awe of the God of Israel. Ignorance shall be removed, insolence subdued, injustice banished, idolatry abhorred, and the Lord's love, light, life, and liberty, shall be over all, the Lord himself being King of kings and Lord of lords. Amen, and Amen.

Whether it is a land of brown heath and shaggy wood, or a far extended plain, all men love their own fatherland and in exile they are smitten with homesickness for their own country. It is so with regard to the house in which we were reared. That old roof tree, that ancient homestead—it may have been covered with thatch and have been one of a group of poor cottages, but still it was our own home and a thousand kindly thoughts gather around the fireside where we, in childhood, nestled beneath a parent's wing. "Our own!" Why, all our relatives are endeared to us by the fact that they are our own! "Father" is a silver word at all times. But, "our father," "our own father"—how the name grows richer and turns to a golden word! "Our own child." "Our own brother." "Our own husband." "Our own wife"—the words are most melodious. We even feel the Bible to be all the dearer to us because we can speak of it as "our own old English Bible." As the Jew's book, coming from God in Hebrew. As a book for the Greek, coming in its latter half to the Gentile in the Greek tongue, it was a priceless treasure. But translated into our own familiar Saxon tongue, and, on the whole, translated so well, our own English Bible is doubly dear to us. The sweetness of the words, "our own" led me to call the hymn-book from which you sing, "Our Own Hymn-Book," hoping that, perchance, the very name might help to weave your affections round about it.

Whether it is a land of brown heath and shaggy wood, or a far extended plain, all men love their own fatherland and in exile they are smitten with homesickness for their own country. It is so with regard to the house in which we were reared. That old roof tree, that ancient homestead—it may have been covered with thatch and have been one of a group of poor cottages, but still it was our own home and a thousand kindly thoughts gather around the fireside where we, in childhood, nestled beneath a parent's wing. "Our own!"

God shall bless us - He shall ever be speaking good to us, and ever showering down good things upon us. The last clause of the sixth verse should be joined to the seventh, as it is in several of the Versions, and should be in all. Many of the fathers, and several commentators, have thought that there is a reference to the Holy Trinity in the triple repetition of the word God: “God, our God, shall bless us; God shall bless us;” thus paraphrased in the old Psalter: “Blis us God the Fader: and our God the sone: and blis us and multipli us God the Hali Gast; that swa drede him God, all the endis of erth; for he wil comme to deme rightwysly that unrightwysly was demed. He that kan drede him, he eesses noght to lufe him.” When or by whom this Psalm was written cannot be ascertained. It seems to be simply a prophecy concerning the calling of the Gentiles, the preaching of the apostles, and the diffusion and influence of Christianity in the world. It is a fine piece of devotion; and it would be nearly impossible to read or repeat it with a cold and unaffected heart.

God shall bless us - That is, with prosperity, peace, salvation. The making of his name known abroad will be the means of blessing the world; will be the highest favor that can be conferred on mankind. And all the ends of the earth shall fear him - All parts of the earth. See the notes at Psa 22:27. The time, therefore, looked for is that when the knowledge of the Lord shall pervade all lands; the time to which the ancient prophets were constantly looking forward as the sum of all their wishes, and the burden of all their communications; that time, for the coming of which all who love their fellow-men, and who earnestly desire the welfare of the world, should most earnestly pray. The hope that this may occur, is the only bright thing in the future respecting this world; and he lives most in accordance with the high ends for which man was made who most earnestly desires this, and who, by his prayers and efforts, contributes most to this glorious consummation.