What Does Psalm 67:1 Mean?
To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm or Song. Let God bend toward us, and let him bless us, and let his face shine upon us. Selah.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm or Song. God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.THE KEY
The verse pictures favor as God’s face shining with the reader, making blessing a visible, near presence.
THE MEANING
This prayer gathers the reader’s present longing into three linked petitions: favor, blessing, and the light of God’s face with them. Favor appears as a personal, visible presence, and the closing Selah lets the request rest in the reader’s hearing.
THE ROOT
יְחָנֵּנוּ
yəḥonnēnû
GROWS FROM
חנן
ḥ-n-n
Show favor; treat with favor.
“bend toward us” in this verse is yəḥonnēnû. This verb asks that favor be turned toward the speaker as an active gift. Its root connects that request to the following images of blessing and a shining face.
ALSO GROWS
ḥēn: Favor
חֵן
This noun names the favor the prayer asks God to show.
ḥannûn: Gracious; favorable
חַנּוּן
This related form describes the character of the one whose favor is requested.
וִיבָרְכֵנוּ
wîḇāreḵēnû
GROWS FROM
ברך
b-r-k
Bless; confer a blessing, with an associated knee or bending sense.
“bless” in this verse is wîḇāreḵēnû. The root’s knee association preserves a bodily image within the word family. Here blessing stands alongside favor and a shining face as something given in a personal relationship.
ALSO GROWS
berāḵāh: Blessing
בְּרָכָה
This noun carries the same root meaning as the blessing requested here.
bereḵ: Knee
בֶּרֶךְ
The related word preserves the root family’s association with the knee and bending.
יָאֵר
yāʾēr
GROWS FROM
אור
ʾ-w-r
Shine; give light.
“cause his face to shine” in this verse is yāʾēr. The verb belongs to the root for light and shining, so the face is pictured as luminous and favor becomes perceptible. The Hebrew continues with אִתָּנוּ (ʾittānû, with us), giving the requested light a sense of nearness alongside the reader.
ALSO GROWS
ʾôr: Light
אוֹר
This noun makes clear that the face’s shining carries the image of light.
māʾôr: Luminary; light-bearer
מָאוֹר
This related word shows the root’s association with a source or bearer of light.
THE PATTERN
God’s blessing becomes visible as the light of God’s face turned toward people.
The LORD make his face shine upon you, and bend toward you.Turn us again, O God, and cause your face to shine, and we will be delivered.For God, who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts, to give the light of knowing the weight of God in the face of Jesus, the Anointed One.THE THREAD
The LORD make his face shine upon you, and bend toward you.Psalm 67:1 and Numbers 6:25 pair חנן (ḥ-n-n, favor) with אור (ʾ-w-r, shine or light). Numbers 6:25 makes explicit how the request for a shining face and the request for favor belong together.
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