Psalm 67 (Vulgate and Septuagint Psalm 66) is a luminous hymn of blessing and universal mission. Often described as a harvest thanksgiving psalm that broadened into a prophetic prayer for the salvation of all peoples, it most likely dates to the post-exilic period (5th–4th century BC). Its opening verse directly reworks the ancient Aaronic blessing of Numbers 6:24–26 (“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you…”), yet transforms a priestly formula once reserved for Israel into a radiant appeal for the enlightenment and joy of every nation.

Structured in seven verses with a recurring refrain—“May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us”—the psalm has a strongly antiphonal, liturgical character. The refrain frames three joyful stanzas (vv. 3–6) that envision the nations exulting because God’s saving power, revealed first to Israel, now extends to the ends of the earth. The final verse serves as a doxological climax.

In the current Roman Rite, selected verses (2–3, 5–6, 8) with the refrain “May God be gracious and bless us” form the Responsorial Psalm for the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God (1 January). This placement is profoundly fitting. Celebrated on the octave day of Christmas, the solemnity honours Mary’s divine motherhood and the bestowal of the Name of Jesus. Psalm 67 proclaims that the light of God’s countenance, which rested upon Mary at the Annunciation and Nativity, is the very light destined to shine upon all peoples. Through her fiat, the ancient priestly blessing reaches its fullness: in the face of the Child she bears, God’s gracious face now shines upon the world, drawing every nation to reverence and joy.

Thus an ancient harvest song becomes, on the first day of the civil year, a Marian hymn announcing that Mary is the dawn from which God’s universal blessing breaks upon humanity.