Blog - The NIV Screws it up Again

` "God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah. 2) That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations." (Psa 67:1-2) Did you notice any subtle wording in Psalm 67:1 which indicates that God is a Trinity? There is a little three letter pronoun in that verse which shows that God is a plurality of Persons, and that little word is "him". The psalmist is speaking to God in verse 1, not to someone else about God, which is made clear by the pronoun "thy" in verse 2. He is saying to God, "be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause HIS face to shine upon us". "His face" is clearly God's face (Num 6:25). If God were not a Trinity, this verse would make no sense. It would be improper grammar to speak to (not about) an individual man and refer to his face as "his face". It would be proper grammar to say "thy face", or "your face" in today's English. But since God is a Trinity, "...the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one" (1Jo 5:7), the verse makes perfect sense. The Psalmist is asking God the Father to make the face of God the Word to shine upon us, Who would properly be referred to as "him" if one was speaking to the Father. The psalmist got his wish in the person of Jesus Christ: "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2Co 4:6). So what did the NIV screw up this time? The NIV (Non-Inspired Version) adds one little three letter word to the verse which completely changes the meaning of it. The word "may" is tacked onto the beginning to the verse in the NIV so it reads: "May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine on us" (Psa 67:1 - NIV). Do you see how adding the word "may" changes the sentence from speaking to God to speaking about God? By doing this, the word "his" does not demand that God must be a Trinity, but could be a single person like the god of Islam or the god of other false religions. Rat poison comes to mind again....it only takes a tiny bit of strychnine mixed in with tasty food to kill you.