Charles Ives' ten psalm settings belong to the early part of his career (ranging roughly from 1888 to 1902) from the time of his service as a boy organist in Danbury, Connecticut, to his resignation as organist from Central Presbyterian Church in New York City. Of these, his setting of number 67, written in 1894, is the most famous; the text, taken from the King James Version, begins "God be merciful unto us, and bless us." Ives utilizes a bitonal combination right from the start, stacking a C major triad in the sopranos and altos over G minor in the tenors and basses. Ives utilizes subtle alterations, mostly in the soprano and alto parts, to keep the harmony under control, something he would hardly see fit to do in later music. By the line "Let all the people praise thee" Ives twists the polytonal harmony around to achieve a standard cadence of the kind common to nineteenth century church music. With the phrase "O let the nations be glad and sing for joy," Ives introduces a brief canonic section in which the minor key becomes the dominant factor, but soon returns to his prior scheme and recaps the section beginning "Let the people praise thee." Ives referred to Psalm 67 as a sort of "enlarged plainchant"; the last lines "and all the ends of the earth shall fear him" is set in a chant-like declamation on the two chords which begin the piece. Psalm 67 concludes its three minutes in a feeling of repose and quietude.

This was apparently the last new work Ives shared with his father before his death. George Ives felt this work was "best suited for use in church" of his son's early choral compositions and had a "dignity and sense of finality." Psalm 67 disappeared into Ives' portfolio of compositions until 1937, when conductor Lehman Engel premiered it with his group, the Madrigal Singers, at the WPA Theater of Music in New York City. A CBS broadcast of the piece soon followed; public response was favorable enough to merit publication of the piece and the issuance of it on a 78 rpm record.

The work has become a choral standard, and is still startling in its harmonic resemblance to popular choral music of the 1960s. Indeed, Psalm 67 may have provided a direct harmonic model for that style; it was known to Fred Waring through his assistant Robert Shaw and was programmed at one point by the Pennsylvanians chorus. Echoes of its sound may be heard in a wide range of pieces recorded by the choruses of Ray Charles (the choral conductor, not the Rhythm and Blues artist), Randy Van Horne, and sacred composer Gene Puerling.

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