Deeper Commentary
Psa 65:1
For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. A song-
The context appears to be David at the time of Absalom's rebellion,
thanking God for restoring him, and looking ahead to God's Kingdom coming
upon earth.
Praise waits for You, God, in Zion. To You shall vows be performed-
David had made various vows as to what he would do if he returned to
Zion. And now he was to fulfil them, and this song is one of them. The
Hebrew implies "silent praise", a way of expressing the inadequacy of the
audible song which David has composed. There may be an allusion to the
silence in the sanctuary (later the temple courts) as the people awaited
the reappearance of the High Priest on the day of atonement to declare
their forgiveness. And there was to be silent praise this had been
granted. As noted on :3,4, David seems aware that his suffering at the
hands of Absalom was a consequence for his sin with Bathsheba, and he
thanks God for his forgiveness. I have noted elsewhere however that he
seemed to struggle with it all, with some of the Absalom period Psalms
reflecting his feeling that he was suffering as an innocent man.
Who we are as persons
is effectively our prayer and plea to God. This conception of prayer
explains why often weeping, crying, waiting, meditating etc. are spoken of
as "prayer" , although there was no specific verbalizing of requests (Ps.
5:1,2; 6:8; 18:1,2,3,6; 40:1; 42:8; 64:1 Heb.; 65:1,2; 66:17-20; Zech.
8:22). The association between prayer and weeping is especially common: 1
Sam. 1:10; Ps. 39:12; 55:1,2; Jn. 11:41,42; Heb. 5:7, especially in the
Lord's life and the Messianic Psalms. "The Lord hath heard the voice of my
weeping. The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord will receive my
prayer" (Ps. 6:8,9) crystallizes the point.
Psa 65:2
You who hear prayer, to You all men will come- This refers to the coming near in sacrifice which is alluded to in :4. David saw his experience of forgiveness and grace concerning his sin with Bathsheba as programmatic for "all men", and he wanted to teach and preach it.
It should be noted that David/Bathsheba language is used to describe Israel's spiritually fallen state (e.g. Ps. 38:7 = Is. 1:6; Ps. 51:7 = Is. 1:18; Ps. 65:2 = Is. 40:15). David recognized this in Ps. 51:17, where he likens his own state to that of Zion, which also needed to be revived by God's mercy. As David's sin is likened to the killing of a lamb (2 Sam. 12:4), so the Jews killed Jesus. The troubles which therefore came upon his kingdom have certain similarities with the events of AD67-70. They were also repeated in the Nazi Holocaust, and will yet be. Israel are yet to fully repent after the pattern of David.
Psa 65:3
Sins overwhelmed me-
The allusion to David's sin with Bathsheba which began in :1 is continued in :4. David
perceives that his personal sin ("me") is representative of "our [plural]
transgressions". He saw in his salvation by grace a pattern for all who
would afterward sin, as he makes clear in Ps. 32. The same word used for
how David's sins "overwhelmed me" (Ps. 65:3) is used of how overwhelming
or "great" is God's grace (Ps. 103:11; 117:2). David felt overwhelmed
firstly by his sin and then by God's grace. This explains his fragile
emotional and nervous state, as often reflected in the Psalms. But his
path is to be that of all God's true Israel.
But You atoned for our transgressions-
The words used for the atoning of Israel's sins, if they were to follow
the pattern of David in repentance (Ps. 79:9; Is. 27:9; Dan. 9:24).
Psa 65:4
Blessed is the person whom You choose and cause to come near,
that he may live in Your courts. We will be filled with the goodness of
Your house, Your holy temple-
"Come near" is a common idiom for offering sacrifice and worshipping
God. The idea is used in Ps. 32:9 of how men ought to learn from David’s
example, and not be as horses who must have their mouths kept in with a
bridle. God doesn't want to force men to come near to Him through using
the force of bit and bridle; rather does He want genuinely repentant
sinners like David, in awe of His grace, to come to Him of themselves with
the "understanding" of Him as the God of all grace. But God all the same
causes men to "come near" to Him (Ps. 65:4 s.w.); but not be coercion, by
bit and bridle, rather by the experience of His grace, through the
operation of the Holy Spirit.
Psa 65:5
By awesome deeds of righteousness You answer us, God of our salvation-
The Psalm now moves towards a greater relevance to the exiles (see on
:4) and the hope of God's restored Kingdom coming on the earth. Such
restoration was to be by grace alone, but was brought about in
"righteousness", in justice. Paul in Romans 1-8 develops this theme; that
condemned sinners are justified by grace in a way that is all the same
"just". This is the wonder of God's grace and His saving work through His
Son. For it was in Jesus, Yehoshuah, the salvation of God / Yah, that He
saves rejected sinners in total justice.
You who are the hope of all the ends of the earth, of those who are
far away on the sea-
This had particular reference to the exiles dwelling in Babylon and
Assyria, at the ends of the eretz promised to Abraham. Those "on
the sea" likewise refer to God's people scattered even beyond that
territory, in what is symbolically called "the sea" of even more distant
Gentile areas. The term is used in that sense in :7.
Psa 65:6
who by His power forms the mountains, having armed Yourself with
strength-
The implication could be that God would form new "mountains", perhaps
an intensive plural referring to the one great mountain, of Zion. He would
take His strength to Himself in restoring and reforming Zion.
Psa 65:7
who stills the roaring of the seas, the crashing of their waves, and
the turmoil of the nations-
As noted on :5, the seas refer to the Gentile nations beyond the
eretz or territory promised to Abraham. Those nations worldwide would
be stilled, when God forms or reforms the great mountain of Zion (:6). The
Lord Jesus spoke of the situation just prior to His return as the sea and
waves roaring, apparently alluding here (Lk. 21:25). "Stills" is literally
'to speak loudly to', and is usually translated "praise". The Lord Jesus
fulfilled this, on God's behalf, by addressing the roaring of the storm on
Galilee. This was a microcosm of the coming of His Kingdom. The language
used here (and in Ps. 74:23) is that used of the gathering of the Assyrian
and Babylonian armies against Zion (Is. 13:4; 17:12,13; 25:5; Jer. 25:31).
But God's word was to calm that, in order to reestablish His Kingdom. And
that is what we now read of in this Psalm.
Psa 65:8
They also who dwell in distant places are afraid at Your wonders. You
call the morning’s dawn and the evening with songs of joy-
The picture is of the knowledge of the God of Israel spreading
worldwide, from sun rise to sunset, so that dawn and evening would be
accompanied by songs of praise from the Gentiles to the God of Israel. It
was in this sense that the roaring of the Gentile seas would be made calm
(:7).
Psa 65:9
You visit the earth, and water it; You greatly enrich it. The river of
God is full of water. You provide them grain, for so You have ordained it-
Fecundity within the earth / eretz promised to Abraham is
part of the blessing for obedience to the covenant. Here David envisages
it as happening abundantly- because the people of the earth / land had
followed his pathway of repentance and restoration. This is the picture of
Eden restored, with the river of God providing enrichment; the picture is
repeated in the final visions of God's Kingdom at the end of Revelation.
"The river of God" is specifically envisaged as flowing from Zion (Ps.
46:4), lending weight to my suggestions elsewhere that Eden was based
around Zion.
Psa 65:10
You drench its furrows, You level its ridges, You soften it with
showers, You bless it with a crop-
The impression is of superabundant blessing, with God's hand working
to create the optimal topography of the land [although "ridges" may refer
to the furrows] and provide the optimal rainfall for maximal fruitfulness.
"Soften" is the word used of the melting away of the Canaanite tribes
before Israel entered the land.
Psa 65:11
You crown the year with Your bounty, Your carts overflow with
abundance-
"Crown" is better 'encircle'. The idea is that God's bounteous
blessing is experienced all around the year- and not just at the time of
harvest, as understood by the pagan religions. His blessing is not just
occasional, but every moment. God's harvest or "carts" is that of His
people, such is their identity in His Kingdom. But "carts" is s.w.
"paths". The idea also is that this Kingdom situation would come about
only when God's paths or ways were followed.
Psa 65:12
The wilderness grasslands overflow, the hills are clothed with
gladness-
The perspective on the land is as it were an aerial view, with the
hills and valleys (:13) apparently clothed with blessing. David is seeing
things from God's heavenly perspective; this is a vision of the Kingdom of
God upon earth.
Psa 65:13
The pastures are covered with flocks, the valleys also are
clothed with grain. They shout for joy! They also sing-
LXX "Sing hymns", as if David's Psalms of the Kingdom would be sung by the
valleys, as it were; in that they would echo the sounds of those singing
those hymns.
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