PSALM 65

A Thanksgiving Psalm for the Harvest of the Earth

Satisfaction with the Goodness of God’s House (vv.1-4)

1 There will be silence before You, and praise in Zion, O God, [1]	And to You the vow will be performed.
2 O You who hear prayer,	To You all men come.
3 Iniquities prevail against me;	As for our transgressions, You forgive them.
4 How blessed (˒ešer) is the one whom You choose	and bring near to You To dwell in Your courts.
We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house,	Your holy temple.

God’s Power Displayed to the Ends of the Earth (vv.5-8)

5 By awesome deeds You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation,		You who are the trust of all the ends of the earth [2] and of the farthest sea;
6 Who establishes the mountains by His strength,		Being girded (˒āzar) with might; [3]
7 Who stills the roaring of the seas,	The roaring of their waves,		And the tumult of the peoples.
8 They who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of Your signs;		You make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy. [4]

Satisfaction with God’s Blessing upon the Earth (vv.9-13)

9 You visit the earth and cause it to overflow; You greatly enrich it;	The stream of God is full of water; (Psalm 1:3; 46:4)		You prepare their grain, for thus You prepare the earth.
10 You water its furrows abundantly, You settle its ridges,	You soften it with showers,		You bless (bārak) its growth. [5] [6]
11 You have crowned the year with Your bounty,		And Your paths drip with fatness.
12 The pastures of the wilderness drip,		And the hills gird (ḥāgar) themselves with rejoicing.
13 The meadows are clothed with flocks	And the valleys are covered with grain;		They shout for joy, yes, they sing.

[1] Each of the three sections in Psalm 65 begins with God (˒ĕlōhı̂m).

[2] The Hebrew “ends of the earth” (kōl qĕ ṣāt ereṣ) occurs only here in Psalm 65 but the sense is the same as “ends of the earth” in 1 Samuel 2:10; Psalm 2:8; 22:27; 46:9; 59:13; 61:2,6-7; 67:7; 72:8; 98:3; Isa.45:22; 49:6; 52:10; Micah 5:2-4; Zech.9:9-10; cf. Acts 1:8. Here it emphasizes that the heavenly blessing of Messianic salvation will be worldwide just as the earthly blessing of God’s bounty is worldwide (cf. Gen.12:1-3). A similar way of looking at God’s universal blessing is found in Isaiah 11:9//Habakkuk 2:14, “For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the sea.”

[3] “The power of sin and God’s power to engineer mountains are expressed with cognates of gbr, “deeds of iniquity overwhelm us” and “girded with might” (vv.3,6)” (Schaefer, 157).

[4] The LXX has the dawn and sunset making an exodus (ἐξόδους). The Hebrew has the sense of the dawn and sunset going through doors. This leads some to ask, “In a pre-scientific world, what did the Psalmist really believe about what happens to the sun at night and where does it come from in the morning.” Luis Alfonso Schokel in A Manual of Hebrew Poetics writes, “It is not easy to find pure metaphors in Hebrew poetry. One always has a question about pre-metaphors, and post-metaphors or lexicalized metaphors. When Psalm 65,9 [65:8] says: ‘The doors of morning and evening you fill with joy”, are these doors a metaphor, or are they a proper statement from one who imagines that the sun really comes out from a door?’ We of course value it as a beautiful metaphor; due to our discoveries, which are already part of our nature, we cannot take it in a literal sense” (p.109).

This misses the point. The Psalmist isn’t interested in teaching us earth science at this point. Did the Psalmist really believe the dawn and sunset shouted for joy (v.8b)? Did the Psalmist really believe the meadows were clothed with flocks (v.13a)? Did the Psalmist really believe the valleys shouted for joy and sang (v.13c)? The answer is a resounding yes! Poetic description of the world is not inferior to scientific explanation. The Psalmist would be wrong if he was taking a science exam in high school, but he wasn’t! Likewise, the “right answer” on a high school exam would be “wrong” in the context of worship because it would lack praise, wonder and awe for God’s glorious works of Providence and salvation.

[5] In verses 9-10 God is described as a farmer and seven verbs are used. Verses 11-13 detail seven ways that the land responds to the divine Farmer’s labor.

[6] To hear Psalm 65 sung listen to Sons of Korah.