Psalms 65

Ps 65:1-13.

This is a song of praise for God's spiritual blessings to His people

and His kind providence over all the earth.

1. Praise waiteth for thee--literally, "To Thee silence praise," or

(compare

Ps 62:1),

To Thee silence is praise--that is, Praise is waiting as a servant; it

is due to Thee. So the last clause expresses the duty of paying vows.

These two parts of acceptable worship, mentioned in

Ps 50:14,

are rendered in Zion, where God chiefly displays His mercy and receives

homage.

2. All are encouraged to pray by God's readiness to hear.

3. God's mercy alone delivers us from the burden of iniquities, by

purging or expiating by an atonement the transgressions with which we

are charged, and which are denoted by--

Iniquities--or, literally, "Words of iniquities."

4. dwell in thy courts; . . . [and]

satisfied with the goodness . . . temple--denote communion

with God

(Ps 15:1; 23:6;

compare

Ps 5:7).

This is a blessing for all God's people, as denoted by the change of

number.

5. terrible things--that is, by the manifestation of justice and wrath

to enemies, accompanying that of mercy to His people

(Ps 63:9-11; 64:7-9).

the confidence--object of it.

of all . . . earth--the whole world; that is, deservedly such, whether

men think so or not.

6-13. God's great power and goodness are the grounds of this

confidence. These are illustrated in His control of the mightiest

agencies of nature and nations affecting men with awe and dread

(Ps 26:7; 98:1,

&c.), and in His fertilizing showers, causing the earth to produce

abundantly for man and beast.

8. outgoings of . . . rejoice--all

people from east to west.

9. visitest--in mercy (compare

Ps 8:4).

river of God--His exhaustless resources.

11. thy paths--ways of providence

(Ps 25:4, 10).

12. wilderness--places, though not inhabited by men, fit for pasture

(Le 16:21, 22;

Job 24:5).

pastures--is literally, "folds," or "enclosures for flocks"; and in

Ps 65:13

it may be "lambs," the same word used and so translated in

Ps 37:20;

so that "the flocks are clothed with lambs" (a figure for abundant

increase) would be the form of expression.