Psalm 65 - Praise to God for His Salvation and Providence

 

Psalm 65 - A Psalm of David – Commentaries by Dennis Edwards

Psalm 65:1-2 Praise waits for thee, O God, in Sion: and unto thee shall the vow be performed. O You that hears prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.

Apostle Paul tells us that every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord of Lord and King of Kings. He even includes “of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth,” Philippians 2:10. In other words, every created thing living and dead in the physical or spiritual realm will need to come into submission to Christ or face the second death, Apostle Paul was referring to a prophecy in Isaiah.

Isaiah 45:21b-24 “There is no God else beside Me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside Me. Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength; and all that are incensed against Him shall be ashamed.”

Apostle Paul in using the imagery in Isaiah 45 is claiming that Jesus is the fulfilment of that prophecy. The prophecy clearly states that the Lord is speaking and that unto Him shall all knees bow and all tongues swear. Those who bow and swear by the Lord, the prophecy says, do so, because they have their righteousness and strength in the Lord. They have “put on Christ,” as Paul would say elsewhere, and have the “righteousness which is in Him.”

Romans 13:10-14 “Love works no ill to his neighbour: therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now, is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”

Galatians 3:26-27 “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

Philippians 3:8b-10 “I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith in Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: that I may know Him, and the power of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For God has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”

Romans 3:21-22 “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested (in and through Jesus), being witnessed by the law and the prophets. (That is to say, the law and the prophets witness that righteousness comes by faith in the Redeemer.) Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no distinction.”

Psalm 65:3 Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away.

Apostle John wrote, “For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things,” 1 John 3:20 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9.

In Proverb 16:6, we read, “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.” Jesus is the mercy (or grace) and truth that has come. He offers forgiveness of sins to all those that receive and believe on Him. “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe of His name,” John 1:12. “For the law came by Moses, but grace (mercy) and truth came by Jesus Christ,” John 1:17.

In Hebrews 9:14 we read, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” If we believe, the blood of Christ is purging us of our sins as we come unto God by Him.

Psalm 65:4 Blessed is the man whom You choose, and cause to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.

Jesus has said that the Holy Spirit draws us to Him. “No man can come to Me, except the Father which has sent Me draws him,” John 6:44. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth, John 16:13. We can only approach God because we have taken off our own righteousness and put on the righteousness that is found in Jesus. We have put on the wedding garment, which is Christ. Through Christ we can boldly approach the throne of grace, and obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need, Hebrews 4:16.

When we enter into the Eternal Now where time shall be no more, God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things shall be washed away. The tabernacle of God shall be with men. He will dwell with us, and we shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with us, and be our God, Revelation 21:4-3. There will be “no temple therein; for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it,” Revelation 21:22. 

 

Revelation 22:3-5 “And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him: and they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God gives them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

Psalm 65:5 By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation; who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea:

It is God who has made us and not we ourselves. He upholds everything by the word of His power and by Him all things consist.

Psalm 65:6-7 Which by His strength sets fast the mountains; being girded with power: Which stills the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people.

It is God that has set a boundary for the sea that it passes not over the land. In the book of Job we find, “Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brakes forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it, and brake up for it My decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said, Hitherto shall thou come, but no further: here shall thy proud waves be stayed,” Job 38:8-11.

Proverbs 8:29 “When he gave to the sea His decree, that the waters should not pass His commandments: when He appointed the foundations of the earth.

Psalm 104:9 talks about the God “has set a bound that the sea may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.”

Jeremiah 5;22 has a similar idea. “Fear ye not me? Says the Lord: will ye not tremble at My presence, which have placed the sand (dune) for the bound of the sea by perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?

Psalm 65:8-9 They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens: You make the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice. You visit the earth, and water it: You greatly enrich it with the river of God, which is full of water: You prepare them corn, when You have so provided for it.

As in Job 38 and Psalm 104 the author recounts the goodness of God that is apparent in His Creation. He alone is the Creator. We are the works of His hand. The heavens declare His glory.

Psalm 65:10-13 You water the ridges thereof abundantly: You settle the furrows thereof: You make it soft with showers: You bless the springing thereof. You crown the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness. They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness: and the little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.

We sense God’s presence as we walk through a forest, along a beach, up a winding mountain path. I am reminded of the old song: How Great Thou Art!

  O Lord my God! when I in awesome wonder consider all the works thy hand hath made, I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder, thy power throughout the universe displayed:

Reframe: Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to thee, how great thou art! How great thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to thee, how great thou art! How great thou art!

When through the woods and forest glades I wander and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees; when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze:

Reframe: Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to thee, how great thou art! …..

And when I think that God—his Son not sparing — sent him to die, I scarce can take it in; that on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, he bled and died to take away my sin:

Reframe: Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to thee, how great thou art! …..

When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation and take me home—what joy shall fill my heart! Then I shall bow in humble adoration and there proclaim, my God, how great thou art!

Reframe: Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to thee, how great thou art! How great thou art! Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to thee, how great thou art! How great thou art!

© 1953 Stuart K Hine  Translated from the Russian by Stuart K. Hine (1899-1989)