Psalm 65

O God of Our Salvation

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. A Song.

65   Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion,
    and to you shall vows be performed.
  O you who hear prayer,
    to you shall all flesh come.
  When iniquities prevail against me,
    you atone for our transgressions.
  Blessed is the one you choose and bring near,
    to dwell in your courts!
  We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
    the holiness of your temple!
  By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness,
    O God of our salvation,
  the hope of all the ends of the earth
    and of the farthest seas;
  the one who by his strength established the mountains,
    being girded with might;
  who stills the roaring of the seas,
    the roaring of their waves,
    the tumult of the peoples,
  so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs.
  You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.
  You visit the earth and water it;
    you greatly enrich it;
  the river of God is full of water;
    you provide their grain,
    for so you have prepared it.
  You water its furrows abundantly,
    settling its ridges,
  softening it with showers,
    and blessing its growth.
  You crown the year with your bounty;
    your wagon tracks overflow with abundance.
  The pastures of the wilderness overflow,
    the hills gird themselves with joy,
  the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,
    the valleys deck themselves with grain,
    they shout and sing together for joy.

(ESV)

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Psalm 65 Commentary

by Brad Boyles

“How blessed 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.”

Psalms 65:4 NASB

Nearness to God brings total satisfaction. This is a fact. In David’s time, nearness to God came through ceremonial sacrifices in the temple where God’s presence dwelt. Today, we are the temple of God. Filled with His Holy Spirit, we can commune with Him daily and find total satisfaction in His presence.

In the latter verses of this psalm, David takes a dramatic turn. He writes of how thankful he is for the absolute blessings from God through the natural world. God has fine-tuned creation to run at a perfect pace. According to Forbes, just a 5% increase in the earth’s gravity would result in the earth moving into a new, tighter elliptical orbit. At its closest, Earth will pass about 9% to 10% closer to the sun than it does today. That would be enough to trigger catastrophic climate change, leading to widespread famines and probably the collapse of the global economy.

If the Earth suddenly slowed down from its rotation orbit, we would experience hurricane winds and rapid destruction. Even a small effect would increase winds to nearly 1000 mph with 500 mile high tidal waves! The Earth’s crust would suffer immensely and would begin to meltdown.

The fact is, we take these absolute truths for granted. I don’t know anyone who wakes up every day and thanks God for the consistency of the universe. But it’s true that without it, we would suffer immensely. Beth Tanner sums up how these thoughts tie in with this particular Psalm.

“This prayer can function in the same way today. We as people of an industrial world are even farther removed from creation than our ancestors. God can be seen as serving only the human world. This prayer praises God for all of God’s great gifts and reminds all to lift their heads and look around and see all that God does to maintain the delicate balance of life. It invites all to praise God for what is seen and unseen.”

Beth Tanner

Let us praise God for what is seen and unseen.