Bible Study - Psalm 65

Psalm 65 is a great psalm of praise to God for all kinds of blessings that He provides. David is the author, and in the introduction, he directs this psalm to “the choirmaster” as a “song” that is to be sung. David knows that “praise is due to be given to God”  and that “vows” of thanksgiving and commitment should be made and carried out (“performed”) before the Lord (Psalm 65:1.

First of all, God hears our prayers and does respond to them (v.2). Amazingly, even “when iniquities (times of sin) had prevailed against” David in his life and “overpowered“ him, and David prayed and confessed His sin, the Lord atoned for his transgressions and for the wrongdoing of other repentant people (v.3). This is the greatest gift of God, David knew, - the forgiveness of sins. (There are other complicated words for this forgiveness from God - atonement, propitiation, expiation, etc. - which indicate that God forgave sins in light of what His own Son, Jesus, would eventually do on the cross, in a sacrificial payment for the sins of the whole world, including David’s and ours. See New Testament passages like Hebrews 2:17 and Romans 3:23-25 and 1 John 2:1-2 and 4:10.)

Without that forgiveness, what a great burden of guilt people are under. See what David says in Psalm 32:1-5  and how wonderful forgiveness was for him in Psalm 32:10. David also knew that he had not chosen God, but that he was one whom “God had chosen and brought near” to Him and allowed him to be “in His courts,” in “His house,” and to receive His “goodness and holiness” (Psalm 65:4).

Jesus says the same thing about His disciples and about us in the New Testament. “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide.” “Already you are clean because of the Word that I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me…. For apart from Me, you can do nothing” (John 15:3-5,16).

David also trusted that God would answer his prayers with “awesome deeds” bringing “righteousness” and “salvation.” In God was his hope. As in other psalms, David was also prophesying of how God would be “the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas,” too, through the coming of His Son, Jesus, as Savior of all (Psalm 65:5). The Lord was the “mighty” God, the one true God, “who by His strength established the mountains” and all the rest of creation (Psalm 65:6). He cared about what He had made, including “the tumult of the peoples” in a troubled, sinful world - “even those who dwell at the ends of the earth.”

Through David and the children of Israel, God would provide “awesome signs” and prophecies of hope for all peoples, culminating in Christ Jesus, the Son of God, and His saving work (Psalm 65:8). See how Jesus could “still the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves” (Psalm 65:7 and Matthew 8:24-27 and  Mark 4:36-41). “Jesus rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ’Peace! Be still!’ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they (the disciples) said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?’”

Jesus was and is God who became man to do His saving work, as David and so many others predicted, not just for Israel, but for the whole world. He did “atone for all our transgressions” by His suffering and death in our place, and His mighty resurrection (Psalm 65:3). Jesus also sowed the seed of God’s Word and sent out His disciples to share that Word, as well, so that more and more people could come to faith in Him and be saved by His grace and be ready for His return on the last day. That day will come. Jesus Himself predicted “signs of that time” including “the roaring of the seas and the waves.” Jesus, the Son of God, will come with power and great glory and settle it all. He said, “Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing nigh” (Luke 21:25-28 and Psalm 65:7).

Go back now to Psalm 65:8-13. David looks around and marvels again at God’s good creation, in spite of the troubles and sorrows all around. He sees joy in morning and evening and in the days going by (Psalm 65:8). He sees that God does care and “visits the earth” with “water” and “grain” and “growth” and “abundance,” even though people often do not appreciate His gifts (Psalm 65:9-10). Jesus Himself said, “Your Father in heaven makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45).

God often “crowns the year with His bounty,” though we do not deserve it (Psalm 65:11). When we are out in the natural world on a nice summer day, we marvel at the overflowing beauty and majesty of “pastures of the wilderness” and “hills” and “meadows” and “valleys.” We can sense the picture image of the creation “shouting and singing together for joy” to the Lord (Psalm 65:12-13). Again, Jesus said, “Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them…. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Matthew 6:26-29). We, too, get so busy with our lives that we miss the beauty and blessing that God provides all around us.

One more thought. In our Old Testament lesson for this coming Sunday, Isaiah 55:9-13, God leads Isaiah to use some of the same imagery as David - rain watering the earth and plants sprouting and growing  and “giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater.”
In the same way, God says, His Word will come down from His mouth and accomplish what He wishes, bringing “joy” and “peace” and “an everlasting sign” of hope for us and our world (Isaiah 55:11-13).

That was the greatest way that “God visited the earth” (Psalm 65:9), with the gift of His Son, the Word become flesh in Jesus our Savior and His Word and work for us. (See John 1:14 and the prophecy of John the Baptist preparing the way for the “visit from on high” of Jesus (Luke 1:76-79).) That’s what makes continued study of God’s Word and the Good news of Christ so important for us all. That Word from God shall never “return to God empty or void,” but will always be a blessing for us (Isaiah 55:11).