Psalms 65:1-13

LXV. A Psalm of Thanksgiving.

Psalms 65:1. For pardon and the joy of Temple worship.

Psalms 65:1. waiteth for: read beseemeth (LXX).

Psalms 65:2. all flesh may mean no more than all Jews (cf. Isaiah 66:23 and Joel 2:28), but is better taken in a wider sense.

Psalms 65:3. Read, against us (LXX).

Psalms 65:5. For God's sovereignty in nature. In Psalms 65:5 read afar off on the sea-coasts, and observe in Psalms 65:5 and Psalms 65:8 the approach to a universal religion, the religion of humanity, as distinct from a merely national religion. They imply much more distinctly than Psalms 65:2 some feeling after God on the part of the heathen.

Psalms 65:8. The evening, like the day, is personified and goes forth from its house to cover the earth.

Psalms 65:9. For an abundant harvest, which probably furnished the immediate occasion of the hymn.

Psalms 65:9. waterest it: substitute givest it abundance. The river of God is the ocean above the firmament (Genesis 1:6 f.*, Genesis 7:11), which descends in rain from time to time for so preparest thou the earth (mg.): i.e. as described in Psalms 65:10, viz. by watering the furrows, etc.

Psalms 65:11. Wherever God passes over the earth, fruitfulness attends His steps.