Psalm 65[a]
Thanksgiving for God’s Blessings
1 For the leader. A psalm of David. A song.
I
2 To you we owe our hymn of praise,
O God on Zion;
To you our vows[b] must be fulfilled,
3 [c]you who hear our prayers.
To you all flesh must come(A)
4 with its burden of wicked deeds.
We are overcome by our sins;
only you can pardon them.(B)
5 Blessed the one whom you will choose and bring
to dwell in your courts.
May we be filled with the good things of your house,
your holy temple!
II
6 You answer us with awesome deeds[d] of justice,
O God our savior,
The hope of all the ends of the earth
and of those far off across the sea.(C)
7 You are robed in power,
you set up the mountains by your might.
8 You still the roaring of the seas,(D)
the roaring of their waves,
the tumult of the peoples.(E)
9 Distant peoples stand in awe of your marvels;
the places of morning and evening you make resound with joy.
10 [e]You visit the earth and water it,
make it abundantly fertile.(F)
God’s stream[f] is filled with water;
you supply their grain.
Thus do you prepare it:
11 you drench its plowed furrows,
and level its ridges.
With showers you keep it soft,
blessing its young sprouts.
12 You adorn the year with your bounty;
your paths[g] drip with fruitful rain.
13 The meadows of the wilderness also drip;
the hills are robed with joy.
14 The pastures are clothed with flocks,
the valleys blanketed with grain;
they cheer and sing for joy.(G)
Footnotes
- Psalm 65 The community, aware of its unworthiness (Ps 65:3–4), gives thanks for divine bounty (Ps 65:5), a bounty resulting from God’s creation victory (Ps 65:6–9). At God’s touch the earth comes alive with vegetation and flocks (Ps 65:10–13).
- 65:2 Vows: the Israelites were accustomed to promising sacrifices in the Temple if their prayers were heard.
- 65:3 To you all flesh must come: all must have recourse to God’s mercy.
- 65:6 Awesome deeds: the acts of creating—installing mountains, taming seas, restraining nations (Ps 65:7–8)—that are visible worldwide (Ps 65:6, 9).
- 65:10–14 Apparently a description of the agricultural year, beginning with the first fall rains that soften the hard sun-baked soil (Ps 65:9–10).
- 65:10 God’s stream: the fertile waters of the earth derive from God’s fertile waters in the heavenly world.
- 65:12 Paths: probably the tracks of God’s storm chariot dropping rain upon earth.