Text -- Psalms 65:1-13 (NET)

Psalm 65

65:1 For the music director; a psalm of David, a song. Praise awaits you, O God, in Zion. Vows made to you are fulfilled. 65:2 You hear prayers; all people approach you. 65:3 Our record of sins overwhelms me, but you forgive our acts of rebellion. 65:4 How blessed is the one whom you choose, and allow to live in your palace courts. May we be satisfied with the good things of your house– your holy palace. 65:5 You answer our prayers by performing awesome acts of deliverance, O God, our savior. All the ends of the earth trust in you, as well as those living across the wide seas. 65:6 You created the mountains by your power, and demonstrated your strength. 65:7 You calm the raging seas and their roaring waves, as well as the commotion made by the nations. 65:8 Even those living in the most remote areas are awestruck by your acts; you cause those living in the east and west to praise you. 65:9 You visit the earth and give it rain; you make it rich and fertile with overflowing streams full of water. You provide grain for them, for you prepare the earth to yield its crops. 65:10 You saturate its furrows, and soak its plowed ground. With rain showers you soften its soil, and make its crops grow. 65:11 You crown the year with your good blessings, and you leave abundance in your wake. 65:12 The pastures in the wilderness glisten with moisture, and the hills are clothed with joy. 65:13 The meadows are clothed with sheep, and the valleys are covered with grain. They shout joyfully, yes, they sing.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Psa 65:1

¹ sn Psalm 65. The psalmist praises God because he forgives sin and blesses his people with an abundant harvest.

² tn Heb “for you, silence, praise.” Many prefer to emend the noun דֻּמִיָּה (dumiyyah, “silence”) to a participle דּוֹמִיָּה (domiyyah), from the root דָּמָה (damah, “be silent”), understood here in the sense of “wait.”

NET Notes: Psa 65:2

¹ tn Heb “O one who hears prayer.”

² tn Heb “to you all flesh comes.”

NET Notes: Psa 65:3

¹ tn Heb “the records of sins are too strong for me.”

² tn Or “make atonement for.”

NET Notes: Psa 65:4

¹ tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1; 2:12; 34:9; 41:1; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).

² tn Heb “[whom] you bring near [so that] he might live [in] your courts.”

³ tn Or “temple.”

NET Notes: Psa 65:5

¹ tn Heb “[with] awesome acts in deliverance you answer us, O God of our salvation.”

² tn Heb “a source of confidence [for] all the ends of the earth.”

sn All the ends of the earth trust in you. This idealistic portrayal of universal worship is typical hymnic hyperbole, though it does anticipate eschatological reality.

³ tc Heb “and [the] distant sea.” The plural adjective is problematic after the singular form “sea.” One could emend יָם (yam, “sea”) to יָמִים (yamim, “seas”), or emend the plural form רְחֹקִים (rÿkhoqim, “far”) to the singular רָחֹק (rakhoq). In this case the final mem (ם) could be treated as dittographic; note the mem on the beginning of the first word in v. 6.

NET Notes: Psa 65:6

¹ tn Heb “[the] one who establishes [the] mountains by his power.”

² tn Heb “one [who] is girded with strength”; or “one [who] girds himself with strength.”

NET Notes: Psa 65:7

¹ tn Heb “the roar of the seas.”

² sn The raging seas…the commotion made by the nations. The raging seas symbolize the turbulent nations of the earth (see Ps 46:2-3, 6; Isa 17:12).

NET Notes: Psa 65:8

¹ tn Heb “and the inhabitants of the ends fear because of your signs.” God’s “signs” are the “awesome acts” (see v. 5) he performs in the earth.

² tn Heb “the goings out of the morning and the evening you cause to shout for joy.” The phrase “goings out of the morning and evening” refers to the sunrise and sunset, that is, the east and the west.

NET Notes: Psa 65:9

¹ tn The verb form is a Polel from שׁוּק (shuq, “be abundant”), a verb which appears only here and in Joel 2:24 and 3:13, where it is used in the Hiphil stem and means “overflow.”

² tn Heb “you greatly enrich it.”

³ tn Heb “[with] a channel of God full of water.” The divine name is probably used here in a superlative sense to depict a very deep stream (“a stream fit for God,” as it were).

⁴ tn The pronoun apparently refers to the people of the earth, mentioned in v. 8.

⁵ tn Heb “for thus [referring to the provision of rain described in the first half of the verse] you prepare it.” The third feminine singular pronominal suffix attached to the verb “prepare” refers back to the “earth,” which is a feminine noun with regard to grammatical form.

NET Notes: Psa 65:10

¹ tn Heb “saturating” [the form is an infinitive absolute].

² tn Heb “flatten, cause to sink.”

³ tn Heb “trenches,” or “furrows.”

⁴ tn Heb “soften it,” that is, the earth.

⁵ tn Heb “its vegetation you bless.” Divine “blessing” often involves endowing an object with special power or capacity.

NET Notes: Psa 65:11

¹ tn Heb “your good,” which refers here to agricultural blessings.

² tn Heb “and your paths drip with abundance.”

NET Notes: Psa 65:12

¹ tn Heb “drip.”

² tn That is, with rich vegetation that brings joy to those who see it.