Psalms 65:1-6

Psalm 65 ¹ 

For the music director; a psalm of David, a song.

65:1 Praise awaits you, ²  O God, in Zion.

Vows made to you are fulfilled.

65:2 You hear prayers; ³ 

all people approach you. ⁴ 

65:3 Our record of sins overwhelms me, ⁵ 

but you forgive ⁶  our acts of rebellion.

65:4 How blessed ⁷  is the one whom you choose,

and allow to live in your palace courts. ⁸ 

May we be satisfied with the good things of your house –

your holy palace. ⁹ 

65:5 You answer our prayers by performing awesome acts of deliverance,

O God, our savior. ¹⁰ 

All the ends of the earth trust in you, ¹¹ 

as well as those living across the wide seas. ¹² 

65:6 You created the mountains by your power, ¹³ 

and demonstrated your strength. ¹⁴ 

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

[65:1]  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.”

[65:2]  ³ tn Heb “O one who hears prayer.”

[65:2]  ⁴ tn Heb “to you all flesh comes.”

[65:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “the records of sins are too strong for me.”

[65:3]  ⁶ tn Or “make atonement for.”

[65:4]  ⁷ 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).

[65:4]  ⁸ tn Heb “[whom] you bring near [so that] he might live [in] your courts.”

[65:4]  ⁹ tn Or “temple.”

[65:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “[with] awesome acts in deliverance you answer us, O God of our salvation.”

[65:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “a source of confidence [for] all the ends of the earth.”

[65:5]  ¹² 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.

[65:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “[the] one who establishes [the] mountains by his power.”

[65:6]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “one [who] is girded with strength”; or “one [who] girds himself with strength.”