1There will be silence before You, and praise in Zion, O God, and to You the vow will be performed … 11You have crowned the year with Your bounty, and Your paths drip with fatness. 12The pastures of the wilderness drip, and the hills gird themselves with rejoicing. 13The meadows are clothed with flocks and the valleys are covered with grain; They shout for joy, yes, they sing.
Our God is an awesome God. If we understand the silence as referring to the angelic audience in God’s presence and the praise of Zion as referring to the inhabitants of Jerusalem (and, by extension, all believers) effusively proclaiming spiritual praise, then the image emerges. When our praises break out, angels are overcome with awe and silent mouth-gaping astonishment. I imagine them thinking, “We thought we knew about God’s glory, but look what He is doing in these humans!” While angelic beings know of God’s glory, they do not experience it as we redeemed image-bearers of God do. The Scripture tells us they learn vicariously by watching God at work in us, as a kind of object lesson:
It was revealed to them [i.e., angels] that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look. (1 Peter 1:12)
What a fantastic redeeming and blessing God we have that even angels long to discover His work! While this psalm references God’s specific goodness and glory to us, our praises themselves provide the exhibition of God’s glory through us. In other words, it is not just the content of our praise that is the point, but the fact of us praising God because of the content—that is a testimony to God’s glory, that His image-bearers would praise Him!
If we think of the fallen angels, they too, would be stop-mouthed that we would praise God! Satan, as we see in the Book of Job, desires above all else that we would curse God, so praise is the complete antithesis to cursing. In our praise, the curse on the earth (see the punishment for Adam and Eve) is nullified, for in the hearts of believers, God finds fertile soil to bring forth the harvest of praise!
The glory of God is extended not just to the Jews, but “all men” (vs. 2), literally, to all “flesh.” God hears the cry for help from all who come to Him, even those of so-called unbelievers. Some argue that this is not the case, but all prayers calling out to God for help are, in some measure, acts of faith.
Some see in verse 3 (“Iniquities prevail against me …”) a messianic interpretation, but then the second part of the verse follows, “As for our transgressions You forgive them.” The broader understanding may be that, as the NIV renders it, “When we were overwhelmed by sins, you forgave our transgressions.” This would align with the apostle Paul’s teaching that, “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Rom. 5:20b). While skeptics are left confused by such grace, the believer rejoices with abounding praise for this truth.
God has blessed us by bringing us near to Himself and by us enjoying being in His presence (vs. 4). Of course, this is not meant to be a spatial nearness, but the literary rendering of what it means to be fully accepted by God. He invites us to believe it to be true, for it is true! The singular, “How blessed is the one whom You choose” may point to a more specific interpretation—Jesus Christ as God’s chosen one. The NIV renders this using a plural form, “Blessed are those you choose.” The Hebrew wording is not conclusive, so there is a sense in which both may be true. As often in the psalms, there is an immediate application, along with a shadow of a more significant application, namely Messianic (referring to the coming of Christ).
As a communal “declarative praise,” the rest of this psalm extols God’s greatness through His “awesome deeds” in nature, particularly the elements that affect crops’ planting and harvesting. As with other psalms of praise (e.g., Psalms 19, 89, 139, etc.), the poetry defies granular analysis; it must be read as is, with all its imagery, symbolism, flow and rhythm. This proves Psalm 65 to be a wonderful expression of God’s bringing a plentiful harvest: “You have crowned the year with Your bounty….” It doesn’t get much better for an agrarian society than having an abundant harvest!
If this psalm has Messianic overtones, then the harvest can be seen as referring to the end times, when God “harvests” His spiritual “crops,” namely all humans created in His image (Matt. 13:24-30). Then He will separate the weeds from the good produce, and the results will be absolutely amazing and abundant in ways we cannot imagine.
At another level, we can praise God for the abundance of all we now have in Christ, our spiritual and also our earthly provisions. Indeed, we have much to praise God for, as David reports enthusiastically: “They shout for joy, yes, they sing.” All the angels stand by in silent awe when we do this.
Lord, You have blessed me with so much. I do not and cannot compare my blessings with those of others, for I deserve nothing in this world. Therefore, I worship You for being an overwhelming gracious Lord.
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