Psalms 65:1-8

1 To victory, the psalm of the song of David. God, praising becometh thee in Zion; and a vow shall be yielded to thee in Jerusalem. (God, praises be due to thee in Zion; and our vows shall be paid to thee in Jerusalem.)

2 Hear thou my prayer; each man shall come to thee. (Hear thou my prayer; let everyone come to thee.)

3 The words of wicked men had the mastery over us; and thou shalt do mercy to our wickednesses. (The words of the wicked had the mastery over us; but thou hath shown mercy toward our wickednesses.)

4 Blessed is he, whom thou hast chosen, and hast taken; he shall dwell in thy foreyards. We shall be [ful]filled with the goods of thine house; thy temple is holy, (Happy is he, whom thou hast chosen, and thou hast brought to live in thy courtyards; and we shall be satisfied with the good things of thy House, yea, of thy holy Temple.)

5 wonderful in equity. God, our health, hear thou us; thou art hope of all coasts of earth, and in the sea afar. (With wonderful things, and with victory, thou answereth us, O God, our salvation/O God, our deliverance; thou art the hope of all who be at the ends of the earth, and who be far across the sea.)

6 And thou makest ready hills in thy virtue, and art girded with power; (And thou preparest the mountains with thy strength, and thou art girded with power;)

7 which troublest the depth of the sea, the sound of the waves thereof. Folks shall be troubled, (ye who maketh the sea to be still, when it is troubled, yea, who quieteth the roar of its waves. And the people as well; when they be troubled.)

8 and they that dwell in the ends shall dread of thy signs; thou shalt delight the outgoings of the morrowtide and eventide. (And they who live at the ends of the earth shall be filled with awe at thy signs; thou even makest the morning and the evening to have delight at what thou hast done.)

Psalms 65:1-8 Meaning and Commentary

To the chief Musician, A Psalm [and] Song of David. Some copies of the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions read "a song of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, "sung" by the people of the captivity, when they were about to come out;" and some copies have "Haggai": but though it is possible it might be sung upon that occasion, it is certain it was not then composed, but was written by David, as the genuine title shows: as for Jeremiah; he was not carried captive to Babylon, and Ezekiel died before the return of the people from it; nor is there anything in the psalm relating to that captivity. The title of it, indeed, in the Arabic version, is concerning the captivity of the people; which it seems to have taken from some Greek copy; and Kimchi and Arama interpret it of the captivity of the people of the Jews; but then they mean their present captivity, and their deliverance from it. According to the title of it in the Syriac version, the occasion of it was the bringing up of the ark of God to Sion; and Aben Ezra is of opinion that David composed the psalm at that time; or that one of the singers composed it at the building of the temple, and which he thinks is right, and perhaps is concluded from Psalm 65:1; and who also says it was composed in a year of drought; but it rather seems to have been written in a year of great plenty, as the latter part of it shows; and the whole seems to respect the fruitful, flourishing, and happy state of the church in Gospel times, for which it is a song of praise.