Psalms 65:2-12

2 You hear our prayers. All people will come to you.

3 Our guilt overwhelms us, but you forgive our sins.

4 Happy are the people you choose and invite to stay in your court. We are filled with good things in your house, your holy Temple.

5 You answer us in amazing ways, God our Savior. People everywhere on the earth and beyond the sea trust you.

6 You made the mountains by your strength; you are dressed in power.

7 You stopped the roaring seas, the roaring waves, and the uproar of the nations.

8 Even those people at the ends of the earth fear your miracles. You are praised from where the sun rises to where it sets.

9 You take care of the land and water it; you make it very fertile. The rivers of God are full of water. Grain grows because you make it grow.

10 You send rain to the plowed fields; you fill the rows with water. You soften the ground with rain, and then you bless it with crops.

11 You give the year a good harvest, and you load the wagons with many crops.

12 The desert is covered with grass and the hills with happiness.

Psalms 65:2-12 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.