Bible Commentaries

BOOK II.—PSS. XLII.-LXXII.

Psalms 42-83 are Elohistic, i.e. they use the word God (Elohim) and avoid the proper name Yahweh, probably from motives of reverence. Here and there, however, the name Yahweh has crept into the text by a natural slip of the scribes.

LXV. A Psalm of Thanksgiving.

Psalms 65:1-4. For pardon and the joy of Temple worship.

Psalms 65:1. waiteth for: read "beseemeth" (LXX).

Psalms 65:2. all flesh may mean no more than "all Jews" (cf. Isaiah 66:23 and Joel 2:28), but is better taken in a wider sense.

Psalms 65:3. Read, "against us" (LXX).

Psalms 65:5-8. For God's sovereignty in nature. In Psalms 65:5 read "afar off on the sea-coasts," and observe in Psalms 65:5 and Psalms 65:8 the approach to a universal religion, the religion of humanity, as distinct from a merely national religion. They imply much more distinctly than Psalms 65:2 some "feeling after God" on the part of the heathen.

Psalms 65:8. The evening, like the day, is personified and goes forth from its house to cover the earth.

Psalms 65:9-13. For an abundant harvest, which probably furnished the immediate occasion of the hymn.

Psalms 65:9. waterest it: substitute "givest it abundance."—The river of God is the ocean above the firmament (Genesis 1:6 f.*, Genesis 7:11), which descends in rain from time to time—for so preparest thou the earth (mg.): i.e. as described in Psalms 65:10, viz. by watering the furrows, etc.

Psalms 65:11. Wherever God passes over the earth, fruitfulness attends His steps.