Psalms 65:6 - Meaning and Application

To help us feel more deeply the wonder of God’s mercy, it helps to remember his power and rule as the God of creation, and the wealth and generosity of his care over the world. He establishes the earth, and it stays firm (Psalm 119:90). By his own strength he makes the mountains secure (Psalm 65:6). He set them firm at the beginning, and he still keeps them steady, even when earthquakes shake them. Though lightning can strike the highest peaks, the mountains still stand, and so they are called everlasting mountains (Habakkuk 3:6). Yet God’s covenant with his people stands even more firmly than they do (Isaiah 54:10).

He also calms the sea, and then it becomes quiet (Psalm 65:7). In a storm, the sea makes a terrible noise, which adds to its danger. But when God wills it, he commands silence over the waves and swells, and they fall asleep, turning a storm into calm at once (Psalm 107:29). This shows that the one to whom the sea and dry land belong is clothed with power. Our Lord Jesus gave the same proof of his divine power when he commanded the winds and waves, and they obeyed him.

The psalm also speaks of God stilling the uproar of the people, the common crowd. Nothing is more wild and troublesome than mob violence and public unrest, yet God can quiet even that in hidden ways they do not notice. Or this may refer to the rage of the nations against Israel (Psalm 2:1). God has many ways to silence them, and he will silence their turmoil forever.

He also renews morning and evening, and their order never fails (Psalm 65:8). This steady rise and fall of day and night can be seen in two ways. First, it shows God’s great power, and it makes people everywhere stand in awe. Those who live in the farthest places of the earth are afraid at your signs or tokens. These signs show them that there is a supreme God, a ruling King, before whom they should fear and tremble. The invisible things of God are clearly seen in these works, and that is why the lights in the sky were set for signs (Genesis 1:14).

Some people in the remote and dark places of the earth were so afraid of these signs that they bowed down to them instead of to God (Deuteronomy 4:19). They did not understand that these were God’s signs, plain proofs of his power and deity, and that they should have led them to worship him. Second, this same order shows God’s goodness, and so it brings comfort to all. You make the morning’s coming, before the sun rises, and the evening’s coming, before the sun sets, to rejoice. God spreads out the light of morning and draws the curtain of evening, and he does both for our good. So both become reasons for joy. However different light and darkness are, and however firmly God divided them at creation (Genesis 1:4), both are welcome in their proper time.

It is hard to say which is more welcome to us, the morning light that helps the work of the day, or the evening shade that helps the rest of the night. The watchman waits for the morning, and the hired worker eagerly wants the shade. Some understand this of the morning and evening sacrifice, which godly people greatly rejoiced in, and by which God was regularly honored. You make them sing, or "make a joyful noise." Every morning and evening, the Levites, the temple singers, sang songs of praise. This was part of the duty of each day. We should think of our daily worship, both alone and with our families, as one of our greatest daily needs and one of our sweetest comforts. When we keep fellowship with God there, the coming and going of morning and evening truly become a joy.

He also waters the earth and makes it fruitful. On this proof of God’s power and goodness, the psalm expands greatly, likely because it was written after a very full harvest or after timely rain following a long drought. It is easy to see how much the fertility of this lower world depends on what comes from above. If the heavens are like brass, the earth becomes like iron, which is a clear warning to a dull world that every good and perfect gift comes from above, all from above. We must lift our eyes above the hills, up to the heavens, where the first springs of every blessing are found, though they are out of sight. There our praise must return, as the firstfruits of the earth were lifted toward heaven in the offering, to show that they came from there.

Even God’s spiritual blessings are described as him “raining righteousness” on us. Notice how the common blessing of rain and fruitful seasons is described here. God, who made the earth, visits it and shows his care for it (Psalm 65:9). This is a visit in mercy, and the people of earth should answer it with praise. God, who made it dry land, waters it so it can bear fruit. Even before he caused rain to fall, the plants grew because a mist watered the whole surface of the ground (Genesis 2:5-6). Our hearts are dry and barren unless God himself is like dew to us and waters us. The plants he has planted, he will water and cause to grow.

Rain is called the river of God, full of water. The clouds are the springs of this river, and they do not flow at random, but in the channel God makes for them. He turns the showers, like rivers of water, wherever he wishes. This river of God enriches the earth, which would quickly become poor without it. The riches that grow out of the ground are far more useful to people than the riches hidden in the earth. We could live without silver and gold, but not without grain and grass.

Rain also benefits the earth itself. Rain in season gives the land a new appearance, and nothing is more refreshing than rain on newly cut grass (Psalm 72:6). Even the ridges of the earth, from which the rain seems to run off, are watered well, because they soak in the rain that falls often on them. The furrows, turned up by the plow for sowing, are softened and settled by the rain, making them ready to receive the seed (Psalm 65:10). They are settled by being made soft. In the same way, the heart is made firm when grace makes it tender.

The blessing of the year begins with the spring. If the first season of the year is blessed, that is a pledge that the whole year will be blessed too. That is why God is said to crown the year with his goodness (Psalm 65:11), surrounding it on every side like a crown around the head, and finishing it with kindness as the end of something is said to crown it.

His paths are said to drop with richness, because every bit of richness in the earth, which gives life to its growth, comes from the outpouring of God’s goodness. Wherever God goes, he leaves marks of his mercy behind him (Joel 2:13, 14). His way shines after him in this way. The gifts of God’s goodness to this lower world spread far and wide (Psalm 65:12). They fall on the pastures of the wilderness, not only on the pastures of settled land.

The deserts, which people do not care for and from which they gain no profit, are still under God’s care. Their fruitfulness adds to God’s glory as the great benefactor of all creation, even when it does not help people directly. We should be thankful not only for what serves us, but also for what serves any part of creation, because that brings honor to the Creator. The wilderness, though it does not return as much as cultivated land, still receives as much rain from heaven as the richest soil. God does good even to the evil and ungrateful.

God’s bounty is so wide that even the hills, the little hills, rejoice on every side, including the north side, which gets the least sun. Hills are not too high for God’s care, and little hills are not too small for it. Just as he can make them tremble when he chooses (Psalm 114:6), he can also make them rejoice when he chooses.

God also provides for people on the earth. By giving rain to the ground, he prepares grain for man (Psalm 65:9). Bread comes out of the earth (Job 28:5), because grain comes out of it, but God is the one who first prepared every grain. He gives rain to the earth so that he may prepare grain for people, over whom he has placed the other creatures and for whose use he has fitted them.

When we think about the yearly harvest, we should remember that it is not only an act of the same power that raises the dead, but also much like it, as Jesus showed in his teaching about a seed dying and then bearing fruit (John 12:24). And when we see how steady and lasting this benefit is, we should realize that only God prepares grain for us. Corn and cattle are the two main things by which the farmer is enriched, and both come from God’s goodness in watering the earth (Psalm 65:13).

Because of this, the pastures are covered with flocks (Psalm 65:13). The fields are so full that they seem clothed with cattle lying in them, yet they are not overfilled. The cattle are so well fed that they become the beauty and glory of the pastures where they graze. The valleys are so fruitful that they seem covered with grain at harvest time. The low places of the earth are often the most fruitful, and one acre in a humble valley is often worth five on a high mountain.

Both grain land and pasture land, as they fulfill the purpose for which they were made, are said to shout for joy and sing, because they serve God’s honor and man’s comfort, and because they give us reason for joy and praise. There is no earthly joy greater than the joy of harvest, and among the Lord’s feasts among the Jews, none was kept with clearer signs of thankfulness than the feast of in-gathering at the end of the year (Exodus 23:16). Let all these common gifts of God’s goodness, which we receive year after year and day after day, increase our love for God as the best of beings, and lead us to honor him with our bodies, which he provides for so well.