Psalms 65:1 - Meaning and Application

The psalmist does not come to God with a private request here. He begins by speaking to God as the leader of the assembly and the one who gives voice to the people. He first gives God glory by humble thankfulness: “Praise waits for you, O God, in Zion.” Praise is pictured as waiting until it is welcomed, ready to rise with gratitude as soon as God’s kindness draws near. When God comes to us with his favor, we should go out to meet him with praise and wait for the light of the new day.

This praise is also shown as complete trust in God’s will and mercy. If we are ready in all things to give thanks, then praise truly waits for God. It is also praise that waits for God’s acceptance. The Levites, the temple servants, stood in the house of the Lord by night, ready to sing at the appointed time (Psalm 134:1-2), and so their praise waited for him. The words can also mean, “Praise is silent to you,” because God is so great that human words fall short. As there are holy groanings that cannot be spoken, so there are holy acts of worship too deep for words, yet God still accepts them because he knows the heart and the mind of the Spirit.

Our praise is also “silent” in the sense that the praise of the angels may be heard above ours. We should not think we can speak all of God’s praise, for no one can fully tell it. If a man tries to declare all of God’s greatness, he will surely be overwhelmed (Job 37:20). The ancient translation even says that praise is counted as silence before God, so high is he above all blessing and praise. Praise is due to God from all the world, but it waits for him in Zion, in his church, among his people. All his works praise him by giving us reason for worship, but only his saints bless him with direct acts of adoration. The redeemed church sings the new song on Mount Zion (Revelation 14:1, 14:3). In Zion, God’s dwelling place (Psalm 76:2), happy are those who live with him, for they will always be praising him.

He also gives glory to God by honest faithfulness. “Unto you shall the vow be performed” means the promised sacrifice will be offered. We are not accepted for our thanksgivings unless we carefully keep the vows we made while seeking the mercy we now enjoy. It is better not to vow than to vow and not pay.

He then praises God for hearing prayer. Praise waits for God because he is ready to hear us. He is the God who hears prayer. He can answer every prayer because he is able to do far more than we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20), and he will answer every prayer of faith, either in the exact thing asked or in a better kindness. This is a great honor to God’s goodness and a great help to our faith. We should gladly take every chance to call him by this name.

Because he hears prayer, all people will come to him in their need. Every person’s praise rightly waits for him, because every person’s prayer goes up to him in trouble or distress, even if that is not how they live at other times. At present, only the seed of Israel comes to him, along with those who join their religion. But when his house is called a house of prayer for all people, then all flesh will come and be welcome (Romans 10:12-13). So let us come to him, and come boldly, because he is the God who hears prayer.

He also gives glory to God for pardoning sin. In this, who is a God like him? (Micah 7:18). This is part of how God makes his name known (Exodus 34:7). The psalmist says that our sins reach to the heavens. Our wrongs are so many and so serious that, when we face them honestly, we are filled with shame and almost lose hope. They are too strong for us to excuse or balance with any goodness of our own. When we stand before God, our consciences accuse us and we have no defense. Yet God, in his own free mercy and for the sake of a righteousness he provides, will cleanse away our transgressions so that we do not come into judgment for them.

The more danger sin puts us in, the more reason we have to admire the power and riches of God’s forgiving mercy. It can cancel the threatening power of our many sins and our great sins.

He also gives glory to God for the warm welcome he gives those who come near him and the comfort found in fellowship with him. Sin must first be washed away (Psalm 65:3), and then we are welcome to gather around God’s altars (Psalm 65:4). Those who come into fellowship with God will surely find true happiness and full satisfaction there. Blessed is not only the nation (Psalm 33:12), but also the individual person, however humble, whom God chooses and brings near to dwell in his courts. Such a person is truly happy, because he has the clearest sign of God’s favor and a sure promise of everlasting joy.

To come into fellowship with God means, first, to draw near to him by taking hold of his covenant, setting our best desires on him, and turning our hearts toward him. It means to deal with him as one we love and value. It also means to dwell in his courts, as the priests and Levites did, living as if at home in God’s house. This is a steady life of worship, giving ourselves closely to the things of God as to the work of our dwelling place. We do not come by any merit of our own or by our own skill. We come because God chooses us. Blessed is the man whom you choose, and so set apart from others left to themselves. He also brings such people near by his effective grace, for those he chooses he causes to approach. He does not only invite them, he draws them (John 6:44).

They will also be satisfied. The psalmist changes from “he” to “we,” teaching us to take God’s promises personally and say, “We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, even of your holy temple.” God’s holy temple is his house, where he dwells through the worship and ordinances he has appointed. God keeps a full house. There is great goodness there, righteousness, grace, and all the comfort of the everlasting covenant. There is enough for all and enough for each. It is always ready, and it is offered freely, without money and without price. In those things there is true satisfaction for the soul, and every gracious soul will be satisfied with them.

God’s people find pleasure in fellowship with him, and that is enough for them. They need no greater good.

Another reason for praise is God’s mighty work on their behalf: “By awesome deeds in righteousness you answer us, O God of our salvation” (Psalm 65:5). This can mean the warnings and discipline God sometimes gives his own people. He often answers them with severe acts to wake them up and make them more earnest, but always in righteousness. He does them no wrong and means them no harm, for even then he remains the God who saves them (Isaiah 45:15).

It is even more likely that this refers to God’s judgments against their enemies. He answers his people’s prayers by bringing down the nations for their sake and by giving proud oppressors their just reward. He acts as a righteous God, the one to whom vengeance belongs, and as the God who protects and saves his people. Some also read, “By wonderful things,” meaning things that surprise us and that we would not have expected (Isaiah 64:3). Or the sense may be, “By things that fill us with awe you will answer us.”

The freedom we have to come near to God in his courts should never make us less reverent or less filled with godly fear. He is still awesome in his holy places.

Another reason for trust is his care for all his people, no matter how troubled they are or how far they are scattered. He is the hope of all the ends of the earth, meaning all his saints across the world, not only those from Israel. He is the God of the Gentiles as well as the Jews, the hope of those far from his holy temple and its courts, whether they live on the islands of the nations or are in danger at sea. They trust in him and cry out to him when they are at their wits’ end (Psalm 107:27-28). By faith and prayer, we can keep fellowship with God and receive comfort from him wherever we are, not only in the gathered worship of his people, but even far out on the sea.