A Meditation on Psalm 65

The lessons for this coming Sunday focus on the miraculous provision of God in providing for our safety, our sustenance, and our salvation. We need all these things and so we pray to God for them. He hears our prayers and answers them bountifully. These are the themes of Sunday all the way from the Parable of the Soil in Matthew 13 to the beauty of this Psalm.

We are called upon to see God’s goodness in the harvest. As I read verse 12, “You crown the year with goodness, and your paths overflow with plenty.” I was taken to Thanksgiving. Images of pumpkin pie, plump turkeys, and stuffing came to mind immediately. It is a great mystery to plant a small seed in the spring and a few months later begin to pick fresh food. This week, the featured picture is from our garden. The basket is full of beans, peppers, and a great deal of zucchini. Depending on your perspective, zucchini did not fall as far as the rest of creation after our sin in the garden. Somehow they produce prolifically with little water and care. They are a perfect picture of the seed that falls on good soil and produces a hundredfold.

The psalm celebrates God’s provision of food and water to sustain our bodies. It also celebrates his strength to protect from the chaos of nature and the tumult of man. Ultimately it sings songs of praise for sustaining and saving our very souls. This is a song to celebrate God’s provision now through answered prayer. But the psalm also looks forward to the final harvest gathering. We are the flowers of the field in God’s garden that he takes the most joy in. He longs for the ultimate harvesting and the day when he will finally take us home. “Blessed is the man whom you choose to receive unto yourself who shall dwell in your courts and be satisfied with the pleasures of your house.” Ps 65:4

The verse that spoke to me, in particular, this week was verse seven, “You still the raging of the seas, the noise of the waves, and the tumult of the peoples.” It is a poetic way of saying that God’s righteousness and strength will be the source of peace. It is so easy to get caught up in the horror of little ones being shot and killed in our cities, policemen being murdered, and the unjust killing of George Floyd. We watch businesses burn, our past torn down, and lives being destroyed.

in the midst of sin that is hard to grasp, I still believe with the psalmist that God will still the raging of the seas. I believe that he will hear our prayers. I believe that his strength will provide sustenance, safety, and salvation for those who call upon his name. In these times we need to be those people who call upon his name. We should pray constantly and even sing songs of praise like those we find in Psalm 65.

At the great harvest, “Those who sowed with tears, shall reap with songs of joy.” -Psalm 126:5

There is much to pray for, and yet there is much to sing praise for. And yet we long for the final harvest. After studying this psalm the following hymn came to mind. Its sentiments are those of Psalm 65.

Come, ye thankful people come

Raise the song of harvest home

All is safely gathered in

Ere the winter storms begin

God our maker doth provide

For our wants to be supplied

Come to God’s own temple come

Raise the song of harvest home!

In Christ,

†Mark