Psalm 65 - Praising the God of Our Salvation
- Joshua Carpenter
- 1 hour ago
- 4 min read
Don’t wait for Sunday to praise the Lord!
Psalm 65 (ESV)
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. A Song.
1 Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion,
and to you shall vows be performed.
2 O you who hear prayer,
to you shall all flesh come.
3 When iniquities prevail against me,
you atone for our transgressions.
4 Blessed is the one you choose and bring near,
to dwell in your courts!
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
the holiness of your temple!
5 By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness,
O God of our salvation,
the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas;
6 the one who by his strength established the mountains,
being girded with might;
7 who stills the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
the tumult of the peoples,
8 so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs.
You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.
9 You visit the earth and water it;
you greatly enrich it;
the river of God is full of water;
you provide their grain,
for so you have prepared it.
10 You water its furrows abundantly,
settling its ridges,
softening it with showers,
and blessing its growth.
11 You crown the year with your bounty;
your wagon tracks overflow with abundance.
12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow,
the hills gird themselves with joy,
13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,
the valleys deck themselves with grain,
they shout and sing together for joy.
Heidelberg Catechism
Q&A 122
Q. What does the first request of the Lord's Prayer mean?
A. “Hallowed be your name” means,
Help us to really know you,
to bless, worship, and praise you
for all your works
and for all that shines forth from them:
your almighty power, wisdom, kindness,
justice, mercy, and truth.
Summary
What a great way to end the work week and to already begin preparing our hearts for worship this upcoming Lord’s Day by meditating on this psalm of praise! Indeed, in it, David pours forth his praise to the One True, Living God for so many things! We’re not quite certain when in David’s life he wrote this psalm, nor the circumstances in daily life that surrounded it, whether a famine had wrought havoc on the land, or if it was harvest, but at the heart of this psalm, as Richard Phillips in his commentary on Psalms points out:
“…is that God’s people always have reasons to lift up our hearts in praise. In whatever circumstances we may find ourselves, it is always right and beneficial to us to think about how marvelous God is and to worship him with awe and joy. Psalm 65 argues that believers do not require a special reason to worship the Lord, so we should devote portions of each day simply to exulting in the goodness and grace of God and in praising him from open hearts.”
As we dig into this psalm, we see David praise God for a number of things, specifically God’s salvation and grace (vv. 1-4), God’s awesome power on display in creation (vv. 5-8), and God’s abundant provisions and blessings that He graciously pours out (vv. 9-13).
Dig Deeper
Like David, we have so much to praise God for, and we ought to! Whether it’s health, our families, cars that run and gas to fill them, food in our fridges, friends, work to be done, the salvation from our sins and reconciliation with God that we have received through Christ that David points forward to even in this psalm, and so on, when we stop and take a look at our lives, there is so much to lift up our hearts and voices in praise to God for.
We of course praise God as a part of our worship on Sunday for Who He is and all that He has done for us, but how often do you take time individually or as a family to praise Him for all His many gracious blessings throughout the rest of the week? If you do so often, fantastic! May the Lord help you to continue in that wonderful pattern! If not, may the Lord refresh you in the awe and wonder of Who He is and all that He has done, bringing you to a renewed place of daily praise.
Yes, life gets busy, and we can so easily get distracted with everything going on, but may the Lord help us to slow down, to notice His mighty hand at work in His creation, in our lives, and to thank and praise Him for it. Maybe it’s short prayers of praise throughout the day whether at work, on the road, outside mowing the lawn; maybe it’s carving out time at the start or end of your day, or being intentional to praise the Lord around the table at family meals.
As we head into the weekend and throughout the rest of our lives, may we ever praise the God of our salvation!
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, the God of our salvation;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you'll give to God the praise that is due to Him all week long, and especially on the Lord's Day.
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
