Psalm 65
New English Translation
Psalm 65[a]
For the music director, a psalm of David, a song.
65 Praise awaits you,[b] O God, in Zion.
Vows made to you are fulfilled.
2 You hear prayers;[c]
all people approach you.[d]
3 Our record of sins overwhelms me,[e]
but you forgive[f] our acts of rebellion.
4 How blessed[g] is the one whom you choose,
and allow to live in your palace courts.[h]
May we be satisfied with the good things of your house—
your holy palace.[i]
5 You answer our prayers by performing awesome acts of deliverance,
O God, our savior.[j]
All the ends of the earth trust in you,[k]
as well as those living across the wide seas.[l]
6 You created the mountains by your power,[m]
and demonstrated your strength.[n]
7 You calmed the raging seas[o]
and their roaring waves,
as well as the commotion made by the nations.[p]
8 Even those living in the remotest areas are awestruck by your acts;[q]
you cause those living in the east and west to praise you.[r]
9 You visit the earth and give it rain;[s]
you make it rich and fertile.[t]
God’s streams are full of water;[u]
you provide grain for the people of the earth,[v]
for you have prepared the earth in this way.[w]
10 You saturate[x] its furrows,
and soak[y] its plowed ground.[z]
With rain showers you soften its soil,[aa]
and make its crops grow.[ab]
11 You crown the year with your good blessings,[ac]
and you leave abundance in your wake.[ad]
12 The pastures in the wilderness glisten with moisture,[ae]
and the hills are clothed with joy.[af]
13 The meadows are clothed with sheep,
and the valleys are covered with grain.
They shout joyfully, yes, they sing.
Footnotes
- Psalm 65:1 sn Psalm 65. The psalmist praises God because he forgives sin and blesses his people with an abundant harvest.
- Psalm 65:1 tn Heb “for you, silence, praise.” Many prefer to emend the noun דֻּמִיָּה (dumiyyah, “silence”) to a participle דּוֹמִיָּה (domiyyah), from the root דָּמָה (damah, “be silent”), understood here in the sense of “wait.”
- Psalm 65:2 tn Heb “O one who hears prayer.”
- Psalm 65:2 tn Heb “to you all flesh comes.”
- Psalm 65:3 tn Heb “the records of sins are too strong for me.”
- Psalm 65:3 tn Or “make atonement for.”
- Psalm 65:4 tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1; 2:12; 34:9; 41:1; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15).
- Psalm 65:4 tn Heb “[whom] you bring near [so that] he might live [in] your courts.”
- Psalm 65:4 tn Or “temple.”
- Psalm 65:5 tn Heb “[with] awesome acts in deliverance you answer us, O God of our salvation.”
- Psalm 65:5 tn Heb “a source of confidence [for] all the ends of the earth.”sn All the ends of the earth trust in you. This idealistic portrayal of universal worship is typical hymnic hyperbole, though it does anticipate eschatological reality.
- Psalm 65:5 tc Heb “and [the] distant sea.” The plural adjective is problematic after the singular form “sea.” One could emend יָם (yam, “sea”) to יָמִים (yamim, “seas”), or emend the plural form רְחֹקִים (rekhoqim, “far”) to the singular רָחֹק (rakhoq). In this case the final mem (ם) could be treated as dittographic; note the mem on the beginning of the first word in v. 6.
- Psalm 65:6 tn Heb “[the] one who establishes [the] mountains by his power.”
- Psalm 65:6 tn Heb “one [who] is girded with strength”; or “one [who] girds himself with strength.”
- Psalm 65:7 tn Heb “the roar of the seas.”
- Psalm 65:7 sn The raging seas…the commotion made by the nations. The raging seas symbolize the turbulent nations of the earth (see Ps 46:2-3, 6; Isa 17:12).
- Psalm 65:8 tn Heb “and the inhabitants of the ends fear because of your signs.” God’s “signs” are the “awesome acts” (see v. 5) he performs in the earth.
- Psalm 65:8 tn Heb “the goings out of the morning and the evening you cause to shout for joy.” The phrase “goings out of the morning and evening” refers to the sunrise and sunset, that is, the east and the west.
- Psalm 65:9 tn The verb form is a Polel from שׁוּק (shuq, “be abundant”), a verb which appears only here and in Joel 2:24 and 3:13, where it is used in the Hiphil stem and means “overflow.”
- Psalm 65:9 tn Heb “you greatly enrich it.”
- Psalm 65:9 tn Heb “[with] a channel of God full of water.” The divine name is probably may be used here in a superlative sense to depict a very deep stream (“a stream fit for God,” as it were).
- Psalm 65:9 tn The pronoun apparently refers to the people of the earth, mentioned in v. 8.
- Psalm 65:9 tn Heb “for thus [referring to the provision of rain described in the first half of the verse] you prepare it.” The third feminine singular pronominal suffix attached to the verb “prepare” refers back to the “earth,” which is a feminine noun with regard to grammatical form.
- Psalm 65:10 tn Heb “saturating” [the form is an infinitive absolute].
- Psalm 65:10 tn Heb “flatten, cause to sink.”
- Psalm 65:10 tn Heb “trenches,” or “furrows.”
- Psalm 65:10 tn Heb “soften it,” that is, the earth.
- Psalm 65:10 tn Heb “its vegetation you bless.” Divine “blessing” often involves endowing an object with special power or capacity.
- Psalm 65:11 tn Heb “your good,” which refers here to agricultural blessings.
- Psalm 65:11 tn Heb “and your paths drip with abundance.”
- Psalm 65:12 tn Heb “drip.”
- Psalm 65:12 tn That is, with rich vegetation that brings joy to those who see it.
Psalm 65
Contemporary English Version
(A psalm by David and a song for the music leader.)
God Answers Prayer
1 Our God, you deserve[a] praise
in Zion, where we keep
our promises to you.
2 Everyone will come to you
because you answer prayer.
3 When our sins get us down,
you forgive us.
4 You bless your chosen ones,
and you invite them
to live near you
in your temple.
We will enjoy your house,
the sacred temple.
5 Our God, you save us,
and your fearsome deeds answer
our prayers for justice!
You give hope to people
everywhere on earth,
even those across the sea.
6 You are strong,
and your mighty power
put the mountains in place.
7 You silence the roaring waves
and the noisy shouts
of the nations.
8 People far away marvel
at your fearsome deeds,
and all who live under the sun
celebrate and sing
because of you.
9 You take care of the earth
and send rain to help the soil
grow all kinds of crops.
Your rivers never run dry,
and you prepare the earth
to produce abundant grain.
10 You water all its fields
and level the lumpy ground.
You send showers of rain
to soften the soil
and help the plants sprout.
11 Wherever your footsteps
touch the earth,
a rich harvest is gathered.
12 Desert pastures blossom,
and mountains celebrate.
13 Meadows are filled
with sheep and goats;
valleys overflow with grain
and echo with joyful songs.
Footnotes
- 65.1 deserve: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
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