Prayers exchanged for praises because of blessings showed on Earth 

The church exists in order to worship and praise God. Modern praise is reckoned by volume, action, emotional responses and bodily sensations, whereas this psalm declares, “Praise waiteth for thee.” The word, ‘waiteth’, means ‘silence.’ The reverence of silence is almost forgotten today. A bowed head and a worshipping heart need not have moving lips. Habbakuk 2:20 expresses this thought, “The Lord is in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before Him.” Sometimes a holy hush should be our worshipping response. 

The psalm speaks of the stupendous works of God that display His power, and also of His provision through nature in seed time and harvest. This displays His goodness to all creation. Yet far greater than these evidences of His goodness is the exhibition of His grace. Those who can approach this omnipotent being, and worship in His courts without fear, are blest. And they are so, because they have been chosen and elected in Christ before the foundation of the world. Their souls are satisfied with God’s house in time, and shall be in eternity.

Pastor Jeff O’ Neil

Recommended Tune: St Matthew, Glasgow

Psalm 65

¹Praise waits for thee in Zion, Lord:
To thee vows paid shall be.
²O thou that hearer art of pray’r,
All flesh shall come to thee.

³Iniquities, I must confess,
Prevail against me do:
But as for our transgressions,
Them purge away shalt thou.

⁴Bless’d is the man whom thou dost choose,
And mak’st approach to thee,
That he within thy courts, O Lord,
May still a dweller be:

We surely shall be satisfied
With thy abundant grace,
And with the goodness of thy house,
Ev’n of thy holy place.

⁵O God of our salvation,
Thou, in thy righteousness,
By fearful works unto our pray’rs
Thine answer dost express:

Therefore the ends of all the earth,
And those afar that be
Upon the sea, their confidence,
O Lord, will place in thee.

⁶Who, being girt with pow’r, sets fast
By his great strength the hills.
⁷Who noise of seas, noise of their waves,
And people’s tumult, stills.

⁸Those in the utmost parts that dwell
Are at thy signs afraid:
Th’ outgoings of the morn and ev’n
By thee are joyful made.

⁹The earth thou visit’st, wat’ring it;
Thou mak’st it rich to grow
With God’s full flood; thou corn prepar’st,
When thou provid’st it so.

¹⁰Her rigs thou wat’rest plenteously,
Her furrows settelest:
With show’rs thou dost her mollify,
Her spring by thee is blest.

¹¹So thou the year most lib’rally
Dost with thy goodness crown;
And all thy paths abundantly
On us drop fatness down.

¹²They drop upon the pastures wide,
That do in deserts lie;
The little hills on ev’ry side
Rejoice right pleasantly.

¹³With flocks the pastures clothed be,
The vales with corn are clad;
And now they shout and sing to thee,
For thou hast made them glad.