@Ps 65:1-13. This is a song of praise for God's spiritual blessings to His people and His kind providence over all the earth.
1. Praise waiteth for thee--literally, "To Thee silence praise," or (compare @Ps 62:1), To Thee silence is praise, that is, Praise is waiting as a servant; it is due to Thee. So the last clause expresses the duty of paying vows. These two parts of acceptable worship, mentioned in @Ps 50:14, are rendered in Zion, where God chiefly displays His mercy and receives homage.
2. All are encouraged to pray by God's readiness to hear.
3. God's mercy alone delivers us from the burden of iniquities, by
purging or expiating by an atonement the transgressions with which we
are charged, and which are denoted by--
Iniquities--or, literally, "Words of iniquities."
4. dwell in thy courts; . . . [and] satisfied with the goodness . . . temple--denote communion with God (@Ps 15:1 23:6; compare @Ps 5:7). This is a blessing for all God's people, as denoted by the change of number.
5. terrible things--that is, by the manifestation of justice and wrath
to enemies, accompanying that of mercy to His people
(@Ps 63:9-11 64:7-9).
the confidence--object of it.
of all . . . earth--the whole world; that is, deservedly such, whether
men think so or not.
6-13. God's great power and goodness are the grounds of this confidence. These are illustrated in His control of the mightiest agencies of nature and nations affecting men with awe and dread (@Ps 26:7 98:1, &c.), and in His fertilizing showers, causing the earth to produce abundantly for man and beast.
8. outgoings of . . . rejoice--all people from east to west.
9. visitest--in mercy (compare @Ps 8:4).
river of God--His exhaustless resources.
11. thy paths--ways of providence (@Ps 25:4,10).
12. wilderness--places, though not inhabited by men, fit for pasture
(@Le 16:21,22 Job 24:5).
pastures--is literally, "folds," or "enclosures for flocks"; and in
@Ps 65:13 it may be "lambs," the same word used and so translated in
@Ps 37:20; so that "the flocks are clothed with lambs" (a figure for
abundant increase) would be the form of expression.