{"collection":"Bible & Christianity","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bib/cmt/kad/psa065.htm","path":"bib/cmt/kad/psa065.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bib/cmt/kad/psa065.htm","text":"Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsh, [1857-78]\nThanksgiving Song for Victory and Blessings Bestowed\nIn this Psalm, the placing of which immediatley after the preceding is at once explicable by reason of the \u05d5\u05d9\u05bc\u05d9\u05e8\u05d0\u05d5\u05bc so prominent in both (Psa 64:10; Psa 65:9), we come upon the same intermingling of the natural and the historical as in Psa 8:1-9; Psa 19:1-14; Psa 29:1-11. The congregation gathered around the sanctuary on Zion praises its God, by whose mercy its imperilled position in relation to other nations has been rescued, and by whose goodness it again finds itself at peace, surrounded by fields rich in promise. In addition to the blessing which it has received in the bounties of nature, it does not lose sight of the answer to prayer which it has experienced in its relation to the world of nations. His rule in human history and His rule in nature are, to the church, reflected the one in the other. In the latter, as in the former, it sees the almighty and bountiful hand of Him who answers prayer and expiates sins, and through judgment opens up a way for His love. The deliverance which it has experienced redounds to the acknowledgment of the God of its salvation among the most distant peoples; the beneficial results of Jahve's interposition in the events transpiring in the world extend temporally as well as spiritually far beyond the bounds of Israel; it is therefore apparently the relief of Israel and of the peoples in general from the oppression of some worldly power that is referred to. The spring of the third year spoken of in Isa 37:30, when to Judah the overthrow of Assyria was a thing of the past, and they again had the fields ripening for the harvest before their eyes, offers the most appropriate historical basis for the twofold purport of the Psalm. The inscription, To the Precentor, a Psalm, by David, a song (cf. Psa 75:1; Psa 76:1), does not mislead us in this matter. For even we regard it as uncritical to assign to David all the Psalms bearing the inscription \u05dc\u05d3\u05d5\u05d3. The Psalm in many MSS (Complutensian, Vulgate), beside the words \u0395\u1f30\u03c2 \u03c4\u1f78 \u03c4\u03ad\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2 \u03c8\u03b1\u03bb\u03bc\u03cc\u03c2 \u03c4\u1ff7 \u0394\u03b1\u03c5\u03af\u03b4 \u1fa0\u03b4\u1f74, has the addition \u1fa0\u03b4\u1f74 \u1f39\u03b9\u03b5\u03c1\u03b5\u03bc\u03af\u03bf\u03c5 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f38\u03b5\u03b6\u03b5\u03ba\u03b9\u1f74\u03bb, (\u1f10\u03ba) \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03bb\u03b1\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03bf\u03b9\u03ba\u03af\u03b1\u03c2 \u1f44\u03c4\u03b5 \u1f14\u03bc\u03b5\u03bb\u03bb\u03bf\u03bd \u1f10\u03ba\u03c0\u03bf\u03c1\u03b5\u03cd\u03b5\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9. At the head of the following Psalm it might have some meaning - here, however, it has none.\nThe praise of God on account of the mercy with which He rules out of Zion. The lxx renders \u03c3\u03bf\u1f76 \u03c0\u03c1\u03ad\u03c0\u03b5\u03b9 \u1f55\u03bc\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2, but \u05d3\u05bc\u05d5\u05de\u05d9\u05bc\u05d4, tibi par est, h. e. convenit laus (Ewald), is not a usage of the language (cf. Psa 33:1; Jer 10:7). \u05d3\u05bc\u05de\u05d9\u05bc\u05d4 signifies, according to Psa 22:3, silence, and as an ethical notion, resignation, Psa 62:2. According to the position of the words it looks like the subject, and \u05ea\u05bc\u05d4\u05dc\u05bc\u05d4 like the predicate. The accents at least (Illuj, Shalsheleth) assume the relationship of the one word to the other to be that of predicate and subject; consequently it is not: To Thee belongeth resignation, praise (Hengstenberg), but: To Thee is resignation praise, i.e., resignation is (given or presented) to Thee as praise. Hitzig obtains the same meaning by an alteration of the text: \u05dc\u05da \u05d3\u05de\u05d9\u05d4 \u05ea\u05d4\u05dc\u05bc\u05dc; but opposed to this is the fact that \u05d4\u05dc\u05bc\u05dc \u05dc is not found anywhere in the Psalter, but only in the writings of the chronicler. And since it is clear that the words \u05dc\u05da \u05ea\u05d4\u05dc\u05d4 belong together (Psa 40:4), the poet had no need to fear any ambiguity when he inserted dmyh between them as that which is given to God as praise in Zion. What is intended is that submission or resignation to God which gives up its cause to God and allows Him to act on its behalf, renouncing all impatient meddling and interference (Exo 14:14). The second member of the sentence affirms that this praise of pious resignation does not remain unanswered. Just as God in Zion is praised by prayer which resigns our own will silently to His, so also to Him are vows paid when He fulfils such prayer. That the answers to prayer are evidently thought of in connection with this, we see from Psa 65:3, where God is addressed as the \"Hearer or Answerer of prayer.\" To Him as being the Hearer and Answerer of prayer all flesh comes, and in fact, as \u05e2\u05d3\u05d9\u05da implies (cf. Isa 45:24), without finding help anywhere else, it clear a way for itself until it gets to Him; i.e., men, absolutely dependent, impotent in themselves and helpless, both collectively and individually (those only excepted who are determined to perish or despair), flee to Him as their final refuge and help. Before all else it is the prayer for the forgiveness of sin which He graciously answers. The perfect in Psa 65:4 is followed by the future in Psa 65:4. The former, in accordance with the sense, forms a hypothetical protasis: granted that the instances of faults have been too powerful for me, i.e., (cf. Gen 4:13) an intolerable burden to me, our transgressions are expiated by Thee (who alone canst and also art willing to do it). \u05d3\u05bc\u05d1\u05e8\u05d9 is not less significant than in Psa 35:20; Psa 105:27; Psa 145:5, cf. Sa1 10:2; Sa2 11:18.: it separates the general fact into its separate instances and circumstances. How blessed therefore is the lot of that man whom (supply \u05d0\u05e9\u05c1\u05e8) God chooses and brings near, i.e., removes into His vicinity, that he may inhabit His courts (future with the force of a clause expressing a purpose, as e.g., in Job 30:28, which see), i.e., that there, where He sits enthroned and reveals Himself, he may have his true home and be as if at home (vid., Psa 15:1)! The congregation gathered around Zion is esteemed worthy of this distinction among the nations of the earth; it therefore encourages itself in the blessed consciousness of this its privilege flowing from free grace (\u05d1\u05d7\u05e8), to enjoy in full draughts (\u05e9\u05bc\u05d1\u05e2 with \u05d1\u05bc as in Psa 103:5) the abundant goodness or blessing (\u05d8\u05d5\u05bc\u05d1) of God's house, of the holy (\u1f05\u03b3\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd) of His temple, i.e., of His holy temple (\u05e7\u05d3\u05e9\u05c1 as in Psa 46:5, cf. Isa 57:15). For for all that God's grace offers us we can give Him no better thanks than to hunger and thirst after it, and satisfy our poor soul therewith.\nThe praise of God on account of the lovingkindness which Israel as a people among the peoples has experienced. The future \u05ea\u05bc\u05e2\u05e0\u05e0\u05d5\u05bc confesses, as a present, a fact of experience that still holds good in all times to come. \u05e0\u05d5\u05e8\u05d0\u05d5\u05ea might, according to Psa 20:7, as in Psa 139:14, be an accusative of the more exact definition; but why not, according to Sa1 20:10; Job 9:3, a second accusative under the government of the verb? God answers the prayer of His people superabundantly. He replies to it \u05d2\u05d5\u05e8\u05d0\u05d5\u05ea, terrible deeds, viz., \u05d1\u05bc\u05e6\u05d3\u05e7, by a rule which stringently executes the will of His righteousness (vid., on Jer 42:6); in this instance against the oppressors of His people, so that henceforth everywhere upon earth He is a ground of confidence to all those who are oppressed. \"The sea (\u05d9\u05dd construct state, as is frequently the case, with the retention of the ) of the distant ones\" is that of the regions lying afar off (cf. Psa 56:1). Venema observes, Significatur, Deum esse certissimum praesidium, sive agnoscatur ab hominibus et ei fidatur, sive non (therefore similar to \u03b3\u03bd\u03cc\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5\u03c2, Rom 1:21; Psychol. S. 347; tr. p. 408). But according tot he connection and the subjective colouring the idea seems to have, \u05de\u05d1\u05d8\u05d7 \u05d5\u05d2\u05d5 is to be understood of the believing acknowledgment which the God of Israel attains among all mankind by reason of His judicial and redemptive self-attestation (cf. Isa 33:13; Ch2 32:22.). In the natural world and among men He proves Himself to be the Being girded with power to whom everything must yield. He it is who setteth fast the mountains (cf. Jer 10:12) and stilleth the raging of the ocean. In connection with the giant mountains the poet may have had even the worldly powers (vid., Isa 41:15) in his mind; in connection with the seas he gives expression to this allegorical conjunction of thoughts. The roaring of the billows and the wild tumult of the nations as a mass in the empire of the world, both are stilled by the threatening of the God of Israel (Isa 17:12-14). When He shall overthrow the proud empire of the world, whose tyranny the earth has been made to feel far and wide, then will reverential fear of Him and exultant joy at the end of the thraldom (vid., Isa 13:4-8) become universal. \u05d0\u05d5\u05ea\u05ea (from the originally feminine \u05d0\u05d5\u05ea = \u0103w\u0103jat, from \u05d0\u05d5\u05d4, to mark, Num 34:10), \u03c3\u03b7\u03bc\u03b5\u1fd6\u03b1, is the name given here to His marvellous interpositions in the history of our earth. \u05e7\u05e6\u05d5\u05d9, Psa 65:6 (also in Isa 26:15), out of construction is \u05e7\u05e6\u05d5\u05ea. \"The exit places of the morning and of the evening\" are the East and West with reference to those who dwell there. Luther erroneously understands \u05de\u05d5\u05e6\u05d0\u05d9 as directly referring to the creatures which at morning and evening \"sport about (webern), i.e., go safely and joyfully out and in.\" The meaning is, the regions whence the morning breaks forth and where the evening sets. The construction is zeugmatic so far as \u05d1\u05bc\u05d5\u05d0, not \u05d9\u05e6\u05d0, is said of the evening sun, but only to a certain extent, for neither does one say \u05e0\u05d1\u05d5\u05d0 \u05e2\u05e8\u05d1 (Ewald). Perret-Gentil renders it correctly: les lieux d'o surgissent l'aube et le crepuscule. God makes both these to shout for joy, inasmuch as He commands a calm to the din of war.\nThe praise of God on account of the present year's rich blessing, which He has bestowed upon the land of His people. In Psa 65:10, Psa 65:11 God is thanked for having sent down the rain required for the ploughing (vid., Commentary on Isaiah, ii. 522) and for the increase of the seed sown, so that, as vv. 12-14 affirm, there is the prospect of a rich harvest. The harvest itself, as follows from v. 14b, is not yet housed. The whole of Psa 65:10, Psa 65:11 is a retrospect; in vv. 12-14 the whole is a description of the blessing standing before their eyes, which God has put upon the year now drawing to a close. Certainly, if the forms \u05e8\u05d5\u05bc\u05d4 and \u05e0\u05d7\u05ea were supplicatory imperatives, then the prayer for the early or seed-time rain would attach itself to the retrospect in Psa 65:11, and the standpoint would be not about the time of the Passover and Pentecost, both festivals belonging to the beginning of the harvest, but about the time of the feast of Tabernacles, the festival of thanksgiving for the harvest, and vv. 12-14 would be a glance into the future (Hitzig). But there is nothing to indicate that in Psa 65:11 the retrospect changes into a looking forward. The poet goes on with the same theme, and also arranges the words accordingly, for which reason \u05e8\u05d5\u05bc\u05d4 and \u05e0\u05d7\u05ea are not to be understood in any other way. \u05e9\u05c1\u05e7\u05e7 beside \u05d4\u05e2\u05e9\u05c1\u05d9\u05e8 (to enrich) signifies to cause to run over, overflow, i.e., to put anything in a state of plenty or abundance, from \u05e9\u05c1\u05d5\u05bc\u05e7 (Hiph. Joe 2:24, to yield in abundance), Arab, s\u00e2q, to push, impel, to cause to go on in succession and to follow in succession. \u05e8\u05d1\u05bc\u05ea (for which we find \u05e8\u05d1\u05bc\u05d4 in Psa 62:3) is an adverb, copiously, richly (Psa 120:6; Psa 123:4; Psa 129:1), like \u05de\u05d0\u05ea, a hundred times (Ecc 8:12). \u05ea\u05bc\u05e2\u05e9\u05c1\u05e8\u05e0\u05bc\u05d4 is Hiph. with the middle syllable shortened, Ges. 53, 3, rem. 4. The fountain (\u05e4\u05bc\u05dc\u05d2) of God is the name given here to His inexhaustible stores of blessing, and more particularly the fulness of the waters of the heavens from which He showers down fertilizing rain. \u05db\u05bc\u05df, \"thus thoroughly,\" forms an alliteration with \u05d4\u05db\u05d9\u05df, to prepare, and thereby receives a peculiar twofold colouring. The meaning is: God, by raising and tending, prepared the produce of the field which the inhabitants of the land needed; for He thus thoroughly prepared the land in conformity with the fulness of His fountain, viz., by copiously watering (\u05e8\u05d5\u05bc\u05d4 infin. absol. instead of \u05e8\u05d5\u05bc\u05d4, as in Sa1 3:12; Ch2 24:10; Exo 22:22; Jer 14:19; Hos 6:9) the furrows of the land and pressing down, i.e., softening by means of rain, its ridges (\u05d2\u05bc\u05d3\u05d5\u05bc\u05d3\u05d4, defective plural, as e.g., in Rut 2:13), which the ploughshare has made. \u05ea\u05bc\u05dc\u05dd (related by root with Arab. tll, tell, a hill, prop. that which is thrown out to a place, that which is thrown up, a mound) signifies a furrow as being formed by casting up or (if from Arab. \u1e6flm, \u00e9br\u00e9cher, to make a fracture, rent, or notch in anything) by tearing into, breaking up the ground; \u05d2\u05bc\u05d3\u05d5\u05bc\u05d3 (related by root with uchd\u00fbd and cha\u1e6d\u1e6d, the usual Arabic words for a furrow\n(Note: Frst erroneously explains \u05ea\u05bc\u05dc\u05dd as a bed or strip of ground between two deep furrows, in distinction from \u05de\u05e2\u05e0\u05d4 or \u05de\u05e2\u05e0\u05d9\u05ea (vid., on Psa 129:3), a furrow. Beds such as we have in our potato fields are unknown to Syrian agriculture. There is a mode which may be approximately compared with it called ketif (\u05db\u05bc\u05ea\u05e3), another far wider called meskeba (\u05de\u05e9\u05c2\u05db\u05bc\u05d1\u05d4). The Arabic tilm (\u05ea\u05bc\u05dc\u05dd, Hebrew \u05ea\u05bc\u05dc\u05dd = talm), according to the Kams (as actually in Magrebinish Arabic) talam (\u05ea\u05bc\u05dc\u05dd), corresponds exact to our furrow, i.e., (as the Turkish Kams explains) a ditch-like fissure which the iron of the plough cuts into the field. Neshwn (i. 491) says: \"The verb talam, fut. jatlum and jatlim, signifies in Jemen and in the Ghr (the land on the shore of the Red Sea) the crevices (Arab. 'l-\u0161uq\u00fbq) which the ploughman forms, and tilm, collective plural til\u00e2m, is, in the countries mentioned, a furrow of the corn-field. Some persons pronounce the word even thilm, collective plural thil\u00e2m.\" Thus it is at the present day universally in \u1e24aur\u00e2n; in Edre\u201b\u00e2t I heard the water-furrow of a corn-field called thilm el-kan\u00e2h (Arab. \u1e6flm 'l-qn\u00e2t). But this pronunciation with Arab. \u1e6f is certainly not the original one, but has arisen through a substitution of the cognate and more familiar verbal stem Arab. \u1e6flm, cf. \u0161rm, to slit (shur\u00eam, a harelip). In other parts of Syria and Palestine, also where the distinction between the sounds Arab. t and \u1e6f is carefully observed, I have only heard the pronunciation tilm. - Wetzstein.))\nas being formed by cutting into the ground.\nIn Psa 65:12 the year in itself appears as a year of divine goodness (\u05d8\u05d5\u05d1\u05d4, bonitas), and the prospective blessing of harvest as the crown which is set upon it. For Thou hast crowned \"the year of Thy goodness\" and \"with Thy goodness\" are different assertions, with which also different (although kindred as to substance) ideas are associated. The futures after \u05e2\u05d8\u05e8\u05ea\u05bc depict its results as they now lie out to view. The chariot-tracks (vid., Deu 33:26) drop with exuberant fruitfulness, even the meadows of the uncultivated and, without rain, unproductive pasture land (Job 38:26.). The hills are personified in Psa 65:13 in the manner of which Isaiah in particular is so fond (e.g., Psa 44:23; Psa 49:13), and which we find in the Psalms of his type (Psa 96:11., Psa 98:7., cf. Psa 89:13). Their fresh, verdant appearance is compared to a festive garment, with which those which previously looked bare and dreary gird themselves; and the corn to a mantle in which the valleys completely envelope themselves (\u05e2\u05d8\u05e3 with the accusative, like Arab. t\u201b\u1e6d\u1e6df with b of the garment: to throw it around one, to put it on one's self). The closing words, locking themselves as it were with the beginning of the Psalm together, speak of joyous shouting and singing that continues into the present time. The meadows and valleys (Bttcher) are not the subject, of which it cannot be said that they sing; nor can the same be said of the rustling of the waving corn-fields (Kimchi). The expression requires men to be the subject, and refers to men in the widest and most general sense. Everywhere there is shouting coming up from the very depths of the breast (Hithpal.), everywhere songs of joy; for this is denoted by \u05e9\u05c1\u05d9\u05e8 in distinction from \u05e7\u05e0\u05df.","title":"Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch: Psalms: Psalms Chapter 65","type":"page"}