Psalm 65:5
With awesome deeds of righteousness You answer us, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas.
Sermons
A Sermon to SeamenPsalm 65:5
GodJ. J. Leedal.Psalm 65:5
God's Employment of the TerribleR. W. Emerson.Psalm 65:5
God's Terrible ThingsPaxton Hood.Psalm 65:5
A Harvest HymnJ. Stalker, D. D.Psalm 65:1-13
God as He Appears in Human HistoryHomilistPsalm 65:1-13
Harvest ThanksgivingW. Forsyth Psalm 65:1-13
Praises and Vows Accepted in ZionPsalm 65:1-13
Reasons for Praising GodC. Short Psalm 65:1-13
Zion's Praise Ready for Her LordPsalm 65:1-13














I. Here is A CONFESSION DEFEAT. When we look within we find that, instead of all being right, all is wrong. This alarms us. We rouse ourselves to action. We resolve to live a new life of love and holiness. But the more we try the less we succeed. Our strength is weakness. Our purposes are broken off. Our best endeavours end in defeat. Instead of overcoming evil, we are overcome of evil. Instead of gaining purity and freedom, our case grows worse, and we groan in misery as the bond slaves of sin. Confused and confounded, our cry is, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?"

II. THANKSGIVING FOR VICTORY. Though we despair of ourselves, we must not despair of God. We know what God is, and what he has done for us, and therefore we turn to him with hope. Casting ourselves simply upon his mercy in Christ, we are able to grasp the gracious promise, "Sin shall not have dominion over you." God's love to us is a personal love. God's work in us is designed to make us pure from sin, and he will perfect it in the day of Christ. While we say, therefore, with grief and pain, "Iniquities prevail against me," let us with renewed hope proclaim, "As for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away. - W.F.

By terrible things in righteousness wilt Thou answer us, O God of our salvation.
Now, it is here we are to ponder such things, and to seek a solution of these mysteries. We have all had to do with them at one time or another. Holy men of old have known them (Isaiah 26:8-11; Psalm 45:4; Isaiah 64:1, 3, 4).

I. GOD HAS HERE AND NOW HIS TERRIBLE THINGS, BUT THEY ARE ALSO RIGHTEOUS THINGS (Psalm 97:8; Proverbs 16:4). If God has terrible things, as the exhibition of His righteousness and His power, so also men become sometimes terrible things, objects of terror, and I knew of nothing so terrible as a hard, and impenitent, and proud heart. But God is love! I feel that, but few arguments have convinced me of it; it is in my own consciousness, it is affirmed to me; but nature is so cruel I know not how to hang much consolation upon the compensations and kindnesses of natural theology, and Paley's celebrated assurance that "it is a happy world, after all!" But, alas, the world is one great calamity, and the contradictions to the assurance that God is love meet us in every age. It is thus I am often compelled to say, how perfect things are, how perplexing and cruel events are. What do you see? In one age a city ablaze beneath the calm and beautiful mountains and skies. I remember, years since, visiting, one bright mocking day, a village on the coast, near the scene of the horrible tragedy of Hartley; you come to it as you walk along that fine coast from Tynemouth; a quiet little village, called Cullercoats. I forget how many boats had been lost in the wild tempest, a night or two since; there was a sob of agony in every house. I did not think of Paley's selfish aphorism, "It's a happy world, after all!" just then, although the sea was bright, and birds were sailing pensively overhead: rather should I have said, "By terrible things dost Thou answer us, O God." Natural theology has little to say in reply to such scenes as these.

II. THE TERRIBLE THINGS OF GOD ARE NOT ONLY RIGHTEOUS THINGS, BUT NOT LESS THAN THESE, MAY BE AN ANSWER TO PRAYER. "I believe you are a child of God, and I believe you will never now be prosperous in your outer life again," said an old patriarch to a new convert; and the prophecy was fulfilled. The old man spoke from some instinctive perception of spiritual means and ends; and, undoubtedly, shadowy and dark as the prophecy seems, it was far more prescient and wise than that which supposes that all pain, and adversity, and affliction, and disappointment retire from the circle in which the child of God moves. This is not invariable, but we must believe the plan and the order of our life require it. "By terrible things in righteousness wilt Thou answer us." And thus, at last, we learn that all the ends of God, in us and with us, have relation to our final coronation in the palace of His love. The terrible things, all of them, "work out for us," as Paul said (2 Corinthians 4:17). And the explanation is that —

III. GOD, IN THE MIDST OF HIS TERRIBLE THINGS, IS NOT THE LESS THE GOD OF SALVATION. "Salvation belongeth to our God." The Bible grapples with this practical difficulty of our existence and experience — this dark and perplexed state of human affairs; and by innumerable images it labours to reach the heart, and to teach the heart that life and time are a seething furnace through which souls are passing, and over which God watches till the trial is complete.

(Paxton Hood.)

Plutarch affirms that the cruel wars which followed the march of Alexander introduced the civility, language and arts of Greece into the savage East; introduced marriage, built seventy cities, and united hostile nations under one government. The barbarians who broke up the Roman Empire did not arrive a day too soon. Schiller says, "The Thirty Years' War made Germany a nation." Rough, selfish despots serve men immensely, as Henry VIII. in the contest with the popes; as the infatuation no less than the wisdom of Cromwell; as the ferocity of the Russian Czars; as the fanaticism of the French regicides of 1789. The frost which kills the harvest of a year saves the harvests of a century by destroying the weevil or the locust. Wars, fires, plagues, break up immovable routine, clear the ground of rotten races and dens of distemper, and open a fair field to new men.

(R. W. Emerson.)

the ends of

the earth. —

God: —

I. RECOGNIZE THE BEING AND ACTIVITY OF GOD. This is a necessary call; for it is questionable how far in the average we have assimilated first principles, and in the rush of life we often slight the essentials that lie behind the activities of faith. We have yet to recognize how fully Christ's life, and teaching, and mission concentre in God, how natural was His own attitude of complete submission to God, how persistently He directed men through Himself to God, and the significance of these facts. Rather than weakening it, the revelation of Christ ought to intensify our sense of God; for He lived to give man the highest conception of God it was possible for him to receive, and to safeguard his thought from the many errors to which it had always been exposed. Christ conserves in its integrity the idea of a personal God and of a paternal God; of One who feels, and thinks, and wills; who is distinct from all the world as we are distinct from each other; and yet who is as essentially akin to us as we are to each other.

II. RECOGNIZE THAT THE WORLD IS GOD'S WORLD AND MAN GOD'S CARE. This also is a necessary call. There are dark facts in nature and in life that seem to belie the "loving wisdom" of the Creator, and that have made men doubt the gracious providence of the Father. They press themselves in upon us with a pertinacity that wearies us and often forms a severe trial to our faith. Even Wordsworth finds that the "aching joys" and "dizzy raptures" that came to him from his delight in woods and hills, and all beautiful sights, pass, are left behind as the hours of thoughtless youth; and in their place the sounds of nature sob with a human cry; he is chastened and subdued because he hears in them the still, "sad music of humanity." Thomas Hardy finds a verdict of pessimism in nature confirming his verdict of pessimism on life. R.H. Hutton in an essay on Cardinal Newman, writes: "Now, the more earnestly Newman embraced the doctrine that the universe is full of the types and instrumentality of spiritual things unseen, the more perplexing the external realities of human history and human conduct, barbarous or civilized, mediaeval or modern, seemed to him. His faith in the sacramental principle taught; him to look for a created universe from which the Creator should be reflected back at every point." But Newman kept his faith in God and its corollary, faith in redemption. The light within him was not turned into darkness, and he saw that his faith in God demanded faith in redemption also. The human race was implicated in a "great aboriginal calamity," and that calamity he saw could only be rectified by "some equally great supernatural interference." We believe this; it is our only way; it is the faith of the psalmist, and it is the faith that has been at the root of all human progress. The outgoings of morning and evening, the surety of seed-time and harvest, are our pledges of Divine faithfulness. God is not defeated, nor has He forsaken either His creation or His children. He is the God of our salvation; His tokens are in the uttermost parts; and in Him is the confidence of all the ends of the earth.

(J. J. Leedal.)

And of them that are afar off upon the sea
I. WHAT GOD IS TO US WHO ARE HIS PEOPLE — "God of our salvation." Salvation is of the Lord in every point. Not a bit of it is of us. All of Him from first to last, and all the points between the first and the last. Have any of you got a salvation that you have manufactured of yourselves? Then lay it down and run away from it. It will be of no use to you. The only salvation that can redeem from hell is the salvation that comes from heaven.

II. WHAT GOD WILL DO FOR US. He will answer us. This shows that we must all pray. There is not a believing man in the world but what must pray, and we shall never get into such a state of grace that we have not need to pray.

III. WHAT THE LORD IS TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH. He is the confidence of all the ends of the earth. I am going to spiritualize that — Who are the ends of the earth?

1. Well, the people that live in the frozen regions, or, taking the other end, the people that live in the equatorial regions, beneath the burning sun. All that live at the extremes of heat or cold, we may liken them to the ends of the earth. They are furthest off from us. Well, and God is worthy to be the confidence of those who are furthest off from His Church, from Himself, from the Gospel, from hope, from anything that is good.

2. The people least known. We know those round us, but not those far away.

3. Those least thought of.

4. Those most tried.

5. Those hardest to reach.

IV. WHAT GOD IS TO SEAFARING MEN. What should He be to them? He is "the confidence of all them that are afar off upon the sea." I have often likened the life of a seafaring man to what the life of a Christian should be. Hundreds of years ago, when man went to sea at all, the boats always kept within sight of shore. Your Tyrian or your Greek might be quite the master of his vessel, but he could not bear to lose sight of the headland. And it is a wonderful thing, common as it is now, that a ship should lose sight of land for a month together, seeing nothing that belongs to land. It is just like the life of a Christian, a life of faith. We ought not to see anything, we ought not to want to see anything. We walk by faith, not by sight. We take our bearings by the heavenly bodies. We are guided by the Word of God, which is our chart, by the movement of the blessed Spirit within, which is our compass. We have bidden farewell to things below', we seek a heaven that we have not seen, we are sailing across a life of which we know nothing. Trusting in Him, we shall come to our desired haven without fear of shipwreck. Sailors live on the sea — an unstable element, full of danger. Now, you and I are often brought into difficulties. We have not any strength left at all. We look up to God and cry, "I am lost." Oh, then, let God be your confidence. I exhort all believers here to have more confidence in God. The sailor is often brought where, if God does not keep him, he will be swallowed up. You and I ought not only to be brought there sometimes, but keep there, feeling that God is all, and we rest in Him without any other help.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

People
David, Psalmist
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Acts, Afar, Answerest, Awesome, Confidence, Deeds, Deliverance, Distant, Dread, Ends, Far-off, Farthest, Fearful, Hope, Lands, O, Oh, Power, Regions, Righteousness, Salvation, Savior, Seas, Terrible, Trust, Wilt, Wondrous, Works
Outline
1. David praises God for his grace
4. The blessedness of God's chosen by reason of benefits

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 65:5

     1125   God, righteousness
     1436   reality
     6628   conversion, God's demand

Psalm 65:1-5

     8609   prayer, as praise and thanksgiving

Library
Sin Overcoming and Overcome
'Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, Thou shalt purge them away.'--PSALM. lxv. 3. There is an intended contrast in these two clauses more pointed and emphatic in the original than in our Bible, between man's impotence and God's power in the face of the fact of sin. The words of the first clause might be translated, with perhaps a little increase of vividness, 'iniquities are too strong for me'; and the 'Thou' of the next clause is emphatically expressed in the original, 'as
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Praises and Vows Accepted in Zion
In fulfillment of this ancient type, we also "have an altar whereof they have no right to eat that serve the tabernacle." Into our spiritual worship, no observers of materialistic ritualism may intrude; they have no right to eat at our spiritual altar, and there is no other at which they can eat and live for ever. There is but one altar Jesus Christ our Lord. All other altars are impostures and idolatrous inventions. Whether of stone, or wood, or brass, they are the toys with which those amuse themselves
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871

Daily Bread.
(Harvest Thanksgiving.) PSALM lxv. 9. "Thou preparest them corn." "Come, ye thankful people, come," and let us thank God for another harvest. Once more the Father, the Feeder, has given bread to strengthen man's heart, and we turn from the corn stored in the garner, to God's own garner the Church, where He has stored up food for our souls. And first of all, my brothers, let us be honest with ourselves. Are we quite sure that we are thankful to God for the harvest? We have decorated God's House
H. J. Wilmot-Buxton—The Life of Duty, a Year's Plain Sermons, v. 2

Prayer, Praise and Thanksgiving
"Dr. A. J. Gordon describes the impression made upon his mind by intercourse with Joseph Rabinowitz, whom Dr. Delitzsch considered the most remarkable Jewish convert since Saul of Tarsus: We shall not soon forget the radiance that would come into his face as he expounded the Messianic psalms at our morning or evening worship, and how, as here and there he caught a glimpse of the suffering or glorified Christ, he would suddenly lift his hands and his eyes to heaven in a burst of adoration, exclaiming
Edward M. Bounds—The Essentials of Prayer

Aron, Brother of Moses, 486, 487.
Abba, same as Father, [3]381; St. Paul uses both words, [4]532. Abel, [5]31, [6]252, [7]268, [8]450. Abimelech, [9]72, [10]197. Abraham, seed of, faithful Christians also, [11]148, [12]149, [13]627; servant's hand under his thigh, [14]149, [15]334; poor in midst of riches, [16]410. Absalom, David's son, [17]4, [18]5; type of Judas the traitor, [19]4, [20]20. Absolution granted by the Church, [21]500. Abyss, or deep, of God's judgments, [22]88; of man's heart, [23]136. Accuser, the devil the great,
St. Augustine—Exposition on the Book of Psalms

"O Thou, that Hearest Prayer!" --Ps. Lxv. 2
"O Thou, that hearest Prayer!"--Ps. lxv. 2. Thou, God, art a consuming fire, Yet mortals may find grace, From toil and tumult to retire, And meet Thee face to face. Though "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord!" Seraph to seraph sings, And angel-choirs, with one accord, Worship, with veiling wings;-- Though earth Thy footstool, heaven Thy throne, Thy way amidst the sea, Thy path deep floods, Thy steps unknown, Thy counsels mystery:-- Yet wilt Thou look on him who lies A suppliant at Thy feet; And hearken to
James Montgomery—Sacred Poems and Hymns

Question of the Active Life
I. Do all Acts of the Moral Virtues come under the Active Life? II. Does Prudence pertain to the Active Life? III. Does Teaching belong to the Active or to the Contemplative Life? IV. Does the Active Life continue after this Life? I Do all Acts of the Moral Virtues come under the Active Life? S. Isidore says[407]: "In the active life all the vices are first of all to be removed by the practice of good works, so that in the contemplative life a man may, with now purified mental gaze, pass to the
St. Thomas Aquinas—On Prayer and The Contemplative Life

But in Order that we Fall not Away from Continence...
10. But in order that we fall not away from Continence, we ought to watch specially against those snares of the suggestions of the devil, that we presume not of our own strength. For, "Cursed is every one that setteth his hope in man." [1838] And who is he, but man? We cannot therefore truly say that he setteth not his hope in man, who setteth it in himself. For this also, to "live after man," what is it but to "live after the flesh?" Whoso therefore is tempted by such a suggestion, let him hear,
St. Augustine—On Continence

If, Therefore, You had not as yet Vowed unto God Widowed Continence...
23. If, therefore, you had not as yet vowed unto God widowed continence, we would assuredly exhort you to vow it; but, in that you have already vowed it, we exhort you to persevere. And yet I see that I must so speak as to lead those also who had as yet thought of marriage to love it and to seize on it. Therefore let us give ear unto the Apostle, "She who is unmarried," saith he, "is careful about the things of the Lord, to be holy both in body and spirit; but she who is married is careful about
St. Augustine—On the Good of Widowhood.

Prayer
But I give myself unto prayer.' Psa 109: 4. I shall not here expatiate upon prayer, as it will be considered more fully in the Lord's prayer. It is one thing to pray, and another thing to be given to prayer: he who prays frequently, is said to be given to prayer; as he who often distributes alms, is said to be given to charity. Prayer is a glorious ordinance, it is the soul's trading with heaven. God comes down to us by his Spirit, and we go up to him by prayer. What is prayer? It is an offering
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

Malachy's Pity for his Deceased Sister. He Restores the Monastery of Bangor. His First Miracles.
11. (6). Meanwhile Malachy's sister, whom we mentioned before,[271] died: and we must not pass over the visions which he saw about her. For the saint indeed abhorred her carnal life, and with such intensity that he vowed he would never see her alive in the flesh. But now that her flesh was destroyed his vow was also destroyed, and he began to see in spirit her whom in the body he would not see. One night he heard in a dream the voice of one saying to him that his sister was standing outside in the
H. J. Lawlor—St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh

Religion Pleasant to the Religious.
"O taste and see how gracious the Lord is; blessed is the man that trusteth in Him."--Psalm xxxiv. 8. You see by these words what love Almighty God has towards us, and what claims He has upon our love. He is the Most High, and All-Holy. He inhabiteth eternity: we are but worms compared with Him. He would not be less happy though He had never created us; He would not be less happy though we were all blotted out again from creation. But He is the God of love; He brought us all into existence,
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII

The Sovereignty of God in Operation
"For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be the glory for ever. Amen" (Romans 11:36). Has God foreordained everything that comes to pass? Has He decreed that what is, was to have been? In the final analysis this is only another way of asking, Is God now governing the world and everyone and everything in it? If God is governing the world then is He governing it according to a definite purpose, or aimlessly and at random? If He is governing it according to some purpose, then
Arthur W. Pink—The Sovereignty of God

Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

Links
Psalm 65:5 NIV
Psalm 65:5 NLT
Psalm 65:5 ESV
Psalm 65:5 NASB
Psalm 65:5 KJV

Psalm 65:5 Bible Apps
Psalm 65:5 Parallel
Psalm 65:5 Biblia Paralela
Psalm 65:5 Chinese Bible
Psalm 65:5 French Bible
Psalm 65:5 German Bible

Psalm 65:5 Commentaries

Bible Hub
Psalm 65:4
Top of Page
Top of Page