Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 65:5
[By] terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation; [who art] the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off [upon] the sea:
5. By terrible things &c.] The R.V. gives a better order: By terrible things thou wilt answer us in righteousness. As God Himself is ‘a terrible God’ (Psa 47:2; Psa 76:7 ff), so His acts are ‘terrible,’ inspiring His enemies with dread, and His people with reverent awe. The epithet is often applied to the mighty works of the Exodus (Deu 10:21; 2Sa 7:23; Isa 64:3; Psa 106:22; Psa 145:6); here to all similar deliverances, granted in answer to prayer. ‘Righteousness’ is the principle of the divine government; and it is closely related to ‘salvation’; for by it God’s honour is pledged to answer prayer and deliver His people. Cp. Psa 48:10; Isa 41:10; Isa 45:8; Isa 45:21; Isa 51:5; &c.
who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth ] R.V. (cp. P.B.V.), thou that art the confidence &c. This may mean that He is the object of their unconscious trust, although they know Him not, because it is He who provides for their wants and rules their destinies (Psa 67:4; Amo 9:7; Act 17:23 ff); but the further thought is certainly included that His mighty deeds on behalf of His people in destroying their tyrannical oppressors will lead all the oppressed and needy throughout the world to turn to Him with a conscious trust. Cp. Isa 33:13.
and of them that are afar off upon the sea ] Better, and of the sea afar off. A slight change of text would give the phrase of Isa 66:19, the isles, or coastlands, afar off. But the change is unnecessary; land and sea naturally stand for the entire world.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
5 8. In the future, as in the past, God will prove His righteousness by awe-inspiring acts on behalf of His people in answer to their prayers, for He has created and sustains the universe, and controls the forces alike of nature and of the nations.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us – That is, By things suited to inspire us and all people with awe, or with a deep sense of thy majesty, thy power, and thy glory. The answer to their prayers would be in such a manner as deeply to impress their minds and hearts. Gods judgments on his foes, and the manner of his manifesting his favor to his people, would be such as to impress the mind with a deep sense of his own greatness. Yet all this would be in righteousness; in the infliction of a just sentence on the wicked; in direct interposition in favor of the righteous. The judgments of God on guilty people have been always such as to keep the world in awe; such as were adapted deeply to impress mankind with a sense of his own majesty and glory.
O God of our salvation – The God on whom our salvation, or our safety depends.
Who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth – Of all parts of the earth, the word ends being used on the supposition that the earth is a plain having appropriate limits. This allusion is often found in the Scriptures, the sacred writers speaking, as all men do, as things appear to be. Thus all philosophers, as well as other people, speak of the sun as rising and setting, which is, in itself, no more strictly accurate than it is to speak of the earth as if it had limits or boundaries. The word confidence as used here means that God is the source of trust, or, that all proper reliance, by all people, in all parts of the earth and on the sea, must be in him; that is, that there is no other on whom people can properly rely. It does not mean that all people actually repose such confidence in him, which would not be true – but that he is the only true source of confidence.
And of them that are afar off upon the sea – That is, of all men on sea and land. The seaman has no other source of security amidst the dangers of the deep than God. Compare Psa 107:23-30. The language does not mean that all mariners actually do put their trust in God, but that they cannot confide in the winds and the waves – in the strength of their vessel – or their own power or skill in managing it – but that the true and only ground of trust is God.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 65:5
By terrible things in righteousness wilt Thou answer us, O God of our salvation.
Gods terrible things
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 (Isa 26:8-11; Psa 45:4; Isa 64:1; Isa 64:3-4).
I. God has here and now His terrible things, but they are also righteous things (Psa 97:8; Pro 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 Paleys 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 Paleys selfish aphorism, Its 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 (2Co 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.)
Gods employment of the terrible
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.)
Who art the confidence of all 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 Christs 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 Gods world and man Gods 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.–
A sermon to seamen
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.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 5. By terrible things in righteousness] The Vulgate joins this clause to the preceding verse: “Thy holy temple is wonderful in righteousness: thou wilt hear us, O God of our salvation.” But the psalmist may refer to those wonderful displays of God’s providence in the change of seasons, and fertilization of the earth; and, consequently, in the sustenance of all animal beings.
The confidence of all the ends of the earth] Thou art the hope of thy people scattered through different parts of the world, and through the isles of the sea. This passage is also understood of the vocation of the Gentiles.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
By terrible things; or, in a terrible manner, i.e. so as to strike thy people with a holy awe and reverence of thee and of thy judgments, and thine enemies with dread and horror. Or, in a wonderful manner, as this word is rendered in the Chaldee, Deu 10:21; things wonderful and terrible being put together, as expressing the same thing, Psa 106:22. In righteousness, i.e. by virtue of thy justice, or faithfulness, or goodness; whereby thou art inclined and engaged to help thy people when they are in distress, and resort unto thee by prayer. Wilt thou answer us; thou wilt graciously answer and grant our prayers and desires.
The confidence, i.e. the only object of a safe and undeceiving confidence; for there is no other person or thing in the world that any man living can trust to without fear and certainty of disappointment. Or, thou art the stay and support of all mankind, by thy powerful and gracious providence, Psa 104:27; Act 17:28; Heb 1:3. Others refer this to the calling of the Gentiles. But that seems not to suit with the following verses, which manifestly speak of Gods general providence. Of all the ends of the earth; not only of thy people Israel, but of all persons and nations, even as far as to the end of the earth, or of this vast continent in which we live.
Upon the sea; or, in the sea, i.e. in the islands of the sea, which are here distinguished from the continent; and under those two heads are comprehended all the inhabitants of the world.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. terrible thingsthat is, bythe manifestation of justice and wrath to enemies, accompanying thatof mercy to His people (Psa 63:9-11;Psa 64:7-9).
the confidenceobjectof it.
of all . . . earththewhole world; that is, deservedly such, whether men think so or not.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
[By] terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us,…. Not by afflictive dispensations of Providence, which, though disagreeable to flesh and blood, and are sometimes terrible to good men, when they apprehend the wrath of God in them, and look upon them as punishments for sin; yet these are consistent with the love of God to them, are for their spiritual good, and, when viewed in this light, they rejoice and glory in them; but as afflictions are not prayed for, nor to be prayed for, there being no direction for it, nor example of it, they cannot be considered as answers of prayer; but the Lord answers his people in this way, by inflicting judgments on their enemies: by such terrible things did he answer the Israelites at the Red sea, in the wilderness, and in the land of Canaan, De 10:17; and in this way will he answer his people in the destruction of antichrist and his followers, Re 6:9. Moreover, by “terrible things” may be meant things stupendous, marvellous, and even miraculous; and by such things does God sometimes answer his people, in destroying their enemies and saving them; and which are so called, because they inject horror and terror into their enemies, and fill them with fear and reverence of God: and which are done “in righteousness”; in faithfulness to his promises made to his people; in the exercise of his vindictive justice upon their enemies; in goodness, grace, and mercy to them, as “righteousness” sometimes signifies, as in Ps 51:14; and not for their righteousness, who do not present their supplications to him for the sake of that; but for the righteousness of his Son, for the sake of which they are heard and answered;
O God of our salvation: not only temporal, but spiritual and eternal; which he has resolved upon, and chose his people to, and has settled the way and manner of, in which it should be brought about; has secured it in covenant for them, promised it in his word, sent his Son to obtain it, and his Spirit to give knowledge and make application of it; and from this character of his, and the concern he has in salvation, it may be concluded he will answer the prayers of his people for their good;
[who art] the confidence of all the ends of the earth; of all that dwell upon the continent, to the uttermost parts of the habitable world;
and of them that are afar off [upon] the sea: not only in ships upon the sea, but upon islands in the sea; and so the Targum,
“and of the islands of the sea, which are afar off from the dry land;”
and Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it in the same manner; such snare the isles in which we live: this seems to refer to Gospel times, in which the Lord is not only the “confidence” or “hope of Israel”, but of the Gentiles also; who are encouraged to hope in the Lord, and put their confidence in him, seeing with him there is forgiving mercy, and plenteous redemption; hath appointed Christ to be his salvation to the ends of the earth; has sent his Gospel into all the world declaring this; and Christ in it encourages all the ends of the earth to look unto him for salvation; and multitudes upon the continent, and in different isles, have been enabled to hope in him.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The praise of God on account of the lovingkindness which Israel as a people among the peoples has experienced. The future confesses, as a present, a fact of experience that still holds good in all times to come. might, according to Psa 20:7, as in Psa 139:14, be an accusative of the more exact definition; but why not, according to 1Sa 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 , terrible deeds, viz., , 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 ( 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 , Rom 1:21; Psychol. S. 347; tr. p. 408). But according tot he connection and the subjective colouring the idea seems to have, 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; 2Ch 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. (from the originally feminine = awajat , from , to mark, Num 34:10), , is the name given here to His marvellous interpositions in the history of our earth. , Psa 65:6 (also in Isa 26:15), out of construction is . “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 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 , not , is said of the evening sun, but only to a certain extent, for neither does one say (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.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
5 Terrible things (453) in righteousness wilt thou answer to us He proceeds to illustrate, although in a somewhat different form, the same point of the blessedness of those who are admitted into the temple of God, and nourished in his house. He declares that God would answer his people by miracles or fearful signs, displaying his power; as if he had said, in deliverances as wonderful as those which he wrought for their fathers when they went out of Egypt. It is in no common or ordinary manner that God has preserved his Church, but with terrible majesty. It is well that this should be known, and the people of God taught to sustain their hopes in the most apparently desperate exigencies. The Psalmist speaks of the deliverances of God as specially enjoyed by the Jewish nation, but adds, that he was the hope of the ends of the earth, even to the world’s remotest extremities. Hence it follows, that the grace of God was to be extended to the Gentiles.
(453) The original word for terrible things “signifies sometimes terrible sometimes w onderful things, anything that exceeds in greatness or quality. In the latter sense we have it, Deu 10:21, when speaking of God, it is said, ‘He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things,’ — great, exceeding, wonderful things; and those acts of mercy, and not of justice or punishment; and so here it appears to signify, being joined with answering us, or granting us, in answer to our prayers, (so ענת signifies to answer a request, to hear a prayer,) and with in righteousness, which frequently imports mercy The LXX. accordingly read it θαυμαστὸς, wonderful. ” — Hammond
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(5) By terrible things.Rather, wondrously, a noun used adverbially.
Wilt thou answer us.Better, Thou dost answer us; describing the usual course of Gods providence. The LXX. and Vulg. make it a prayer: Hear us.
The conviction that God, the God of Israels salvation or deliverance, would answer wonderfully in righteousness, was, of course, based on the whole experience of the Divine dealings. Righteousness was recognised as the foundation on which the moral order rested.
The confidence of all the ends of the earth.This might refer to Israel in exile; but it seems more in accordance with the general tenor of the psalm to give the words their widest range. Consciously or unconsciously the whole world rests in God.
Of them that are afar off upon the sea.Literally, of the sea of those at a distance, i.e., of the farthest seas. (Comp. Isa. 11:11 : of the islands of the sea.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. By terrible things in righteousness God’s work of salvation is often attended with acts of terror and judgment, as in the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. He hates sin as he loves holiness, and his “wrath is revealed from heaven against it.” Rom 1:18.
Who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth Not that God is actually known and trusted by all men, but that he is the only true confidence of all, and this, as Perowne says, is his claim upon “all the ends of the earth” to be thus recognised and trusted. Tholuck thinks, “it implies the confession that the prayers of the heathen, (being offered in sincerity,) however erroneous their ideas of God may be, do after all ascend to the throne of the God of Israel,” which accords with Act 10:34-35; Rom 2:14-15
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2). Having Approached God In A Personal Way David Now Gives A Description Of His Mighty Power Exercised Over All Creation, And Over All Peoples. He Emphasises The Fact That God’s People Are Safe Under God’s Protection Whether The Threat Comes From Land Or Sea ( Psa 65:5-8 ).
The Psalmist now moves on to consider God as ‘terrible’ (awesome and powerful), in relation to the whole of creation, and in relation to the people indwelling that creation. His people can be sure that He will answer them with ‘terrible things, because as the creator Who established the mountains, and as the Lord Who controls the raging seas, nothing is outside His purview. They reveal His awesomeness as active in the maintenance and control of His creation, and also in relation to the maintenance and control of all mankind. Some have seen in these words an indication that the people had gathered to celebrate a great victory and deliverance, but it is not required by the words. The picture is rather of God as in control of all things, and as Lord over all men, and especially as the One Who acts on behalf of His people. It is the voice of certainty in a tumultuous world. God’s people may only be a small people, but their God is a great God. Therefore, as long as they are obedient to His covenant (Psa 65:4), they need fear nothing.
Some see an explicit reference to the fact that God watches over men no matter where they are, both on land and at sea, the idea being that He is the One in Whom all mankind places its confidence whether on land or sea. Others translate as ‘you are the confidence of all the ends of the earth and of the sea far off’, stressing that it is the whole of creation that has confidence in God.
Israel especially feared the sea. As they stood on the land and watched the fearsomeness of the sea it appeared to them that the sea was constantly seeking to engulf the land. It was only God Who held it back. To them the sea was a foreign element mainly outside their purview, and their history told how it had once burst its bounds and had engulfed the land (Genesis 6-9). And they feared that it might once more engulf the land (which is why God had covenanted that it would not in Gen 9:21-22). But they recognised that God controlled it and held it in check, something which to them especially revealed His greatness. The land threatened to engulf them because of their adversaries who lived on the land, but the sea threatened to engulf them because of what it was in itself, a threat to be feared. However, says David, they need fear neither, for God is Lord of both land and sea.
Psa 65:5
‘By terrible things you will answer us in righteousness,
Oh God of our salvation,
You who are the confidence of all the ends of the earth,
And of those who are afar off on the sea (or ‘and of the sea far off’).’
Coming to ‘the One Who hears prayer’ (Psa 65:2) they could be confident that their prayers would be heard and that by His mighty hand He would respond to their cry of need in righteous deliverance when their enemies assailed them. He could do this because the whole of creation depended on Him. He could thus act in a ‘terrible way’, that is, in a way that was awesome to His people, and fearful to their enemies. He would do ‘terrible things’, things which would make men wonder. And this because He was their delivering God. There are echoes here of the plagues in Egypt when God did terrible things to the Egyptians when they refused to let Israel go. Note how in the following Psalm (Psalms 66) God’s terrible doings are specifically related to the Exodus (Psa 66:5-6).
However, it should be noted that the assumption is that He would do so in righteousness. ‘Righteousness’ and ‘deliverance (salvation)’ are often used as parallel words (e.g. Psa 98:2; Isa 45:8; Isa 46:13; Isa 51:5; etc), and intrinsic in this is the fact that God’s deliverance is always in accordance with His righteousness. God does not act arbitrarily, favouring His people at all costs in spite of what they are. He acts in righteous deliverance because they are a people who have responded to Him and who seek to live righteously in that they seek to observe His covenant (Psa 65:4). Once they forgot that they could no longer depend on Him to hear them as their future history would show. He was no longer the God of their salvation, their saving God, until, of course, He brought them again to repentance.
‘You who are the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of the sea far off (or ‘of those who are afar off on the sea’).’ The question here is as to whether, in speaking of ‘the ends of the earth’ (compare Psa 2:8) and ‘the far off sea’, the Psalmist has in mind the whole of nature (land and sea) or the whole of humankind. Thus he may be saying, ‘all nature is confident in you, and relies on you, both distant lands and far off seas’. Alternately he may be speaking of the confidence that far off peoples on both land and sea can have in God. The idea may then be that unconsciously they rely on Him for the stability of their world. In other words, although with their false gods and idols they know it not, their instinctive confidence is in Him. Compare the words of Paul, ‘the invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, even His eternal power and Godhead’ (Rom 1:20).
In a similar way today men who reject the laws of God can lay great emphasis on, and have confidence in, ‘the laws of nature’. But strictly speaking there are no laws of nature. There is only a reliance on the ‘hope’ that things will continue on as they always have, following the pattern that is discernible. But there is no solid reason, apart from theory, why they should. Christians on the other hand know that that pattern arises from the fact that God holds all things together in an orderly way. And the Psalmist may be saying that this is something that the idolater and the atheist rely on, even though they are not aware of the fact. For apart from God there is no real reason why from tomorrow onwards reality might not permanently change with all the ‘laws’ that we speak of turning out to be temporary. The atheist assumes it will not be so because he relies on what has happened in the past. But rationally he can have no certainty. The Christian knows that it will not be so because he knows that Jesus Christ ‘holds all things together’ (Col 1:17). His confidence is in God.
But the Psalmist may have had a further thought in mind, and that is that one day, through Israel’s witness, and through God’s activity on their behalf, the whole world would patently know and acknowledge God, something already latently true. For it was David’s God-given confidence that one day the whole world would bow the knee to YHWH through His chosen king (Psa 2:8-9; Psa 72:8; Psa 89:27; compare Isa 11:1-4; Isa 45:23).
Psa 65:6-7
‘Who by his strength sets fast the mountains,
Being girded about with might,
Who stills the roaring of the seas,
The roaring of their waves,
And the tumult of the peoples.’
David now explains why God can do awesome things. Confidence in God arises from the fact that it is He Who by the exertion of His strength ‘sets fast the mountains’, the most permanent thing that men knew. And for this purpose He ‘girds Himself with might’. He, as it were, rolls up His sleeves and exerts His mighty power (compare Psa 93:1; for the idea of being ‘girded with strength’ compare Psa 18:32; Psa 18:39 ; 1Sa 2:4; 2Sa 22:40). It was by His mighty power that they were established. (‘He spoke and it was done’). To the ancients nothing was more permanent and immovable than the high mountains. And the point here is that they were made so by the power of God. They thus reveal His greatness, His mighty strength, His permanence and His total reliability. Indeed the way in which He reveals the greatness of His anger is by moving and shaking the foundations of the mountains (Psa 18:7), thus putting men in fear of the disintegration of their world because He has removed His constraining hand. And, indeed, the earth’s permanence is not for ever (‘heaven and earth will pass away) for the end of all things will result in those seemingly permanent mountains fleeing away (Rev 16:20). God will remove His control. After that there will be no more earthly permanence.
And as well as establishing the mountains He controls the violent sea. He stills the roaring of the waves. Nothing is outside His control. To Israel the sea was a feared enemy. They had little to do with it, and saw the way in which it sought to encroach on the land, as once before it had done fatally at the Flood, and they were afraid. The fact that these words follow reference to land and sea in Psa 65:5 b confirms that we are to see the reference to the sea as having to be taken literally, and not just as a picture of the tumult among the nations, even though the thought of its tumult leads on to a reference to the tumult of the nations. Thus God has made permanent the land and controls the sea. Creation is safe in His hands.
‘And the tumult of the peoples.’ Furthermore He even controls something more violent than the waves, He controls ‘the tumult of the peoples’. It will be noted that this clause is added on as a fifth line. It is an added comment, although this does not diminish its importance. The God Who established the permanence of the mountain, and controls the raging tumult of the seas, is also the One Who can deal with tumults among the peoples. The nations might rage (Psa 46:6), but like the sea they are under His iron control, even though they might not appear to be so. (For the tumult of the seas being compared to the tumults of the peoples, both being under God’s control, compare Isa 17:12-14).
Psa 65:8
‘They also who dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at your tokens,
You make the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.’
The terrible things that He will do on behalf of His people (Psa 65:5) will establish His control of the nations. They will thus be afraid at what He has revealed Himself to be and as a consequence their tumult will be stilled (Psa 65:7 b) because they are moved by fear as a result of the signs (tokens) that He has performed. The primary reference may be to David’s mighty victories, and the consequent security of his kingdom, but we are almost certainly additionally to see here a reference to God’s redeeming power as it was revealed in the deliverance from Egypt, for this brought fear on the nations whom Israel would have to face in Canaan (Exo 15:11-16). There the deliverance from Egypt by God’s mighty acts was seen as filling the nations with dread of Israel. And His terrible acts will do the same here.
‘You make the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.’ In contrast, when God goes forth to perform His terrible acts His people rejoice, for He is acting on their behalf. Assuming it to close this part of the Psalm (a case could be argued for attaching this clause to the verses that follow), it indicates that as life goes on His people are not afraid but can rather rejoice at what life brings them at His hand. The ‘outgoings of the morning and the evening’ may refer to the passage of time, as the sun ‘goes out’ in the morning, and the moon in the evening, in which case the rejoicing is done by those who are blessed by what God does during those outgoings, in other words the rejoicing is by God’s people whom He makes to rejoice as He acts on their behalf. The rejoicings of dawns and dusks are the rejoicings of God’s people. Whilst the far off peoples are afraid at what God can do, for His people who trust in Him it is a matter of rejoicing. For they know He is on their side. So the stilling of the tumults of the peoples on behalf of Israel results in continual rejoicing for His people, because the consequence for them will be that their future is rosy.
Alternately the outgoings of the morning and the evening may refer more strictly to what results from them. It makes little difference. The consequence is the same. What results from the passage of time will produce nothing but rejoicing, because God is with them in all that they do. He holds the nations in check (as He had the seas), leaving Israel safe and secure. David sees Israel as secure in God’s hands because He acts on their behalf against their possible adversaries. This all, of course, is on the assumption that they walk truly in His covenant.
For us it is a reminder that with God on our side we need fear nothing. The God of creation will exert His mighty power and make plain His power to our adversaries, and control their ragings (compare Psa 2:1), so that in both the coming of morning and of evening we can rejoice, secure in His hand. Nothing can touch us without His permission.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psa 65:5. By terrible things, &c. Wonderful things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, &c. By these are meant the works of God’s providence, mentioned in the following verses; which, however they may be disregarded by us, through our familiarity with them, are most stupendous, amazing, and awful; such as will always engage the inquiry, and excite the wonder, of the profoundest philosophers, but will for ever surpass their comprehension.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Here every child of God can join issue in attesting the truth of this scripture in his own experience. Say, what was the heart occupied in, when God the Spirit first visited the soul? Not in seeking God; not in desiring God; not in thinking of God. Not by works of righteousness (saith the apostle) which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. Tit 3:5-6 . And when the Lord first awakened the soul, and all the terrors of God’s broken law stood open to the sinner’s view, how terrible then appeared the apprehension of the wrath to come. But all this was in righteousness, even in the display of the righteousness of Christ Jesus. Wonderful things indeed, my soul! when, by such a gracious process of mercy, the Lord Jesus Christ was brought home to thine heart, and formed there the hope of glory! Wonderful also indeed in the destruction of all those enemies which would have opposed thy salvation. Isa 64:3 . And, my soul! never lose sight of the assurance such past testimonies of divine favor afford for all future expectations of the fulfillment of divine promises in Jesus. The God of thy salvation was, and is, and ever will be, the confidence of all the redeemed to the ends of the earth, and their everlasting joy in heaven forever. Oh! for faith in lively exercise, to make use of this well-grounded hope in Jesus upon all occasions of trial.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 65:5 [By] terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation; [who art] the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off [upon] the sea:
Ver. 5. By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us ] As he did when he gave the law in Mount Sinai, and ever after in his oracles and ordinances. God loveth at once familiarity and fear; familiarity in our conversation, and fear in his worships; he loves to be acquainted with men in the walks of their obedience; yet he taketh state upon him in his ordinances, and will be trembled at in his word and judgments.
Who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, &c.
Of them that are afar off upon the sea
Ut penitus toto disiuncti abs orbe Britanni.
Venice is said to be situated six miles distant from any firm land, and built in the heart of the Adriatic Sea, the waters whereof do flow into the city, and beat upon it, through all the streets thereof. Now, it may be hoped that God hath many souls even in such places; since there are thought to be no fewer than twenty thousand Protestants in Seville itself, a chief city of Spain (Spec. Europ.). It was long since foretold that the isles should wait for God’s law, Isa 42:4 ; Isa 51:5 ; Isa 60:9 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 65:5-8
5By awesome deeds You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation,
You who are the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest sea;
6Who establishes the mountains by His strength,
Being girded with might;
7Who stills the roaring of the seas,
The roaring of their waves,
And the tumult of the peoples.
8They who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of Your signs;
You make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy.
Psa 65:5-8 This strophe describes two different situations.
1. creation, Psa 65:6-8 b
2. salvation, Psa 65:5; Psa 65:7 c, 8a
The purpose of creation was a place for mankind made in God’s image (cf. Gen 1:26-27) to fellowship with God (cf. Gen 3:8). After Genesis 3, this intent became God’s goal of salvation and restoration for all the children of Adam and Eve (cf. Gen 3:15).
Both mountain in Psa 65:6 and tumult in Psa 65:7 may refer to people, not creation (cf. Jer 51:25). If so, this would parallel Deu 32:8.
Notice Psa 65:5 mentions that God answers but no prayer is specifically mentioned. Obviously it was a prayer of deliverance from
1. personal and national sin
2. national enemies (i.e., Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, cf. Psa 2:1-3)
3. possibly the chaos of creation itself (Psa 65:7)
Psa 65:5
NASB, NKJV,
NRSVawesome deeds
TEVwonderful things
NJBmarvels
This term (BDB 431 in the Niphal) is used of God’s acts.
1. acts of delivering the Israelites from Egypt Exo 34:10; Deu 10:21; Psa 66:3; Psa 66:5; Psa 106:22
2. YHWH Himself Psa 47:2; Psa 68:35; Psa 76:7; Psa 145:4-7
3. YHWH’s name Deu 28:58; Psa 99:3; Psa 111:9; Mal 1:14
4. more general (i.e., adverbial) Psa 66:5; Psa 139:14
You who are the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest sea What a powerful, inclusive statement. It is the logical extension of monotheism (see SPECIAL TOPIC: MONOTHEISM ).
NASB, TEV,
JPSOAtrust
NKJVconfidence
NRSV, NJBhope
This noun (BDB 105) is defined by BDB as the object of confidence (cf. Job 8:14; Psa 40:4; Psa 71:5), which in this verse, is YHWH, not the false gods of the nations (cf. the tumult of the peoples, Psa 65:7 c, cf. Psalms 2).
the ends of the earth What a wonderful recurrent phrase, especially in Psalms and Isaiah. This phrase can be documented by two prepositions, to. . .from.
1. to YHWH’s person and activities
a. bring back Deu 30:4
b. judge 1Sa 2:10 (cf. Psa 82:8; Psa 96:13; Psa 98:9)
c. name and praise Psa 48:10 (cf. Isa 42:10; Mal 1:11)
d. rules Psa 59:13
e. hope Psa 65:5
f. fear/awe Psa 67:7 (cf. Psa 33:8)
g. Most High Psa 83:18; Psa 97:9
h. salvation Psa 98:3 (turn to the Lord, cf. Psa 22:27); Isa 49:6; Isa 52:10; Isa 62:11
i. Creator Isa 40:28
j. redeemer Isa 48:20
k. Messiah’s reign Psa 2:6-9; Mic 5:4
2. from the world coming to Him
a. the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord Psa 22:27
b. the ends of the earth we hear songs, Glory to the righteous One Isa 24:16
c. be saved, all the ends of the earth Isa 45:22-23
d. all the earth comes to Him at Zion Isa 2:2-5; Isa 60:3; Isa 66:18; Isa 66:23; Jer 16:19
Psa 65:7 This verse could refer to
1. creation (i.e., defeat of chaos)
2. conflict with idolatry (cf. Psalms 2; Isa 17:12)
Psa 65:8 stand in awe Same root as Psa 65:5, awesome deeds.
Your signs This refers to God’s acts of redemption for His people (i.e., call and protection of the Patriarchs, the exodus and wilderness wanderings, the conquest, etc.).
The last line of Psa 65:8 could refer to
1. creation (i.e., evening and morning)
2. stars twinkling (AB)
3. east and west as an inclusive geographical figure of speech (NET Bible)
4. the glory of day and night (Tyndale Commentaries)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
confidence. Hebrew. batah. See App-69.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
terrible: Psa 45:4, Psa 47:2, Psa 47:3, Psa 66:3, Psa 76:3-9, Deu 4:34, Deu 10:21, Isa 37:36
righteousness: Psa 145:17, Rom 2:5, Rev 15:3, Rev 15:4, Rev 16:5, Rev 19:1-3
O God: Psa 68:19, Psa 68:20
the confidence: Isa 45:22, Mat 28:19, Mat 28:20, Rom 15:10-12
all: Psa 22:27
afar: Isa 51:5, Isa 60:5, Isa 66:19, Zep 2:11, Zec 9:10, Eph 2:17, Eph 2:18
Reciprocal: Exo 34:10 – a terrible 2Sa 7:23 – great things 1Ch 17:21 – greatness Neh 4:14 – great Job 11:9 – longer Psa 55:19 – hear Psa 66:4 – General Psa 67:7 – all the Psa 68:35 – terrible Psa 88:1 – Lord Psa 136:15 – for his mercy Isa 17:10 – the God Isa 41:10 – the right Isa 45:13 – in righteousness Jer 20:11 – a mighty Jer 31:8 – the coasts Rom 9:28 – in righteousness Rev 10:2 – he set
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 65:5. By terrible things, &c. Or, in a terrible manner; that is, so as to strike thy people with a holy awe and reverence of thee, and of thy judgments, and thine enemies with dread and horror. The Chaldee renders the word, , noraoth, here used, in a wonderful manner. This may be understood of the rebukes which God, in his providence, sometimes gives to his own people; he often answers them by wonderful and terrible events, for the awakening and quickening of them; but always in righteousness; he neither doth them any wrong, nor intends them any hurt; for even then he is the God of their salvation. But it is rather to be understood of his judgments upon their enemies; God answers his peoples prayers by the destructions made for their sakes among those who reject his truth; and the recompense which he renders to their proud oppressors as a righteous God, the God to whom vengeance belongs, and the God that protects and saves his people. The clause may be read, by wonderful things wilt thou answer us; things which are very surprising, and which we looked not for, Isa 64:3. Or by things which strike an awe upon us. The ancient church here foretels, says Dr. Horne, that God would answer her prayers for the coming of the Messiah, by wonderful things in righteousness, which were brought to pass by the death and the resurrection of Christ, the overthrow of idolatry, and the conversion of the nations. Some again, by these wonderful things, understand the works of Gods providence mentioned in the following verses; which, however they may be disregarded by us, through our familiarity with them, are indeed most stupendous, amazing, and awful; such as will always engage the inquiry and excite the wonder of the most profound philosophers; but will for ever surpass their comprehension. See Dodd. Who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth Of all thy saints all the world over, and not only of those who are of the seed of Israel. For he is the God of the Gentiles as well as of the Jews; the confidence of them that are afar off from his holy temple, that dwell in the islands of the Gentiles, or that are in distress upon the sea. They trust in him, and cry to him when they are at their wits end. Nor is there any other in whom they can safely trust, or to whom they can have recourse with any prospect of relief. For this God of our salvation is the only object of a safe and undeceiving confidence; there is no other person or thing in the world that any man living can trust to, without fear or certainty of disappointment.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
65:5 [By] terrible things in righteousness wilt thou {d} answer us, O God of our salvation; [who art] the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off [upon] the {e} sea:
(d) You will declare yourself to be the preserver of your Church in destroying your enemies, as you did in the Red Sea.
(e) As of all barbarous nations, and far off.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
2. God’s power 65:5-8
David regarded answers to prayer as some of God’s awesome works (Psa 65:5 a). These verses express God’s great power by citing a number of specific divine acts (Psa 65:5 b-8). People from all over the world trust in Him because of His revelation in creation and in history (Psa 65:5 b, Psa 65:8 a).
"This idealistic portrayal of universal worship is typical hymnic hyperbole, though it does anticipate eschatological reality." [Note: The NET Bible note on 65:5.]
The raging seas (Psa 65:7) represent the turbulent nations of the earth (cf. Psa 46:2-3; Isa 17:12).