Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 65:13
The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.
13. The meadows are clothed with sheep;
And the vales are decked with wheat;
They shout for joy, yea sing.
With the last line cp. Isa 55:12. The vales (Heb. ‘mek) denote “the long broad sweeps sometimes found between parallel ranges of hills” ( Sinai and Pal., p. 481) which were the natural cornfields of Palestine (1Sa 6:13). The graphic touch of the Heb., which represents the pastures and vales as shouting one to another, can hardly be preserved in translation.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The pastures are clothed with flocks – The flocks stand so thick together, and are spread so far, that they seem to be a clothing for the pasture; or, the fields are entirely covered with them.
The valleys also are covered over with corn – With grain. That is, the parts of the land – the fertile valleys – which are devoted to tillage. They are covered over, or clothed with waving grain, as the pasture-fields are with flocks.
They shout for joy, they also sing – They seem to be full of joy and happiness. What a beautiful image is this! How well does it express the loveliness of nature; how appropriately does it describe the goodness of God! Everything seems to be happy; to be full of song; and all this is to be traced to the goodness of God, as it all serves to express that goodness. Strange that there should be an atheist in such a world as this; – strange that there should be an unhappy man; – strange that amidst such beauties, while all nature joins in rejoicing and praise – pastures, cultivated fields, valleys, hills – there can be found a human being who, instead of uniting in the language of joy, makes himself miserable by attempting to cherish the feeling that God is not good!
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 13. The pastures are clothed with flocks] Cattle are seen in every plain, avenue, and vista, feeding abundantly; and the valleys are clothed, and wave with the richest harvests; and transports of joy are heard every where in the cheerful songs of the peasantry, the singing of the birds, the neighing of the horse, the lowing of the ox, and the bleating of the sheep. Claudian uses the same image: –
Viridis amictus montium.
“The green vesture of the mountains.”
Shout for joy, they also sing.] They are not loud and unmeaning sounds, they are both music and harmony in their different notes; all together form one great concert, and the bounty of God is the subject which they all celebrate. What an inimitable description! And yet the nervous Hebrew is not half expressed, even by the amended translation and paraphrase above.
ANALYSIS OF THE SIXTY-FIFTH PSALM
This is wholly a poem of thanksgiving; and teaches us how, and for what, we are to praise God. 1. For spiritual; 2. For temporal blessings; and, 3. This publicly; in Zion – in his Church.
It has two general parts: –
I. Praise to God for his blessings to his followers, Ps 65:1-5.
II. His common benefits to all mankind, Ps 65:6-13.
I. He sets forth God’s grace to his followers of which he reckons several particulars: –
1. He has established a public ministry among them, and an atoning sacrifice.
2. He directs and hears their prayers; and to him by sacrifice, prayer, and praise, may all human beings come.
3. Though evil tongues may prevail against them for a time, yet he will deliver them.
4. The transgressions committed against him he will accept an atonement for, and pardon, Ps 65:1-4. See the notes.
5. All that truly worship him in his ordinances shall be made partakers of spiritual blessedness: “We shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house,” Ps 65:4.
6. He works powerfully and terribly, but righteously, in behalf of his followers, against their enemies: “By terrible things in righteousness,” Ps 65:5. 1. He answers them when they call. 2. By terrible things, – as in Egypt, the wilderness, c. 3. And the motive to it is, his justice or righteousness, by which he punishes his enemies, and gives retribution to his people.
All this he concludes with a double eulogy of God:
1. Showing what he is peculiarly to his people: “O God of our salvation.”
2. What he is to ALL “the confidence of all the ends of the earth,” for he sustains all, be they where they may.
II. He descends from his peculiar providence, – the care he takes of, and the benefits he bestows on, his Church, – to his general providence, his ordering and sustaining the whole world; which he amplifies: –
1. “By his strength he setteth fast the mountains,” c., which is true literally: but, tropologically, it may mean kingdoms and states.
2. He stilleth the noise of the sea, – and of the waves, – for to them he sets bounds: “And the tumult of the people.” He stills devils, tyrants, armies, seditions, &c.
3. He does this so, that even those who are in the uttermost parts of the sea are afraid at his tokens. They see from the phenomena of nature how powerful and fearful God is.
4. The sun, moon, planets, and stars are under his guidance. Day and night are ordered by him: “Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.”
5. The earth and its inhabitants are his peculiar care: “Thou visitest the earth,” &c., Ps 65:9-11.
In all which the prophet shoves God’s mercy, 1. In the rain. 2. In the rivers. 3. In the growing of the corn. 4. In providing grass for cattle. 5. In providing store in the summer and autumn. 6. His clouds drop fatness upon the earth, and all nature rejoices. The meaning of all is, Man may plough, sow, dig, manure, prune, watch, fence, &c. but it is God that gives the increase.
For an account of the imagery here employed, see the notes. The Psalm is grand beyond description, and can never be sufficiently admired.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This is added as the effect of these comfortable rains, that they fill the pastures with grass for cattle, and the valleys (which he mentions as the most fruitful places, though he doth not exclude the rest) with corn for the use of man.
They shout for joy, they also sing, i.e. they are abundantly satisfied with thy goodness, and in their manner sing forth the praises and declare the goodness of their Creator and Benefactor. Compare Psa 147:8. Such passions or actions as these are oft figuratively ascribed to lifeless creatures, both in sacred and profane poetical writings; which are said to rejoice or mourn, &c, when their condition is such as calls for rejoicing or mourning, and would cause them to do so, if they were capable of such actions
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6-13. God’s great power andgoodness are the grounds of this confidence. These are illustrated inHis control of the mightiest agencies of nature and nations affectingmen with awe and dread (Psa 26:7;Psa 98:1, &c.), and in Hisfertilizing showers, causing the earth to produce abundantly for manand beast.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The pastures are clothed with flocks,…. Of sheep, which are so thick, that there is scarce anything to be seen upon the pastures but them; which look as if they were clothed with them: these may intend the multitude of converts, signified by the flocks of Kedar, and rams of Nebaioth; which gathering about the church, and joining to her, she clothes herself with them as with an ornament, Isa 60:7 it may be rendered the “rams clothe”, or “cover, the flocks” s; or the flocks are clothed, or covered, with the rams, as expressive of their copulation with them; and so the Targum,
“the rams ascend upon the flocks;”
which sense is favoured by the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions;
the valleys also are covered over with corn; being made very fruitful with the rain, and bringing forth in great abundance; so humble souls are the most fruitful ones;
they shout for joy, they also sing; that is, the pastures, hills, and valleys, being laden with all kind of fruit for the use of man and beast, for necessity and pleasure, which occasion joy to the inhabitants of the earth: this may be expressive of the joy that will be among men, when the interest of Christ will be in a more flourishing condition in the latter day; see Isa 49:13.
s , Sept. “arietes”, V. L.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
13. Pastures The word properly means sheep, young sheep: but in Isa 30:23 it must take the sense of pasture. So here the connexion imposes the same sense, only the idea is sheepwalk. The sheepwalk shall be clothed with sheep. The mountains and uplands of Palestine begin to appear brown and barren as early as June, for want of moisture.
The valleys Contrasted with the upland downs or sheepwalks. As the latter are clothed with sheep, so are these with corn all kinds of edible grain. And in this richness of divine blessing animals and inanimate nature shout for joy, yea, they also will sing.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
REFLECTIONS
MY soul, I charge it upon thee, by the outgoings of the morning and the evening, that in those constant recurrences of day and night, thou wait in the silence of the most awakened meditation, for goings forth in praise and prayer, in humblings and rejoicings, before the mercy-seat of God in Christ. Say, my soul, canst thou really, truly, heartily, sincerely, adopt this language – praise waited for thee, my God, in Zion? Canst thou look up to thy Jesus, and say, Oh! thou that hearest prayer, to thee do I come?
Blessed God and Father, help me to adore thee, to love thee, to praise thee, for thy gracious choice of Jesus as my Surety. Never, surely, heavenly Lord, didst thou manifest thy grace and love to our poor fallen nature by any act of mercy equal to that, in which thou didst set up thine Holy One to approach unto thee as our glorious Mediator. Oh! for grace to choose him whom God hath chosen, to love him whom God hath loved, and to trust him with our salvation, into whose almighty hands God the Father hath committed all his glory. Lord, make this, I beseech thee, a daily evidence of my interest in Jesus, and of my walking with him. Then, Lord, shall I be satisfied with the goodness of thine house. Precious will be thy sabbaths, thy word, thine ordinances, thy people; all, all that belong to Jesus, will be precious to my soul. Yes, my soul will sit down at the fountain-head of enjoyment, in feasting upon the body and blood of my Lord; thy covenant grace, thy love, thy righteousness, will be a perpetual feast of fat things while here below, until thou shalt call me from the church below to the church above, to the everlasting enjoyment of thy presence in glory forever.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 65:13 The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.
Ver. 13. The pastures, &c. ] Here is stately rhetoric all along.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
To the chief Musician. See App-64.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
pastures: Psa 104:24-28, Zec 9:17, Act 14:17
they shout: Psa 96:11-13, Psa 98:7-9, Isa 35:1, Isa 35:2, Isa 35:10, Isa 52:9, Isa 55:12, Jer 48:33
Reciprocal: Gen 27:28 – plenty Deu 11:11 – General Job 31:38 – complain Psa 5:11 – shout Psa 65:8 – rejoice Psa 89:12 – rejoice Psa 96:12 – General Psa 98:8 – hills Psa 148:9 – Mountains Joe 2:21 – be glad Hab 3:10 – the deep
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 65:13. The pastures Which were bare before; are clothed with flocks As they are with grass. They are so well stocked that they seem covered over with sheep and cattle, feeding or resting in them; the valleys also are covered with corn So that the face of the earth cannot be seen for the abundance of it. He mentions valleys, or low grounds, as being generally most fruitful, but does not intend to exclude other places. Such are some of the good effects of these refreshing, fertilizing rains. They shout for joy: they also sing They are abundantly satisfied with thy goodness, and, in their manner, sing forth the praises, and declare the goodness of their great Creator and Benefactor.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
65:13 The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, {l} they also sing.
(l) That is, the dumb creatures will not only rejoice for a time for God’s benefits, but will continually sing.