Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 65:2
O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.
2. O thou that hearest prayer ] God is thus addressed, because He has given His people cause for the present thanksgiving by hearing their prayers. But the words are more than a reference to a particular answer to prayer. They proclaim that it is His inalienable attribute, His ‘nature and property,’ to hear and answer prayer.
unto thee shall all flesh come ] At first sight the context seems to limit ‘all flesh’ to Israel, contemplated in its weakness and frailty as needing the strength of God (Joe 2:28). But it seems more consonant to the spirit of this and the two following Psalms to take it in the wider sense of all mankind. Already the Psalmist beholds the Temple becoming a house of prayer for all nations (Mar 11:17). It is no larger hope than was entertained by Isaiah and Micah (Isa 2:2 ff; Mic 4:1 ff) if not by some earlier prophet whom they both quote. Cp. Jer 16:19; Isa 45:24; Isa 66:23; Psa 22:27; Psa 86:9; Psa 94:10.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
O thou that hearest prayer – Who hast revealed thyself as a God hearing prayer – one of the leading characteristics of whose nature it is that thou dost hear prayer. Literally, Hearer of prayer, to thee shall all flesh come. Nothing as applied even to God is more sublime and beautiful than the appellative Hearer of prayer. Nothing in his attributes is of more interest and importance to man. Nothing more indicates his condescension and goodness; nothing so much encourages us in the endeavor to overcome our sins, to do good, to save our souls, and to save the souls of others. Dark and dismal would this world be, if God did not hear prayer; gloomy, inexpressibly gloomy, would be the prospects of man, if he had not the assurance that God is a prayer-hearing God – if he might not come to God at all times with the assurance that it is his very nature to hear prayer, and that his ear is ever open to the cries of the guilty, the suffering, the sad, the troubled, the dying.
Unto thee shall all flesh come – That is, all people – for the word is here used evidently to denote mankind. The idea is, that there is no other resource for man, no other help, no other refuge, but the God that hears prayer. No other being can meet his actual needs; and those needs are to be met only in connection with prayer. All people are permitted to come thus to God; all have need of his favor; all must perish unless, in answer to prayer, he interposes and saves the soul. It is also true that the period will arrive on earth when all flesh – all people – will come to God and worship him; when, instead of the scattered few who now approach him, all nations, all the dwellers on continents and islands, will worship him; will look to him in trouble; will acknowledge him as God; will supplicate his favor.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 65:2
O Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come.
Gods hearing of prayer
What avails prayer if it be not heard? But the text comforts us by the title it ascribes to God, and by the effect that the belief of it shall have upon all flesh. God in Christ is the hearer of prayer.
I. Wherein Gods hearing of prayer lies. This involves–
1. His accepting of our prayer (Psa 141:2). But some prayer God hates (Pro 28:9).
2. His granting the request (Psa 20:1; Psa 20:4; Mat 15:28).
3. His answering of prayer (Psa 102:2). Prayer heard in heaven comes back like the dove with the olive branch of peace in her mouth.
II. The import of Gods being the hearer of prayer. It imports–
1. God in Christ is accessible to poor sinners (2Co 5:19).
2. He is a sin-pardoning God (Exo 34:6-7).
3. He is an all-sufficient God.
4. Bountiful and compassionate (Psa 86:5).
5. Omnipresent and omniscient, and–
6. Of infinite power.
III. What prayers they are that God hears.
1. Those of His own children.
2. Such as are agreeable to His will (1Jn 5:14).
3. Made by the aid of the Holy Spirit. None else are acceptable. And–
4. Prayers offered to God through Christ.
IV. Consider more particularly this doctrine.
1. The instinct of prayer in all Gods people shows that He will hear prayer.
2. And so does the intercession of Christ (Rom 8:34).
3. Promises (Mat 7:7; Isa 65:24; Psa 145:19).
4. Invitations to prayer (Son 2:14; Hos 5:1-15. ult.; Psa 50:15; Isa 41:17).
5. The gracious nature of God (Exo 22:27).
6. The experiences of the saints in all ages.
7. The present ease and relief which prayer gives (Psa 138:8; 1Sa 1:18; Mic 7:7).
V. In what manner God hears prayer.
1. A thing prayed for may be obtained and yet the prayer be not accepted (Psa 78:29; Psa 34:1-22; Psa 35:1-28; Psa 36:1-12; Psa 37:1-40; Psa 38:1-22). So that a thing prayed for may be given in downright wrath (Hos 13:11). Or in uncovenanted condescension. As Ahab (1Ki 21:29; also Hos 11:3).
2. Whether answers come in the way of grace or not may be discerned. They do not when there is a wilfulness and unhumbledness of spirit in asking (1Sa 8:19). Or when mens lusts are strengthened and fed by them when received (Psa 78:29-30). Or when men ask on the ground of their necessity more than on the intercession of Christ. The heart loves the gift more than the giver. But a prayer may be accepted and yet not granted. So was it with our Lord (Mat 26:39). And David (2Ch 6:8-9). And such prayers are ever submissive to Gods will (Mat 26:39); they contain in the denial of them an unseen greater mercy; and even aim at the glory of God. And though unanswered we may know they are accepted when the heart is brought to meek submission (Psa 22:2-3); and we are supported under the denial, as our Lord was (Luk 22:42-43; Psa 138:3). And helped to go back to God with new petitions in faith and hope of hearing (2Sa 12:20). Let us remember that delay is not denial. Abraham prayed for an heir, yet fifteen years passed before the answer came (Gen 15:3-4; Gen 17:25; Exo 2:23-24; Dan 9:23). There is a difference between the granting of a petition and our knowing that it is granted. They may come together, as in Mat 15:28. But, as with Abraham, they may not. The hearing and granting of prayer is an object of faith; the answer, of sense and feeling (1Jn 5:14-15; Mat 15:28). But the two are generally at a distance from one another. And the reason of this is manifold.
1. To keep us at the throne of grace (Pro 15:8; Son 2:14).
2. To try our graces (Jam 1:12; Job 27:10; Luk 18:7). God delights in our faith.
3. To prepare and fit us for the answer (Psa 10:17).
4. That we may have them at the fittest time, and when they will do us most good (Joh 11:14-15; Joh 2:4). (T. Boston, D. D.)
Encouragements to prayer
I. From its nature.
1. It is a spiritual thing; not any mere outward form, but the soul seeing the invisible, grasping the intangible and linking itself by sacred affinities with things eternal.
2. Consider also its dignity, it holds correspondence with the court of heaven.
3. And how important. For how unspeakably great is our need, and we can only gain supply for them as we seek it from God.
II. From the plighted faithfulness of the Divine character to hear and answer it. How, in face of all Gods promises to hear us, can we doubt the success of our prayers? Objections against prayer lie equally against all human endeavour. God will give good things to them that ask Him, but only He can say what things are good. They may be such as we deem anything but good. Many have been laid on beds of languishing to save them from a bed of everlasting burnings. And when the time for the blessings we ask for may be, we cannot know, nor fix the rate of their progress towards us.
III. The suggesting and controlling influence of the Holy Spirit in the act of devotion.
IV. The co-operating intercessions of our ascended Saviour, and the security we have in the use of His all-prevailing name. Oh! could the recording angel give you back an exact copy even of this mornings prayers–a copy in which all the thoughts which passed through your mind while in the act of devotion should be translated into words,–how shocked would ye be at the intermixture of piety and profaneness, of reverent expressions and solemn trifling, with which ye insulted the majesty and provoked the patience of the holiest and best of beings. Wherefore was it, then, that ye were not consumed? Oh! it was that Jesus, touched with a feeling of our infirmities, stood in the gap between us.
V. The reflective benefit which, apart from direct answers to our prayers, comes to our souls. If a man do not move God he is sure to move himself. (Daniel Moore, M. A.)
The answerableness and the inevitableness of prayer
I. The answerableness of prayer. Hearing, here, means answering. He hears millions of prayers He never answers. The grand reason is, that the prayers are selfish.
1. The mind in this state looks upon Gods universe in new aspects.
2. Turns all events to new accounts.
II. The inevitableness of prayer. Unto Thee shall all flesh come. Flesh here means mankind. As all waters must find their way into the ocean, so all souls must find their way to God, sooner or later. Two things necessitate this.
1. Internal instincts. In all sentient existences there would seem at times to be something like an instinct of prayer.
2. External circumstances necessitate prayer. Men suppress the instinct, and sometimes make it well-nigh numb as death. But in the presence of a great danger, a great sorrow, a great grief, it bounds into earnest life. (Homilist.)
On prayer
1. The nature of prayer supposes, in the first place, that we have a just sense of our own wants and miseries, and of our dependence on God for relief. We live in a world where everything around us is dark and uncertain. When we look back on the past, we must remember that there we have met with much disappointment and vanity. When we look forward to the future, all is unknown. We are liable there to many dangers which we cannot foresee; and to many which we foresee approaching, yet know not how to defend ourselves against them. We know that we are the subjects of a supreme righteous Governor, to whom we are accountable for our conduct. How soon the call for our removal may be given, none of us know. Who amongst us can say, that he is perfectly ready to appear before his Creator and Judge, and to give an account to Him for all the actions of his life?
2. Thus it appears that there is a just foundation for prayer, in all its parts, naturally laid in the present circumstances of man, and in the relation in which he stands to God.
(1) With regard to temporal blessings, though men may lay a restraint upon themselves in the expressions which they utter in prayer, yet it is much to be suspected that the inward wishes of their hearts for such blessings are often the most fervent of any. To wish and pray for the advantages of life is not forbidden. Our Saviour hath so far countenanced it, as to command us to pray that God would give us our daily bread.
(2) With regard to spiritual mercies, we are unquestionably allowed to be more fervent and explicit in our requests at the throne of grace. God can never be displeased in hearing us implore from Him those graces and endowments of the soul, that beautify us in His sight, that are good for all men, good at all times, indeed, the only certain and immutable goods.
(3) Intercessions for the welfare of others form a material part of prayer. When we bow our knee to the common Father, let it be like affectionate members of His family, desiring the prosperity of all our brethren.
3. In order that prayer may produce its proper effect, there are certain qualifications necessarily belonging to it, which come next to be considered.
(1) One of the first and chief of these is seriousness, or an attentive and solemn frame of mind, in opposition to thoughts that wander, and to words that drop forth unmeaning from the lips.
(2) To seriousness, we must join affection in prayer; I mean that devotion of the heart which is inspired by gratitude and love, in distinction from forced prayer, or what is unwillingly preferred from servile fear, or mere regard to decency.
(3) Faith is another qualification required. We acknowledge our guilt; we disclaim all trust in our own righteousness; and implore grace from God on account of what His Son has done and suffered for us.
4. Having thus pointed out the chief qualifications of prayer, it remains that I show the importance and advantages of it.
(1) Prayer is one of the most powerful means of recalling our minds from the vanities of life to serious thoughts; to a proper sense of God and our duty; and to all the high objects with which we are intimately connected as rational and immortal beings.
(2) Prayer is useful, not only as a corrective of our natural levity and forgetfulness of God, but as an actual exercise of the best affections of our nature, which are thereby confirmed and strengthened. It implies the highest sentiments of reverence and adoration, of love and gratitude to God, of trust in His mercy, and of faith in our blessed Redeemer, all animating the heart.
(3) Prayer is important, not only as a means of high improvement in religion, but as an instrument of consolation and relief under the distresses of life. (H. Blair, D. D.)
The prayer-hearing God
God not only hears prayer, but glories in so doing. He derives His fame, His character from it. For, think how constantly, readily and certainly He hears prayer. Hence, the psalmist declares, Unto Thee shall all flesh come. It speaks not of God on the judgment-but on the mercy-seat; all shall seek unto Him. Let us then make known God as the prayer-hearing God, and let us, more and more, come to Him ourselves. (W. Jay.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 2. Unto thee shall all flesh come.] All human beings should pray to God; and from him alone the sufficient portion of human spirits is to be derived. It is supposed to be a prediction of the calling of the Gentiles to the faith of the Gospel of Christ. A minister, immensely corpulent, began his address to God in the pulpit with these words: “O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come!” and most unluckily laid a strong emphasis on ALL FLESH. The coincidence was ominous; and I need not say, the people were not edified, for the effect was ludicrous. I mention this fact, which fell under my own notice, to warn those who minister in righteousness to avoid expressions which may be capable, from a similar circumstance, of a ludicrous application. I have known many good men who, to their no small grief, have been encumbered with a preternatural load of muscles; an evil to be deprecated and deplored.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That hearest prayer; that usest and delightest to hear and answer the prayers of thy people in Zion; which he justly mentions as one of the chiefest of Gods favours and privileges vouchsafed to his church.
All flesh, i.e. men of all sorts and nations, who were allured by this and other singular benefits to join themselves to the Jewish church, according to Solomons prediction, 1Ki 8:41-43. Withal this may be a tacit prophecy of the conversion of the Gentiles.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. All are encouraged to pray byGod’s readiness to hear.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
O thou that hearest prayer,…. So as to answer it sooner or later, in one way or another, and always in the fittest time, and in the best way; so as to fulfil the requests and supply the wants of men, so far as may be for their good, and God’s glory; which is a proof of the omnipresence, omniscience, and all sufficiency of God; who can hear the prayers of his people in all places at the same time, and knows all their persons and wants, and what is most proper for them, and can and does supply all their needs, and causes all grace to abound towards them; and it also shows his wondrous grace and condescension, to listen to the cries and regard the prayers of the poor and destitute;
unto thee shall all flesh come; being encouraged by the above character of him. All sorts of persons may come to him; men of all nations, of every rank and degree, condition and circumstance; there is no bar unto nor bounds about the throne of grace; the way to it lies open through the Mediator; and all sensible sinners shall and do come thither, though they are but “flesh”, frail and mortal, corrupt and sinful creatures, and know themselves to be so; and they that come aright come through Christ, the new and living way, in his name, and in the faith of him, and of being heard for his sake, and under the gracious influences of the spirit of grace and supplication: it may be considered as a prophecy of the calling of the Gentiles, and of their calling upon God through Christ, and of their coming to God in his house, which was to be, and is, an house of prayer to all people,
Isa 56:7.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(2) Unto thee shall all flesh come.This has usually, and most truly, been taken as prophetic of the extension of the true religion to the Gentiles. But we must not let what was, in the Divine providence, a fulfilment of the psalmists words, hide their intention as it was conscious to himself. The psalm shows us the exclusiveness of Hebrew belief, and, at the same time, the nobler and grander feelings which are from time to time found struggling against it. The peculiar privilege of Israel has been stated in the first verse. Silent, yet confident, waiting for Jehovahs blessing, and then exultant praise for it (Tehillah). In this the other nations have no part; but all flesh may approach Jehovah in prayer (Tephillah). (Compare Psa. 65:5.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. Thou that hearest prayer A recognition of deity which gratitude dictates and experience attests. See introduction.
Unto thee shall all flesh come “All flesh” is a term denoting all nations and varieties of mankind. They shall yet come, in guilt and in trouble, to the one only God for deliverance. They shall yet confess him in prayer and hymns of praise.
Isa 66:23. An anticipation of Messiah’s universal reign.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Here is the immediate act of prayer, and praise in consequence of God’s answering. If praise waited! for God, he will not suffer his praying people, or his praising people, to wait long. Well may all flesh come to him, who is the creator of all flesh: and well may all cry unto him, who expressly saith, It shall come to pass, that before my people call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. Isa 65:24 .
But before we dismiss both these verses, I would have the Reader connect them, and then observe, whether the former doth not look with an eye of reference to the Jewish church, and the latter to the Gentile? Jerusalem shalt not be the only spot from whence praise shall ascend; but in every piece (saith the Lord) incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the Lord of Hosts. Mal 1:11 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 65:2 O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.
Ver. 2. O thou that hearest prayer ] And art thereby known to be the true God, 1Ki 18:38-39 , and no such dull deity as the heathens worshipped, Isa 45:16 ; Isa 45:19 Mic 7:17-18 . O happy we that have to deal with such a prayer hearing, sin pardoning God! Psa 65:3 . Basil compareth prayer to a chain, the one end whereof is linked to God’s ear, and the other to man’s tongue.
Flectitur iratus voce rogante Deus.
Unto thee shall all flesh come ] And well they may, since he keepeth open house; his mercy doors are ever wide open, as were the doors of the Aediles, or city chamberlains in Rome, that all who had occasion of complaint might have free access unto them at any time. A good housekeeper is seldom without company. Why ply we not the throne of grace upon such encouragement? Why, since we are not straitened in God, are we straitened in our own bowels? Why make we not ourselves happy by asking, since we may have but what we will of God, even all that heaven and his grace can afford us?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
flesh. Put by Figure of speech Synecdoche (of Part), for all mankind: i.e. the people.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
thou: Psa 66:19, Psa 102:17, Psa 145:18, Psa 145:19, 1Ki 18:29, 1Ki 18:37, 2Ch 33:13, Isa 65:24, Jer 29:12, Jer 29:13, Dan 9:17-19, Luk 11:9, Luk 11:10, Act 10:31, 1Jo 5:14, 1Jo 5:15
unto thee: Psa 22:27, Psa 66:4, Psa 86:9, Isa 49:6, Isa 66:23, Joh 12:32, Rev 11:15
Reciprocal: Gen 13:4 – called Gen 21:17 – heard Gen 24:15 – before Gen 25:21 – entreated Jdg 13:9 – hearkened 2Ki 19:20 – I have heard 2Ki 20:5 – I have heard 1Ch 4:10 – God granted 2Ch 7:15 – mine eyes Psa 5:2 – unto thee Psa 18:3 – who Jer 32:27 – God Jon 2:2 – I cried Mic 7:7 – my God Luk 18:1 – that Joh 3:26 – and all Act 2:17 – all 1Pe 3:12 – his ears
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE HEARER OF PRAYER
O Thou that hearest prayer, unto Thee shall all flesh come.
Psa 65:2 (with Php 4:6).
Taking for granted the existence of a personal God, the question arises, Does this involve, by necessary consequence, that, to use the language of the Bible, this God will be a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him by prayer and otherwise, that He will attend to prayer and answer it?
I. It is obvious that every man of science in the pursuit of abstract knowledge, or in the examination of nature, acts, whether he is aware of it or no, upon the maxim that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.It is a part of the scheme of the universe that discovery shall reward research. Nature deals with men precisely as God is said to do; with the froward she shows herself perverse. Now this, which is mere matter of scientific ascertainment, appears to bear directly and very strongly on the character of God as involved in the question of the reasonableness of prayer. Prayer has throughout all known ages recommended itself to the human mind so powerfully that even in religions, such as Buddhism, which deny the existence of a personal God distinct from nature, and in which therefore prayer can have no proper place, it has nevertheless forced its way.
II. Besides the argument based on almost universal practice, the idea that intercourse can be carried on between the soul and God seems reasonable.If there be a God distinct from nature, He that gave man a moral nature of a certain kind, shall He not treat man accordingly? Does not the very analogy of science and religion require that as God rewards them that diligently seek Him in the one domain, so He will reward them that diligently seek Him in the other?
III. Another argument for the reasonableness of prayer is based on the unchangeable character of God.It is precisely because Gods character is unchangeable that His purposes are flexible. It is because He is a just God that He is a Saviour; i.e. that He adapts His providence to the changing characters with which it has to deal. He treats differently those who treat Him differently, and this precisely because He is in Himself the same and changes not.
IV. If God does not grant every prayer, it is because He knows what is good for us far too well to do so.We must offer all our prayers for temporal blessings with due submission to Gods better wisdom. Not my will, but Thine, be done. Only one prayer needs no such qualification; the prayer for that Holy Spirit which, in the Christian doctrine, is the direct influence of the Deity on the spirits He has created, bestowing on them the highest wisdom, purifying them even as He, the fountain of purity, is pure.
Bishop Reichel.
Illustration
Everything is full of God; His hand and His footsteps everywhere. There is no chill of a heartless and godless philosophy, falsely so-called, on the heart of this inspired poet; his glowing soul is warmed by the felt presence of an active, energising God Whose handiwork and Whose blessed footsteps he sees in everything that grows and in every agency that makes growth and beauty and fruitfulness on the face of this fair world.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Psa 65:2-3. O thou that hearest prayer That usest and delightest to hear and answer the prayers of thy people in Zion; which he justly mentions as one of the chiefest of Gods favours vouchsafed to his church; unto thee shall all flesh come Men of all sorts and nations, who were allured by this and other singular benefits, to unite themselves to the Jewish Church, according to Solomons prediction, 1Ki 8:41-43. Or, rather, this may be considered as a tacit prediction of the conversion of the Gentiles, namely, that on account of Gods mercy in hearing the prayers of his people, all mankind, out of every nation, should come and make their supplications before him in his church, when called by his gospel. And the chief subject of the prayers made by all flesh to God being the forgiveness of sin, in order to this it is here confessed, Iniquities prevail against me My iniquities are so many and so great, that on account of them thou mightest justly reject my prayers, and destroy my person; they are a burden too heavy for me; but thou shalt purge them away This is another glorious privilege granted to thy people, that, in answer to their prayers, thou dost graciously pardon and take away their sins.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
65:2 O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all {b} flesh come.
(b) Not only the Jews but also the Gentiles in the kingdom of Christ.