PSALMS LESSON 63

     We will begin this lesson by giving the 65th Psalm in metre.

                   THE PSALMS OF DAVID IN METRE

                             Chapter 65

Verse 1  "Before thee, Lord, a people waits, To praise thy name in
          Zion's gates; Thou bearer of the suppliant's prayer, All
          flesh shall unto thee repair, To seek thy gracious aid.
Verse 2  "How great my trespasses appear! But from all guilt thou wilt
          me clear, And my transgressions hide. How blest thy chosen,
          Who by grace are brought within thy dwelling-place, That
          they may there abide."
Verse 3  "The goodness of thy house, O Lord, Our souls shall satisfy.
          By fearful deeds, in justice wrought, The Lord will grant us
          what we sought, Our saviour, God most High."
Verse 4  "On whose sustaining arm depend, To earth's and sea's
          remotest end, All men, in every age. Who, girt with
          strength, sets fast the hills Who roaring seas and billows
          stills, Who calms the nations' rage."
Verse 5  "The tribes of earth's remotest lands Behold he tokens of thy
          hands, And fear the earth throughout. The east, where beams
          the morning light, By thee in gladness shout."
Verse 6  "Thy timely visits bless the earth, To drenching rains thy
          clouds give birth, Enriching all the land. By God's own
          river, deep and broad, Thou wilt prepare their corn, O God,
          By thy providing hand.  "
Verse 7  "Thou wilt its ridge and furrowed plain Make soft and smooth
          with showers of rain, Its springing thou wilt bless. The
          year thou hast with goodness crowned, Thy paths drop fatness
          all around, Ev'n on the wilderness."
Verse 8  "The little hills with verdure clad, Are girt with joy, by
          thee made glad; The flocks in pastures lie; The vales are
          robed with waving grain; And shout and song from hill and
          plain, Swell joyous to the sky."


     We will begin the verse by verse study of the 65th chapter of
Psalms now. Psalms 65:1 "{To the chief Musician, A Psalm [and] Song of
David.} Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Sion: and unto thee shall
the vow be performed."

     We know, throughout these studies, that Zion symbolizes the
church. I wish this statement were true in all believing churches
today. Are there really praises waiting for God in His church today?
Some of our churches are far from the state of praise. The church must
remain faithful to God. Churches, as well as the people in the
churches, must keep their vows they have made to God.

     Psalms 65:2 "O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all
flesh come."

     I saw a sign on a billboard a few days ago. It said, God still
talks to His people, but we are not listening. God always listens to
us. He never tires of hearing our prayers. Perhaps, He has to wait a
little longer for our prayers now in our affluent society. Most people
spend more time in prayer, when they are in some difficulty. There is
a time, when not just the believers, but all of mankind shall come and
stand before the Lord.

     Psalms 65:3 "Iniquities prevail against me: [as for] our
transgressions, thou shalt purge them away."

     David is saying, here, that his enemies are constantly bringing
up his past sins. In fact, they are blowing them all out of
proportion.  They want David's sins to sound so bad that he will not
be forgiven for them. In the next part of the verse David says, our
transgressions. David is reminding us here, that all have sinned and
come short of the glory of the Lord. The last part of the verse is
very optimistic. David knows that God has washed his sins away as far
as the east is from the west. I am glad that I am included in the
purging of my sins. Praise God! Jesus is the propitiation for all our
sins. I John 2:2 "And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for
ours only, but also for [the sins of] the whole world."  This is one
of the greatest shows of God's love for man in all the Bible. I John
4:10 "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and
sent his Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins."

     Psalms 65:4 "Blessed [is the man whom] thou choosest, and causest
to approach [unto thee, that] he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be
satisfied with the goodness of thy house, [even] of thy holy temple."

     We did not choose God, He chose us. John 15:16 "Ye have not
chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go
and bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain: that
whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you."
One of the best examples of this, in all the Bible, is when God called
Moses from the burning bush. We have to answer that call. We are not a
puppet that we have no choice, but salvation is offered to each of us.
Some accept it, and some do not. This one verse takes us from our
calling to total access to the throne of God. We are of the household
of God, if we accept the call. The holy temple in heaven will be our
new home. We are adopted into the family of God, and are able to call
our Father by the name that only His children can call Him, Abba.

     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:"

     Salvation was not offered exclusively to the natural Hebrew, but
to those afar off, as well. Salvation is for whosoever will. Salvation
is for all nationalities who believe. Sometimes the answers to our
prayers frighten us. I have said, over and over, do not pray for me to
have patience, because patience comes through tribulation. It is
really special to see a prayer that we have prayed answered. Our
confidence should not be in our own ability, but in His ability. It is
amazing to me every time I see someone come to the Lord. One by one,
God is building Him a family. The Bible, itself, says by the
foolishness of preaching men are saved. I Corinthians 1:21 "For after
that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe."

     Psalms 65:6 "Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains;
[being] girded with power:"

     Have you really ever looked at a mountain and suddenly realized
that God made this beautiful thing? Genesis 1:9  "And God said, Let
the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and
let the dry [land] appear: and it was so."  You see, a mountain is a
mountain because God called it into being. This is the unmatchless
power of God's spoken Word, not man's spoken word.

     Psalms 65:7 "Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of
their waves, and the tumult of the people."

     I never see this verse, that I do not recall, the Lord Jesus
speaking to the angry waves and telling them to be still, and they
were. There will never be peace in this world among the nations until
the King of peace comes and sets up His kingdom of peace.

     Psalms 65:8 "They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are
afraid at thy tokens: thou makest the outgoings of the morning and
evening to rejoice."

     Unless these tokens are natural phenomena, I do not know what
this means. Most people in the church believe that storms and
earthquakes are from the devil, but I believe they are from God. The
earthquakes, and they repented not. The storm comes, and they repented
not. It seems to me that these things come to get our attention turned
to God. I believe even depressions come for the same reason. It seems
the church grows strongest under the greatest tribulation. God
controls the sunshine, and the rain, and the night, and day, as well.
One Scripture that leaves no doubt about this is the following.
Matthew 5:45 "That ye may be the children of your Father which is in
heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and
sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."  The devil has a little
power on earth, but he has to get God's permission to do his evil
deeds just as he had to get God's permission before he could attack
Job.

     Psalms 65:9 "Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou
greatly enrichest it with the river of God, [which] is full of water:
thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it."

     We see again, here, that the crop produces, because God tells it
to. We may plant a seed and pray that it grows, but it will not grow
unless it is the will of God for it to grow.

     Psalms 65:10 "Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: thou
settlest the furrows thereof: thou makest it soft with showers: thou
blessest the springing thereof."

     This is just saying that the rain in the spring, along with the
warmer weather, makes the vegetation to grow. Spring is very much like
new life. After it appears that all vegetation is dead, it springs to
new life with every new spring.

     Psalms 65:11 "Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy
paths drop fatness."

     God set the universe in order, and it has stayed there since
creation. We look at one of the promises of God in the next verse
which has to do with the blessings of God. Genesis 8:22 "While the
earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer
and winter, and day and night shall not cease."  God blesses each day
of the year in its own way. The years roll by, and another year comes
fast on its heel.

     Psalms 65:12 "They drop [upon] the pastures of the wilderness:
and the little hills rejoice on every side."

     This is saying, that even in lands which have not been cultivated
by man, the grass grows. Possibly, some of the most beautiful growth
in all the world is the voluntary growth in the wilderness where no
man's hand has touched. The greatest beauties in the earth are the
natural beauties, such as the mountains and streams, the waterfall and
the sunset. Man has a tendency to mess up the beauty of nature.

     Psalms 65:13 "The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys
also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing."

     There is nothing happier than animals feeding on the clover of
the spring. Every time we see a new season of spring roll around and
all the beautiful flowers and vegetation that come with it, we know
afresh that God has not given up on man.



















                             Questions 63

1.  What is the symbolic meaning of Zion?
2.  O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all _______ come.
3.  When do most people spend more time in prayer?
4.  David is saying, in verse 3, that his enemies are doing what?
5.  When David says our sins, what is he trying to say?
6.  How far away is David's sin from him?
7.  Jesus is the propitiation for ________ ________.
8.  Quote 1 John chapter 4 verse 10.
9.  We did not ________ God, He _____ us.
10. Quote John chapter 15 verse 16.
11. Who is possibly the best example of God choosing someone?
12. Who is salvation offered to?
13. Verse 4 takes us from our calling to where?
14. What is the name that only the children of God can call Him?
15. Salvation is for all ____________ who believe?
16. Why does the author not want prayer to make her patient?
17. Quote 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 21.
18. Why is a mountain a mountain?
19. What does verse 7 remind us about Jesus?
20. When will there be peace among the nations?
21. What are the tokens in verse 8 probably?
22. When does the church grow the strongest?
23. Quote Matthew chapter 5 verse 45.
24. What makes a seed grow into a plant?
25. Spring is very much like ___ _____.
26. How long will there be seedtime and harvest on the earth?
27. What is verse 12 saying about the vegetation?
28. What does the author believe to be the real beauties of the earth?
29. What is happy when the clover comes up in the spring?