Psalms 65

Praise waits for you, God, in Zion. Vows shall be performed to you shall vows be performed. Wesley: Waiteth—is silent, or is prepared, as a gift ready to be offered. Zion is the address of owed praise and kept vows.

Bring due praise and perform vows. Silence of waiting can be readiness to offer; do not delay what you promised God.

Calvin: praise waits for God in Zion—the Church is the place where vows are paid. God is owed silent readiness and spoken gratitude.

Zion's worship is not optional ornament. Perform vows where God has set His name.

You who hear prayer, all men will come to you. Wesley: All flesh—all men. The Hearer of prayer draws the world.

Shared missionary horizon—all flesh invited to come. Grace that hears prayer is offered widely; come, and keep coming.

Calvin: God as hearer of prayer is the magnet of all flesh—Gentiles included in the hope. Access is by His character as the One who hears.

Universal invitation rests on God's hearing. All flesh may come; none come except He draws by the means He appoints.

Sins overwhelmed me, but you atoned for our transgressions. Wesley: Prevail—are too strong for me. Purge—expiate or take away. Overwhelming guilt meets atoning God.

Shared gospel in the psalm—atonement for prevailing iniquities. Confess overwhelm; trust the God who purges. Do not pretend strength against your own sins.

Calvin: when iniquities prevail, God purges transgressions—forgiveness is His work, not our self-cleansing. The plural "our" joins the people in need.

Atonement is God's provision. Prevailing sin drives to mercy, not to despair or to works-atonement.

Blessed is the one whom you choose and cause to come near, that he may live in your courts. We will be filled with the goodness of your house... Wesley: Choosest—to approach unto thee by prayer and sacrifices. Nearness is gift and blessedness.

Election here is unto nearness in worship—blessed are those drawn to God's courts. Common confession: satisfaction is in His house's goodness, not in self.

Calvin: Blessed is he whom thou choosest and causest to approach—approach is God's choosing and bringing. Satisfaction with the temple's goodness is the fruit of that choice.

Both traditions share the blessing of being brought near. The courts welcome those God brings; goodness of His house fills what the world cannot.

By awesome deeds of righteousness, you answer us, God of our salvation. You who are the hope of all the ends of the earth... Wesley: Terrible—with dreadful judgments against thine and our enemies. Hope reaches farthest seas.

Salvation's God is hope for the ends of the earth. Awesome answers in righteousness encourage global trust, not ethnic monopoly of hope.

Calvin: God answers by terrible things in righteousness—deliverances that display justice. He is the confidence of all the ends of the earth.

Both traditions share this hope for the whole world. The God of Israel's salvation is already named as hope of the farthest seas.

The one who By your power, you form the mountains, having armed yourself with strength. Wesley: Setteth—established them. Creator strength undergirds Redeemer hope.

Mountain-maker is prayer-hearer. Trust the girded might that set the hills when waves of trouble rise.

Calvin: by strength He sets fast the mountains—creation power assures the Church that the same God can still tumults.

Cosmic might for covenant care. Girded with power, He is not too weak for your seas.

You still the roaring of the seas, the tumult of the peoples. Wesley: Noises—tumults and wars of the nations. Nature and nations hush under Him.

Shared comfort—seas and peoples both roar; both can be stilled. Pray to the Still-er rather than echo the tumult.

Calvin: He stilleth the noise of the seas and the tumult of the people—one sovereignty over creation and history.

Political storms are not outside God's rule. The stiller of waves stills peoples.

Those who live far away stand in awe of your wonders; you make morning and evening shout for joy. Wesley: Outgoings—the successive courses. Dawn and dusk are summoned to joy.

Both traditions hear the daily rhythms of morning and evening join in praise. Live awake to signs that awe the ends of the earth; let morning and evening shout through you.

Calvin: dwellers at the ends fear His signs; He makes morning and evening rejoice—ordinary times become liturgy under providence.

Creation's clock is catechesis. Awe at the edges; joy at sunrise and sunset.

You visit the earth, and water it. You greatly enrich it. The river of God is full of water. You provide them grain, for so you have ordained it. Wesley: Visitest—with thy gracious presence. River—the clouds which drop fatness. Grain is prepared gift.

For the reader: shared gratitude—harvest theology. God visits, waters, enriches, provides; receive bread as prepared kindness, not bare chance.

Calvin: God visits the earth and waters it; the river of God is full—His channels never fail. Grain is prepared by His counsel.

Providence in agriculture. The prepared grain silences proud self-sufficiency.

You soften it with showers, and blessing its growth. Wesley: Settlest—makest soft and fit for fruitfulness. Softening showers are blessing.

Ask for softening as for rain. Hard ground in fields and hearts needs shower-blessing; growth is God-touched.

Calvin: He watereth the furrows and blesseth the springing—detailed care of the soil images fatherly providence.

Both readings hold: Minute mercies. Softening showers preach a God who tends what He planted.

You crown the year with your bounty. Your carts overflow with abundance. Wesley: Crownest—adornest with plenty. Paths—clouds drop fatness wherever they go.

Shared year-end praise—crown the year by naming His bounty. Overflowing tracks invite overflowing thanks.

Calvin: He crowneth the year with goodness; His paths drop fatness—the whole circuit of the year under blessing.

Time itself is crowned by God. Abundance is traced to His wagon tracks, not to luck.

The wilderness grasslands overflow. The hills are clothed with gladness. Wesley: Wilderness—even the most barren places. Joy clothes the hills.

Barren places can overflow under God. Hope for wilderness pastures; let joy gird what looked dead.

Calvin: the wilderness pastures overflow; hills rejoice—creation shares the feast of providence.

No pocket of earth outside His watering. Joy on the hills answers His visit.

The pastures are covered with flocks. The valleys also are clothed with grain. Wesley: Sing—the valleys covered with corn appear to shout and sing. Creation's choir closes the psalm.

Both traditions hear the psalm’s finale as a call to join the shout. Flocks and grain are vestments of praise; add your voice to the valleys' song.

Calvin: pastures clothed with flocks, valleys covered with corn, shout for joy—nature's hymn to the Provider.

Let abundance become doxology. The song of fields trains the Church's song.