Psalms 65 · The Lantern

To the Overseer. --A Psalm of David. A Song. To Thee, silence--praise, O God, is in Zion, And to Thee is a vow completed.

Hearer of prayer, to Thee all flesh cometh.

Matters of iniquities were mightier than I, Our transgressions--Thou dost cover them.

O the happiness of him whom Thou choosest, And drawest near, he inhabiteth Thy courts, We are satisfied with the goodness of Thy house, Thy holy temple.

By fearful things in righteousness Thou answerest us, O God of our salvation, The confidence of all far off ends of earth and sea.

Establishing mountains by His power, He hath been girded with might,

Restraining the noise of seas, the noise of their billows, And the multitude of the peoples.

And the inhabitants of the uttermost parts From Thy signs are afraid, The outgoings of morning and evening Thou causest to sing.

Thou hast inspected the earth, and waterest it, Thou makest it very rich, the rivulet of God is full of water, Thou preparest their corn, When thus Thou dost prepare it,

Only let us recognize the purpose of the evil. Why have the crops withered, our storehouses been emptied, the pastures of our flocks failed, the fruits of the earth been withheld and the plains been filled with shame instead of such fatness?

"Thou hast visited the earth, and hast inebriated it" [Psalm 65:9]. Whence hast inebriated the earth? "Thy cup inebriating how glorious it is!" "Thou hast visited the earth, and hast inebriated it." Thou hast sent Thy clouds, they have rained down the preaching of the truth, inebriated is the earth. "Thou hast multiplied to enrich it." Whence?

Again, vegetation is generous. Hence in the Psalm: "You have visited the land and watered it; greatly have you enriched it. God's watercourses are filled; you have prepared the grain," and "the valleys are blanketed with grain." This land is alive and awake, it abounds.

Its ridges have been filled, Deepened hath been its furrow, With showers Thou dost soften it, Its springing up Thou blessest.

Thou hast crowned the year of Thy goodness, And Thy paths drop fatness.

"Thou shalt bless the crown of the year of Thy goodness" [Psalm 65:11]. Seed is now sowing, that which is sown is growing, there will be the harvest too. And now over the seed the enemy hath sown tares; and there have risen up evil ones among the good, false Christians, having like leaf, but not like fruit.

David moved by the Holy Spirit thus in a psalm addresses God: Bless thou the crown of the year of thy goodness; thus in a remarkable way styling the cycle of the twelve months of the year a crown of goodness, as crowning the surface of the earth with beauty, and fostering the growth and maturity of its monthly fruits through the tempering of the elements which the invisible pow…

For the fact that each of the four rows worn on the chest contains three stones corresponds to the sequence of the yearly cycle, which is divided into four seasons of three months each. Now in the Scriptures the entire year is designated as the time of our salvation, in which we strive for an eternal reward.

Drop do the pastures of a wilderness, And joy of the heights Thou girdest on.

Clothed have lambs the flock, And valleys are covered with corn, They shout--yea, they sing!

Psalms65