The 4th century church bishop, Augustine, once said that the Christian should be ″a hallelujah from head to foot″. He meant that we are, and should be, constantly thanking and praising God for all He has done for us. In Psalm 65, we turn from laments to some songs of thanksgiving.

David describes three displays of God's goodness and power. First, God deserves our praise because He forgives our sins (Psalm 65:3-4). Psalm 51 was a confession of personal sin, but Psalm 65 is a confession of communal sin, ″we were overwhelmed by sins″ (v. 3). It's appropriate for individual Christians to confess their sins, but there's also a time for a whole church to acknowledge where they have failed as God's people. The church in Laodicea was a church whom Jesus invited them to acknowledge their sin (″cover your shameful nakedness″) and be in fellowship with Him again (Revelation 3:18, 20). Similarly, in Psalm 65, one of the wonderful results of confession and forgiveness is that God's people again ″live in your courts″ (v. 4).

Second, God is worthy of praise because ″you answer us with awesome and righteous deeds″ (v. 5). David may still be thinking of God's awesome power expressed in restoring His sinful people to himself as he reminds us of God's power, which rules and controls the land and sea. Jesus' disciples experienced this personally on the Sea of Galilee when their Master ″stilled the roaring of the seas″ (v. 7; see also Matthew 8:26). The disciples' response was amazement. Or, in the words of our psalm, ″the whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders″ (v. 8).

Finally, David thanks God for the abundant harvest He gives to the earth (vv. 9-13). As David writes, he sees streams filled with water, rain from heaven, and meadows filled with flocks. Sometimes famine and scarcity are signs of God's judgment. For instance, three years of famine was one of the options God gave David as punishment for taking an unlawful census (1 Chronicles 21:12). Given this psalm begins with thanksgiving for God's forgiveness, it's quite possible that this earthly abundance is a tangible expression that Israel has been restored to God. While we should not see all ″natural″ disasters as God's judgment on a particular people for a particular sin, we can always see the earth's bounty and fertility as the expression of God's ″awesome and righteous deeds″ (Psalm 65:5).

One of my morning prayers is, I praise and thank You for Your gifts in creation: for this beautiful world, for food and drink, for Your daily provision of life and health, for earth, sky and sea, plants animals, and birds.