9 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.
10 You drench its furrows. You level its ridges. You soften it with showers. You bless it with a crop.
11 You crown the year with your bounty. Your carts overflow with abundance.
12 The wilderness grasslands overflow. The hills are clothed with gladness.
13 The pastures are covered with flocks. The valleys also are clothed with grain. They shout for joy! They also sing.
KJVKing James Version
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.
10 Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: thou settlest the furrows thereof: thou makest it soft with showers: thou blessest the springing thereof.
11 Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.
12 They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness: and the little hills rejoice on every side.
13 The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.
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JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
9 (65-10) Thou hast remembered the earth, and watered her, greatly enriching her, with the river of God that is full of water; Thou preparest them corn, for so preparest Thou her.
10 (65-11) Watering her ridges abundantly, settling down the furrows thereof, Thou makest her soft with showers; Thou blessest the growth thereof.
11 (65-12) Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness; and Thy paths drop fatness.
12 (65-13) The pastures of the wilderness do drop; and the hills are girded with joy.
13 (65-14) The meadows are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, yea, they sing.
Joel 2:21-26(v11)Land, don’t be afraid. Be glad and rejoice, for Yahweh has done great things. Don’t be afraid, you animals of the field; for the pastures…
Psalms 103:4(v11)who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies,
Psalms 5:12(v11)For you will bless the righteous. Yahweh, you will surround him with favor as with a shield.
Psalms 36:8(v11)They shall be abundantly satisfied with the abundance of your house. You will make them drink of the river of your pleasures.
Haggai 2:19(v11)Is the seed yet in the barn? Yes, the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree haven’t produced. From today I will bless…
Show all 55 cross-references
Psalms 46:4(v9)There is a river, the streams of which make the city of God glad, the holy place of the tents of the Most High.
Proverbs 14:18(v11)The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.
Malachi 3:10(v11)Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this,” says Yahweh of Armies, “if I will…
Hebrews 2:7-9(v11)You made him a little lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and honor. You have put all things in subjection under his feet.”…
Psalms 25:10(v11)All the paths of Yahweh are loving kindness and truth to such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.
Job 36:28(v11)which the skies pour down and which drop on man abundantly.
Isaiah 55:12(v13)For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace. The mountains and the hills will break out before you into singing; and all the…
Joel 2:14(v11)Who knows? He may turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meal offering and a drink offering to Yahweh, your God.
Revelation 22:1(v9)He showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb,
Psalms 104:3(v11)He lays the beams of his rooms in the waters. He makes the clouds his chariot. He walks on the wings of the wind.
Psalms 104:13-15(v9)He waters the mountains from his rooms. The earth is filled with the fruit of your works. He causes the grass to grow for the livestock,…
Isaiah 35:1-2(v13)The wilderness and the dry land will be glad. The desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose. It will blossom abundantly, and rejoice even…
Jeremiah 5:24(v9)They don’t say in their heart, ‘Let’s now fear Yahweh our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season, who preserves…
Acts 14:17(vv9, 13)Yet he didn’t leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you rains from the sky and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts…
Job 38:26-27(v12)to cause it to rain on a land where there is no man, on the wilderness, in which there is no man, to satisfy the waste and desolate ground,…
Psalms 68:9-10(v9)You, God, sent a plentiful rain. You confirmed your inheritance when it was weary. Your congregation lived therein. You, God, prepared your…
Isaiah 30:23(v13)He will give the rain for your seed, with which you will sow the ground; and bread of the increase of the ground will be rich and…
Joel 2:23-26(v9)“Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in Yahweh, your God; for he gives you the early rain in just measure, and he causes the…
Romans 11:17(v11)But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the…
Deuteronomy 11:11-12(v9)but the land that you go over to possess is a land of hills and valleys which drinks water from the rain of the sky, a land which Yahweh…
Ruth 1:6(v9)Then she arose with her daughters-in-law, that she might return from the country of Moab; for she had heard in the country of Moab how…
Job 5:10-11(v9)who gives rain on the earth, and sends waters on the fields; so that he sets up on high those who are low, those who mourn are exalted to…
Psalms 96:11-13(v13)Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar, and its fullness! Let the field and all that is in it exult! Then all…
Psalms 98:7-9(v13)Let the sea roar with its fullness; the world, and those who dwell therein. Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the mountains sing for joy…
Psalms 104:10-13(v12)He sends springs into the valleys. They run among the mountains. They give drink to every animal of the field. The wild donkeys quench…
Psalms 147:8(v10)who covers the sky with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass grow on the mountains.
Psalms 147:8-9(v9)who covers the sky with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass grow on the mountains. He provides food for the livestock,…
Isaiah 44:23(v13)Sing, you heavens, for Yahweh has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth! Break out into singing, you mountains, O forest, all of…
Joel 2:22(v12)Don’t be afraid, you animals of the field; for the pastures of the wilderness spring up, for the tree bears its fruit. The fig tree and the…
1 Corinthians 3:6-7(v10)I planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the…
Genesis 26:12(v9)Isaac sowed in that land, and reaped in the same year one hundred times what he planted. Yahweh blessed him.
Leviticus 26:4(v9)then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
Deuteronomy 32:2(v10)My doctrine will drop as the rain. My speech will condense as the dew, as the misty rain on the tender grass, as the showers on the herb.
Psalms 65:6(v12)By your power, you form the mountains, having armed yourself with strength.
Psalms 72:16(v13)Abundance of grain shall be throughout the land. Its fruit sways like Lebanon. Let it flourish, thriving like the grass of the field.
Psalms 104:24-28(v13)Yahweh, how many are your works! In wisdom, you have made them all. The earth is full of your riches. There is the sea, great and wide, in…
Psalms 144:13(v13)Our barns are full, filled with all kinds of provision. Our sheep produce thousands and ten thousands in our fields.
Psalms 147:14(v9)He makes peace in your borders. He fills you with the finest of the wheat.
Isaiah 35:10(v13)Then Yahweh’s ransomed ones will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain…
Isaiah 52:9(v13)Break out into joy! Sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem; for Yahweh has comforted his people. He has redeemed Jerusalem.
Isaiah 61:10-11(v12)I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh! My soul will be joyful in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me…
Jeremiah 14:22(v9)Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the sky give showers? Aren’t you he, Yahweh our God? Therefore…
Jeremiah 48:33(v13)Gladness and joy is taken away from the fruitful field and from the land of Moab. I have caused wine to cease from the wine presses. No one…
Zechariah 9:17(v13)For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! Grain will make the young men flourish, and new wine the virgins.
Job 37:6-13(v9)For he says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ likewise to the shower of rain, and to the showers of his mighty rain. He seals up the hand…
Psalms 63:1(v9)God, you are my God. I will earnestly seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you, in a dry and weary land, where there is no…
Psalms 65:11(v9)You crown the year with your bounty. Your carts overflow with abundance.
Psalms 107:37(v9)sow fields, plant vineyards, and reap the fruits of increase.
Isaiah 55:9-13(v12)“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain…
1 Timothy 6:17-18(v9)Charge those who are rich in this present world that they not be arrogant, nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but on the…
55 distinct cross-references across this passage (56 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (18 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv9–119. Thou hast visited the earth, and watered it…
9. Thou hast visited the earth, and watered it This and the verbs which follow denote action continually going forward, and may therefore be rendered in the present tense. The exact meaning of the second verb in the sentence has been disputed. Some derive it from the verb שוק, shuk, signifying to desire; and giving this meaning, that God visits the earth after it has been made dry and thirsty by long drought. Others derive it from the verb שקה, shakah, signifying to give drink. This seems the most natural interpretation — Thou visitest the earth by watering it. It suits the connection better, for it follows, thou plentifully enrichest it, an expression obviously added by way of amplification. Whether the Psalmist speaks of Judea only, or of the world at large, is a point as to which different opinions may be held. I am disposed myself to think, that although what he says applies to the earth generally, he refers more particularly to Judea, as the former part of the psalm has been occupied with recounting the kindness of God to his own Church and people more especially. This view is confirmed by what is added, the stream or river of God is full of water Some take the river of God to mean a great or mighty river, but such a rendering is harsh and overstrained, and on that supposition, rivers, in the plural number, would have been the form of expression used. I consider that he singles out the small rivulet of Siloah, and sets it in opposition to the natural rivers which enrich other countries, intending an allusion to the word of Moses, (Deuteronomy 11:10,) that the land which the Lord their God should give unto his people would not be as the land of Egypt, fertilized by the overflowings of the Nile, but a land drinking water of the rain of heaven. Or we may suppose that he calls the rain itself metaphorically the river of God The words must, at any rate, be restricted to Judea, as by the pastures or dwellings of the wilderness, we are also to understand the more dry and uncultivated districts, called in Scripture “the hill country.” But while it is the kindness of God to his own people which is here more particularly celebrated as being better known, we are bound, in whatever part of the world we live, to acknowledge the riches of the Divine goodness seen in the earth’s fertility and increase. It is not of itself that it brings forth such an inexhaustible variety of fruits, but only in so far as it has been fitted by God for producing the food of man. Accordingly, there is a propriety and force in the form of expression used by the Psalmist when he adds, that corn is provided for man, because the earth has been so prepared by God; which means, that the reason of that abundance with which the earth teems, is its having been expressly formed by God in his fatherly care of the great household of mankind, to supply the wants of his children.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv9, 10, 13To wit, with rain.
To wit, with rain.
That is, Shiloh or the rain.
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Thou hast appointed the earth to bring forth food to man’s use.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv9–13Psa 65:9 Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it:…
Psa 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.
Ver. 9. Thou visitest the earth, &c.] i.e. With a gracious rain, and so makest it to become an alma parens to men and beasts.
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With the river of God] With thy sweet showers coming out of the clouds, as out of a great watering pot, Psa 147:8, Pluvia de coelo replens flumina (Aben Ezra).
Thou preparest them corn] As a good housekeeper doth for his family. How easy were it with God to starve us all!
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv9–13Visitest, to wit, in mercy, or with thy favour,…
Visitest, to wit, in mercy, or with thy favour, as this word is oft used.
The earth; the whole earth, which is full of thy bounty. So he continues to declare the general providence of God to all men and people. Or rather the land, or this land, for here is an emphatical article. And so he comes from God’s general providence over all places and nations, to his particular and special providence over his people in the land of Canaan, whereof he gives one eminent and considerable instance, to wit. his giving them rain and fruitful seasons, and that after a time of drought and scarcity, to which it is not improbably supposed that this Psalm relates. And this may be the particular occasion for which the psalmist said that praise waited for God in Zion, Psa 65:1. Waterest it: this is added to determine and explain the former general word, or to show how or wherein God visited it.
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With the river of God; either,
1. With the rivers which God hath made in the several parts of the earth, to make it moist and fruitful; although the fertility of the greatest part of the earth doth not depend so much upon the rivers below, as upon the rains from above. Or,
2. With the river Jordan, which sometimes overflowed its banks. But that overflow reached only to a small part of the land. Or rather,
3. With showers of rain, which he very significantly calls a river for their plenty, and the river of God, i.e. of God’s immediate making and providing when he sees fit; which is opposed both to those little rivulets or channels which husbandmen or gardeners cut for the watering of their grounds; and to those greater rivers which run with a constant course, and by their little channels derived from them, or by their overflows, do water and enrich the earth, as Nilus did Egypt; to which these words may seem to have a special reference, especially if they be compared with Deu 11:10-12, &c.
Thou preparest; by this means thou preparest the earth for bringing forth corn, and ripenest the corn in the earth. Preparest them; for them, to wit, the inhabitants of the earth or land here mentioned, for their use and benefit.
Provided for it; or, disposed, or ordered, or prepared it, to wit, the earth, which without this would be hard and barren.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv9–13Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it,.... So the…
Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it,.... So the Lord looked upon the earth, quickly after its formation, before rain came upon it, and he watered the whole face of the ground, Gen 2:5; so he cared for the land of Judea in particular, and watered it with the rain of heaven, Deu 11:11; see Sa2 21:1; to which some think reference is had here; and so he visits and waters the whole earth in general, at certain times and seasons, Act 14:16; this may be applied to the church and people of God in Gospel times, who are his husbandry, and the good ground on which the seed falls and is received, and brings forth fruit; and are comparable to the earth that drinks in the rain that comes oft upon it, and brings forth herbs meet for those that dress it, and receives a blessing from God, Heb 6:7; thus the Lord visited his people, by the mission of his Son to redeem them, whose coming was as the rain, the former and latter, to the earth, Luk 1:68; so he visited the Gentile world, by the preaching of the Gospel by his apostles, whose doctrines dropped as the rain, and distilled as the dew and small rain on the tender herb, and as showers on the grass; and so made a wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water, Act 15:14; and in like manner he visits particular persons in conversion, and waters them with the graces of his Spirit, by which he regenerates, quickens, and sanctifies them, and makes them fruitful, Isa 44:3;
thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water; not Shiloah nor Jordan; but the clouds which are full of rain, which falling upon the earth, impregnate it with rich particles, which make it very fertile and fruitful; so the Targum,
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"with a multitude of fruits thou enrichest it out of the river of God, which is in heaven, which is full of rain:''
this may mystically denote the river of God's everlasting love, which is full of the blessings of grace, and which flowing upon his people, makes them fruitful, and enriches them with the riches of grace and glory; see Psa 46:4;
thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it; or because thou hast so prepared it (o); that is, the earth being disposed and prepared by the Lord, watered and enriched with the rain of heaven, produces corn in great plenty for the inhabitants of the earth; which may spiritually design either the fruitfulness of the saints, whose hearts are disposed and prepared by the grace of God to receive the seed of the word, which brings forth fruit in them; or the bread corn, that wheat of the Gospel, and Christ the sum and substance of it, which is of God's preparing for his people, and by which they are nourished and made comfortable; see Zac 9:17.
(o) "quia sic parasti eam", Pagninus; so Cocceius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv9, 10, 12, 13River - With rain, which he very significantly calls…
River - With rain, which he very significantly calls a river for its plenty, and the river of God, of God's immediate providing. Them - The inhabitants of the earth. Provided - Or, disposed, the earth, which without this would be hard and barren.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv9–13Verse 9. Thou visitest the earth] God is represented…
Verse 9. Thou visitest the earth] God is represented as going through the whole globe, and examining the wants of every part, and directing the clouds how and where to deposit their fertilizing showers, and the rivers where to direct their beneficial courses.
The river of God] Some think the Jordan is meant; and the visiting and watering refer to rain after a long drought. But the clouds may be thus denominated, which properly are the origin of rivers.
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Thou preparest them corn] Or, Thou wilt prepare them corn, because "thou hast provided for it." Thou hast made all necessary provision for the fertilization of the earth. Thou hast endued the ground with a vegetative power. Rains, dews, and the genial heat of the sun enable it to put forth that power in providing grass for cattle, and corn for the service of man.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv9, 11, 13Psa 65:9-10. Thou visitest — In mercy, or with…
Psa 65:9-10. Thou visitest — In mercy, or with thy favour, the earth, and waterest it — The whole earth, which is full of thy bounty. So understood, he continues to speak of the general providence of God over all people. Or, he may mean, Thou visitest the land — Namely, the land of Israel; and so he proceeds, from God’s general providence over all places and nations, to his particular and special providence over his people in the land of Canaan, whereof he gives one eminent and considerable instance, namely, his giving them rain and fruitful seasons, and that after a time of drought and scarcity, to which, it is not improbably supposed, this Psalm refers. And this may be the particular occasion, for which the psalmist said, that praise waited for God in Zion. Thou enrichest it with the river of God — With rain, which he calls a river for his plenty, and the river of God, because it is of his immediate providing; which is full of water — The clouds, like a vast river, are never exhausted, or, if they empty themselves upon the earth, they are soon and easily replenished again. Thou preparest them corn — By these means thou causest the earth to bring forth and ripen corn for its inhabitants; when thou hast so provided for it — Hebrew, כן תכינה, cheen techineah, hast so ordered, disposed, or prepared it; namely, the earth by thus watering it, which would otherwise be hard and barren. Thou settlest the furrows thereof — Which are turned up by the plough or spade. Or, thou bringest them down, as נחת, nachath, rather signifies: for the rain dissolves the high and hard clods of the earth. Thou blessest the springing thereof — When all is done, the fruitfulness of the earth must not be ascribed to the rain or sun, or any second causes, but to thy blessing alone.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv9–13Thou visitest the earth - God seems to come…
Thou visitest the earth - God seems to come down that he may attend to the needs of the earth; survey the condition of things; arrange for the welfare of the world which he has made; and supply the needs of those whom he has created to dwell upon it. See the notes at Psa 8:4.
And waterest it - Margin, After thou hadst made it to desire rain. This difference between the translations in the text and in the margin can be accounted for by the various meanings of the original word. The Hebrew term - שׁוק shûq - means properly:
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(a) to run;
(b) to run after anything, to desire, to look for;
(c) to run over, to overflow; and then,
(d) to cause to overflow.
The meaning here evidently is, he drenched the earth, or caused the water to run abundantly. The reference is to a copious rain after a drought.
Thou greatly enrichest it - That is, Thou givest to it abundance; thou pourest water upon it in such quantities, and in such a manner, as to make it rich in its productions.
With the river of God - A river so abundant and full that it seems to come from God; it is such as we should expect to flow from a Being infinite in resources and in benevolence. Anything great is in the Scriptures often described as belonging to God, or his name is added to it to denote its greatness. Thus, hills of God mean lofty hills; cedars of God, lofty cedars, etc.
Which is full of water - The waters are so abundant that it seems as if they must come from God.
Thou preparest them corn - Grain. Thou givest to those who cultivate the earth an abundant harvest.
When thou hast so provided for it - Or rather, When thou hast thus prepared the earth, to wit, by sending down abundant rains upon it. God prepares the earth to bear an abundant harvest, and then he gives that harvest. The preparation of the earth for the harvest, and then the givinq of the harvest, are alike from him. The harvest could not be without the previous rain, and neither the rain nor the harvest could be without God. He does not create a harvest by miracle, but follows the order which he has himself ordained, and has respect to his own laws.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv9, 11, 12visitest--in mercy (compare Psa 8:4).
visitest--in mercy (compare Psa 8:4).
river of God--His exhaustless resources.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv9, 10, 11, 139. The psalmist having finished his contemplation of God’s…
9. The psalmist having finished his contemplation of God’s work among the nations, (Psa_65:5-8,) now turns to his providence in nature, in adapting its forces and the order of the seasons to the uses and wants of man.
Thou visitest the earth—Thou hast visited the earth. The verb is in the preterite—a fulfilment of the promise, Deu_11:11-12. But there is a special application of these descriptions to the season then present, as appears from the interchange of the past and future tenses of the verbs. The word visit, here, denotes a special visit, as if God came down in person to attend to the wants of the earth.
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Thou… waterest it— Causest the water to overflow it.
Greatly enrichest it—The earth was barren before because of its dryness, but God’s showers have made it rich. Palestine and Arabia would now become fruitful with all the products suited to them, if well watered.
River of God—Not any particular “river” or channel of Palestine, but a poetic expression for the fulness of those celestial waters which are sent down to enrich the earth by the wonderful provision of God.
Preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it—A beautiful thought beautifully expressed. The verb prepare is repeated, to show that it is God who foresees and tenderly cares for our wants, and that the rain is his pledge of harvest. “Thou writ prepare their corn, because thus (for this end) thou wilt prepare the earth.”
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv9–139. Thou hast visited the land, and made it…
9. Thou hast visited the land, and made it plentiful, greatly enriching it:
The stream of God is full of water;
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Thou preparest their corn, for so thou preparest it.
The A.V. visitest turns the special thanksgiving into a general statement. The rendering waterest follows the Ancient Versions, which may however have read the word differently. The use of the verb in Joe_2:24; Joe_3:13, points to the meaning made it overflow, made it plentiful. God’s ‘stream’ (Psa_1:3) is the rain, with which He irrigates the land as out of a brimming aqueduct (Deu_11:11; Job_38:25), providing corn for men by preparing the earth, as the next verse goes on to describe:
9–13. The special object of the Psalm—thanksgiving for the plenty of the year. First, grateful acknowledgment that the rains which have fertilised the soil were God’s gift; then a charming picture of a joyous landscape rich with promise.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv9–12(9) Thou visitest . . .—Better, Thou hast visited.…
(9) Thou visitest . . .—Better, Thou hast visited. Even if there is not reference to some particular season of plenty, yet with a glance back on the memory of such. Instead of “earth,” perhaps, here, “land.”
Waterest.—Or, floodest. The river of God stands for the rain. There is a Arabic proverb, “When the river of God comes, the river Isa (in Bagdad) ceases.” The Rabbins say, “God has four keys which He never entrusts to any angel, and chief of these is the key of the rain.” (Comp. Job_26:8; Job_28:26; Job_38:28.) The expression “river” for rain is very appropriate of the downpour of a country that has its rainy season. (Comp. “the rushing of the river rain,” Tennyson’s Vivien.)
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Thou preparest . . .—The Authorised Version misses the sense, which is, thou preparest their corn when thou hast prepared it (the land) so—i.e., in the manner now to be described. Thus LXX. and Vulgate.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv9–13Vers. 9-13. In conclusion, the psalmist praises God for…
Vers. 9-13. In conclusion, the psalmist praises God for his bountiful providence with respect to the harvest. According to some, the whole poem is essentially a harvest thanksgiving, and the poet now "comes at last to the point aimed at from the first." He traces the whole process by which the glorious termination is arrived at. First, the "early rain" descending from "the river of God," or the reservoir for rain which God guards in the heavens, (Job_38:37) moistening the furrows, softening the ridges, and preparing the land for the seed-corn. Then the sowing, which, being man"s work, is but just touched on (ver. 9, ad fin. ). After that, the "latter rain the gentle showers of March and April which cause the grain to burst and the blade to spring, and the ear to form itself, and turn the dull fallow into a mass of greenery (vers. 10, 12). At last, the full result pastures clothed with flocks; valleys, the "long broad sweeps between parallel ranges of hills," covered over with corn; all nature laughing and shouting for joy (ver. 13).
Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it. (comp. Job_36:27, 28 37:6 38:26-28 Psa_147:2-8 Jer_5:24 Mat_5:45) Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God. There is no "with" in the original; and the two clauses are better taken separately. Translate, Thou greatly enrichest it; the river of God is full of water. By "the river of God" is to be understood God"s store of water in the clouds and atmosphere, which he can at any time retain or let loose. Thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it; rather, when thou hast so prepared her (the earth). By thus preparing the earth for the sowing. God prepares for men the corn which they ultimately obtain at the harvest.
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Thanksgiving for corn.
"Thou preparest them corn.
I BECAUSE IT IS THE SPECIAL GIFT OF GOD TO MAN. It came from God at first. It is renewed year by year. Wherever man dwells it may be cultivated in some form or other. "How it stands, that yellow corn, on its fair taper stems, its golden head bent, all rich and waving there! The mute earth at God"s kind bidding has produced it once again man"s bread" (Luther).
II BECAUSE IT IS INDISPENSABLE TO THE WELFARE OF MAN. Corn is not only valuable, but necessary. Individuals may live without it, but for man, on the broad scale, it is indispensable. The worth is known by the want. When there is a scarcity of corn, all the markets of the world are affected. Bread is the staff of life. It is because of its worth and its suitableness to human needs that corn is constituted the symbol of the highest blessings. It stands for the Word of God. It figures the great redemption. (Joh_12:24) It foreshadows the glory of the resurrection. (1Co 15)
III BECAUSE IT DEPENDS FOR ITS CONTINUANCE ON THE LABOUR OF MAN. Many gifts come to us irrespective of our own efforts, but corn is not one of them. Its enjoyment is conditional. It is an annual. It has not an independent existence. It does not live and propagate itself by its own seed. It requires the care of man, else it would soon die out and be lost. In order to be preserved it must be sown by man"s own hand in ground which man"s own hand has tilled. The land must be prepared for the corn, as well as the corn for the land. Manifold blessings result from this arrangement. Thrift is good. Labour is a healthful discipline. Providing for the wants of ourselves and others binds us more closely together as brethren. If there be famine in Canaan, there is corn in Egypt; and this leads to commerce and friendly intercourse between nations. Besides, in the fact that year after year we must sow in order to reap; that each season"s supply is but a measured quantity, never much in excess of what is required for food; and that the powers of heaven must work together with the powers of earth to secure a bountiful harvest; we are taught in the most impressive manner our dependence upon God, and our obligations to praise him for his goodness and his wonderful works. W.F.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon1885 · Public DomainOn vv9–13Ver. 9. Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it.…
Ver. 9. Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it. God's visits leave a blessing behind; this is more than can be said of every visitor. When the Lord goes on visitations of mercy, he has abundance of necessary things for all his needy creatures. He is represented here as going round the earth, as a gardener surveys his garden, and as giving water to every plant that requires it, and that not in small quantities, but until the earth is drenched and soaked with a rich supply of refreshment. O Lord, in this manner visit thy church, and my poor, parched, and withering piety. Make thy grace to overflow towards my graces; water me, for no plant of thy garden needs it more.
"My stock lies dead and no increase
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Doth my dull husbandry improve;
O let thy graces without cease
Drop from above."
Thou greatly enrichest it. Millions of money could not so much enrich mankind as the showers do. The soil is made rich by the rain, and then yields its riches to man; but God is the first giver of all. How truly rich are those who are enriched with grace; this is great riches.
With the river of God, which is full of water. The brooks of earth are soon dried up, and all human resources, being finite, are liable to failure; but God's provision for the supply of rain is inexhaustible; there is no bottom or shore to his river. The deluge poured from the clouds of yesterday may be succeeded by another tomorrow, and yet the waters above the firmament shall not fail. How true this is in the realm of grace; there the river of God is full of water, and "of his fulness have we all received, and grace for grace." The ancients in their fables spake of Pactolus, which flowed over sands of gold; but this river of God, which flows above and from which the rain is poured, is far more enriching; for, after all, the wealth of men lies mainly in the harvest of their fields, without which even gold would be of no value whatever.
Thou preparest them corn. Corn is specially set apart to be the food of man. In its various species it is a divine provision for the nutriment of our race, and is truly called the staff of life. We hear in commerce of "prepared corn flour, "but God prepared it long before man touched it. As surely as the manna was prepared of God for the tribes, so certainly is corn made and sent by God for our daily use. What is the difference whether we gather wheat ears or manna, and what matters it if the first come upward to us, and the second downward? God is as much present beneath as above; it is as great a marvel that food should rise out of the dust, as that it should fall from the skies.
When thou hast so provided for it. When all is prepared to produce corn, the Lord puts the finishing stroke, and the grain is forthcoming; not even, when all the material is prepared, will the wheat be perfected without the continuous and perfecting operation of the Most High. Blessed be the Great Householder; he does not suffer the harvest to fail, he supplies the teeming myriads of earth with bread enough from year to year. Even thus does he vouchsafe heavenly food to his redeemed ones: "He hath given meat unto them that fear him; he is ever mindful of his covenant."
Ver. 9. Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it, etc. How beautiful are the words of the inspired poet, read in this month of harvest, nearly three thousand years after they were written! For nearly three thousand years since the royal poet looked over the plains of Judea covered with the bounty of God, and broke forth into his magnificent hymn of praise, has the earth rolled on in her course, and the hand of God has blessed her, and all her children, with seed time and harvest, with joy and abundance. The very steadfastness of the Almighty's liberality, flowing like a mighty ocean through the infinite vast of the universe, makes his creatures forget to wonder at its wonderfulness, to feel true thankfulness at its immeasurable goodness. The sun rises and sets so surely; the seasons run on amid all their changes with such inimitable truth, that we take as a matter of course that which is amazing beyond all stretch of imagination, and good beyond the wildest expansion of the noblest human heart. The poor man, with his half a dozen children, toils, and often dies, under the vain labour of winning bread for them. God feeds his family of countless myriads swarming over the surface of all countless worlds, and none know need but through the follies of themselves, or the cruelty of their fellows. God pours his light from innumerable suns on innumerable rejoicing planets; he waters them everywhere in the fittest moment; he ripens the food of globes and of nations, and gives them fair weather to garner it. And from age to age, amid his endless creatures of endless forms and powers, in the beauty and the sunshine, and the magnificence of nature, he seems to sing throughout creation the glorious song of his own divine joy, in the immortality of his youth, in the omnipotence of his nature, in the eternity of his patience, and the abounding boundlessness of his love. What a family hangs on his sustaining arm! The life and soul of infinite ages, and of uncounted worlds! Let a moment's failure of his power, of his watchfulness, or of his will to do good, occur, and what a sweep of death and annihilation through the universe! How stars would reel, planets expire, and nations perish! But from age to age, no such catastrophe occurs, even in the midst of national crimes, and of atheism that denies the hand that made and feeds it. Life springs with a power ever new; food springs up as plentiful to sustain it, and sunshine and joy are poured over all from the invisible throne of God, as the poetry of the existence which he has given. If there come seasons of dearth, or of failure, they come but as warnings to proud and tyrannic man. The potato is smitten that a nation may not be oppressed for ever; and the harvest is diminished that the laws of man's unnatural avarice may be rent asunder. And then, again, the sun shines, the rain falls, and the earth rejoices in a renewed beauty, and in a redoubled plenty. William Howitt, in "The Year Book of the Country." 1850.
Ver. 9. Thou visitest the earth. God seems to come with the coming in of each of the seasons. In some respects, during winter, God seems like a man travelling into a far country. Darkness, and barrenness, and coldness, suggest absence on the part of God. The spring looks like his return. The great change it involves cheerily whispers, "He is not far from any one of us." In longer days, and a warmer atmosphere, and a revived earth, God comes to us. These things are not of necessity, but of providence. There are second causes, but above all these is the First Cause, intelligent, loving, and free, God rules in all, over all, and above all. He is not displaced or supplanted by the forces and agencies which he employs, he is not absorbed by care of other worlds, he is not indifferent toward the earth. A personal superintendence and providence are not beneath his dignity, or in anywise distasteful to him. As Maker, and Life giver, and Father, Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it. Samuel Martin, in "Rain upon the Mown Grass, and other Sermons." 1871.
Ver. 9. The psalmist is here foretelling the gracious outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the conversion of the nations of the earth to Christ. Origen.
Ver. 9. The chiefs of Hebrew theology attribute four keys to God, which he never entrusted to any angel or seraph, and as the first of these they place the key of rain. He himself is said, in Job 28:26, to give a law to the rain, and in chapter Job 26:8, to bind up the waters in the clouds. Thomas Le Blanc.
Ver. 9. With the river of God, which is full of water. That is, the clouds figuratively described. Edward Leigh (1602-3-1671).
Ver. 9. The river of God, as opposed to earthly streams. However these may fail, the divine resources are exhaustless. Joseph Addison Alexander.
Ver. 9. The river of God. The Chaldee paraphrase is, From the fountain of God which is in the heavens, which is full of the rainstorms of blessing, thou wilt prepare their cornfields. Lorinus.
Ver. 9. Thou preparest their grain; for so dost thou prepare the earth. (Version of American Bible Union.) So, namely, with this design, and for this end. In the Hebrew, "for so dost thou prepare her; "referring to "the earth, "which in Hebrew is fem., while grain is masc. The meaning can be expressed in English only by using the word (earth) which the Hebrew pronoun represents. The English pronoun (it) would necessarily refer to "grain, "and would represent neither the meaning of the Hebrew nor its form. Thomas J. Conant.
Ver. 9. Thou preparest them corn, etc. Corn is the special gift of God to man. There are several interesting and instructive ideas connected with this view of it. All the other plants we use as food are unfit for his purpose in their natural condition, and require to have their nutritious qualities developed, and their natures and forms to a certain extent changed by a gradual process of cultivation. There is not a single useful plant grown in our gardens and fields, but is utterly worthless for food in its normal or wild state; and man has been left to himself to find out, slowly and painfully, how to convert these crudities of nature into nutritious vegetables. But it is not so with corn. It has from the very beginning been an abnormal production. God gave it to Adam, we have every reason to believe, in the same perfect state of preparation for food in which we find it at the present day, It was made expressly for man, and given directly into his hands. "Behold, "says the Creator, "I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth; "that is, all the cereal plants--such as corn, wheat, barley, rice, maize, etc., whose peculiar characteristic it is to produce seed... There is another proof that corn was created expressly for man's use, in the fact that it has never been found in a wild state. The primitive types from which all our other esculent plants were derived are still to be found in a state of nature in this or other countries. The wild beet and cabbage still grow on our seashores; the crab apple and the sloe, the savage parents of our luscious pippins and plums, are still found among the trees of the wood; but where are the original types of our corn plants? Where are the wild grasses, which, according to some authors, the cumulative process of agriculture carried on through successive ages, have developed into corn, wheat, and barley? Much has been written, and many experiments have been tried, to determine the natural origin of these cereals, but every effort has hitherto proved in vain. Reports have again and again been circulated that corn and wheat have been found growing wild in some parts of Persia and the steppes of Tartary, apparently far from the influence of cultivation; but when tested by botanical data, these reports have turned out, in every instance, to be unfounded. Corn has never been known as anything else than a cultivated plant. History and observation prove that it cannot grow spontaneously. It is never, like other plants, self sown and self diffused. Neglected of men, it speedily disappears and becomes extinct. It does not return, as do all other cultivated varieties of plants, to a natural condition, and so become worthless as food, but utterly perishes, being constitutionally unfitted to maintain the struggle for existence with the aboriginal vegetation of the soil. All this proves that it must have been produced miraculously; or, in other words, given by God to man directly, in the same abnormal condition in which it now appears; for nature never could have developed or preserved it. In the mythologies of all the ancient nations it was confidently affirmed to have had a supernatural origin. The Greeks and Romans believed it to be the gift of the goddess Ceres, who taught her son, Triptolemus, to cultivate and distribute it over the earth; and from her, the whole class of plants received the name of cereals, which they now bear. And we only express the same truth when we say to him, whom these pagans ignorantly worshipped, Thou preparest them corn, when thou hast provided for it. Let me bring forth one more proof of special design, enabling us to recognise the hand of God in this mercy. Corn is universally diffused. It is almost the only species of plant which is capable of growing everywhere, in almost every soil, in almost any situation. In some form or other, adapted to the various modifications of climate and physical conditions, which occur in different countries, it is spread over an area of the earth's surface as extensive as the occupancy of the human race... Rice is grown in tropical countries where periodical rains and inundations, followed by excessive heat, occur, and furnishes the chief article of diet for the largest proportion of the human race. Wheat will not thrive in hot climates, but flourishes all over the temperate zone, at various ranges of elevation, and is admirably adapted to the wants of highly civilized communities. Maize spreads over an immense geographical area in the new world, where it has been known from time immemorial, and formed a principal element of that Indian civilisation which surprised the Spaniards in Mexico and Peru. Barley is cultivated in those parts of Europe and Asia where the soil and climate are not adapted for wheat; while oats and rye extend far into the bleak north, and disappear only from those desolate Arctic regions where man cannot exist in his social capacity. By these striking adaptations of different varieties of grain, containing the same essential ingredients, to different soils and climates, Providence has furnished the indispensable food for the sustenance of the human race throughout the whole habitable globe; and all nations, and tribes, and tongues can rejoice together, as one great family, with the joy of harvest. Hugh Macmillan, in "Bible Teachings in Nature." 1868.
Ver. 9-13. I do not know any picture of rural life that in any measure comes up to the exquisite description here brought before us, and which every one's heart at once recognises as so true to nature in all its branches. In the brief compass of five verses we have the whole scene vividly sketched, from the first preparation of the earth or soil; the provision of the corn seed for the sower; the rain in its season, the former and the latter rain, watering the ridges, settling the furrows, and causing the seed to swell and to spring forth, and bud and blossom; then the crowning of the whole year in the appointed weeks of harvest, and men's hearts rejoicing before God according to the joy in harvest, the very foot paths dropping with fatness, and the valleys shouting and singing for joy. Our harvest homes are times of rejoicing too, but I would that our tillers and reapers of the soil would as piously refer all to God as the psalmist did. Thou waterest the earth, Thou greatly enrichest it, Thou preparest the corn, Thou waterest the ridges, Thou settlest the furrows, Thou makest it soft with showers, Thou blessest the springing thereof, Thou crownest the year with thy goodness. Not one word of man, of man's skill, or of man's labour, not one thought of self. How different from him whose grounds brought forth abundantly, and whose only thought was, "I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, drink, and be merry." Barton Bouchier.
Ver. 9. The river of God. John Bunyan's treatise on "The Water of Life" would be suggestive on this topic.
Ver. 9. Divine visits and their consequences.
Ver. 9-13. A Harvest Sermon.
I. The general goodness of God, Visiting the earth
in rotation of seasons: "Seed time and harvest, "etc.
II. The greatness of his resources: The river of
God, which is full of water; not like Elijah's
brook, which dried up.
III. The variety of his benefactions: Corn; Water;
Blessest the springing thereof, etc.
IV. The perpetuity of his blessings; Crownest the
year. E. G. G.
Psalms 65:10*
Ver. 9-13. See Psalms on "Ps 65:9" for further information.
Ver. 9-13. A Harvest Sermon.
I. The general goodness of God, Visiting the earth
in rotation of seasons: "Seed time and harvest, "etc.
II. The greatness of his resources: The river of
God, which is full of water; not like Elijah's
brook, which dried up.
III. The variety of his benefactions: Corn; Water;
Blessest the springing thereof, etc.
IV. The perpetuity of his blessings; Crownest the
year. E. G. G.
Ver. 9-13. See Psalms on "Ps 65:9" for further information.
Ver. 9-13. A Harvest Sermon.
I. The general goodness of God, Visiting the earth
in rotation of seasons: "Seed time and harvest, "etc.
II. The greatness of his resources: The river of
God, which is full of water; not like Elijah's
brook, which dried up.
III. The variety of his benefactions: Corn; Water;
Blessest the springing thereof, etc.
IV. The perpetuity of his blessings; Crownest the
year. E. G. G.
Ver. 9-13. See Psalms on "Ps 65:9" for further information.
Ver. 9-13. A Harvest Sermon.
I. The general goodness of God, Visiting the earth
in rotation of seasons: "Seed time and harvest, "etc.
II. The greatness of his resources: The river of
God, which is full of water; not like Elijah's
brook, which dried up.
III. The variety of his benefactions: Corn; Water;
Blessest the springing thereof, etc.
IV. The perpetuity of his blessings; Crownest the
year. E. G. G.
Ver. 9-13. See Psalms on "Ps 65:9" for further information.
Ver. 9-13. A Harvest Sermon.
I. The general goodness of God, Visiting the earth
in rotation of seasons: "Seed time and harvest, "etc.
II. The greatness of his resources: The river of
God, which is full of water; not like Elijah's
brook, which dried up.
III. The variety of his benefactions: Corn; Water;
Blessest the springing thereof, etc.
IV. The perpetuity of his blessings; Crownest the
year. E. G. G.
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv9–11Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it.
Psa_65:9
Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it.
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The Divine visitations
I. Gods visit to the earth in his providence. It is to this visit that our text immediately refers: Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it. It was not to cast fire upon it that the Lord came. It would not have been strange had He done that; but there is enough of fire in the composition of the globe to burn it to a coal, only the Lord waters it from His chambers, and keeps down the flames by casting showers of water upon them.
1. He visits the earth to soften its heart towards man.
2. He visits the earth to bring down the blessings upon it. 3 He visits the earth to assist it to serve man. The Lord blesseth the increase of the earth, so that one man can raise enough of corn to support scores of others, who in their turn serve him in some other way. The earth is full of His riches.
II. Gods visit to the earth in His salvation. This is the great visit to us. But for this visit it would have scarcely been worthy of the God of love to visit us in His providence.
1. He comes on this visit without being invited.
2. The earth was armed against God when He came on this visit.
3. The earth is the only place that He visits in the character of a Saviour.
4. Of all Gods visits, this is the one that cost Him most.
5. Of all the visits God has ever made, this is the one that will redound most to His glory.
III. Gods visit to the earth in judgment.
1. Although there are many things concerning this visit which have not been revealed to us, we know that He will come with terrible majesty. He will not humble Himself, neither will He be humbled by any one else at that day. He will be accompanied by a glorious throng. Ten thousands of His saints. All the holy angels with Him.
2. His object in coming will be to reckon with His servants. We know not whether He will reckon with the sun when giving it liberty; but I know that He will reckon with me, and that He will reckon with you.
3. The chief thing in view to be done then, will be to gather His subjects together, to glorify them openly, and to take them home with Him. He, too, will be for ever glorified in His saints. (D. Roberts, D. D.)
Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God.
The river of God
A stream whose sources are hidden in the bosom of the eternal hills, which is fed with the pure snows of heaven, a simple mountain rill first, then an impetuous torrent gathering volume as it descends foaming and eddying, and sweeping trees and rocks down in its course; then a broad river, rolling, now through wooded meadow land or sandy desert, now forced into a narrow and deep channel by jutting rocks, and leaping down in cataracts; holding its course now straight towards its goal, and now meandering and returning upon itself, seeming even to retrograde to the unobservant eye, receiving ever and again on the right hand and on the left fresh tributaries which drain the far-off hills on either side; fertilizing the pastures and corn lands, purifying and watering towns and villages, bearing on its bosom the precious merchandise of many peoples, giving life and vigour and joy to men; but with all this, whether flowing by crowded cities or desolate wastes, whether spreading into shallow marshes or imprisoned between barriers of rock, whether winding its flooded way over level plains, or rushing impetuously onward and forming a straight channel through all interposing obstacles, still pressing forward, ever forward with its growing volume of waters, with its increasing freight of treasures and of men, to the far-off distant, boundless ocean, there to lose itself and be absorbed into its kindred element. In this description I have not used a single word which might not apply to one of the great rivers of the earth, flowing from the Alps, or the Andes, or the Himalayas; yet throughout I have had before my mind, and perhaps I may have suggested to your minds, a heaven-descended river far mightier than this, rising from beneath the throne of God, flowing down, not without many vicissitudes, but still in triumphant progress and with ever-increasing volume, through the ages, till at length it shall lose itself in the ocean of eternity, when the knowledge of God shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Such a stream is the Church of God, the Church of the Patriarchs, the Church in Egypt, the Church of the Wilderness, the Church of the Promised Land, the Church in Babylon, the Church of the Restoration, the Church of the Dispersion, and last of all, when the fulness of time has come, the Church of Christ.
I. The continuity of the stream. The missionary spirit, like everything God-like in man, presses forward, acts for the future, hopes for the future, lives in the future, but it draws strength and refreshment from the experience, the examples, the accumulated power and wisdom of the past. Nay, just in proportion as we are animated by this reverence for the past, as we acknowledge our obligations to it, as we feel our connection with it; in short, as we realize this idea of continuity in the Church of Christ, in the same degree will the true missionary spirit--wise, zealous, humble, self-denying, enlightened, enterprising, innovating, in the best sense--because conservative in the best sense--prevail. The Church of Christ is a tree souring upward to heaven, spreading its branches far and wide, but its roots are buried far below the surface in a dark antiquity. Christian men, above all, Christian missionaries, are the heirs of all the ages.
II. The course of the river in its vicissitudes. The present time is confessedly a crisis fraught with manifold anxieties. If there are many bright gleams--and are there not many?--it is no less true that dark clouds overhang the horizon, threatening at any moment to deluge the Church of Christ. At such a crisis, what lessons does the image of the river, interpreted by the history of the past, suggest? Do they tend to dismay or to encouragement, to despair or to hope? To this question there is one clear and decisive answer. The river has its eddies and its back currents; it has its retrograde movements and its meandering channels, when it seems to recede even from its goal; it buries itself perhaps underground, or it loses itself in marshy swamps; it is hemmed in amid rocky heights, intrusive boundaries, which threaten to close in upon it and obstruct its course for ever. If we saw only one reach of the river, we should prophesy its failure in reaching its ultimate destination; but we know that despite all obstruction, despite all treacherous appearances, it must flow onward and downward and empty itself into the ocean. Whatever partial aberrations there may be, its general course is the same. This is the law of its being, and so also with the Church of God. We ought to know, and we ought to feel, independent of history, that the truth cannot perish; that the Church of God cannot fail. This is a spiritual law as the other was a physical law. It must survive, it must flow ever onward and onward till it reaches the ocean of the eternal truth.
III. How is this stream fed? What accessions does it receive? What are its tributaries? From all quarters of the heavens the streams fall into the main channels, fall direct from lofty mountain heights, draining here broad tablelands, there flowing amid barren rocks and rolling meadows and extensive plains; from the right hand and from the left they issue to swell the bulk of the rolling tide. But, as they joint the main stream, they betray their separate sources; they have their own colour, their own swiftness, and they seem almost to keep their own channel. At length the fusion is complete, they have mingled their waters in the main stream, they are lost in it; but meanwhile, and this is what I ask you specially to mark, they have communicated to it their own characteristics, their purifying or fertilizing qualities, and thus, strengthening and strengthened, giving something and receiving more, they roll down in one broad, irresistible, ever-flowing stream, bearing on their breast the natives of divers climes and the products of many soils, sweeping their rich argosies of men and treasure onwards towards the one far-off ocean which is their common goal. The tributaries of the mighty river--are we not reminded by these words of another image Under which the same truth is prefigured by psalmist and prophet, when the nations of the earth gather together from the four winds of heaven to the Holy City and pour in, each its special products, its choicest gifts as a tribute to the treasury of the God of Israel? One offers its finely woven fabrics, another its elaborately chased vessels and its rich carvings, another its costly perfume, another its ivory, its rare woods, its precious metals. Do we ask what is the counterpart to all this in the history of the Christian Church? Has not each Christian nation on its accession, as it was gathered into the fold of Christ, given some fresh cause of strength to the Church, emphasized some doctrinal truth, or developed some practical capacity, or fostered some religious sentiment, and thus contributed to the more complete understanding, or effective working, of the faith once delivered to the saints? And can we suppose that this mighty stream, this river of God, has no more great tributaries to receive, that all the literary streams which might swell and purify and fertilize its waters, have been dried up? Has the Hindoo, with his calm resignation and quiet endurance, with his quick, subtle intellect; has the Chinese, with his stubborn pertinacity and utter fearlessness of death--have these no rich offering, think you, to present at the altar, no new contribution to the fulness of the Gospel of Christ? (Bp. Lightfoot.)
Thou preparest them corn, when Thou hut so provided for it.--
Corn
The harvest-time is the most delightful of all the seasons of the year. It is the time of fulfilled hopes and realized expectations. Of all the many beautiful sights of this season, the most beautiful and interesting are the cornfields rippling in light and shade, like the waves of a sunset sea, away over valley and upland to the purple shores of the distant hills. They are the characteristic features of the season--the illuminated initials on Natures autumnal page, whose golden splendour is variegated here and there with wreaths of scarlet poppies, corn blue-bottles, and purple vetches. The landscape seems to exist solely for them, so prominent and important are they in it. Wherever they appear they are the pictures for which the rest of the scenery, however grand or beautiful, is but the mere frame. No one can gaze upon these golden cornfields without being influenced more or less by the pleasing associations with which they are connected. They strike their roots deep down into the soil of time; they are as old as the human race. They waved upon the earth long before the flood, under the husbandry of the worlds grey fathers. The sun in heaven has ripened more than six thousand of them. Progress is the law of nature, and everything else obeys it, but the harvest-field exhibits little or no change. It presents nearly the same picture in this Western clime and in these modern days as it did under the glowing skies of the East in the time of the patriarchs. We see the same old familiar scene now enacted under our eyes in every walk we take, which Ruth saw when she gleaned after her kinsmans reapers in one of the quiet valleys of Bethlehem, or which our blessed Saviour so frequently gazed upon when wandering with His disciples in the mellow afternoon around the verdant shores of Gennesaret. The harvest-fields are the golden links that connect the ages and the zones, and associate together the most distant times and the remotest nations in one common bond of sympathy and dependence. They make of the earth one great home. But the most delightful association which the harvest recalls is that of the great world-covenant which God made with Noah and symbolized by the bow in the cloud. And now, whenever we see that gorgeous blossom of light expanding its seven-coloured petals from the dark bosom of the cloud, we know that the storm, however long-continued and violent, will not always last; that the waters of Noah will no more go over the earth; that seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, day and night, summer and winter, will never cease. Our cornfields grow and ripen securely under that covenant-arch, whose key-stone is in the heavens, and whose foundations are upon the earth. They afford to us the most striking evidence, season after season, of the integrity and stability of the covenant-promise. There may have been no harvest in Canaan, but there was corn in Egypt, though the application of this compensation was sometimes rendered difficult by natural or moral obstructions. But whether the harvest be local or general, whether we be dependent upon the produce of our own fields or upon the surplus supplies of commerce, in either case it is to the covenant faithfulness of God that we are indebted for the blessing. Corn is the special gift of God to man. All the other plants we use as food are unfit for this purpose in their natural condition, and require to have their nutritious qualities developed, and their nature and forms to a certain extent changed by a gradual process of cultivation. But it is not so with corn. It has from the very beginning been an abnormal production. God gave it to Adam, we have every reason to believe, in the same perfect state of preparation for food in which we find it at the present day. We cannot regard it as an accidental, but, on the contrary, as a striking providential circumstance, that the corn-plants were utterly unknown throughout all the geological periods. Not the slightest trace of vestige of them occurs in any of the strata of the earth, until we come to the most recent formations, contemporaneous with man. They are exclusively and characteristically plants of the human epoch; their remains are found only in deposits near the surface, which belong to the age of man. There is another proof that corn was created expressly for mans use in the fact that it has never been found in a wild state. The primitive types from which all our other esculent plants were derived are still to be found in a state of nature in this or in other countries. The wild beet and cabbage still grow on our sea-shores; the crab-apple and the sloe, the savage parents of our luscious pippins and plums, are still found among the trees Of the wood; but where are the original types of our corn-plants? Corn has never been known as anything else than a cultivated plant. The oldest records speak of it exclusively as such. Wheat grains have been found wrapped up in the cerements of Egyptian mummies, which were old before history began, identical in every respect with the same variety which the farmer sows at the present day. Moreover, it is a universal plant. It is found everywhere. By striking adaptations of different varieties of grain, containing the same essential ingredients, to different soils and climates, Providence has furnished the indispensable food for the sustenance of the human race throughout the whole habitable globe; and all nations, and tribes, and tongues can rejoice together as one great family with the joy of harvest. Corn is the food most convenient and most suitable for man in a social state. It is only by the careful cultivation of it that a country becomes capable of permanently supporting a dense population. All other kinds of food are precarious, and cannot be stored up for any length of time; roots and fruits are soon exhausted, the produce of the chase is uncertain, and, if hard pressed, ceases to yield a supply. It is an annual plant. It cannot be propagated in any other way than by seed, and when it has yielded its harvest it dies down and rots in the ground; self-sown, it will gradually dwindle away, and at last disappear altogether. It can only be reared permanently by being sown by mans own hand, and in ground which mans own hand has tilled. (H. Macmillan, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv10, 13You ... your
You ... your
The words "You" and "your" refer to Yahweh.
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its furrows
"the earth's furrows"
furrows
A furrow is a long narrow trench made in the ground for planting seeds or for watering the field where grains have been planted.
ridges
edges
You crown the year with your goodness
Here the "year" is given the human quality of wearing a crown. AT: "You have honored the year with a good harvest" (See: Personification)
your wagon tracks overflow with abundance
Yahweh making the soil so good and fertile that it produces an abundant harvest is spoken of as if Yahweh were traveling through an empty land in a cart, leaving abundant food behind wherever he goes. AT: "everywhere you have been, you have left abundant food" (See: Metaphor)
The pastures ... drip with dew
There is so much dew in the pastures that they are said to drip with it. AT: "The pastures ... are full of dew" or "Much dew drips in the pastures of the wilderness"
the hills are clothed with joy
The writer speaks of the beauty of the hills as if they were joyful people, and of joy as if it were clothing. AT: "the hills are like people wearing joy" or "the hills are like joyful people" (See: Personification and Metaphor)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv9, 1365:9-13 The created order provides clear evidence of God’s…
65:9-13 The created order provides clear evidence of God’s power (65:6-8). He shows his love by maintaining nature. Everything praises the Lord as all the parts fit together harmoniously.
65:9 The river of God and all rivers demonstrate God’s victorious power and goodness through the order in nature and the regularity of the harvests (see 1:3; 36:8; 46:4; Ezek 47:6-12; Zech 14:8; Rev 22:1).
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv9–11 9. Thou hast visited the earth, and watered it…
9. Thou hast visited the earth, and watered it This and the verbs which follow denote action continually going forward, and may therefore be rendered in the present tense. The exact meaning of the second verb in the sentence has been disputed. Some derive it from the verb שוק, shuk, signifying to desire; and giving this meaning, that God visits the earth after it has been made dry and thirsty by long drought. Others derive it from the verb שקה, shakah, signifying to give drink. This seems the most natural interpretation — Thou visitest the earth by watering it. It suits the connection better, for it follows, thou plentifully enrichest it, an expression obviously added by way of amplification. Whether the Psalmist speaks of Judea only, or of the world at large, is a point as to which different opinions may be held. I am disposed myself to think, that although what he says applies to the earth generally, he refers more particularly to Judea, as the former part of the psalm has been occupied with recounting the kindness of God to his own Church and people more especially. This view is confirmed by what is added, the stream or river of God is full of water Some take the river of God to mean a great or mighty river, but such a rendering is harsh and overstrained, and on that supposition, rivers, in the plural number, would have been the form of expression used. I consider that he singles out the small rivulet of Siloah, and sets it in opposition to the natural rivers which enrich other countries, intending an allusion to the word of Moses, (Deuteronomy 11:10,) that the land which the Lord their God should give unto his people would not be as the land of Egypt, fertilized by the overflowings of the Nile, but a land drinking water of the rain of heaven. Or we may suppose that he calls the rain itself metaphorically the river of God The words must, at any rate, be restricted to Judea, as by the pastures or dwellings of the wilderness, we are also to understand the more dry and uncultivated districts, called in Scripture “the hill country.” But while it is the kindness of God to his own people which is here more particularly celebrated as being better known, we are bound, in whatever part of the world we live, to acknowledge the riches of the Divine goodness seen in the earth’s fertility and increase. It is not of itself that it brings forth such an inexhaustible variety of fruits, but only in so far as it has been fitted by God for producing the food of man. Accordingly, there is a propriety and force in the form of expression used by the Psalmist when he adds, that corn is provided for man, because the earth has been so prepared by God; which means, that the reason of that abundance with which the earth teems, is its having been expressly formed by God in his fatherly care of the great household of mankind, to supply the wants of his children.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 13 To wit, with rain.
To wit, with rain.
That is, Shiloh or the rain.
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Thou hast appointed the earth to bring forth food to man’s use.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv9–13 Psa 65:9 Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it:…
Psa 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.
Ver. 9. Thou visitest the earth, &c.] i.e. With a gracious rain, and so makest it to become an alma parens to men and beasts.
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With the river of God] With thy sweet showers coming out of the clouds, as out of a great watering pot, Psa 147:8, Pluvia de coelo replens flumina (Aben Ezra).
Thou preparest them corn] As a good housekeeper doth for his family. How easy were it with God to starve us all!
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv9–13 Visitest, to wit, in mercy, or with thy favour,…
Visitest, to wit, in mercy, or with thy favour, as this word is oft used.
The earth; the whole earth, which is full of thy bounty. So he continues to declare the general providence of God to all men and people. Or rather the land, or this land, for here is an emphatical article. And so he comes from God’s general providence over all places and nations, to his particular and special providence over his people in the land of Canaan, whereof he gives one eminent and considerable instance, to wit. his giving them rain and fruitful seasons, and that after a time of drought and scarcity, to which it is not improbably supposed that this Psalm relates. And this may be the particular occasion for which the psalmist said that praise waited for God in Zion, Psa 65:1. Waterest it: this is added to determine and explain the former general word, or to show how or wherein God visited it.
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With the river of God; either,
1. With the rivers which God hath made in the several parts of the earth, to make it moist and fruitful; although the fertility of the greatest part of the earth doth not depend so much upon the rivers below, as upon the rains from above. Or,
2. With the river Jordan, which sometimes overflowed its banks. But that overflow reached only to a small part of the land. Or rather,
3. With showers of rain, which he very significantly calls a river for their plenty, and the river of God, i.e. of God’s immediate making and providing when he sees fit; which is opposed both to those little rivulets or channels which husbandmen or gardeners cut for the watering of their grounds; and to those greater rivers which run with a constant course, and by their little channels derived from them, or by their overflows, do water and enrich the earth, as Nilus did Egypt; to which these words may seem to have a special reference, especially if they be compared with Deu 11:10-12, &c.
Thou preparest; by this means thou preparest the earth for bringing forth corn, and ripenest the corn in the earth. Preparest them; for them, to wit, the inhabitants of the earth or land here mentioned, for their use and benefit.
Provided for it; or, disposed, or ordered, or prepared it, to wit, the earth, which without this would be hard and barren.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv9–13 Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it,.... So the…
Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it,.... So the Lord looked upon the earth, quickly after its formation, before rain came upon it, and he watered the whole face of the ground, Gen 2:5; so he cared for the land of Judea in particular, and watered it with the rain of heaven, Deu 11:11; see Sa2 21:1; to which some think reference is had here; and so he visits and waters the whole earth in general, at certain times and seasons, Act 14:16; this may be applied to the church and people of God in Gospel times, who are his husbandry, and the good ground on which the seed falls and is received, and brings forth fruit; and are comparable to the earth that drinks in the rain that comes oft upon it, and brings forth herbs meet for those that dress it, and receives a blessing from God, Heb 6:7; thus the Lord visited his people, by the mission of his Son to redeem them, whose coming was as the rain, the former and latter, to the earth, Luk 1:68; so he visited the Gentile world, by the preaching of the Gospel by his apostles, whose doctrines dropped as the rain, and distilled as the dew and small rain on the tender herb, and as showers on the grass; and so made a wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water, Act 15:14; and in like manner he visits particular persons in conversion, and waters them with the graces of his Spirit, by which he regenerates, quickens, and sanctifies them, and makes them fruitful, Isa 44:3;
thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water; not Shiloah nor Jordan; but the clouds which are full of rain, which falling upon the earth, impregnate it with rich particles, which make it very fertile and fruitful; so the Targum,
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"with a multitude of fruits thou enrichest it out of the river of God, which is in heaven, which is full of rain:''
this may mystically denote the river of God's everlasting love, which is full of the blessings of grace, and which flowing upon his people, makes them fruitful, and enriches them with the riches of grace and glory; see Psa 46:4;
thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it; or because thou hast so prepared it (o); that is, the earth being disposed and prepared by the Lord, watered and enriched with the rain of heaven, produces corn in great plenty for the inhabitants of the earth; which may spiritually design either the fruitfulness of the saints, whose hearts are disposed and prepared by the grace of God to receive the seed of the word, which brings forth fruit in them; or the bread corn, that wheat of the Gospel, and Christ the sum and substance of it, which is of God's preparing for his people, and by which they are nourished and made comfortable; see Zac 9:17.
(o) "quia sic parasti eam", Pagninus; so Cocceius.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 12, 13 River - With rain, which he very significantly calls…
River - With rain, which he very significantly calls a river for its plenty, and the river of God, of God's immediate providing. Them - The inhabitants of the earth. Provided - Or, disposed, the earth, which without this would be hard and barren.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv9–13 Verse 9. Thou visitest the earth] God is represented…
Verse 9. Thou visitest the earth] God is represented as going through the whole globe, and examining the wants of every part, and directing the clouds how and where to deposit their fertilizing showers, and the rivers where to direct their beneficial courses.
The river of God] Some think the Jordan is meant; and the visiting and watering refer to rain after a long drought. But the clouds may be thus denominated, which properly are the origin of rivers.
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Thou preparest them corn] Or, Thou wilt prepare them corn, because "thou hast provided for it." Thou hast made all necessary provision for the fertilization of the earth. Thou hast endued the ground with a vegetative power. Rains, dews, and the genial heat of the sun enable it to put forth that power in providing grass for cattle, and corn for the service of man.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv9, 11, 13 Psa 65:9-10. Thou visitest — In mercy, or with…
Psa 65:9-10. Thou visitest — In mercy, or with thy favour, the earth, and waterest it — The whole earth, which is full of thy bounty. So understood, he continues to speak of the general providence of God over all people. Or, he may mean, Thou visitest the land — Namely, the land of Israel; and so he proceeds, from God’s general providence over all places and nations, to his particular and special providence over his people in the land of Canaan, whereof he gives one eminent and considerable instance, namely, his giving them rain and fruitful seasons, and that after a time of drought and scarcity, to which, it is not improbably supposed, this Psalm refers. And this may be the particular occasion, for which the psalmist said, that praise waited for God in Zion. Thou enrichest it with the river of God — With rain, which he calls a river for his plenty, and the river of God, because it is of his immediate providing; which is full of water — The clouds, like a vast river, are never exhausted, or, if they empty themselves upon the earth, they are soon and easily replenished again. Thou preparest them corn — By these means thou causest the earth to bring forth and ripen corn for its inhabitants; when thou hast so provided for it — Hebrew, כן תכינה, cheen techineah, hast so ordered, disposed, or prepared it; namely, the earth by thus watering it, which would otherwise be hard and barren. Thou settlest the furrows thereof — Which are turned up by the plough or spade. Or, thou bringest them down, as נחת, nachath, rather signifies: for the rain dissolves the high and hard clods of the earth. Thou blessest the springing thereof — When all is done, the fruitfulness of the earth must not be ascribed to the rain or sun, or any second causes, but to thy blessing alone.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv9–13 Thou visitest the earth - God seems to come…
Thou visitest the earth - God seems to come down that he may attend to the needs of the earth; survey the condition of things; arrange for the welfare of the world which he has made; and supply the needs of those whom he has created to dwell upon it. See the notes at Psa 8:4.
And waterest it - Margin, After thou hadst made it to desire rain. This difference between the translations in the text and in the margin can be accounted for by the various meanings of the original word. The Hebrew term - שׁוק shûq - means properly:
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(a) to run;
(b) to run after anything, to desire, to look for;
(c) to run over, to overflow; and then,
(d) to cause to overflow.
The meaning here evidently is, he drenched the earth, or caused the water to run abundantly. The reference is to a copious rain after a drought.
Thou greatly enrichest it - That is, Thou givest to it abundance; thou pourest water upon it in such quantities, and in such a manner, as to make it rich in its productions.
With the river of God - A river so abundant and full that it seems to come from God; it is such as we should expect to flow from a Being infinite in resources and in benevolence. Anything great is in the Scriptures often described as belonging to God, or his name is added to it to denote its greatness. Thus, hills of God mean lofty hills; cedars of God, lofty cedars, etc.
Which is full of water - The waters are so abundant that it seems as if they must come from God.
Thou preparest them corn - Grain. Thou givest to those who cultivate the earth an abundant harvest.
When thou hast so provided for it - Or rather, When thou hast thus prepared the earth, to wit, by sending down abundant rains upon it. God prepares the earth to bear an abundant harvest, and then he gives that harvest. The preparation of the earth for the harvest, and then the givinq of the harvest, are alike from him. The harvest could not be without the previous rain, and neither the rain nor the harvest could be without God. He does not create a harvest by miracle, but follows the order which he has himself ordained, and has respect to his own laws.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv9, 11, 12 visitest--in mercy (compare Psa 8:4).
visitest--in mercy (compare Psa 8:4).
river of God--His exhaustless resources.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv9, 10, 11, 13 9. The psalmist having finished his contemplation of God’s…
9. The psalmist having finished his contemplation of God’s work among the nations, (Psa_65:5-8,) now turns to his providence in nature, in adapting its forces and the order of the seasons to the uses and wants of man.
Thou visitest the earth—Thou hast visited the earth. The verb is in the preterite—a fulfilment of the promise, Deu_11:11-12. But there is a special application of these descriptions to the season then present, as appears from the interchange of the past and future tenses of the verbs. The word visit, here, denotes a special visit, as if God came down in person to attend to the wants of the earth.
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Thou… waterest it— Causest the water to overflow it.
Greatly enrichest it—The earth was barren before because of its dryness, but God’s showers have made it rich. Palestine and Arabia would now become fruitful with all the products suited to them, if well watered.
River of God—Not any particular “river” or channel of Palestine, but a poetic expression for the fulness of those celestial waters which are sent down to enrich the earth by the wonderful provision of God.
Preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it—A beautiful thought beautifully expressed. The verb prepare is repeated, to show that it is God who foresees and tenderly cares for our wants, and that the rain is his pledge of harvest. “Thou writ prepare their corn, because thus (for this end) thou wilt prepare the earth.”
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv9–13 9. Thou hast visited the land, and made it…
9. Thou hast visited the land, and made it plentiful, greatly enriching it:
The stream of God is full of water;
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Thou preparest their corn, for so thou preparest it.
The A.V. visitest turns the special thanksgiving into a general statement. The rendering waterest follows the Ancient Versions, which may however have read the word differently. The use of the verb in Joe_2:24; Joe_3:13, points to the meaning made it overflow, made it plentiful. God’s ‘stream’ (Psa_1:3) is the rain, with which He irrigates the land as out of a brimming aqueduct (Deu_11:11; Job_38:25), providing corn for men by preparing the earth, as the next verse goes on to describe:
9–13. The special object of the Psalm—thanksgiving for the plenty of the year. First, grateful acknowledgment that the rains which have fertilised the soil were God’s gift; then a charming picture of a joyous landscape rich with promise.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv9–12 (9) Thou visitest . . .—Better, Thou hast visited.…
(9) Thou visitest . . .—Better, Thou hast visited. Even if there is not reference to some particular season of plenty, yet with a glance back on the memory of such. Instead of “earth,” perhaps, here, “land.”
Waterest.—Or, floodest. The river of God stands for the rain. There is a Arabic proverb, “When the river of God comes, the river Isa (in Bagdad) ceases.” The Rabbins say, “God has four keys which He never entrusts to any angel, and chief of these is the key of the rain.” (Comp. Job_26:8; Job_28:26; Job_38:28.) The expression “river” for rain is very appropriate of the downpour of a country that has its rainy season. (Comp. “the rushing of the river rain,” Tennyson’s Vivien.)
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Thou preparest . . .—The Authorised Version misses the sense, which is, thou preparest their corn when thou hast prepared it (the land) so—i.e., in the manner now to be described. Thus LXX. and Vulgate.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv9–13 Vers. 9-13. In conclusion, the psalmist praises God for…
Vers. 9-13. In conclusion, the psalmist praises God for his bountiful providence with respect to the harvest. According to some, the whole poem is essentially a harvest thanksgiving, and the poet now "comes at last to the point aimed at from the first." He traces the whole process by which the glorious termination is arrived at. First, the "early rain" descending from "the river of God," or the reservoir for rain which God guards in the heavens, (Job_38:37) moistening the furrows, softening the ridges, and preparing the land for the seed-corn. Then the sowing, which, being man"s work, is but just touched on (ver. 9, ad fin. ). After that, the "latter rain the gentle showers of March and April which cause the grain to burst and the blade to spring, and the ear to form itself, and turn the dull fallow into a mass of greenery (vers. 10, 12). At last, the full result pastures clothed with flocks; valleys, the "long broad sweeps between parallel ranges of hills," covered over with corn; all nature laughing and shouting for joy (ver. 13).
Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it. (comp. Job_36:27, 28 37:6 38:26-28 Psa_147:2-8 Jer_5:24 Mat_5:45) Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God. There is no "with" in the original; and the two clauses are better taken separately. Translate, Thou greatly enrichest it; the river of God is full of water. By "the river of God" is to be understood God"s store of water in the clouds and atmosphere, which he can at any time retain or let loose. Thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it; rather, when thou hast so prepared her (the earth). By thus preparing the earth for the sowing. God prepares for men the corn which they ultimately obtain at the harvest.
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Thanksgiving for corn.
"Thou preparest them corn.
I BECAUSE IT IS THE SPECIAL GIFT OF GOD TO MAN. It came from God at first. It is renewed year by year. Wherever man dwells it may be cultivated in some form or other. "How it stands, that yellow corn, on its fair taper stems, its golden head bent, all rich and waving there! The mute earth at God"s kind bidding has produced it once again man"s bread" (Luther).
II BECAUSE IT IS INDISPENSABLE TO THE WELFARE OF MAN. Corn is not only valuable, but necessary. Individuals may live without it, but for man, on the broad scale, it is indispensable. The worth is known by the want. When there is a scarcity of corn, all the markets of the world are affected. Bread is the staff of life. It is because of its worth and its suitableness to human needs that corn is constituted the symbol of the highest blessings. It stands for the Word of God. It figures the great redemption. (Joh_12:24) It foreshadows the glory of the resurrection. (1Co 15)
III BECAUSE IT DEPENDS FOR ITS CONTINUANCE ON THE LABOUR OF MAN. Many gifts come to us irrespective of our own efforts, but corn is not one of them. Its enjoyment is conditional. It is an annual. It has not an independent existence. It does not live and propagate itself by its own seed. It requires the care of man, else it would soon die out and be lost. In order to be preserved it must be sown by man"s own hand in ground which man"s own hand has tilled. The land must be prepared for the corn, as well as the corn for the land. Manifold blessings result from this arrangement. Thrift is good. Labour is a healthful discipline. Providing for the wants of ourselves and others binds us more closely together as brethren. If there be famine in Canaan, there is corn in Egypt; and this leads to commerce and friendly intercourse between nations. Besides, in the fact that year after year we must sow in order to reap; that each season"s supply is but a measured quantity, never much in excess of what is required for food; and that the powers of heaven must work together with the powers of earth to secure a bountiful harvest; we are taught in the most impressive manner our dependence upon God, and our obligations to praise him for his goodness and his wonderful works. W.F.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv9–13 Ver. 9. Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it.…
Ver. 9. Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it. God's visits leave a blessing behind; this is more than can be said of every visitor. When the Lord goes on visitations of mercy, he has abundance of necessary things for all his needy creatures. He is represented here as going round the earth, as a gardener surveys his garden, and as giving water to every plant that requires it, and that not in small quantities, but until the earth is drenched and soaked with a rich supply of refreshment. O Lord, in this manner visit thy church, and my poor, parched, and withering piety. Make thy grace to overflow towards my graces; water me, for no plant of thy garden needs it more.
"My stock lies dead and no increase
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Doth my dull husbandry improve;
O let thy graces without cease
Drop from above."
Thou greatly enrichest it. Millions of money could not so much enrich mankind as the showers do. The soil is made rich by the rain, and then yields its riches to man; but God is the first giver of all. How truly rich are those who are enriched with grace; this is great riches.
With the river of God, which is full of water. The brooks of earth are soon dried up, and all human resources, being finite, are liable to failure; but God's provision for the supply of rain is inexhaustible; there is no bottom or shore to his river. The deluge poured from the clouds of yesterday may be succeeded by another tomorrow, and yet the waters above the firmament shall not fail. How true this is in the realm of grace; there the river of God is full of water, and "of his fulness have we all received, and grace for grace." The ancients in their fables spake of Pactolus, which flowed over sands of gold; but this river of God, which flows above and from which the rain is poured, is far more enriching; for, after all, the wealth of men lies mainly in the harvest of their fields, without which even gold would be of no value whatever.
Thou preparest them corn. Corn is specially set apart to be the food of man. In its various species it is a divine provision for the nutriment of our race, and is truly called the staff of life. We hear in commerce of "prepared corn flour, "but God prepared it long before man touched it. As surely as the manna was prepared of God for the tribes, so certainly is corn made and sent by God for our daily use. What is the difference whether we gather wheat ears or manna, and what matters it if the first come upward to us, and the second downward? God is as much present beneath as above; it is as great a marvel that food should rise out of the dust, as that it should fall from the skies.
When thou hast so provided for it. When all is prepared to produce corn, the Lord puts the finishing stroke, and the grain is forthcoming; not even, when all the material is prepared, will the wheat be perfected without the continuous and perfecting operation of the Most High. Blessed be the Great Householder; he does not suffer the harvest to fail, he supplies the teeming myriads of earth with bread enough from year to year. Even thus does he vouchsafe heavenly food to his redeemed ones: "He hath given meat unto them that fear him; he is ever mindful of his covenant."
Ver. 9. Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it, etc. How beautiful are the words of the inspired poet, read in this month of harvest, nearly three thousand years after they were written! For nearly three thousand years since the royal poet looked over the plains of Judea covered with the bounty of God, and broke forth into his magnificent hymn of praise, has the earth rolled on in her course, and the hand of God has blessed her, and all her children, with seed time and harvest, with joy and abundance. The very steadfastness of the Almighty's liberality, flowing like a mighty ocean through the infinite vast of the universe, makes his creatures forget to wonder at its wonderfulness, to feel true thankfulness at its immeasurable goodness. The sun rises and sets so surely; the seasons run on amid all their changes with such inimitable truth, that we take as a matter of course that which is amazing beyond all stretch of imagination, and good beyond the wildest expansion of the noblest human heart. The poor man, with his half a dozen children, toils, and often dies, under the vain labour of winning bread for them. God feeds his family of countless myriads swarming over the surface of all countless worlds, and none know need but through the follies of themselves, or the cruelty of their fellows. God pours his light from innumerable suns on innumerable rejoicing planets; he waters them everywhere in the fittest moment; he ripens the food of globes and of nations, and gives them fair weather to garner it. And from age to age, amid his endless creatures of endless forms and powers, in the beauty and the sunshine, and the magnificence of nature, he seems to sing throughout creation the glorious song of his own divine joy, in the immortality of his youth, in the omnipotence of his nature, in the eternity of his patience, and the abounding boundlessness of his love. What a family hangs on his sustaining arm! The life and soul of infinite ages, and of uncounted worlds! Let a moment's failure of his power, of his watchfulness, or of his will to do good, occur, and what a sweep of death and annihilation through the universe! How stars would reel, planets expire, and nations perish! But from age to age, no such catastrophe occurs, even in the midst of national crimes, and of atheism that denies the hand that made and feeds it. Life springs with a power ever new; food springs up as plentiful to sustain it, and sunshine and joy are poured over all from the invisible throne of God, as the poetry of the existence which he has given. If there come seasons of dearth, or of failure, they come but as warnings to proud and tyrannic man. The potato is smitten that a nation may not be oppressed for ever; and the harvest is diminished that the laws of man's unnatural avarice may be rent asunder. And then, again, the sun shines, the rain falls, and the earth rejoices in a renewed beauty, and in a redoubled plenty. William Howitt, in "The Year Book of the Country." 1850.
Ver. 9. Thou visitest the earth. God seems to come with the coming in of each of the seasons. In some respects, during winter, God seems like a man travelling into a far country. Darkness, and barrenness, and coldness, suggest absence on the part of God. The spring looks like his return. The great change it involves cheerily whispers, "He is not far from any one of us." In longer days, and a warmer atmosphere, and a revived earth, God comes to us. These things are not of necessity, but of providence. There are second causes, but above all these is the First Cause, intelligent, loving, and free, God rules in all, over all, and above all. He is not displaced or supplanted by the forces and agencies which he employs, he is not absorbed by care of other worlds, he is not indifferent toward the earth. A personal superintendence and providence are not beneath his dignity, or in anywise distasteful to him. As Maker, and Life giver, and Father, Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it. Samuel Martin, in "Rain upon the Mown Grass, and other Sermons." 1871.
Ver. 9. The psalmist is here foretelling the gracious outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the conversion of the nations of the earth to Christ. Origen.
Ver. 9. The chiefs of Hebrew theology attribute four keys to God, which he never entrusted to any angel or seraph, and as the first of these they place the key of rain. He himself is said, in Job 28:26, to give a law to the rain, and in chapter Job 26:8, to bind up the waters in the clouds. Thomas Le Blanc.
Ver. 9. With the river of God, which is full of water. That is, the clouds figuratively described. Edward Leigh (1602-3-1671).
Ver. 9. The river of God, as opposed to earthly streams. However these may fail, the divine resources are exhaustless. Joseph Addison Alexander.
Ver. 9. The river of God. The Chaldee paraphrase is, From the fountain of God which is in the heavens, which is full of the rainstorms of blessing, thou wilt prepare their cornfields. Lorinus.
Ver. 9. Thou preparest their grain; for so dost thou prepare the earth. (Version of American Bible Union.) So, namely, with this design, and for this end. In the Hebrew, "for so dost thou prepare her; "referring to "the earth, "which in Hebrew is fem., while grain is masc. The meaning can be expressed in English only by using the word (earth) which the Hebrew pronoun represents. The English pronoun (it) would necessarily refer to "grain, "and would represent neither the meaning of the Hebrew nor its form. Thomas J. Conant.
Ver. 9. Thou preparest them corn, etc. Corn is the special gift of God to man. There are several interesting and instructive ideas connected with this view of it. All the other plants we use as food are unfit for his purpose in their natural condition, and require to have their nutritious qualities developed, and their natures and forms to a certain extent changed by a gradual process of cultivation. There is not a single useful plant grown in our gardens and fields, but is utterly worthless for food in its normal or wild state; and man has been left to himself to find out, slowly and painfully, how to convert these crudities of nature into nutritious vegetables. But it is not so with corn. It has from the very beginning been an abnormal production. God gave it to Adam, we have every reason to believe, in the same perfect state of preparation for food in which we find it at the present day, It was made expressly for man, and given directly into his hands. "Behold, "says the Creator, "I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth; "that is, all the cereal plants--such as corn, wheat, barley, rice, maize, etc., whose peculiar characteristic it is to produce seed... There is another proof that corn was created expressly for man's use, in the fact that it has never been found in a wild state. The primitive types from which all our other esculent plants were derived are still to be found in a state of nature in this or other countries. The wild beet and cabbage still grow on our seashores; the crab apple and the sloe, the savage parents of our luscious pippins and plums, are still found among the trees of the wood; but where are the original types of our corn plants? Where are the wild grasses, which, according to some authors, the cumulative process of agriculture carried on through successive ages, have developed into corn, wheat, and barley? Much has been written, and many experiments have been tried, to determine the natural origin of these cereals, but every effort has hitherto proved in vain. Reports have again and again been circulated that corn and wheat have been found growing wild in some parts of Persia and the steppes of Tartary, apparently far from the influence of cultivation; but when tested by botanical data, these reports have turned out, in every instance, to be unfounded. Corn has never been known as anything else than a cultivated plant. History and observation prove that it cannot grow spontaneously. It is never, like other plants, self sown and self diffused. Neglected of men, it speedily disappears and becomes extinct. It does not return, as do all other cultivated varieties of plants, to a natural condition, and so become worthless as food, but utterly perishes, being constitutionally unfitted to maintain the struggle for existence with the aboriginal vegetation of the soil. All this proves that it must have been produced miraculously; or, in other words, given by God to man directly, in the same abnormal condition in which it now appears; for nature never could have developed or preserved it. In the mythologies of all the ancient nations it was confidently affirmed to have had a supernatural origin. The Greeks and Romans believed it to be the gift of the goddess Ceres, who taught her son, Triptolemus, to cultivate and distribute it over the earth; and from her, the whole class of plants received the name of cereals, which they now bear. And we only express the same truth when we say to him, whom these pagans ignorantly worshipped, Thou preparest them corn, when thou hast provided for it. Let me bring forth one more proof of special design, enabling us to recognise the hand of God in this mercy. Corn is universally diffused. It is almost the only species of plant which is capable of growing everywhere, in almost every soil, in almost any situation. In some form or other, adapted to the various modifications of climate and physical conditions, which occur in different countries, it is spread over an area of the earth's surface as extensive as the occupancy of the human race... Rice is grown in tropical countries where periodical rains and inundations, followed by excessive heat, occur, and furnishes the chief article of diet for the largest proportion of the human race. Wheat will not thrive in hot climates, but flourishes all over the temperate zone, at various ranges of elevation, and is admirably adapted to the wants of highly civilized communities. Maize spreads over an immense geographical area in the new world, where it has been known from time immemorial, and formed a principal element of that Indian civilisation which surprised the Spaniards in Mexico and Peru. Barley is cultivated in those parts of Europe and Asia where the soil and climate are not adapted for wheat; while oats and rye extend far into the bleak north, and disappear only from those desolate Arctic regions where man cannot exist in his social capacity. By these striking adaptations of different varieties of grain, containing the same essential ingredients, to different soils and climates, Providence has furnished the indispensable food for the sustenance of the human race throughout the whole habitable globe; and all nations, and tribes, and tongues can rejoice together, as one great family, with the joy of harvest. Hugh Macmillan, in "Bible Teachings in Nature." 1868.
Ver. 9-13. I do not know any picture of rural life that in any measure comes up to the exquisite description here brought before us, and which every one's heart at once recognises as so true to nature in all its branches. In the brief compass of five verses we have the whole scene vividly sketched, from the first preparation of the earth or soil; the provision of the corn seed for the sower; the rain in its season, the former and the latter rain, watering the ridges, settling the furrows, and causing the seed to swell and to spring forth, and bud and blossom; then the crowning of the whole year in the appointed weeks of harvest, and men's hearts rejoicing before God according to the joy in harvest, the very foot paths dropping with fatness, and the valleys shouting and singing for joy. Our harvest homes are times of rejoicing too, but I would that our tillers and reapers of the soil would as piously refer all to God as the psalmist did. Thou waterest the earth, Thou greatly enrichest it, Thou preparest the corn, Thou waterest the ridges, Thou settlest the furrows, Thou makest it soft with showers, Thou blessest the springing thereof, Thou crownest the year with thy goodness. Not one word of man, of man's skill, or of man's labour, not one thought of self. How different from him whose grounds brought forth abundantly, and whose only thought was, "I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, drink, and be merry." Barton Bouchier.
Ver. 9. The river of God. John Bunyan's treatise on "The Water of Life" would be suggestive on this topic.
Ver. 9. Divine visits and their consequences.
Ver. 9-13. A Harvest Sermon.
I. The general goodness of God, Visiting the earth
in rotation of seasons: "Seed time and harvest, "etc.
II. The greatness of his resources: The river of
God, which is full of water; not like Elijah's
brook, which dried up.
III. The variety of his benefactions: Corn; Water;
Blessest the springing thereof, etc.
IV. The perpetuity of his blessings; Crownest the
year. E. G. G.
Psalms 65:10*
Ver. 9-13. See Psalms on "Ps 65:9" for further information.
Ver. 9-13. A Harvest Sermon.
I. The general goodness of God, Visiting the earth
in rotation of seasons: "Seed time and harvest, "etc.
II. The greatness of his resources: The river of
God, which is full of water; not like Elijah's
brook, which dried up.
III. The variety of his benefactions: Corn; Water;
Blessest the springing thereof, etc.
IV. The perpetuity of his blessings; Crownest the
year. E. G. G.
Ver. 9-13. See Psalms on "Ps 65:9" for further information.
Ver. 9-13. A Harvest Sermon.
I. The general goodness of God, Visiting the earth
in rotation of seasons: "Seed time and harvest, "etc.
II. The greatness of his resources: The river of
God, which is full of water; not like Elijah's
brook, which dried up.
III. The variety of his benefactions: Corn; Water;
Blessest the springing thereof, etc.
IV. The perpetuity of his blessings; Crownest the
year. E. G. G.
Ver. 9-13. See Psalms on "Ps 65:9" for further information.
Ver. 9-13. A Harvest Sermon.
I. The general goodness of God, Visiting the earth
in rotation of seasons: "Seed time and harvest, "etc.
II. The greatness of his resources: The river of
God, which is full of water; not like Elijah's
brook, which dried up.
III. The variety of his benefactions: Corn; Water;
Blessest the springing thereof, etc.
IV. The perpetuity of his blessings; Crownest the
year. E. G. G.
Ver. 9-13. See Psalms on "Ps 65:9" for further information.
Ver. 9-13. A Harvest Sermon.
I. The general goodness of God, Visiting the earth
in rotation of seasons: "Seed time and harvest, "etc.
II. The greatness of his resources: The river of
God, which is full of water; not like Elijah's
brook, which dried up.
III. The variety of his benefactions: Corn; Water;
Blessest the springing thereof, etc.
IV. The perpetuity of his blessings; Crownest the
year. E. G. G.
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv9–11 Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it.
Psa_65:9
Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it.
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The Divine visitations
I. Gods visit to the earth in his providence. It is to this visit that our text immediately refers: Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it. It was not to cast fire upon it that the Lord came. It would not have been strange had He done that; but there is enough of fire in the composition of the globe to burn it to a coal, only the Lord waters it from His chambers, and keeps down the flames by casting showers of water upon them.
1. He visits the earth to soften its heart towards man.
2. He visits the earth to bring down the blessings upon it. 3 He visits the earth to assist it to serve man. The Lord blesseth the increase of the earth, so that one man can raise enough of corn to support scores of others, who in their turn serve him in some other way. The earth is full of His riches.
II. Gods visit to the earth in His salvation. This is the great visit to us. But for this visit it would have scarcely been worthy of the God of love to visit us in His providence.
1. He comes on this visit without being invited.
2. The earth was armed against God when He came on this visit.
3. The earth is the only place that He visits in the character of a Saviour.
4. Of all Gods visits, this is the one that cost Him most.
5. Of all the visits God has ever made, this is the one that will redound most to His glory.
III. Gods visit to the earth in judgment.
1. Although there are many things concerning this visit which have not been revealed to us, we know that He will come with terrible majesty. He will not humble Himself, neither will He be humbled by any one else at that day. He will be accompanied by a glorious throng. Ten thousands of His saints. All the holy angels with Him.
2. His object in coming will be to reckon with His servants. We know not whether He will reckon with the sun when giving it liberty; but I know that He will reckon with me, and that He will reckon with you.
3. The chief thing in view to be done then, will be to gather His subjects together, to glorify them openly, and to take them home with Him. He, too, will be for ever glorified in His saints. (D. Roberts, D. D.)
Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God.
The river of God
A stream whose sources are hidden in the bosom of the eternal hills, which is fed with the pure snows of heaven, a simple mountain rill first, then an impetuous torrent gathering volume as it descends foaming and eddying, and sweeping trees and rocks down in its course; then a broad river, rolling, now through wooded meadow land or sandy desert, now forced into a narrow and deep channel by jutting rocks, and leaping down in cataracts; holding its course now straight towards its goal, and now meandering and returning upon itself, seeming even to retrograde to the unobservant eye, receiving ever and again on the right hand and on the left fresh tributaries which drain the far-off hills on either side; fertilizing the pastures and corn lands, purifying and watering towns and villages, bearing on its bosom the precious merchandise of many peoples, giving life and vigour and joy to men; but with all this, whether flowing by crowded cities or desolate wastes, whether spreading into shallow marshes or imprisoned between barriers of rock, whether winding its flooded way over level plains, or rushing impetuously onward and forming a straight channel through all interposing obstacles, still pressing forward, ever forward with its growing volume of waters, with its increasing freight of treasures and of men, to the far-off distant, boundless ocean, there to lose itself and be absorbed into its kindred element. In this description I have not used a single word which might not apply to one of the great rivers of the earth, flowing from the Alps, or the Andes, or the Himalayas; yet throughout I have had before my mind, and perhaps I may have suggested to your minds, a heaven-descended river far mightier than this, rising from beneath the throne of God, flowing down, not without many vicissitudes, but still in triumphant progress and with ever-increasing volume, through the ages, till at length it shall lose itself in the ocean of eternity, when the knowledge of God shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Such a stream is the Church of God, the Church of the Patriarchs, the Church in Egypt, the Church of the Wilderness, the Church of the Promised Land, the Church in Babylon, the Church of the Restoration, the Church of the Dispersion, and last of all, when the fulness of time has come, the Church of Christ.
I. The continuity of the stream. The missionary spirit, like everything God-like in man, presses forward, acts for the future, hopes for the future, lives in the future, but it draws strength and refreshment from the experience, the examples, the accumulated power and wisdom of the past. Nay, just in proportion as we are animated by this reverence for the past, as we acknowledge our obligations to it, as we feel our connection with it; in short, as we realize this idea of continuity in the Church of Christ, in the same degree will the true missionary spirit--wise, zealous, humble, self-denying, enlightened, enterprising, innovating, in the best sense--because conservative in the best sense--prevail. The Church of Christ is a tree souring upward to heaven, spreading its branches far and wide, but its roots are buried far below the surface in a dark antiquity. Christian men, above all, Christian missionaries, are the heirs of all the ages.
II. The course of the river in its vicissitudes. The present time is confessedly a crisis fraught with manifold anxieties. If there are many bright gleams--and are there not many?--it is no less true that dark clouds overhang the horizon, threatening at any moment to deluge the Church of Christ. At such a crisis, what lessons does the image of the river, interpreted by the history of the past, suggest? Do they tend to dismay or to encouragement, to despair or to hope? To this question there is one clear and decisive answer. The river has its eddies and its back currents; it has its retrograde movements and its meandering channels, when it seems to recede even from its goal; it buries itself perhaps underground, or it loses itself in marshy swamps; it is hemmed in amid rocky heights, intrusive boundaries, which threaten to close in upon it and obstruct its course for ever. If we saw only one reach of the river, we should prophesy its failure in reaching its ultimate destination; but we know that despite all obstruction, despite all treacherous appearances, it must flow onward and downward and empty itself into the ocean. Whatever partial aberrations there may be, its general course is the same. This is the law of its being, and so also with the Church of God. We ought to know, and we ought to feel, independent of history, that the truth cannot perish; that the Church of God cannot fail. This is a spiritual law as the other was a physical law. It must survive, it must flow ever onward and onward till it reaches the ocean of the eternal truth.
III. How is this stream fed? What accessions does it receive? What are its tributaries? From all quarters of the heavens the streams fall into the main channels, fall direct from lofty mountain heights, draining here broad tablelands, there flowing amid barren rocks and rolling meadows and extensive plains; from the right hand and from the left they issue to swell the bulk of the rolling tide. But, as they joint the main stream, they betray their separate sources; they have their own colour, their own swiftness, and they seem almost to keep their own channel. At length the fusion is complete, they have mingled their waters in the main stream, they are lost in it; but meanwhile, and this is what I ask you specially to mark, they have communicated to it their own characteristics, their purifying or fertilizing qualities, and thus, strengthening and strengthened, giving something and receiving more, they roll down in one broad, irresistible, ever-flowing stream, bearing on their breast the natives of divers climes and the products of many soils, sweeping their rich argosies of men and treasure onwards towards the one far-off ocean which is their common goal. The tributaries of the mighty river--are we not reminded by these words of another image Under which the same truth is prefigured by psalmist and prophet, when the nations of the earth gather together from the four winds of heaven to the Holy City and pour in, each its special products, its choicest gifts as a tribute to the treasury of the God of Israel? One offers its finely woven fabrics, another its elaborately chased vessels and its rich carvings, another its costly perfume, another its ivory, its rare woods, its precious metals. Do we ask what is the counterpart to all this in the history of the Christian Church? Has not each Christian nation on its accession, as it was gathered into the fold of Christ, given some fresh cause of strength to the Church, emphasized some doctrinal truth, or developed some practical capacity, or fostered some religious sentiment, and thus contributed to the more complete understanding, or effective working, of the faith once delivered to the saints? And can we suppose that this mighty stream, this river of God, has no more great tributaries to receive, that all the literary streams which might swell and purify and fertilize its waters, have been dried up? Has the Hindoo, with his calm resignation and quiet endurance, with his quick, subtle intellect; has the Chinese, with his stubborn pertinacity and utter fearlessness of death--have these no rich offering, think you, to present at the altar, no new contribution to the fulness of the Gospel of Christ? (Bp. Lightfoot.)
Thou preparest them corn, when Thou hut so provided for it.--
Corn
The harvest-time is the most delightful of all the seasons of the year. It is the time of fulfilled hopes and realized expectations. Of all the many beautiful sights of this season, the most beautiful and interesting are the cornfields rippling in light and shade, like the waves of a sunset sea, away over valley and upland to the purple shores of the distant hills. They are the characteristic features of the season--the illuminated initials on Natures autumnal page, whose golden splendour is variegated here and there with wreaths of scarlet poppies, corn blue-bottles, and purple vetches. The landscape seems to exist solely for them, so prominent and important are they in it. Wherever they appear they are the pictures for which the rest of the scenery, however grand or beautiful, is but the mere frame. No one can gaze upon these golden cornfields without being influenced more or less by the pleasing associations with which they are connected. They strike their roots deep down into the soil of time; they are as old as the human race. They waved upon the earth long before the flood, under the husbandry of the worlds grey fathers. The sun in heaven has ripened more than six thousand of them. Progress is the law of nature, and everything else obeys it, but the harvest-field exhibits little or no change. It presents nearly the same picture in this Western clime and in these modern days as it did under the glowing skies of the East in the time of the patriarchs. We see the same old familiar scene now enacted under our eyes in every walk we take, which Ruth saw when she gleaned after her kinsmans reapers in one of the quiet valleys of Bethlehem, or which our blessed Saviour so frequently gazed upon when wandering with His disciples in the mellow afternoon around the verdant shores of Gennesaret. The harvest-fields are the golden links that connect the ages and the zones, and associate together the most distant times and the remotest nations in one common bond of sympathy and dependence. They make of the earth one great home. But the most delightful association which the harvest recalls is that of the great world-covenant which God made with Noah and symbolized by the bow in the cloud. And now, whenever we see that gorgeous blossom of light expanding its seven-coloured petals from the dark bosom of the cloud, we know that the storm, however long-continued and violent, will not always last; that the waters of Noah will no more go over the earth; that seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, day and night, summer and winter, will never cease. Our cornfields grow and ripen securely under that covenant-arch, whose key-stone is in the heavens, and whose foundations are upon the earth. They afford to us the most striking evidence, season after season, of the integrity and stability of the covenant-promise. There may have been no harvest in Canaan, but there was corn in Egypt, though the application of this compensation was sometimes rendered difficult by natural or moral obstructions. But whether the harvest be local or general, whether we be dependent upon the produce of our own fields or upon the surplus supplies of commerce, in either case it is to the covenant faithfulness of God that we are indebted for the blessing. Corn is the special gift of God to man. All the other plants we use as food are unfit for this purpose in their natural condition, and require to have their nutritious qualities developed, and their nature and forms to a certain extent changed by a gradual process of cultivation. But it is not so with corn. It has from the very beginning been an abnormal production. God gave it to Adam, we have every reason to believe, in the same perfect state of preparation for food in which we find it at the present day. We cannot regard it as an accidental, but, on the contrary, as a striking providential circumstance, that the corn-plants were utterly unknown throughout all the geological periods. Not the slightest trace of vestige of them occurs in any of the strata of the earth, until we come to the most recent formations, contemporaneous with man. They are exclusively and characteristically plants of the human epoch; their remains are found only in deposits near the surface, which belong to the age of man. There is another proof that corn was created expressly for mans use in the fact that it has never been found in a wild state. The primitive types from which all our other esculent plants were derived are still to be found in a state of nature in this or in other countries. The wild beet and cabbage still grow on our sea-shores; the crab-apple and the sloe, the savage parents of our luscious pippins and plums, are still found among the trees Of the wood; but where are the original types of our corn-plants? Corn has never been known as anything else than a cultivated plant. The oldest records speak of it exclusively as such. Wheat grains have been found wrapped up in the cerements of Egyptian mummies, which were old before history began, identical in every respect with the same variety which the farmer sows at the present day. Moreover, it is a universal plant. It is found everywhere. By striking adaptations of different varieties of grain, containing the same essential ingredients, to different soils and climates, Providence has furnished the indispensable food for the sustenance of the human race throughout the whole habitable globe; and all nations, and tribes, and tongues can rejoice together as one great family with the joy of harvest. Corn is the food most convenient and most suitable for man in a social state. It is only by the careful cultivation of it that a country becomes capable of permanently supporting a dense population. All other kinds of food are precarious, and cannot be stored up for any length of time; roots and fruits are soon exhausted, the produce of the chase is uncertain, and, if hard pressed, ceases to yield a supply. It is an annual plant. It cannot be propagated in any other way than by seed, and when it has yielded its harvest it dies down and rots in the ground; self-sown, it will gradually dwindle away, and at last disappear altogether. It can only be reared permanently by being sown by mans own hand, and in ground which mans own hand has tilled. (H. Macmillan, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv10, 13 You ... your
You ... your
The words "You" and "your" refer to Yahweh.
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its furrows
"the earth's furrows"
furrows
A furrow is a long narrow trench made in the ground for planting seeds or for watering the field where grains have been planted.
ridges
edges
You crown the year with your goodness
Here the "year" is given the human quality of wearing a crown. AT: "You have honored the year with a good harvest" (See: Personification)
your wagon tracks overflow with abundance
Yahweh making the soil so good and fertile that it produces an abundant harvest is spoken of as if Yahweh were traveling through an empty land in a cart, leaving abundant food behind wherever he goes. AT: "everywhere you have been, you have left abundant food" (See: Metaphor)
The pastures ... drip with dew
There is so much dew in the pastures that they are said to drip with it. AT: "The pastures ... are full of dew" or "Much dew drips in the pastures of the wilderness"
the hills are clothed with joy
The writer speaks of the beauty of the hills as if they were joyful people, and of joy as if it were clothing. AT: "the hills are like people wearing joy" or "the hills are like joyful people" (See: Personification and Metaphor)
translationWords
crown
year
good
chariot
desert
joy
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv9, 13 65:9-13 The created order provides clear evidence of God’s…
65:9-13 The created order provides clear evidence of God’s power (65:6-8). He shows his love by maintaining nature. Everything praises the Lord as all the parts fit together harmoniously.
65:9 The river of God and all rivers demonstrate God’s victorious power and goodness through the order in nature and the regularity of the harvests (see 1:3; 36:8; 46:4; Ezek 47:6-12; Zech 14:8; Rev 22:1).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.