So begins Psalm 65.
Have you ever thought praise is God’s due? It is. Does that immediately make you think of duty? Do you hear work you must do, and not delight you’re invited in? Take a minute to read Psalm 65.
David grounds praise for God in what God has done for us, in his power displayed in the world, and in his bountiful provision in creation. I want to attack that in reverse order to better understand what he’s singing about. David waxes poetic on God’s power displayed over the Earth and provision for creation to highlight what God has done for us.
Praise is due to God who blesses the Earth with abundance such that creation shouts and sings for joy.
Look at Psalm 65:9-13. David talks about God as a Gardener. He waters the furrows of the Earth, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, blessing its growth. He talks about God caring for the Earth the way we would our garden. Not only does he garden the Earth, he does something that we cannot do. He blesses its growth. You and I can do everything to help a seed grow but we can’t actually make it grow. God can, and does. He alone causes life to spring forth. He alone makes seeds sprout and push through dirt just the same as he forms us, gives us breath, and gives us life.
Creation then shouts and sings for joy as God bountifully provides. His harvest wagon overflows so much that even the tracks overflow. The world itself shouts and sings for joy to God!
Praise is due to God who establishes and stills his creation by his power.
How can God do this in creation? Because he is all powerful. Look at Psalm 65:5-8. God answers us with awesome deeds done in righteousness. God has never done anything that is not righteous, and his work in creation is no different. He established mountains by his might. These huge things that seem immovable, secure, solid; he made them. I’ve imagined him pulling them out of the ground with his fingers. Which is amazing to think about. God didn’t need to do that though as he is much more powerful. He just spoke, and all that he purposed to exist came into being.
He takes seas and calms them. Vast quantities of water that we can’t even hold in our hands he calms without effort. Friends, God does not exert himself. He never has. The world bends to his will as it exists purely by his will. He also stills the peoples. And why does he do all of this? Why does the God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth, answer us with these displays of power?
Verse 8 tells us. So that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe. Romans 1 talks about God’s power displayed in creation being plain for all to see. He does it as a display of his power. We are truly in awe and as the remainder of verse 8 says, the very sunrise and sunset shout for joy.
Praise is due to God who hears, atones, and chooses the people of God.
Finally we get to what David said at first, but what the rest of Psalm sought to magnify. Read Psalm 65:1-4. Praise is due to God, and indeed is our delight to offer him, because God hears us, atones for us, and chooses us.
This God who formed the earth and stills it, this God who causes the earth to grow and be bountiful, the same God for whom creation shouts and sings for joy; he hears us! He atones for us! He chooses us!
God, who upholds the universe by the word of his power, hears our puny cries. Are you discouraged? Are you depressed? Are you beset with heartache and sorrow? Cry out to him. He hears you!
How do you know he hears you? He atoned for you, if you are in Christ. Do you know him? If you have turned from your sins and trusted in Christ’s perfect life, unjust death, and glorious resurrection to pay for your sin then he has atoned for you. You have been washed. Though you were like scarlet, now you are white as snow.
If you are in Christ, verse 4 says you are blessed because God has chosen you and brought you near. In Christ you are adopted and now welcome in his house. Not only are you adopted, it is satisfying to you! In Christ we are welcomed to worship God in the holiness of his temple!
C.S. Lewis says “I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.” Praise is God’s due, yes. But listen to Lewis again. “The Scotch catechism says that man’s chief end is “to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.”
Yes, Praise is due to God. But it is very much the delight of the child of God to do so.
