Psalm 65 (AMP)

God’s Abundant Favor to Earth and Man.

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. A Song.

To You belongs silence [the submissive wonder of reverence], and [it bursts into] praise in Zion, O God;
And to You the vow shall be performed.O You who hear prayer,
To You all mankind comes.Wickedness and guilt prevail against me;
Yet as for our transgressions,
You forgive them [removing them from Your sight].

Blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near
To dwell in Your courts.
We will be filled with the goodness of Your house,
Your holy temple.

By awesome and wondrous things You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation,
You who are the trust and hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest sea;Who creates the mountains by His strength,
Being clothed with power,Who stills the roaring of the seas,
The roaring of their waves,
And the tumult of the peoples,So they who dwell at the ends of the earth stand in awe of Your signs [the evidence of Your presence].
You make the dawn and the sunset shout for joy.

You visit the earth and make it overflow [with water];
You greatly enrich it;
The stream of God is full of water;
You provide their grain, when You have prepared the earth.You water its furrows abundantly,
You smooth its ridges;
You soften it with showers,
You bless its growth.You crown the year with Your bounty,
And Your paths overflow.

The pastures of the wilderness drip [with dew],
And the hills are encircled with joy.

The meadows are clothed with flocks
And the valleys are covered with grain;
They shout for joy and they sing.

Looking at the definition of dabar primarily pointing towards speech and words, this reminds me of something Jesus said that seems to fit in this circumstance:

The good man, from his [inner] good treasure, brings out good things; and the evil man, from his [inner] evil treasure, brings out evil things. But I tell you, on the day of judgment people will have to give an accounting for every careless or useless word they speak. For by your words [reflecting your spiritual condition] you will be justified and acquitted of the guilt of sin; and by your words [rejecting Me] you will be condemned and sentenced.”
MATTHEW 12:35‭-‬37 AMP

And it also reminds me of

But now the righteousness of God has been clearly revealed [independently and completely] apart from the Law, though it is [actually] confirmed by the Law and the [words and writings of the] Prophets. This righteousness of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ for all those [Jew or Gentile] who believe [and trust in Him and acknowledge Him as God’s Son]. There is no distinction, since all have sinned and continually fall short of the glory of God, and are being justified [declared free of the guilt of sin, made acceptable to God, and granted eternal life] as a gift by His [precious, undeserved] grace, through the redemption [the payment for our sin] which is [provided] in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly [before the eyes of the world] as a [life-giving] sacrifice of atonement and reconciliation (propitiation) by His blood [to be received] through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness [which demands punishment for sin], because in His forbearance [His deliberate restraint] He passed over the sins previously committed [before Jesus’ crucifixion]. It was to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the One who justifies those who have faith in Jesus [and rely confidently on Him as Savior].
ROMANS 3:21‭-‬26 AMP

Yes, I can see here that David is not claiming his own righteousness(he just confessed that sin had prevailed over him), but he is here acknowledging that God forgives them.

David acknowledges that our transgressions (the Hebrew pesha):

We see they are purged away, covered, atoned for by the Lord:

And this is the Good News since the beginning, seen yet again here to remind us of the covenant relationship between God and His people. We are weak, but He is strong. Even when we have failed Him and not loved Him, He has still loved us and offered us His mercy and grace.

While we were still helpless [powerless to provide for our salvation], at the right time Christ died [as a substitute] for the ungodly. Now it is an extraordinary thing for one to willingly give his life even for an upright man, though perhaps for a good man [one who is noble and selfless and worthy] someone might even dare to die. But God clearly shows and proves His own love for us, by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Therefore, since we have now been justified [declared free of the guilt of sin] by His blood, [how much more certain is it that] we will be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, it is much more certain, having been reconciled, that we will be saved [from the consequences of sin] by His life [that is, we will be saved because Christ lives today].
ROMANS 5:6‭-‬10 AMP

Having addressed the two PERSONS (individuals) of the WHO? question for this Psalm (David and God), now we will talk about the TYPES that we can recognize hee as well.

We could include the world and mankind in the WHERE? question that comes later, and I believe we probably will once we get there, but I believe we should include both in the WHO? question as well, because there are things in this Psalm where there are exchanges between these two types and the Lord. There are interchanges and interactions that can be seen with each, so they play an active and participatory role as “characters in the story” and not just as the passive settings or environment in which this Psalm takes place.

For example, we see:

O You who hear prayer,
To You all mankind comes.

So “the Lord hears prayer”,

Yes this is in fact — “mankind coming in to the Lord”…

“mankind“:

“Coming in to the Lord“:

There is this interaction between God and His people – not just on a personal level as we saw particularly with David, but as a type, as “mankind” that we see as well.

We see it further played out in the relationship between mankind and God in the following verses:

Blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near
To dwell in Your courts.
We will be filled with the goodness of Your house,
Your holy temple.By awesome and wondrous things You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation,
You who are the trust and hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest sea;

Yes, there are ones He chooses:

And He is our salvation and our hope:

We can see this right relationship again established with our dependence upon God and not upon ourselves. We can see that this is available to all who might come:

Opening his mouth, Peter said: “Most certainly I understand now that God is not one to show partiality [to people as though Gentiles were excluded from God’s blessing], but in every nation the person who fears God and does what is right [by seeking Him] is acceptable and welcomed by Him.
ACTS 10:34‭-‬35 AMP

And our last type in our study of the WHO? of this Psalm is the World/Creation. You might have even noticed that we started out with God’s relationship to David, then to Mankind, and now to the whole of Creation — almost as if we were on a rocket ship that had departed from David’s presence and the higher we go up, the more that we see how things that once seemed individual are just parts of a greater whole.

The rest of this Psalm discusses the many ways that God not only has sovereignty and power over every facet of His creation, but that He shows favor in and through His creation:

You visit the earth and make it overflow [with water];
You greatly enrich it;
The stream of God is full of water;
You provide their grain, when You have prepared the earth.You water its furrows abundantly,
You smooth its ridges;
You soften it with showers,
You bless its growth.You crown the year with Your bounty,
And Your paths overflow.

The pastures of the wilderness drip [with dew],
And the hills are encircled with joy.

The meadows are clothed with flocks
And the valleys are covered with grain;
They shout for joy and they sing.

So that covers the WHO? question fairly reasonably for now. So we’ll continue on in our study of this Psalm later this week.

God bless you, and may He continue to reveal Himself more in His Word and in your living testimony, child of God!