IMPERATIVE OR INDICATIVE? - By most reckonings, Psalm 65 is a communal song-poem of thanksgiving, specifically thanking God for a bountiful autumn harvest. However, other scholars have noted that it is quite possible to construe the verbs used in vv. 3-5 and 10 as imperatives (commands), thus turning the harvest festival into a rain dance. The psalm then becomes a fervent prayer for the rain that will produce an abundant harvest.

GOD AT THE CENTER OF OUR THANKS- God shows up as the Object of praise in each of the three strophes, though in each case God is praised/thanked in different ways and reasons why God is to be praised. For example: vv. 1-4 focus on answered prayer-including forgiveness and the ability to approach God’s presence-while vv. 5-8 recall God’s saving and creating activity. In the final strophe, God is thanked for God’s awesome deeds and provisions.

A REMINDER OF OUR SOURCE - Psalm 65 reminds us that Uncle Sam, our economy, our health, our resources of food, water, and fossil fuels-is not the Source, but derivative and dependent upon God’s gracious rule and providence. Anything praise less than that degenerates into self-congratulatory adulation at worse and worst, idolatry. As Walter Brueggemann says,

Psalm 65 reflects a public imagination capable of a troubled spirit, not so full of self, but able to reflect on its life in light of the majesty of God, a community forgiven and therefore ready to begin afresh. [1]

List your top three things in life that would evoke an immediate heart-felt thanksgiving to God as the Source. Try this-it’s a bit more challenging-list your next twenty reasons for offering God thanks. And for you praise/thanks veterans, what would you list for your next twenty reasons for offering thanks to God?

God is the hope of all the ends of the earth (v. 5), says the psalmist. Some days when the newspaper tells us another sad story of conflict across the ocean and the television shows us the desolate faces of hungry people, it is hard to feel that hope,. And overload of bad news can numb our hearts. As a way of remaining faithful to God’s undying love for the world take a story or issue from the world news and make it a focus of intercessory prayer for the day. Be a partner with God in hope as you pray.

I would use this psalm as a way to bring listeners’ attention to the harvest season and God as the reason for the season.

This would also lend itself to a homily that holds God as the Source with everything else in life derivative of that life. Yet, in reality, too often we worship the wrong sources! This would be an excellent "reminding" homily that reclaims God as the center of the universe and our lives.

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[1] The New Interpreter’s Bible IV (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996), page 935.