Psalm 65:5 Study Bible: By awesome deeds of righteousness, you answer us, God of our salvation. You who are the hope of every part of the earth, of those who are far away on the sea;

◄ Psalm 65:5 ►

With awesome deeds of righteousness You answer us, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas.

Study Bible

With awesome deeds of righteousness You answer us
This phrase highlights God's active involvement in the world through His righteous acts. The term "awesome deeds" suggests acts that inspire awe and reverence, often associated with God's miraculous interventions in history, such as the parting of the Red Sea (Exodus 14) or the conquest of Canaan (Joshua 3). These deeds are not arbitrary but are rooted in God's righteousness, reflecting His moral perfection and justice. The concept of God answering His people implies a relationship where God is responsive to the prayers and needs of His followers, as seen in 1 Kings 18:24, where God answers Elijah's prayer with fire from heaven. This phrase underscores the belief that God's actions are both powerful and just, providing assurance to believers of His ongoing involvement in their lives.

O God of our salvation
This phrase identifies God as the source of deliverance and salvation. In the Old Testament, salvation often referred to deliverance from physical danger or enemies, as seen in the Exodus narrative (Exodus 15:2). However, it also points to spiritual salvation, a theme that is fully developed in the New Testament through the person and work of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:21). The use of "our" indicates a communal aspect of salvation, emphasizing that God is the Savior of His people collectively. This communal understanding is reflected in the covenant relationship between God and Israel, where God promises to be their God and they His people (Exodus 6:7).

the hope of all the ends of the earth
This phrase expands the scope of God's salvation beyond Israel to include all nations. It reflects the universal nature of God's plan, as seen in the Abrahamic covenant where all nations are to be blessed through Abraham's descendants (Genesis 12:3). The "ends of the earth" signifies the farthest reaches of the world, indicating that God's salvation is available to all people, regardless of geographical or cultural boundaries. This is echoed in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19), where Jesus commands His disciples to make disciples of all nations, highlighting the global mission of the church.

and of the farthest seas
The mention of "the farthest seas" complements the previous phrase by emphasizing the vastness of God's reach. In ancient times, the sea was often seen as a symbol of chaos and the unknown, yet God is portrayed as sovereign over it (Psalm 89:9). This imagery reassures believers that there is no place beyond God's dominion or care. The reference to the seas also connects to the idea of God's creation, as He is the one who set the boundaries of the seas (Job 38:8-11). This phrase reinforces the message that God's salvation and hope extend to every corner of the earth, affirming His authority over all creation.

Persons / Places / Events

1. God
The central figure in this verse, depicted as the one who performs awesome deeds of righteousness and is the source of salvation and hope.

2. Ends of the Earth
This phrase signifies the entirety of the world, emphasizing God's universal reach and influence.

3. Farthest Seas
Symbolic of the vastness and expansiveness of God's creation and His dominion over it.

Teaching Points

God's Righteousness in Action
God's deeds are not only powerful but are rooted in righteousness. His actions are always just and good, providing a model for how we should strive to act in our own lives.

Universal Hope
God is the hope for all people, regardless of location or background. This encourages us to share the message of salvation universally, knowing that God's love and power extend to all corners of the earth.

Prayer and Expectation
The verse highlights that God answers with awesome deeds. This should encourage us to pray with expectation, trusting in God's ability to act powerfully in our lives.

Salvation as a Present Reality
God is described as "the God of our salvation," indicating that salvation is not just a future promise but a present reality that we can experience and live out daily.

Awe and Reverence
The "awesome deeds" of God should inspire a sense of awe and reverence in us, leading to worship and a deeper appreciation of His majesty and power.

Bible Study Questions

1. How does understanding God as the "hope of all the ends of the earth" influence your perspective on global missions and evangelism?

2. In what ways can you reflect God's "awesome deeds of righteousness" in your daily life and interactions with others?

3. How does the concept of God answering with "awesome deeds" affect your approach to prayer and your expectations of God's intervention?

4. What are some practical ways you can live out the reality of God being "the God of our salvation" in your community?

5. How can you cultivate a sense of awe and reverence for God in your personal worship and spiritual practices?

Connections to Other Scriptures

Isaiah 45:22
This verse also speaks of God as the hope and salvation for all the ends of the earth, reinforcing the universal scope of God's redemptive work.

Romans 15:12
Paul speaks of the hope that comes through Jesus Christ, echoing the theme of hope for all nations.

Exodus 15:11
Highlights God's awesome deeds, similar to the "awesome deeds of righteousness" mentioned in Psalm 65:5.

Sermons

A Sermon to Seamen		Psalm 65:5
God	J. J. Leedal.	Psalm 65:5
God's Employment of the Terrible	R. W. Emerson.	Psalm 65:5
God's Terrible Things	Paxton Hood.	Psalm 65:5
A Harvest Hymn	J. Stalker, D. D.	Psalm 65:1-13
God as He Appears in Human History	Homilist	Psalm 65:1-13
Harvest Thanksgiving	W. Forsyth	Psalm 65:1-13
Praises and Vows Accepted in Zion		Psalm 65:1-13
Reasons for Praising God	C. Short	Psalm 65:1-13
Zion's Praise Ready for Her Lord		Psalm 65:1-13

People

David, Psalmist

Places

Jerusalem

Topics

Acts, Afar, Answerest, Awesome, Confidence, Deeds, Deliverance, Distant, Dread, Ends, Far-off, Farthest, Fearful, Hope, Lands, O, Oh, Power, Regions, Righteousness, Salvation, Savior, Seas, Terrible, Trust, Wilt, Wondrous, Works

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Psalm 65:5

     1125   God, righteousness
     1436   reality
     6628   conversion, God's demand

Psalm 65:1-5

8609 prayer, as praise and thanksgiving

Library

Sin Overcoming and Overcome
'Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, Thou shalt purge them away.'--PSALM. lxv. 3. There is an intended contrast in these two clauses more pointed and emphatic in the original than in our Bible, between man's impotence and God's power in the face of the fact of sin. The words of the first clause might be translated, with perhaps a little increase of vividness, 'iniquities are too strong for me'; and the 'Thou' of the next clause is emphatically expressed in the original, 'as …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Praises and Vows Accepted in Zion
In fulfillment of this ancient type, we also "have an altar whereof they have no right to eat that serve the tabernacle." Into our spiritual worship, no observers of materialistic ritualism may intrude; they have no right to eat at our spiritual altar, and there is no other at which they can eat and live for ever. There is but one altar Jesus Christ our Lord. All other altars are impostures and idolatrous inventions. Whether of stone, or wood, or brass, they are the toys with which those amuse themselves …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871

Daily Bread.
(Harvest Thanksgiving.) PSALM lxv. 9. "Thou preparest them corn." "Come, ye thankful people, come," and let us thank God for another harvest. Once more the Father, the Feeder, has given bread to strengthen man's heart, and we turn from the corn stored in the garner, to God's own garner the Church, where He has stored up food for our souls. And first of all, my brothers, let us be honest with ourselves. Are we quite sure that we are thankful to God for the harvest? We have decorated God's House …
H. J. Wilmot-Buxton—The Life of Duty, a Year's Plain Sermons, v. 2

Prayer, Praise and Thanksgiving
"Dr. A. J. Gordon describes the impression made upon his mind by intercourse with Joseph Rabinowitz, whom Dr. Delitzsch considered the most remarkable Jewish convert since Saul of Tarsus: We shall not soon forget the radiance that would come into his face as he expounded the Messianic psalms at our morning or evening worship, and how, as here and there he caught a glimpse of the suffering or glorified Christ, he would suddenly lift his hands and his eyes to heaven in a burst of adoration, exclaiming …
Edward M. Bounds—The Essentials of Prayer

Aron, Brother of Moses, 486, 487.
Abba, same as Father, [3]381; St. Paul uses both words, [4]532. Abel, [5]31, [6]252, [7]268, [8]450. Abimelech, [9]72, [10]197. Abraham, seed of, faithful Christians also, [11]148, [12]149, [13]627; servant's hand under his thigh, [14]149, [15]334; poor in midst of riches, [16]410. Absalom, David's son, [17]4, [18]5; type of Judas the traitor, [19]4, [20]20. Absolution granted by the Church, [21]500. Abyss, or deep, of God's judgments, [22]88; of man's heart, [23]136. Accuser, the devil the great, …
St. Augustine—Exposition on the Book of Psalms

"O Thou, that Hearest Prayer!" --Ps. Lxv. 2
"O Thou, that hearest Prayer!"--Ps. lxv. 2. Thou, God, art a consuming fire, Yet mortals may find grace, From toil and tumult to retire, And meet Thee face to face. Though "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord!" Seraph to seraph sings, And angel-choirs, with one accord, Worship, with veiling wings;-- Though earth Thy footstool, heaven Thy throne, Thy way amidst the sea, Thy path deep floods, Thy steps unknown, Thy counsels mystery:-- Yet wilt Thou look on him who lies A suppliant at Thy feet; And hearken to …
James Montgomery—Sacred Poems and Hymns

Question of the Active Life
I. Do all Acts of the Moral Virtues come under the Active Life? II. Does Prudence pertain to the Active Life? III. Does Teaching belong to the Active or to the Contemplative Life? IV. Does the Active Life continue after this Life? I Do all Acts of the Moral Virtues come under the Active Life? S. Isidore says[407]: "In the active life all the vices are first of all to be removed by the practice of good works, so that in the contemplative life a man may, with now purified mental gaze, pass to the …
St. Thomas Aquinas—On Prayer and The Contemplative Life

But in Order that we Fall not Away from Continence...
10. But in order that we fall not away from Continence, we ought to watch specially against those snares of the suggestions of the devil, that we presume not of our own strength. For, "Cursed is every one that setteth his hope in man." [1838] And who is he, but man? We cannot therefore truly say that he setteth not his hope in man, who setteth it in himself. For this also, to "live after man," what is it but to "live after the flesh?" Whoso therefore is tempted by such a suggestion, let him hear, …
St. Augustine—On Continence

If, Therefore, You had not as yet Vowed unto God Widowed Continence...
23. If, therefore, you had not as yet vowed unto God widowed continence, we would assuredly exhort you to vow it; but, in that you have already vowed it, we exhort you to persevere. And yet I see that I must so speak as to lead those also who had as yet thought of marriage to love it and to seize on it. Therefore let us give ear unto the Apostle, "She who is unmarried," saith he, "is careful about the things of the Lord, to be holy both in body and spirit; but she who is married is careful about …
St. Augustine—On the Good of Widowhood.

Prayer
But I give myself unto prayer.' Psa 109: 4. I shall not here expatiate upon prayer, as it will be considered more fully in the Lord's prayer. It is one thing to pray, and another thing to be given to prayer: he who prays frequently, is said to be given to prayer; as he who often distributes alms, is said to be given to charity. Prayer is a glorious ordinance, it is the soul's trading with heaven. God comes down to us by his Spirit, and we go up to him by prayer. What is prayer? It is an offering …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

Malachy's Pity for his Deceased Sister. He Restores the Monastery of Bangor. His First Miracles.
11. (6). Meanwhile Malachy's sister, whom we mentioned before,[271] died: and we must not pass over the visions which he saw about her. For the saint indeed abhorred her carnal life, and with such intensity that he vowed he would never see her alive in the flesh. But now that her flesh was destroyed his vow was also destroyed, and he began to see in spirit her whom in the body he would not see. One night he heard in a dream the voice of one saying to him that his sister was standing outside in the …
H. J. Lawlor—St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh

Religion Pleasant to the Religious.
"O taste and see how gracious the Lord is; blessed is the man that trusteth in Him."--Psalm xxxiv. 8. You see by these words what love Almighty God has towards us, and what claims He has upon our love. He is the Most High, and All-Holy. He inhabiteth eternity: we are but worms compared with Him. He would not be less happy though He had never created us; He would not be less happy though we were all blotted out again from creation. But He is the God of love; He brought us all into existence, …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VII

The Sovereignty of God in Operation
"For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be the glory for ever. Amen" (Romans 11:36). Has God foreordained everything that comes to pass? Has He decreed that what is, was to have been? In the final analysis this is only another way of asking, Is God now governing the world and everyone and everything in it? If God is governing the world then is He governing it according to a definite purpose, or aimlessly and at random? If He is governing it according to some purpose, then …
Arthur W. Pink—The Sovereignty of God

Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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