Psalm 65 Feb. 4 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. A song.  1Praise waits for You, God, in Zion. To You shall vows be performed. 2You who hear prayer, to You all men will come. 3Sins overwhelmed me, but You atoned for our transgressions. 4Blessed is the person whom You choose and cause to come near, that he may live in Your courts. We will be filled with the goodness of Your house, Your holy temple. 5By awesome deeds of righteousness You answer us, God of our salvation. You who are the hope of all the ends of the earth, of those who are far away on the sea; 6who by His power forms the mountains, having armed Yourself with strength; 7who stills the roaring of the seas, the crashing of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations. 8They also who dwell in distant places are afraid at Your wonders. You call the morning’s dawn and the evening with songs of joy. 9You 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. 10You drench its furrows, You level its ridges, You soften it with showers, You bless it with a crop. 11You crown the year with Your bounty, Your carts overflow with abundance. 12The wilderness grasslands overflow, the hills are clothed with gladness. 13The pastures are covered with flocks, the valleys also are clothed with grain. They shout for joy! They also sing.   

Commentary

65:3 You atoned for our transgressions- The atonement for sin was achieved through the death of Christ, who hadn’t died at David’s time. But God forgave sin in Old Testament times on the basis that He foresaw the death of Christ, who as it were was slain from the beginning (Rev. 13:8). God speaks of things which don’t exist as though they do (Rom. 4:17), because He views from outside the limitations of human time. This is why He can speak of things and persons (not least His Son) as existing before they did. This doesn’t mean they pre-existed in any literal sense, but they existed in His plan and purpose.
65:6 By His power forms the mountains- God didn’t just form the mountains at the time of Genesis 1 and leave them, He is actively forming mountains to this day. A theme of this Psalm is that God is actively at work in the natural creation; the water cycle doesn’t as it were run on clockwork but rather as a result of God’s active, conscious and passionate involvement (:9-11)- see on 50:1.