Psalm 65:11 - Printer Friendly

ESV: You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance.

NIV: You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance.

NASB: You have crowned the year with Your goodness, And Your paths drip with fatness.

CSB: You crown the year with your goodness; your carts overflow with plenty.

NLT: You crown the year with a bountiful harvest; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance.

KJV: Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.

NKJV: You crown the year with Your goodness, And Your paths drip with abundance.

Again, David acknowledges God gracious provision of earth's bountiful harvest (Psalm 65:9–10). As in the first verse of the psalm (Psalm 65:1), the original Hebrew uses murky phrasing. The words involve lavish harvest, paths, and spilling over. Most translations express this as paths well-worn by harvest carts overflowing with grain. This has "crowned" the year, likely referring to the harvest as the fulfillment of a year's hard work.

When the Lord sent Israel into the Promised Land, He promised that their obedience (Deuteronomy 30:15–16) would result in abundant harvests. For that reason, every seventh year the people of Israel were commanded not to cultivate their fields. Leviticus 25:3–4 commands: "For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the LORD. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard." In addition, every fiftieth year was to be a jubilee, in which the people of Israel were told: "You shall neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather grapes from the undressed vines" (Leviticus 25:11). The choice not to plant or harvest would require faith that God had provided and would continue to do so.

Psalm 65:9–13 closes the song with a focus on God's providential care of the earth and gracious provision for mankind. The Lord faithfully prepares the earth for harvest. Evidence of His goodness is clearly seen in nature (Romans 1:18–20; Psalm 19:1). Likewise, the Lord should be given credit for what farms and fields produce (1 Corinthians 3:7). This passage seems a straightforward praise to the Lord for good crops. At the same time, this passage foreshadows the eternal, spiritual blessings which come through God's grace (John 4:36; James 3:18; Galatians 6:8).

David begins by anticipating praise to the Lord, expecting that He will bring atonement, fellowship, and blessing. The psalm mentions God's miraculous examples before referring to various natural examples of His provision. These benefits are both visible and available to all people of the world.

Psalms 65—68 express praise to the Lord using frequent references to nature and harvest. Only this and psalm 68 are explicitly credited to David. This song also thanks God for His kindness to His people; it encourages worshipers to offer thanksgiving. The song might have been meant to celebrate an especially abundant harvest.

The book of Psalms is composed of individual songs, hymns, or poems, each of which is a ''Psalm'' in and of itself. These works contain a wide variety of themes. Some Psalms focus on praising and worshipping God. Others cry out in anguish over the pain of life. Still other Psalms look forward to the coming of the Messiah. While some Psalms are related, each has its own historical and biblical context.