5 By dread deeds in righteousness Thou dost answer us, O God of our salvation, The confidence of all the ends of the earth and of the remotest sea: 6 Setting fast the mountains by His strength, Being girded with might, 7 Stilling the roar of the seas, the roar of their billows, And the tumult of the peoples. 8 So that the inhabitants of the ends [of the earth] become afraid at Thy signs: The regions whence morning and evening come forth Thou makest to shout for joy. 9 Thou hast visited the land and watered it, Thou enrichest it abundantly [by] a river of God, full of water, Thou preparest their corn when thus Thou preparest it: 10 Watering its furrows, levelling its ridges, With showers Thou softenest it, Its outgrowth Thou dost bless. 11 Thou hast crowned the year of Thy goodness, And Thy chariot-tracks drop fatness. 12 The pastures of the wilderness drop, And the heights gird themselves with leaping gladness. 13 The meadows are clothed with flocks, And the valleys are covered with corn, They shout for joy, they also sing. This and the two following psalms form a little group, with one great thought dominant in each--namely, that God's manifestations of grace and providence to Israel are witnesses to the world. They all reach out to "the ends of the earth" in yearning and confidence that God's name will be adored there, and they all regard His dealings with His people as His appeals to mankind, which will not always be vain. Psalm lxv. begins with that privilege of approach to God with which Psalm lxvi. ends. In both, iniquity in heart is regarded as hindering access to God; and, in both, the psalmist's experience of answered prayer is treated as testimony for the world of the blessedness of worshipping Israel's God. This psalm falls into three parts, which set forth a threefold revelation of God in His acts. The first (vv. 1-4) deals with the most intimate privileges of the men who dwell in His house. The second (vv. 5-8) points to His rule in nature, the tokens of God's power in the mighty things of creation--mountains, ocean, day and night, the radiant east, the solemn sunset-west. The third (vv. 9-13) gives a lovely picture of the annual miracle which brings harvest joys. The underlying thought binding these three parts into unity seems to be the witness to God's name which each set of His acts bears--a witness which "they that dwell in the uttermost parts" hear sounded in their ears. If this is the true view of the psalm, we may hear a reminiscence of it in Paul's remonstrance with the rude Lycaonian peasants: "He left not Himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness."