I. THE DIVINE GOODNESS ORDERED. "Thou crownest the year," etc. Now, praise must be for God alone: not for any man, however helpful to your souls he may have been. And in this spirit of praise every action of the Church ought to be performed. We shall be helped to praise by remembering how God has answered our prayers; and this in spite of our sins; and what sacred privileges He has admitted us to.

II. THE ENCIRCLING BLESSING OF THE DIVINE GOODNESS IS TO BE CONFERRED. "Thou crownest the year," etc. See it in the history of our own Church.

III. AND THIS, ALSO, IS OF GOD. Again, we look back on the same history for these last twenty-five years, and we see the goodness of God everywhere. In conversions, in consistent character maintained, in triumphant departures to heaven. Let more come to Him now.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

1. Of the perils that beset the harvest.

2. How God demands man's co-operation, yet reserves to Himself the sole efficiency.

3. The manner of conducting the whole to a successful issue — so slow, still, imperceptible, and yet so all at once.

4. Its fulfilment of the ancient promise.

5. The universality of the blessing.

II. WHAT RETURN IS DUE FROM US TO GOD? Praise, for —

1. We celebrate the bestowment of forfeited blessings.

2. Harvest blessings serve purposes higher than themselves. They minister to life, and that may lead to salvation.

3. They are pledges of yet greater blessings which God will give.

(Isaac Vaughan.)

II. ADORING WONDER. Instead of assuming a stolid indifference and unconcern, as many do, or taking the laws of nature and arrangements of Providence as things of course, in presence of processes whose operation, repeated from year to year, testifies to a Power before which all the achievements of human skill are utterly insignificant, let us go through life finding each day new cause for intelligent wonder and admiration, and fresh reason for declaring to all around "the wondrous works of God." Nor, while cherishing feelings of adoring wonder in contemplating the wonders of nature and of Providence, ought we to forget the more amazing things in God's character and in God's law, in the person and work of Him who is "Wonderful," in the operations of the Holy Spirit on the hearts and lives of men.

III. HUMBLE DEPENDENCE. And, while cherishing feelings of humble dependence for the bounties of Providence, let us be daily constrained to acknowledge ourselves debtors to Divine grace.

IV. RESTFUL CONFIDENCE. Men may alter their intentions or be defeated in their purposes; their promises are precarious, being dependent upon many contingencies; but the laws of nature reflect the immutability of their Author. As the seasons revolve fresh proof is afforded of God's faithfulness which anew should strengthen confidence and call forth praise. After we have done our part we can repose our faith in the constancy of nature and experience the satisfaction and comfort which proceed from committing the result to Him who giveth the increase. Besides, our confidence is based not only on the high attributes of a God whose nature is unchangeable, and on the covenant into which God was pleased to enter with Noah and his seed, but specially on the securities of that covenant which cannot be broken into which God has entered with Jesus as our representative and Saviour. We may well trust in the Lord.

V. ENLARGED BENEVOLENCE. The world's harvests are for the world's inhabitants. We are all children of the common Father, members of the same great family, and if some perish from hunger or are stinted in their supply of bread, this is due, not to want of the precious commodity in the world, but to the thoughtlessness and improvidence of men. Let us imitate the Divine example by devoting of the gifts of His bounty as He may prosper us for the relief and help of those whose necessities are greater than our own, and who have, therefore, a claim on our sympathy and assistance. "Freely ye have received, freely give."

(T. B. Johnstone, D. D.)

(W. Wright, D. D.)

I. GOD'S GOODNESS IS MANIFESTED IN THE HARVEST. Certain seasons speak to us and teach us lessons; and it is necessary, in the hurry and scurry of modern civilization, that something should remind us of the hereafter, or we might think, with the secularist, that this life only demands our attention. And in contemplating the harvest we are led to think of the goodness of God. The harvest is, as it were, the crowning point of God's goodness. "Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness." As if the psalmist would say that the goodness of God in preparing the ground and in blessing the springing of the seed reached its highest manifestation in the ingathering of the earth's increase. God's promise to Noah still stands secure, although our friends the farmers, with their usual characteristic, have prophesied with lugubrious faces the failure of the harvest. The goodness of God is further exhibited in the bountiful provision which He has made for all His creatures. So ample is it that even birds know how to get their food. He provides for man physically, intellectually, and spiritually. In the physical world man's wants are supplied, both for food and clothing, from the lower order of animals and from plants. In the intellectual sphere man finds food for his intellect in the realms of agriculture, astronomy, physics and metaphysics, arts and sciences, and in the more humble, and yet, perhaps, more useful occupations of the home life. But does God's goodness stop here? Oh, no. God has provided in His Word for all man's requirements in the spiritual world.

II. NOTE SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD'S GOODNESS. It is continuous. "The goodness of the Lord endureth continually." God's goodness is satisfying. "We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house." Nothing short of God and His goodness can satisfy the soul's deep longings. "None but Christ can satisfy." We cannot understand the soul's yearnings, but we know they are there. But, says somebody, God's goodness does not satisfy me. Then be assured that you are out of harmony with goodness and with God. A man who has no soul for the beautiful will spend a miserable half-hour if taken to the Royal Academy. One with no soul for music can see no beauty in the production of the "Elijah." God's goodness is universal. "The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord." Why, then, so much misery and starvation in our streets? Because man has placed himself outside the pale of God's goodness by sin. If we could dig clown deep into the very cause of misery, we should find this true.

III. GOD'S GOODNESS DEMANDS MUCH OF US. What are we going to give Him? An adequate return? We cannot. At best we can but pay a few shillings in the pound. Shall we give Him our intellect, to think for Him, and use the best means of building up His kingdom? Shall we give Him our possessions, our riches, our wealth, to be used in His service? Shall we give Him our hearts, that He may rule and reign as Lord of every motion there? Shall we give Him our life — aye, and before the best of it is gone?

(H. M. Draper.)

1. The annual revolutions of the heavenly bodies, and the benefit we receive by their light and influences, in the several seasons of the year.

2. The annual fruits and products of the earth, grass for the cattle, and herbs for the service of men, with these the earth is every year enriched for use; as well as beautified and adorned for show. The harvest is the crown of every year, and the great influence of God's goodness to an evil and unthankful world.

II. SOME YEARS ARE, IN A SPECIAL MANNER, CROWNED WITH THE GOODNESS OF GOD MORE THAN OTHER YEARS.

1. God and His providence must be owned in all the blessings of the year. Whatever has been or is our honour, our joy, our hope, comes from God's hand, and He must have the praise of it.

2. The goodness of God must in a particular manner be acknowledged, as that in which all our springs are, and from which all our streams flow.

3. These blessings which flow from the goodness of God have crowned this year; He in them has crowned it. That word shall lead us into the detail of those favours, which we are this day to take notice of, with thankfulness, to the glory of God. A crown signifies three things, and each will be of use to us.

(1)It dignifies and adorns.

(2)It surrounds and encloses. And —

(3)It finishes and completes.And accordingly this year has been dignified, surrounded, and finished with the blessings of God's goodness.

III. APPLICATION.

1. Has God thus crowned the year? Let us cast all the crowns of it at His feet, by our humble, grateful acknowledgments of His infinite wisdom, power, and mercy. What we have the joy of, let God have the praise of.

2. Has God thus crowned the year? Let not us then profane our crown, nor lay our honour in the dust, by our unworthy walking. Let the goodness of God lead us to repentance, and engage us all to reform our lives and families, to be more watchful against sin, and to abound more in the service of God, and in everything that is virtuous and praiseworthy.

3. Let God's goodness to us engage, and increase, our goodness to one another: it is justly expected, that they who obtain mercy should show mercy, and so reflect the rays of the Divine goodness upon all about them; being herein followers of God as dear children; followers of Him that is good, in His goodness.

( M. Henry.).

I. THE PROVIDENCE OF POWER (vers. 1-7). God is in the midst of His people like a watchman on the watch-tower, not only observing all that is taking place within the city of God, but keeping a keen outlook upon the enemies by whom the city is surrounded, lest the rebellious should exalt themselves (ver. 7). Of this protecting care an instance never to be forgotten was the scene at the Red Sea, when the flood was turned into dry land, and His people, who had been in mortal terror, had their apprehensions turned into rejoicings. Another was the passage of the Jordan, when they entered Canaan. These may be called the stock examples of Hebrew poetry. We have better instances supplied by subsequent history; but the great lesson is that all history belongs to us, and we are selling our birthright if we do not know how to travel through the tracts of the past and discern in them the footsteps of our God.

II. THE PROVIDENCE OF DISCIPLINE (vers. 8-12). When God is celebrated merely as the Champion of His people, who discomfits their enemies, there is danger of boasting. But the psalmist is well aware that God sustains a more delicate relation to His people. He does not always prosper them; He does not always spare them disappointments and defeat. On the contrary, adversity is one of the gifts of the covenant. And in this psalm the sufferings of God's people are described in a series of touching images (vers. 10-12). They have been tried like silver; they have been brought into the net like a bird which is in the grasp of its captor and cannot escape; they have been yoked to oppression like the ass to its load, and the oppressor has lorded it over them like the driver riding above the head of the camel; they have been brought through fire and through water. Yet for these experiences the psalm calls for praise. The old poets used to say that the nightingale sang with its breast resting against a thorn; and it is certain that the mellowest notes of the religious voice are never heard till suffering has been experienced. The distinction of God's people is not that they have less to bear than others, but that they get the good of their affliction, and, when they trust God, He always at last brings them out, as is said here, into a wealthy place.

III. THE PROVIDENCE OF GRACE (vers. 13-20). There are those who have never had anything done for their souls. They can speak about their bodies, their properties and their fortunes, but their soul has no history. If a man's soul has a history in which God is concerned, and of which he himself is glad, we know a good deal about him. It is a great thing to be able to say, "Come and hear" (ver. 16), "Come and see" (ver. 5). Have you seen any sight and heard any message which you feel to be worth the attention of all the world? I should not like to live and die without having seen and heard the greatest and best that the world contains. Perhaps a further biographical feature is indicated in the saying that if he had regarded iniquity in his heart God would not have heard him. At all events, we have here one of the profoundest remarks on prayer to be found in the whole Bible. God will not hear the prayers of a man who is cherishing known sin. But the psalmist does not ascribe the glory of his answered prayer to his innocence. He finishes with a humble ascription to the God of Grace.

(J. Stalker, D. D.)

II. It is BINDING ON ALL. "All ye lands." It is more rational, more right, for men to neglect everything else than to neglect this — neglect their physical health, their social advancement, even their intellectual culture, than to neglect worship. It is the "one thing needful." It is that one thing which, if lacking in any character, damns the man.

III. It has a DIRECT RELATION TO GOD. "Say unto God, How terrible art Thou," etc. It speaks not about Him, but to Him. It may be said that genuine worship has to do with everything — it mingles in all the services of the man, makes the whole life one unbroken psalm. True, but it only does so by the conscious contact of the soul with God. As the fields that are sown with grain must turn themselves to the sun before there will come germination, growth, maturation, so the soul must put itself into conscious contact with God, its Sun, before its spiritual powers can be brought out into true worship.

IV. It will ONE DAY BE UNIVERSAL. "All the earth shall worship Thee."

(Homilist.)

     1330   God, the provider
     4208   land, divine responsibility
     4978   year
     8261   generosity, God's

Psalm 65:11-13

     4428   corn

Psalm 65:12-13

     8287   joy, experience

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