Ps. 65.1 (in the beginning is the end)

Praise / awaits you
O God / on Zion
O God / on Zion / vows to you / will be fulfilled. 

There is an interesting problem when we approach certain psalms, and that is the question of context. For example, in this psalm, it seems pretty clear (to me) that this psalm was recited at some type of harvest festival whereby the people asked God to bless the land. What this seems to imply is that the psalm would have been recited within a much larger context, and one that the hearers (and composer(s)) of the psalm would have assumed. This leads me to an interesting observation I had when reviewing this psalm—it made a great deal more sense to me if I read it backwards, starting from the end and working my way forward. I do not think that this occurs in every psalm and, in some, could distort the effect of the psalm. Here, however, I think it really can help because the end of the psalm fully reveals the context that the beginning of the psalm would have assumed. Everything is aiming at, or heading toward, the request for God’s “fruitful visitation” (vs. 9). It is, I think, with this in mind that these opening verses really take on a rather profound depth that would otherwise be lost. First, the direction of the vows and praise is singularly and completely toward “Zion”. It is there that these ‘vows and praise’ will occur. Now, as we said, within a context of fruitfulness, to so clearly position oneself in relation to Zion is important as, it seems, the fruitfulness of God’s visitation will be “from Zion”. Zion becomes the ‘ground zero’, so to speak, the ‘wellspring’, of God’s blessing. It is, in Zion, that everything is “set to right”, that God’s presence is utterly fruitful and satiating (vs. 4). Importantly for our purposes is the fact that the garden of Eden is clearly described as a type of Temple, a pre-amble to Zion. Indeed, it might be said that, in David/Solomon, the ‘image of God’ (the king) now, with the construction of the Temple, re-enters Eden. Zion, from this perspective as the Garden of Eden, is the ‘mountain of God’ that stands as the origin and source of creation itself. From it (as from Eden) do the ‘living waters’ flow that will come to enliven the world; the psalmist will say, “The divine channel is full of water!” (vs. 9). And, the “river of God enlivens (makes glad) the city of God” (Ps.46.5). We might say that, from this perspective, Zion/Eden is both the source (Eden like with the rivers) and summit (as the place of pilgrimage; it is ‘from Zion’ that God’s life-giving instruction will pour fourth) of the earth. Why is this important as it relates to these opening verses? It seems that the blessing of the earth is most fully expressed in joy, liturgy and praise, in Zion because Zion is the ‘house of God’ and from which the blessings originate. This captures that sense of Zion we have spoken of in other psalms: it is both utterly particular (in its location) and utterly expansive (in power; it reaches “to the ends of the world”).