John Calvin Commentary Psalms 65:9

"Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it, Thou greatly enrichest it; The river of God is full of water: Thou providest them grain, when thou hast so prepared the earth." — Psalms 65:9 (ASV)

Thou hast visited the earth, and watered it. This phrase, and the verbs that follow, denote action continually going forward and may therefore be rendered in the present tense. The exact meaning of the second verb in the sentence has been disputed. Some derive it from the verb שוק, shuk, signifying to desire; and giving this meaning: that God visits the earth after it has been made dry and thirsty by long drought.

Others derive it from the verb שקה, shakah, signifying to give drink. This seems the most natural interpretation—Thou visitest the earth by watering it. It suits the connection better, for it follows, thou plentifully enrichest it, an expression obviously added by way of amplification. Whether the Psalmist speaks of Judea only, or of the world at large, is a point about which different opinions may be held.

I am inclined to think that, although what he says applies to the earth generally, he refers more particularly to Judea, as the former part of the psalm has been occupied with recounting the kindness of God to his own Church and people more especially. This view is confirmed by what is added: the stream or river of God is full of water. Some take the river of God to mean a great or mighty river, but such a rendering is harsh and overstrained; on that supposition, rivers, in the plural number, would have been the form of expression used.

I consider that he singles out the small rivulet of Siloah and sets it in opposition to the natural rivers that enrich other countries, intending an allusion to the word of Moses (Deuteronomy 11:10), that the land which the Lord their God should give to his people would not be as the land of Egypt, fertilized by the overflowings of the Nile, but a land drinking water of the rain of heaven.

Or we may suppose that he calls the rain itself metaphorically the river of God. The words must, at any rate, be restricted to Judea, as by the pastures or dwellings of the wilderness, we are also to understand the more dry and uncultivated districts, called in Scripture “the hill country.”

But while it is the kindness of God to his own people which is here more particularly celebrated as being better known, we are bound, in whatever part of the world we live, to acknowledge the riches of the Divine goodness seen in the earth’s fertility and increase.

It is not of itself that it brings forth such an inexhaustible variety of fruits, but only insofar as it has been fitted by God for producing the food of man.

Accordingly, there is a propriety and force in the form of expression used by the Psalmist when he adds that corn is provided for man, because the earth has been so prepared by God.

This means that the reason for the abundance with which the earth teems is that it was expressly formed by God in his fatherly care for the great household of mankind, to supply the wants of his children.