Psalms 65:8

The uttermost parts, to wit, of the earth, which is added to this word, Psalms 65:5. Thy tokens, or signs; either,

1. At the sun, and moon, and stars, which are called signs, Genesis 1:14. But these are not matter of terror, but of delight to men; and the commonness and constancy of their courses makes most men neither fear nor much regard them. Or,

2. At the great and terrible judgments which God inflicts upon wicked men, and particularly upon the enemies of his people. Or rather,

3. At those terrible thunders, and lightnings, and earthquakes, and comets, or other strange meteors or works of God in the air; for he is here speaking of the natural works of God. The outgoings of the morning and evening; by which he understands, either,

1. The east, from whence the morning, or the sun, the cause of it, goeth forth, as it is expressed, Psalms 19:6; and the west, from whence the evening or night is poetically supposed to come forth. So the meaning is, that God gives all the people of the world, from east to west, occasion to rejoice in the effects of his bounty and goodness to them. But if the psalmist had meant this, it is not probable that he would have expressed it in such a dark and doubtful phrase, which is never used in that sense; but rather by those known and usual expressions, from east to west, or, from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, which phrase he useth Psalms 1:1, Psalms 113:3. Or rather,

2. The successive courses of the morning and evening; or of the sun and moon, which go forth at those times, thereby making the morning and evening; both which are said to rejoice poetically, because they give men occasion of rejoicing, which the sun or the morning doth, because it gives them opportunity for the despatch of business, and for the enjoyment of manifold recreations and delights; and the moon or evening doth so, because it invites men to that rest and sleep which is both refreshing and necessary for them. Thus this whole verse speaks of the natural works of God; the former clause of such as are extraordinary and terrible, the latter of such as are ordinary and delightful.