Psalms 65:1

Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Sion - That is, all the arrangements are made; the people are assembled; their hearts are prepared to praise thee. The fact that Zion is mentioned here as the seat of praise would seem to imply that this psalm was composed before the building of the temple, contrary to the opinion of DeWette and others, as noticed in the Introduction to the psalm, for after the building of the temple the seat of worship was transferred from Mount Zion, where David had placed the ark and prepared a tent for it 1 Chronicles 15:1; 1Ch 16:1; 2 Chronicles 1:4, to Mount Moriah. It is true that the general name Zion was given familiarly to Jerusalem as a city, but it is also true that the particular place for the worship of God in the time of David was Mount Zion strictly so called. See the notes at Psalms 2:6. The margin in this place is, “Praise is silent.” The Hebrew is, “To thee is silence-praise,” - a kind of compound phrase, not meaning “silent praise,” but referring to a condition where everything is ready; where the preparations have been entirely made; where the noise usually attendant on preparation has ceased, and all is in readiness as if waiting for that for which the arrangements had been carried forward. The noise of building - of preparation - was now hushed, and all was calm. The language here would also denote the state of feeling in an individual or an assembly, when the heart was prepared for praise; when it was filled with a deep sense of the majesty and goodness of God; when all feelings of anxiety were calmed down, or were in a state of rest; when the soul was ready to burst forth in expressions of thanksgiving, and nothing would meet its needs but praise.

And unto thee shall the vow be performed - See Psalms 22:25, note; Psalms 50:14, note; Psalms 56:12, note. The reference here is to the vows or promises which the people had made in view of the manifested judgments of God and the proofs of his goodness. Those vows they were now ready to carry out in expressions of praise.