God Promises to Care for the Land

Psalm 65:1-2, 13 Praise awaits you, O God, in Zion; to you our vows will be fulfilled. 2 O you who hear prayer, to you all men will come...9 You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it.
 
BE silent for a moment…When you enter into worship in church, does your worship leader direct you to a moment of silence? When you sit to pray do you have a quiet moment? When David wrote to you our vows will be fulfilled, he was the worship leader who called for the people to be silent before the LORD. They would silently vow to consider God’s abundant care on their nation. They pledged to fulfill their vows of sacrifice and worship. Silence in worship is to be a sacred moment of reflection and commitment. We see this expressed in Revelation 8:1 When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
   Verses 3-8 direct Israel to reflect on God’s abundant care for them. From there the song praises God for his personal, tender care for the earth.  After all, he made the earth to be the source of all life.
   God is life. That’s not news. It’s the oldest fact in the universe. But he is not the bare essential of life – just offering his creation enough to survive. He is the Abundant Caretaker of the land. We praise God he is a personal gardener who takes special care to v 10 drench its furrows and level its ridges; you soften it with showers and bless its crops.
   Who taught the farmer how to till the ground? Who provided the seed for planting? Who is the source of water and sun for growing the crops? How does one learn to conserve water at certain times of year? Who teaches the farmer when to plant and when to harvest? All is in the knowledge that has come from God when he commanded Adam, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and govern it.”  
   Through each season, the crops grow. Then it’s time to harvest v 11 You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance. There is even ample harvest in the untended ground. V 12 The grasslands of the desert overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness. Livestock is plentiful. V 13 The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing.  
   Perhaps it is good to pause for a moment of silence to honor God before you eat a meal. Be mindful of what he has brought to you. For some of you, each bite of food is a precious reminder of God’s provision. You do not forget he is Provider because you need him to give you each day your daily bread.
   In contrast, many of you live among abundance; food is readily available to you. It is easy to forget God is the Gardener who furrows the ground and waters the crops when food is always available at your table.
   God has given to mankind the wisdom and provision to grow abundant harvests. Proper stewardship of the land and its resources is one way you worship God. Respond to God’s blessings accordingly and give thanks that God is a personal Abundant Gardener.