Psalm 65:9-13 - July 1, 2009

Ps 65:9-13 "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. 10 You drench its furrows and level its ridges; you soften it with showers and bless its crops. 11 You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance. 12 The grasslands of the desert overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness. 13 The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing." NIV

These four verses carry such an image of God’s gracious provision and glad hearted blessing. Not only does God delight in blessing His children but when His favor is upon you the words of Jesus are a fitting description of the richness that He bestows; John 10:10 “…I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” God cares for the land. Do you have land, dedicate it to God and let Him bless it? God fills the streams so that they provide the people with grain. Do you need a harvest? Dedicate it to God and invite Him to water it! Have you prepared the ground? Ask God to soften it! It is God’s delight to pour out the richest blessing upon your life! When you prosper God’s testimony is raised higher through the praises that flow out of your mouth and the blessings that flow out of your life. God blesses us so that we will in turn bless others.
Verse eleven is such a wonderful picture of the favor of God. Imagine God crowning your year! Consider the possibility of all that you have overflowing with the abundance of God’s provision; not just enough, overflow! Has life been a desert? Has your past been touched with sorrow? The glory of God is to turn your desert into overflow and your sorrow into gladness. This is what brings Him praise! Many view God as a difficult and demanding master who cruelly withholds from His children unless either their perfection or their desperate pleadings somehow persuade Him to release a meager portion from His tightly clasped hand. But this passage reveals a different understanding of our loving God. James captured this revelation of a loving father in James 1:16-17 “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.” The right image of God that He wants to plant deeply within the spirit of every one of His children is the image of a loving Father who gives “good and perfect” gifts to the children that He loves.
In Luke 12:32 Jesus confronts a wrong understanding of the Father’s heart by declaring "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.” In this simple phrase Jesus exposes the common human tendency to live in a fear of what God won’t do rather than a faith for what God will do! God has filled his word with such clear statements of a Father’s loving provision because ever since the Garden of Eden Satan has been at work to disparage God’s reputation and to pervert mans understanding of God’s motivations in His dealings with us. God has clearly stated in repetitive fashion that He is a God of abundant goodness who delights in the praises that flow from the heart of one who has been richly blessed through their submission and obedience to the life that the Father has invited them to live before Him. Respond to God today, not with fear but with faith. Let Him shape your expectations for the day and for the year to be full of overflow. Speak to your deserts in the name of the Father who loves you and declare them blessed. Expect rivers of living water to bless and increase all that concerns you today! IN JESUS NAME!