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. You drench its furrows and level its ridges; you soften it with showers and bless its crops. You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance. The grasslands of the wilderness overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness. The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing. Psalm 65:9-13
“All the covenantal benefits are blessings of God by which He demonstrates to His people that they are His beloved elect. Water is one such blessing. People prepare the land before the rain falls by making “furrows” and “ridges”. They rejoice when after the gentle rains vegetation grows. They rejoice even more when they see the latter rains in the spring. These rains permit the crops to mature and to produce abundant harvests. It is as though God’s “carts” (i.e., clouds) overflow. When God’s carts overflow, His people rejoice in the bountiful provisions.”
Willem A. VanGemeren in Psalms (EBC; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008) 500.
My conference is going well in Orange County, though I have not spent much time outside. I did shoot the header photo of the deep blue sky and huge cacti which caught my attention at a break between sessions yesterday. It’s been a rich time with leaders from across Southern California, New York, New Jersey, and South Korea.
As I explore “abundance” (my word for 2018) in the Scriptures, I read this Psalm today. Rain is on my mind as I recently agreed to facilitate some meetings for an international mission organization in South Africa in late February and early March. I learned this week that Cape Town and other cities are in dire need of moisture.
So my prayer today is simply, Lord have mercy on South Africa. Please send them rain. Join me. Let’s pray He sends it soon in many the form of many “carts” overflowing with water. Then I thought of the poor around the world, crying for help, wishing we would be one of God’s “carts” to deliver them what they need.
What’s this got to do with generosity? Friends, we are God’s “cart” designed to deliver abundance. Sure, we must be generous in a manner that builds disciples rather than creating dependencies, I get that. My point is to actively take our role as God’s distributors. Right now, let’s send up prayers for water every time we drink a cold glass ourselves.
And the next time you see a cloud, or every time you see a cloud, consider it a reminder. It’s God’s “cart” bringing you abundance so that your life can produce abundance. Don’t let it dam up with you. Dig furrows and put up ridges so that it waters and brings life to the land around you.
And Lord, it seems really dry in cloudless Southern California too, could you please send a few “carts” here too.