Psalm 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. 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 desert 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!”
On what occasion this Psalm was written is not certainly known; but it is probable that the inspired penman wrote it on the removal of the famine which God sent to punish the cruelty of Saul and of his bloody house towards the Gibeonites, whom he was bound by covenant to protect. This famine lasted three years; but at last, David having inquired of the Lord on what account this heavy judgment had been sent, and how the removal of it might be obtained—he was informed, that it was sent as a punishment of Saul’s treachery, in which the people, no doubt, had too willingly concurred; and that he must execute on Saul’s posterity such a judgment as the Gibeonites themselves should award to them.
The Gibeonites demanded that seven of Saul’s sons should be put to death. Seven of his sons were accordingly delivered into their hands, and were hanged up by them, as an atonement for their father’s sin, 2 Samuel 21:1-9. The Gibeonites being now satisfied with this act of retributive justice, the favor of God was restored to the land, and the whole nation was gladdened with the return of plenty.
Under this great calamity, David and all the pious of the land had humbled themselves before God; and in this Psalm they acknowledge God as the merciful Answerer of prayer to his penitent people, while he was the just Punisher of sin to those who continued impenitent. “He had lately answered them by terrible things in righteousness” for their transgressions; and now he had mercifully “heard their prayer,” and “purged away their transgressions.”
The words before us give a lively and beautiful description of the change wrought upon the earth through the rich showers with which God, in his mercy, had watered it.
Of course our attention therefore must, in the first place, be fixed on those blessings of providence with which we also are favored. Yet, as throughout all the inspired writings there will be found a reference to spiritual blessings, under those terms which at first sight appear to have only a literal import—it will be proper to notice, also, what we conceive to be spiritually contained in this passage. Agreeably to this view, we shall consider the text:
I. As literally fulfilled in the blessings of God’s Providence.
God is, in reality, “the giver of every good and perfect gift”.
Because God, in the first creation of the world, assigned to everything its proper place and office, we are apt to overlook his agency in the things of daily occurrence, and to ascribe them to what are called the laws of nature. But the hand of God is as necessary to uphold the universe, as ever it was to create it at first.
The heavenly bodies, it is true, have had their motions given them from the beginning; and have, for the most part, continued to obey the laws of their creation. But they have occasionally had those laws suspended; as when the sun stood still upon Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of Ajalon, for the space of a whole day. From hence it appears, that God’s laws move in subserviency to the will of their Creator, and execute his righteous purposes of vengeance or of love, according to his command.
The same may be said respecting the elements of this terrestrial globe. Fire and water have their properties; according to which, for the most part, they act; but at God’s command the waters stood like a wall, to form a passage and a rampart for his chosen people; and the fire lost its power even to singe the clothes of his faithful servants, who were cast into it for their fidelity to him.
In like manner, the earth produces fruits of different kinds; and the rains at certain seasons descend to call forth into activity its vegetative powers. But the agency both of the heavens and the earth depends altogether upon God, who, when he sees fit, “makes the heavens as brass,” and the earth as iron.
In a climate like ours, where the rains are frequent and occasional, God’s agency is but little seen; but in countries where the rains are periodical, the lack of them is so severely felt, that the goodness of God in sending them is more sensibly perceived, and more readily acknowledged. But in one place as well as in another, the influences both of Heaven and earth are alike dependent upon God, and must be referred to Him as their true, and only, and continual source.
God’s bounty and goodness should be gratefully acknowledged by us at this time.
Extremely beautiful is the description here given of the progress of vegetation, in consequence of a seasonable supply of rain. To attempt an illustration of these words would weaken their force, and reduce their sublimity. But, if a poetic taste alone can qualify us to appreciate their beauty, and to enter into them with a befitting zest—a spiritual taste also is necessary, to lead us to a due improvement of them, and to enable us to realize their full import. However, whether gifted with a poetic imagination or not—let me entreat all to survey the face of the earth, and to see the change that has been wrought on everything around him. Methinks, without any poetic imagination, he may see the smiles of universal nature, and hear the songs and shoutings of a grateful world. May our hearts respond to the voice of nature, and ascend up in praises and thanksgivings to our bounteous God.
But let us further view the text,
II. As emblematically describing the yet richer blessings of his grace.
Besides the primary sense of Scripture, there is frequently a secondary and subordinate meaning which ought not to be overlooked. In relation to this matter, the New Testament affords us the fullest information, in that it cites many passages in which we would have had no conception of anything beyond the literal meaning, if a further sense had not been unfolded to us by Him whose wisdom cannot err, and whose authority cannot be questioned.
The whole 104th Psalm, in appearance, relates to the works of creation and providence; but towards the close of it we are led, though but cursorily and obscurely, to the contemplation of God’s spiritual government; in which view, the Psalm is appointed by our Church to be read on the day whereon the out-pouring of the Spirit is more especially commemorated.
The Psalm before us may with equal propriety be viewed in the same light; and the rather, because the images used in our text are frequently applied to that very subject, to represent the influence of God’s Spirit on the soul, “His doctrine dropping as the rain, and distilling as the dew; as the light rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass, Deuteronomy 32:2.”
1. Let us notice, then, the influence of the Gospel upon the world at large.
Truly, the whole world is one great wilderness; some few spots only giving any just evidence of cultivation. It is not above one-sixth part of mankind that has even so much as heard of the name of Jesus; and where his Gospel is not preached, sin reigns without control. Even religion itself is nothing but a blind and bloody superstition, involving its votaries in everything that is cruel and detestable.
But see where the Gospel has gained an ascendant; look at Britain, for instance, and compare its state at this time with its state previous to the introduction of Christianity; once it was a dreary desert—but now it blossoms as the rose, and is as the garden of Eden. True it is that the name of Christianity effects but little; it civilizes, indeed, and raises the standard of morals—but it produces nothing corresponding with the description before us.
But when “the Word comes, not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance,” then a great and mighty change is effected, “the Spirit being poured out from on high, the wilderness becomes a fruitful field; and the fruitful field is so abundant, that it is even counted for a forest, Isaiah 32:15.” Could we but inspect the various settlements where zealous ministers have established churches among the savages of different climates, and see the difference between them and their yet uninstructed countrymen—we would have a far juster notion of the power of the Gospel than we can acquire in the midst of civilized society, where little remains to be added to the external deportment, and where the change effected by the Gospel is chiefly of a spiritual and internal nature. But the whole subject will be more fully open to us, if we view the Gospel as operating thus:
2. Let us notice the influence of the Gospel upon the souls of individual believers.
What were any of us in our unconverted state, but, like a barren heath, bringing forth briars and thorns, without any of those fruits of righteousness in which God delights? As for humiliation before God, and a simple life of faith in the Lord Jesus, and a delight in spiritual exercises, and an entire devotedness of the soul to God—we were as much strangers to it all as the heathen themselves! But when the word of the Gospel came with power to our souls, it wrought a change upon our whole man, and made us altogether new creatures, “Old things passed away; and, behold, all things became new!” The obdurate surface of our hearts was softened; and the unproductive soil put forth a vital energy; by means of which all the fruits of the Spirit sprang up in rich abundance, and gave a hopeful prospect of a luxuriant harvest.
Would we see this realized in a way that cannot be misunderstood, let us look at the converts on the day of Pentecost. It is not possible to conceive people more destitute of all good, or more filled with every hateful quality, than were the crucifiers and murderers of the Lord of Glory! Yet in a short time they were so changed, so that they remain to this day the most exalted patterns of piety to the whole world.
Thus it is at this day, also, among ourselves. The work, indeed, is not so sudden, nor so general; but, where the grace of the Gospel is received in truth, it operates precisely in the same way, “instead of the brier, there grows up the fir-tree; and instead of the thorn, there grows up the myrtle-tree; and even the tenderest plants rise in stately magnificence into “trees of righteousness, whereby the Lord is glorified.”
APPLICATION.
1. Let me now call you to adore your God for the blessings you have already received.
I would not that you should overlook the blessings of Providence. Even in this country we have often known the sad effects of scarcity; and we may well, therefore, bless our God for the prospects of abundance. To every one of you I would say, with David, “Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; make music to our God on the harp. He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills. He provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they call! Psalm 147:7-9.”
And will you not much more adore him for the blessings of his grace? Surely, if you do not, the very stones will cry out against you! Yet rest not in mere acknowledgments, however grateful they may be; but seek to abound in fruits of righteousness; which, while they are the necessary evidences of his work upon your souls, are the only effectual means of bringing honor to his name.
2. Let me now call you to look to God continually for fresh and more abundant communications of his grace.
The fertilizing showers which we have received will be of little avail, if they are not renewed from time to time. Just so, all the grace that any of us have received, will be ineffectual for any permanent good, if we are not favored with fresh “supplies of the Holy Spirit” from day to day. The grace which has been imparted to our souls this day, will no more suffice for our spiritual needs tomorrow, than will the light which has been communicated to our bodies. We must receive out of Christ’s fullness from day to day, as the branch of the vine receives from its stem and root. Let your daily prayer, then, be like that of David, “O God, you are my God; early will I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my flesh longs for you in a dry and thirsty land, where there is no water! Psalm 63:1.”
In reading the word, and in the public ordinances, look up for the blessing of God upon your soul; and plead with him that gracious promise, “I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams! Isaiah 44:3-4.”
Yes, Beloved, look unto God with increasing earnestness and confidence; and he will pour out upon you “showers of blessings.”
“I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots; his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon. Men will dwell again in his shade. He will flourish like the grain. He will blossom like a vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon, Hosea 14:4-7.”
Charles Simeon