Silas
Beloved of All
This verse from Psalm 65 is a beautiful reason for thanksgiving. It is a song of praise for harvest, for the way God provides and crowns the year with His goodness so that what He brings forth overflows with abundance.
David gives thanks for more than just the crops. He praises God for His awesome works in creation, for His power that stills the roaring of the seas and quiets the turmoil of the world, for His care in watering the earth and making it fruitful. All that we have comes from His hand. The earth belongs to the Lord and everything in it is His. We live on His earth, breathe His air, drink His water and eat the food He causes to grow. Every good thing is from Him, and this psalm calls us to notice it and to thank Him.
At the top of that list of blessings is the spiritual abundance He has given us in Christ. Before anything else, we can thank Him that He has chosen us, forgiven us and brought us into a new covenant that rests not on our faithfulness but on His. That covenant is sure because it depends on what Jesus has done for us on the cross, the one provision God has made for our sin. Through faith in Him we enter into the promise of blessing that cannot be taken away.
The psalm also remembers that God proves and tries His people as silver is tried. He allows seasons of testing, when we feel brought into a net or pressed down with burdens. Yet even then He is at work, and His purpose is to bring us through into a place of abundance and peace. That is the hope we have, that He will bring us into fullness of life with Him where there is wholeness and joy and every need is met.
I pray that as you look back over this year you will see His hand crowning it with bounty, both in the daily provisions you can touch and see and in the deeper riches of His grace, His mercy and His love in Christ. May He fill your heart with gratitude and may you offer Him the sacrifice of thanksgiving for all His benefits toward you, trusting His faithful care to continue to overflow in the year ahead.
David gives thanks for more than just the crops. He praises God for His awesome works in creation, for His power that stills the roaring of the seas and quiets the turmoil of the world, for His care in watering the earth and making it fruitful. All that we have comes from His hand. The earth belongs to the Lord and everything in it is His. We live on His earth, breathe His air, drink His water and eat the food He causes to grow. Every good thing is from Him, and this psalm calls us to notice it and to thank Him.
At the top of that list of blessings is the spiritual abundance He has given us in Christ. Before anything else, we can thank Him that He has chosen us, forgiven us and brought us into a new covenant that rests not on our faithfulness but on His. That covenant is sure because it depends on what Jesus has done for us on the cross, the one provision God has made for our sin. Through faith in Him we enter into the promise of blessing that cannot be taken away.
The psalm also remembers that God proves and tries His people as silver is tried. He allows seasons of testing, when we feel brought into a net or pressed down with burdens. Yet even then He is at work, and His purpose is to bring us through into a place of abundance and peace. That is the hope we have, that He will bring us into fullness of life with Him where there is wholeness and joy and every need is met.
I pray that as you look back over this year you will see His hand crowning it with bounty, both in the daily provisions you can touch and see and in the deeper riches of His grace, His mercy and His love in Christ. May He fill your heart with gratitude and may you offer Him the sacrifice of thanksgiving for all His benefits toward you, trusting His faithful care to continue to overflow in the year ahead.
