God’s Abundant Favor to Earth and Man.
For the choir director. A Psalm of David. A Song.
65 There will be silence [a]before You, and praise in Zion, O God,
And to You the vow will be performed.
2 O You who hear prayer,
To You all [b]men come.
3 [c]Iniquities prevail against me;
As for our transgressions, You [d]forgive them.
4 How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You
To dwell in Your courts.
We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house,
Your holy temple.5 By awesome deeds You answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation,
You who are the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest [e]sea;
6 Who establishes the mountains by His strength,
Being girded with might;
7 Who stills the roaring of the seas,
The roaring of their waves,
And the tumult of the peoples.
8 They who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of Your signs;
You make the [f]dawn and the sunset shout for joy.9 You visit the earth and cause it to overflow;
You greatly enrich it;
The [g]stream of God is full of water;
You prepare their grain, for thus You prepare [h]the earth.
10 You water its furrows abundantly,
You [i]settle its ridges,
You soften it with showers,
You bless its growth.
11 You have crowned the year [j]with Your [k]bounty,
And Your [l]paths drip with fatness.
12 The pastures of the wilderness drip,
And the hills gird themselves with rejoicing.
13 The meadows are clothed with flocks
And the valleys are covered with grain;
They shout for joy, yes, they sing.
This reminds me of when Jesus told the religious leaders that the very rocks would cry out if the people stayed silent. In verse 8, we see the dawn and sunset “shout for joy”, but that’s a funny thing to say. Yet all of creation, as we continue in this psalm, declares God’s bounty, his grace, and his glory. Again in verse 13, we have meadows and valleys shouting for joy as well.
It’s not that they are actually shouting, but it’s all about the beauty and abundance we see in nature. Why are the dawn and sunset so beautiful? Yes, there’s a scientific explanation for it, but why? Why does the atmosphere affect the sun’s rays in such a spectacular fashion? And why do we think it is beautiful in the first place?
Imagine God talking to an angel, perhaps Gabriel, when the sun comes up for the first time. “Gabriel, come quick, you’ve got to see this!” And Gabriel replies, “Wow, that’s incredible, what did you do that for?” The answer? “So that all mankind will see it and stand in awe, every day that they are able…” To which Gabriel questions, “Who?” And God says, “Oh just you wait, the best is yet to come!”
God made the light out of many colors, and he made our vision capable of seeing it in a particular way. Every day, we are surrounded by things that declare his glory. Even our bodies, intricately fashioned, hand-crafted by God himself. For whatever we think of them, He made them good. As we learn more about the human body, it’s more awe-inspiring every time.
So today, shout for joy, and sing! Sing for all that he has done, for all that he will do, and because he did it all for you.