Sing Praises to the God Who Provides All Things
From Psalm 65: 1 Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion; and to you shall vows be performed, 2 O you who answer prayer! To you all flesh shall come. 3 When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us, you forgive our transgressions. 4 Happy are those whom you choose and bring near to live in your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, your holy temple. 5 By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance, O God of our salvation; you are the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. 6 By your strength you established the mountains; you are girded with might. 7 You silence the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples.8 Those who live at earth's farthest bounds are awed by your signs; you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy. 9 You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide the people with grain, for so you have prepared it. 10You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. 11 You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with richness. 12The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, 13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.
When my children were growing up I feared the new invention of television and movies in the car. Headrests with screens came along, and I thank God we could not afford such luxuries in our vehicles. Now with tablets and smartphones, it seems these distractions have truly invaded our space. When preaching in Spanish the invention Nintendo came along, and I feared that too much time spent with Nintendo would result in a generation of kids that would ultimately say, "No entiendo." That's español for "I don't understand." I know I'm showing my age and my preferences, but here's where I think David and I stand; what could a generation miss if it misses the splendor of God's creation in favor of a game or movie or show? David believed that praise and worship could be found in creation, and that creation joins in with the praise and worship God is due from us.
The first part of this psalm talks about what God is due from us, and that is praise. That means when we glorify or lift high our feelings about God. It is a sense of exhilaration in our being in the presence of Almighty God. It is God who answers all of our prayers; and to God we should be faithful in holding to God our vows made to and in God's presence. Whenever we sin or fall short of doing or being who God called us to be, we are forgiven. Ours is happiness in being faithful to God, for God removes from us all that hampers our right relationship with Him. If you doubt this, David writes, look at the mountains; God's strength established those. My very first airplane ride was from Houston to El Paso, and I clearly remember looking out of that window over the mountains the closer we got to our destination, and my thoughts were thoughts of praise of the majesty of these things I had never seen from this height before. I had seen mountains in Mexico when I was a child, but to fly over them and see them stretch out for miles brought my heart back to God. I live by the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and I try to see them every day and David says, God has control over the seas. Just look all around you and you will see reminders of how awesome God truly is. The recent gifts of rain remind us of God's power to renew and refresh the earth. God provides grain for our good. God provides for all that we need if we but ask. Why not join together in singing the praises of the living God?
PRAYER: Awesome God, great and wonderful are You and Your works among us. Do not let us be distracted by anything, especially worries or anxieties. Let us see in all of nature the works of Your hands as a reminder of Your power to create and to make new all things, even us. Praise You! In Christ Jesus we pray, amen!
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
