Naylor Community Christian Church
Naylor, Georgia
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Psalm 65:1-13
Psalm
65
For
the director of music. A psalm of David. A song.
1
Praise awaits you, our God, in Zion;
to you our vows will be fulfilled.
2
You who answer prayer,
to you all people will come.
3
When we were overwhelmed by sins,
you forgave our transgressions.
4
Blessed are those you choose
and bring near to live in your courts!
We
are filled with the good things of your house,
of your holy temple.
5
You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds,
God our Savior,
the
hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas,
6
who formed the mountains by your power,
having armed yourself with strength,
7
who stilled the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
and the turmoil of the nations.
8
The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders;
where morning dawns, where evening fades,
you call forth songs of joy.
9
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.
10
You drench its furrows and level its ridges;
you soften it with showers and bless its
crops.
11
You crown the year with your bounty,
and your carts overflow with abundance.
12
The grasslands of the wilderness overflow;
the hills are clothed with gladness.
13
The meadows are covered with flocks
and the valleys are mantled with grain;
they shout for joy and sing.
-- this morning, as we lifted up our
praises and prayer concerns before God, one of the things that we praised God
for was sending us rain
--
as everyone knows, we’ve been caught in an exceptional drought – it just has
not rained like normal – and all of nature has been suffering – the grass is
dying – trees are shedding their leaves – fruit is not setting – seeds are
languishing in the soil because they don’t have the moisture to germinate – and
the farmers have been kicking the dust and looking at the sky for answers
–
we haven’t been this dry in over 20 years – and with the dry vegetation and all
the debris from Hurricane Helene, our forests are a tinderbox – that’s why
we’ve had those two massive wildfires in our region over the past several weeks
– over 50,000 acres burned and almost 200 homes and businesses lost
--
so, the rain that we had yesterday was a much-needed blessing from God
--
a similar drought occurred in Ohio back in 1853 – and just like us, they were
in trouble – in fact, they were in worse trouble than us – the farmers were in
danger of losing their entire livelihood of crops and livestock because they
didn’t have the ability to irrigate and to draw water from the ground like we
can today
-- things got so bad with the
drought, the farmers decided the only thing they could do was to ask God for
His help -- they reached out to the famous evangelist, Charles Finney, and
asked him to come and pray for rain – they believed that if God would listen to
anyone, He would surely listen to the prayers of this Godly man -- Finney
agreed, and on the day he was scheduled to arrive, the whole community gathered
in the town square to greet him and to join him in prayer
-- he took his place behind the
podium that had been set up in the town square, and looked out at the crowd of
anxious people who were trusting his prayers would move God to bring
much-needed rain to their community -- he gazed at them for a few moments, and
then said, “I see I am the only one who brought an umbrella”
-- although everyone there claimed
to be seeking God’s help and proclaimed that they believed God could bring the
rain, only Finney truly believed, for only Finney had brought an umbrella with
him to this prayer service
--
he preached a short sermon on faith, then set his umbrella down by his chair
and began to pray, “Lord, we do not presume to tell you what is best for us.
You invite us to come to you as children to a father and tell you all of our
wants. We need rain. Unless you give us rain our cattle will die and our
harvest will come to naught. It is an easy thing for you to do, O Lord, send us
rain.”
-- the rest is history -- God
immediately answered the prayer that Charles Finney offered up on behalf of the
people that day – and the rain poured down on them, even as they were gathered
there in prayer – Finney’s umbrella was a reminder that God hears the prayers
of the faithful, who truly trust in Him and look to Him for their salvation and
survival in this dry and dusty land
-- anyone who depends on the land
for sustenance would understand the effect that drought has on a community –
and how such times of drought drive us to our knees before the throne of God
for help
-- certainly, King David understood
it, for we see in this psalm David’s reliance on God and God alone for
salvation and survival
-- commentators are unsure as to the
inspiration for this psalm that David wrote, but several believe it was in
response to God’s sending of rain after a drought, such as the one we have been
experiencing – and that the abundance of fruit and grain that followed this
blessing from God caused David to lead the nation of Israel in joyful praise to
God for hearing his prayer and pouring out abundance upon His people
--
in this Psalm, we see the heart-felt response of David to God as he praises and
worships for who He is and what He does in answer to our prayers and our needs
– David looks beyond the immediate and the material – the momentary troubles of
this life -- to the eternal blessings that only come through God
--
so, as we come together in a similar situation today to celebrate the rain that
God has sent and as we look forward to God finally breaking this drought, let
us turn together to David’s psalm of praise and worship and see how David’s
words might inspire us to reverence God in this time in the same way
II. Scripture Lesson (Psalm 65:1-13)
-- verse 1
Psalm
65
For
the director of music. A psalm of David. A song.
1
Praise awaits you, our God, in Zion;
to you our vows will be fulfilled.
2
You who answer prayer,
to you all people will come.
-- this psalm opens with the
declaration that “praise awaits you, our God”
-- the word that is translated as
awaits or awaiting here comes from a root that means to be silent – by using
this word, David is evoking two common emotions
-- the first is the emotion that we
feel when we are anticipating a great act – for instance, think about being in
a darkened concert hall, waiting for the opening notes from a great singer or
from an orchestra – there is a feeling of heightened anticipation – everyone in
the place is on the edge of their seats – straining forward – waiting for the
first notes to fill the hall – there is a moment of collective energy – and
then, when the first notes escape into the atmosphere, the entire hall erupts
in applause and praise
-- that is what David is trying to
express here – Zion has gathered in anticipation of the coming of the Lord –
all creation is waiting for the moment the Lord appears – their eyes are
straining to see into the heavens – their ears are listening for that first
trumpet – and everyone is eagerly awaiting the sight of the Lord – that is the
moment David is trying to capture here – that moment of eager anticipation
-- the other emotion that David is
capturing in this phrase is the moment after the praise has ended – the moment
when there is nothing but silence – and you sit in that silence in awe of what
has just happened
-- several years ago, I went to a
Promise Keepers event in Atlanta – these were two-day events – and the second
day was supposed to start about 8:00 in the morning – I arrived early – along
with most of the people – we got there about 7:00 – and we gathered in the dark
of the arena and found our seats – there was quiet talking among everyone – and
then in the darkness, the worship band started to play “Holy, Holy, Holy,” from
the stage
-- every man in that place stood up
and sang in praise and worship together – one mighty voice ascending to the
very throne of God – and when the last note was played – when the song ended –
there was just silence – we sat there in that moment, overwhelmed by what we
had just experienced – that is the other meaning and emotion that David is
expressing here
-- after we have lifted up our
praise and worship to our God – when the last note is sounded and our voices
are hushed – we just stand in His presence in silence – experiencing the moment
we have shared
-- that is what David means here
when he tells God that praise awaits you – he’s capturing our emotions as we sit
in silent anticipation of the moment and as we bathe in the silence of the
glory of praise that we shared in
-- notice who it is that is praising
God here – it says in verse 1 that the “vows will be fulfilled” – these are the
vows of praise and thanksgiving that God demands – that were written into the
laws of Israel
--
this tells us that these are the people of God who have gathered to wait in
anticipation to praise Him – those who know Him and have pledged themselves to
Him
-- if you’ll notice in verse 2, it
says, “to you all people will come” – the term, “all people,” refers to all
mankind
–
we talked before about how the majority of the Bible was written solely to the
nation of Israel – and how we should read and interpret the Bible with good
exegesis to see what God was saying to them before we try to apply the passages
to us in a more general way – that we don’t try to appropriate promises or
blessings that were intended only for the nation of Israel
--
this is not one of these passages – this Psalm was written as a call to praise
for all the people on earth as we worship and praise God for His blessings that
He pours out on all mankind, not just on the nation of Israel
--
David’s intent here is for all the peoples of earth to gather in praise of God
– for all creation to cry out to Him in worship
-- I think this Psalm may be
pointing towards the future manifestation of kingdom of God on earth – when
this old earth will have passed away and there are new heavens and a new earth –
when there is no longer any sin or shame or guilt – when all evil is purged
from the land and sin and death cast into the Lake of Fire
--
at that time, all the people will come -- all the redeemed from the entire
history of the world will gather together in Zion as the people of God – one
nation – one people – one kingdom – one church – one bride – praising God’s
holy name on Zion before His throne, just as we see described in the Book of
Revelation
-- finally, I don’t want you to miss
David’s description of God here in verse 2 – he calls God, “You who answers
prayer” – David sees God as our sovereign Lord who knows His people and who
cares for each and every one of us – God hears our prayers – and not only does
He hear our prayers, He answers them – not because He has to – but because we
are His and He is ours
-- this name for God – You who
answers prayer -- recognizes both the relationship between us and God and His
grace in hearing and answering our prayers because of it
--
verse 3
Psalm
65:3 When we were overwhelmed by sins,
you forgave our transgressions.
-- so, why do we praise God? – what
causes us to wait in eager anticipation for His coming so that we might pour
out our praises before His throne?
-- first, David reminds us that God
is our Savior – here in verse 3, we read that God forgave our transgressions –
literally, God atoned for our transgressions and sins when we were overwhelmed
and overcome by them
-- I read a news article this week
that said, for the first time ever in our 250 year history, the US national
debt surpassed 100% of the nation's GDP – the Gross Domestic Product – our
country owes over one trillion dollars in interest payments to investors –
roughly 120% of our GDP – which means that the interest on our debt exceeds the
entire annual economic output – this has been driven by high spending, rising
interest costs, and an aging population
--
to put this in terms that we can relate to, this means that we owe more money
than we take in – for us, it would be like our bills being bigger than our
paychecks, with no way out
--
crushing debt – debt that we can’t ever hope to pay
--
that is what our sin debt was like – as David says here, we were overwhelmed by
our sin – it was greater than we could pay – we had no hope of every atoning
for our sin on our own – we couldn’t do enough good works – we couldn’t make
enough sacrifices – we couldn’t do enough good things to pay our way out of the
sin and transgressions that we had accumulated
--
we were bound by sin and death and were hopelessly trapped – that’s why Paul cried
out in Romans 7:24, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this
body that is subject to death?”
--
but thankfully, our story doesn’t end there – for Paul goes on in verse 25 to
say, “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
--
that is what David is saying here – when we were overwhelmed by our sins and
transgressions – when there was nothing more we could do – God delivered us –
He forgave our sins and made atonement for us through Christ Jesus -- God
Himself provided the atonement – the covering – the sacrifice – that paid the
blood debt for the sins that we committed – Christ became sin for us and died on
the cross to save us
-- because God has so graciously atoned
for our sins – removing the guilt and lifting off the burden – we find peace
with Him – and we come before Him in praise – pouring out our joy as we praise
God for the hope we have in Him and in Christ
-- verse 4
Psalm
65:4 Blessed are those you choose
and bring near to live in your courts!
We
are filled with the good things of your house,
of your holy temple.
5
You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds,
God our Savior,
the
hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas,
6
who formed the mountains by your power,
having armed yourself with strength,
7
who stilled the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
and the turmoil of the nations.
-- next, David says, we praise God
for He is Sovereign – He is our Lord – He is our God – He is our King
-- we have been chosen by Him and
brought near to live in the very courts of His throne – in Ephesians 1:4, we
read that God chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and
blameless in his sight – and as John wrote in John 1:12-13, for those of us who
have received Him – who have believed on His name – He gave us the right to
become the children of God – born not of man or of human decision – but born of
God
-- we are His children – the people
of His name – the heirs of the inheritance of Christ – filled with the good
things of His house – blessed, as Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:3, with every
spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms
-- David says that God our Savior
answers our prayers and our praises with awesome and righteous deeds – He is
our hope to all the ends of the earth – in Him and through Him we have the
promise of eternal life – and we see His power and sovereignty poured out and
displayed in His creative power
-- for it was God who formed the
mountains by His great power – with just a word, they came into being – He
armed Himself with all strength and power and greatness – He stilled the
roaring of the seas – He brought peace to the nations – turning aside the
division and chaos and turmoil and uniting all people under His banner
-- verse 8
Psalm
65:8 The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders;
where morning dawns, where evening fades,
you call forth songs of joy.
9
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.
10
You drench its furrows and level its ridges;
you soften it with showers and bless its
crops.
11
You crown the year with your bounty,
and your carts overflow with abundance.
12
The grasslands of the wilderness overflow;
the hills are clothed with gladness.
13
The meadows are covered with flocks
and the valleys are mantled with grain;
they shout for joy and sing.
-- God is our Savior – He is our
Sovereign – and, finally, we praise Him because He is our Sustainer – He blesses
us and sustains our life – both here and forever more
-- we recognize God’s providential
hand to all creation and to all mankind – even now, as this world walks in
darkness – God has not turned His back on us, but continues to pour out His
grace and sustenance on everyone – saved and sinner alike
-- the Bible tells us in Matthew
5:45 that God causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good – and He sends
rain on the righteous and unrighteous
-- He continues to bless all peoples
so that His invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – can be
seen and experienced by all and might draw people to His saving embrace through
the atoning death and resurrection of Christ
-- as David describes God here, He
is the One who shows that we all may have confidence in Him – that we can trust
Him – that we can depend on Him – on the earth and on the sea – He is the one
who makes the mountains firm – He is the one who stills the noise of the waves
– He is the one who blesses His people and calls them to salvation
-- the whole earth sees the hand of
God – in the rising of the sun and the setting of the same – in the days and
seasons and the times marked out by the courses of the stars and heavenly
bodies
-- in the rain and sunshine that
provide food for all creation -- His power and presence is seen and felt
throughout all Creation – and our hearts and souls respond with songs of joy
-- in verse 9, David points out that
God cares for the land – there are some who believe that God just created the
heavens and the earth and then stepped back, allowing them to run on their own
without any interference or participation – I’ve seen many articles that say
our founding fathers were deists like this – men who believed in God, but did
not see His active involvement in the affairs of man
–
but this verse says otherwise – David says that God cares for the land – that
implies active involvement – that implies that He is aware of the condition of
the land – as Jesus said, He sees the sparrows when they fall – God is aware of
His creation at all times – and He is actively involved in taking care of that
which He has created -- He pours out His providential blessings upon the earth
and all its inhabitants
-- when creation needs water, God
provides the rain – when the grain in the field needs water, He provides it –
so that He might take care of His creation and His people
-- when we’re caught in the grip of
exceptional droughts, God sends the rains as He wills – drenching the furrows
and leveling the ridges – softening the hard and dry parched ground with
showers and blessing the crops upon it
-- as our Sustainer, God pours out
blessings and abundance on His people
-- David says here that God crowns
the year with His bounty – this literally refers to a year where the abundance
of God’s blessings is poured out on all creation – a time of abundant goodness
and kindness and production
–
when I was in school, we studied habitat management – taking care of the
forests and the fields in such a way as to provide for the wildlife we were
managing – we were taught how the wildlife depends on fruit and mast – the nuts
and berries and other food that animals get from nature
–
and we were told that nature is very fickle – some years, there is enough food
and mast for the animals to survive – but other years, like this year here in
south Georgia, times are hard – the drought affects the trees and the
vegetation – and they don’t produce enough food for the animals to survive – in
those years, we were told that we needed to step in and provide when nature
couldn’t – so that the animals would persist
--
but every so often, there will be a year when all the trees produce an abundance
of fruits and nuts – and when that happens, it is amazing to see -- it’s like
the trees and bushes are just making as much fruit and mast as they are capable
of making – I have seek oak trees with their limbs literally drooping on the
ground from the number of acorns on the branches – I’ve seen fruit trees just
bending over from all the fruit
--
we can’t predict those years – they happen as God wills them – and when they
happen, all of creation rejoices – the animals gorge themselves on the goodness
– they eat until they almost burst -- they are overfilled with the blessings of
abundance – and in these years of abundance, the animals cache food and store
up food for the future – it is just a time of super abundance – as the musical
Porgy and Bess says, “It’s summertime and the living is easy”
--
that’s the picture – the image – that we are given in this verse – David
describes for us a season of plenty – a season of super abundance – a season of
extravagant fruitfulness and faithfulness – however, this season will never end
– it will last for eternity
-- in verse 12, we read that “the
grasslands of the wilderness overflow” – and we picture that in our minds
-- a lot of us dream of going over
to the Holy Land – of seeing the nation of Israel and the land described in the
Bible – we want to go and see where Jesus walked – we want to go and see all
the places described for us in the Bible -- we want to go and see the
grasslands of the wilderness – the green pastures beside the still waters we
read of in the psalms
--
but ask anyone who has gone over there and they’ll tell you the same thing – there
are no grasslands in the wilderness in Israel – there might be some areas that
has a little grass where the dew and the runoff from the mountains provide
enough water to support grass or around the streams – but most of the land is a
dry and desolate area – this is the wilderness of the Bible
--
but this is not what it will always be – in the future, David reminds us that
God will bless the land – that the grasslands of the wilderness will overflow –
it will be as Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 35:1-2, “The desert and the parched land
will be glad – the wilderness will rejoice and blossom…it will burst into
bloom”
-- God’s kingdom is always a kingdom
of abundance – whether that is an abundance of crops of grain or meadows or
fruit – or whether it is an abundance of God’s grace and mercy
-- God brings beauty from ashes and creates
grasslands in wilderness – and when we experience the abundance of His
sustaining grace – we cannot help but respond with shouts of joy and praise
–
this is a picture of the hope we have in Christ – of the hope for the future
Kingdom – when we will dwell with God forever in times of overflowing goodness
and abundance
-- it is a promise to us who walk
through the wilderness of this life that there is a better future in store – that
although we may experience the dryness and dustiness of exceptional droughts
from time to time, the rains will come – God will provide – His salvation and
sovereignty and sustaining hand will see us through -- and we should praise God
for this promise – for the hope we have in Him – who alone can provide this to
us
-- this Psalm reminds us that we
should always look to God and praise Him because He is our Savior – our
Sovereign – and our Sustainer
III. Closing
-- let me close this morning with
yet another example of a difficult time from history – this time, it’s not a
drought, but an economic depression – in 1893, things weren’t going well in
America – we had come through the devastation of the Civil War, but we had
settled into a depression that put one out of every five Americans out of work
-- things were hard – the bills were
bigger than the paychecks, for those lucky enough to have one – and no one had
any hope of the future getting better
-- it was during the summer of this
year that Katharine Lee Bates, a young English teacher who had taken a summer
teaching job in Colorado, left her home in Massachusetts and traveled across
the country by train to her new home
-- as she rode through the forests
of the eastern U.S. – as she crossed the Mississippi River in all its greatness
– as she saw the enormous wheat fields in Kansas – Bates saw hope for this
nation who had been through so much
-- it all came together when she
took a trip to the summit of Pikes Peak in Colorado, and looked out upon the
countryside that lay before her
-- she was only up there for 30
minutes, but she never forgot what she saw – she later remarked, “It was then
and there, as I was looking out over the sea-like expanse of fertile country
spreading away so far under those ample skies, that the opening lines of the
hymn floated into my mind”
-- that night in her hotel room,
Bates wrote a letter to her friends in England and remarked that countries such
as England had failed because, while they may have been “great,” they had not
been “good” – she added that “unless we are willing to crown our greatness with
goodness, and our bounty with brotherhood, our beloved America may go the same
way”
-- based on her experiences on that
trip, she wrote a poem that was published in a church newspaper for their 4th
of July edition two years later – it was eventually put to music, and the
beloved hymn, “America the Beautiful,” was born with its amazing opening
stanza:
“O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!”
-- in this hymn, Bates captured what
David was expressing so vividly in this psalm – an attitude of appreciation and
gratitude for our nation’s extraordinary physical beauty and abundance – and a
recognition of God’s hand in our nation’s history
-- through God and through His
abundant blessings, Bates proclaimed that we could overcome anything – from
economic depression to civil wars to exceptional droughts
-- the same thing that David is
saying in this psalm – through God – who is our Savior – our Sovereign – and
our Sustainer – we enjoy His many blessings and we look forward in eager
anticipation for the end of days – when the trumpet will sound and Christ will
return – and we join together in praise with all people from all nations to
worship the King in Zion
-- even though, we find ourselves on
this side of the promise – even though we still walk through a land that is
affected by the fall and that still experiences the consequences of sin – even
though we are not yet experiencing the abundance of the everlasting kingdom -- let
us be inspired and remember to praise God for His manifold blessings – for His
hand that protects – and for His Son who saves and sustains
-- for our God is a Great God – and
it is to Him that we owe all our praise and worship – forever and ever -- Amen
-- let us pray
------------------------------------------------
1 Modified
from illustration at http://www.chaimbentorah.com/2017/02/word-study-former-rains-%D7%99%D7%A8%D7%94/?print=print
2
Sermon Illustration modified from David Holwick sermon, “Bounty and Abundance,”
https://www.holwick.com/sermons/Holwick_2013.html?Psalm65BountyandAbundance.html
