PSALM 65 SERMON
Pastor posted this and I obtained permission to add it to my ministry blog. Enjoy
January 2, 2022
It's hard to cancel services but we want to make sure no one gets infected with Covid.
Psalm 65:11, "You crown the year with Your goodness; and Your paths drop abundance."
This Psalm begins by stressing that praise awaits the God who hears our prayers. Then the writer calls attention to the truth that though we sin, we have a God who purges our sins and takes them away. Then we read in verse 4...
"Blessed is the person whom You choose and cause to approach You, that they may dwell in Your presence; we shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, even of Your holy temple."
The sense is that when God came to His people, He would be received in a spirit of praise. This praise can be pure silence because what the worshiper feels is an overwhelming sense of God's goodness that one's praise has no utterance at first.
Kidner writes, "It may sometimes be the height of worship, in other words, to fall silent before God in awe at His presence and in submission to His will.”
Our ability to approach God is because of God Himself.
He is the connection!
He chose us and granted us the privilege to enter into His presence.
It's there in His presence that believers find true satisfaction. The imagery here is of God being the host and as His guest we are protected, provided for and preserved.
So, as we go through this Psalm, we observe the greatness of our God in our lives and in nature itself. Thus, in verse 11, David highlights the truth that a plentiful harvest was the crown jewel of a productive year because of God's unmerited goodness. In other words, though the ground was cursed because of Adam's sin, God in His mercy can override the curse when His people are walking in harmonious fellowship with Him. And note, God doesn't do things in small proportions but in abundance - "...Your paths drop abundance."
Listen, it doesn't matter what the economic conditions may be. Our Jesus isn't bound by our economy. What He is bound to do is blessing His people abundantly when their soul satisfaction is Him. There's the key to having this New Year crowned with His goodness, to where the paths we walk are full of His abundant blessings. It's when we find in Him our satisfaction and not the things of the world. If we want God's abundant blessings in our lives then we must come to the place that we're drawing ever nearer to Him. The question we have to ask is...
“How do I get that intimate with God to where my soul is fully satisfied?”
It requires daily time in His Word as well as consistent time in prayer. It's about hungering and thirsting after righteousness.
Nothing will change this year to keep it from being like last year unless we decide to take our relationship with Jesus a whole lot more serious than we ever have. Jesus awaits to bless you, but it will take a faith commitment to grow our faith deeper, wider and broader than we ever have if we want His abundance poured into our lives.
Isaiah 43:18-19, "Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
God has a reason in asking us to remember not the things of the past. Perhaps we have made a mess of our life. Failures, frustrations, sins and sufferings, hurts and offenses have marked our journey. With this heavy burden we cannot move forward. Whatever might have happened, we need to leave it all to the ocean of the mercy of God. We are called to trust Him for He promises us to meet us where we are.
So, let's make a faith commitment in this New Year that Jesus has blessed us with to seek Him with the whole heart like never before. Let's let Him be our satisfaction over everything else and when He is, we'll be able to praise Him even in the storms that may come.
Blessings in this New Year!
Do you have a relationship with Jesus? Click here for more information to receive the greatest blessing of all: salvation: https://omaswisdom.blogspot.com/p/path-to-salvation.html.
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