A Study in Psalms - Psalm 65

Anybody here grow up on a farm? Anybody? Raise your hand Anybody? One, two Not too many people You know the excitement at harvest time You probably don't know the excitement at harvest time, though Anybody here grow vegetables in their backyard? Anybody? Anybody? Okay, a lot of you grow vegetables in your backyard

Isn't there something special about it when you plant it, you water it, you fertilize it, you weed it, and you keep watering, and after many months, Lord willing, you have a bounty of vegetables, right? Well, that didn't happen with me. A couple years ago, I decided I would get into the farming business, so I bought these giant tins in the backyard, put them in the backyard. I don't have a big backyard, so I got the raised planters And I bought the fertilizer, the manure, and planted, I think, four crops

And watered it, weeded it, and kept watering and watering, and it's exciting when you see the carrots sprout, right, when you see the cucumbers sprout It's exciting But I kept watering and watering, and all of a sudden, on the back of the cucumbers and the green peppers, they got black So I guess it was a calcium deficiency So I figure I spent $300 and got about this much of carrots So I'm not a good farmer Farmer's not for me, so I hope you're better than I am But tonight, we have a very interesting psalm It's a harvest psalm, at least the last few verses are

And it's about being thankful at harvest time So I wasn't too thankful with my handful of carrots, but hopefully you, when you get bushels of tomatoes and things are, hopefully you did better This is a psalm that's to be sung when the crops are gathered in This psalm focuses on praising the Lord for his manifold blessings and for his gracious dealings with his people So let's read Psalm 65 tonight To the choir master of the Psalm of David, a song Praise is due to you, O God in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed. O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come

When iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions Blessed is the one you choose and bring near to dwell in your courts We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness. O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of all the farthest seas

The one who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with might, who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of the waves, the tumult of the peoples, so that all those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy And here's the harvest part You visit the earth and water it You greatly enrich it The river of God is full of water You provide their grain for so you have prepared it You water its furrows abundantly, setting its ridges, softening it with showers and blessing its growth

You crown the year with your bounty Your wagon tracks overflow with abundance The pastures of the wilderness overflow, and the hills gird themselves with joy The meadows clothe themselves with flocks, and the valleys deck themselves with grain They shout and sing together for joy Let's pray Father, thank you for the harvest psalm, for a thank-you psalm May we leave here tonight realizing just how blessed we are and how dependent we are on you In Jesus' name, amen We have a superscription, of course It says, to the choir master, a psalm of David and a song

And if you notice, Psalm 65, 66, 67, and 68 all say that And they're all kind of alike You can read them together Psalm 65, verse 8 says, So that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe of your signs Psalm 66, verse 1 says, Shout to the joy to God all the earth Psalm 67, verse 2 says, That your way may be known on earth And Psalm 68, verse 32 says, O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God Our psalm tonight is a song of worldwide praise to God All the nations of the world will praise God for three reasons

Whether you're a farmer, whether you're a vegetable grower in your backyard, or whether you don't farm at all, we need to give thanks to God and praise to God So the type of psalm tonight is quite different. I think we've had a lot of lament psalms this year And that wasn't by design, but lament psalms, you know, are David's in trouble, David's got a crisis, or the sons of Korah are in crisis and they're crying out for deliverance from some battle, some war, or Saul is chasing David About 65 of the 150 psalms are lament psalms

Some of them are individual lament, others are the whole congregation is lamenting Those can get old after a while, can't they? They're kind of like the same lament psalms But tonight, we've really got a blessed one, I think, because tonight's psalm is about joy It's about excitement because something had gone well Circumstances were good The people had reason to render thanks to God for his faithfulness, for his protections, and for his benefits Thanksgiving psalms help a person or a group express thoughts and feelings of gratitude

There are six what they call group community psalms of Thanksgiving, and that would be tonight's psalms, 65, 67, 75, 107, 124, and 136 And then there are 10 individual psalms of Thanksgiving, 18, 30, 32, 34, 40, 66, 92, 116, 118, and 138 So those are the Thanksgiving psalms, and tonight we're going to look at one of them Call it a Thanksgiving psalm, but also call it a harvest psalm Your outline tonight is three simple points, God our Savior, verses 1 to 4, God our Creator, verses 5 to 8, and God our Sustainer, verses 9 to 13 Let's begin with point one, God our Savior

And there's four subpoints there He answers prayer, he atones for sin, he accepts worshipers, and he assigns blessings Let's look at subpoint one, he answers prayer It says, in my Bible, praise is due to you, O God in Zion Now, I know a lot of you out there have NASV Bibles, right? So your first sentence is a lot different It says, there will be silence before you and praise in Zion And the LSV, the new translation, says, to you there will be silence and praise in Zion

So what's the difference? Why the different translations? Why doesn't the BSV say silence? Well, the Hebrew word for silence is very similar to the words for fitting, for proper So most translations say praise is fitting for you, or praise is due for you, and they omit that silence But praise is due for you Probably the greatest praise psalm there is is Psalm 150 Psalm 150, if you want to turn there real quick, it has the word praise, I think, 13 times in six verses Psalm 150 says, praise the Lord Then you ask the question, where do we praise Him? Well, we praise God in His sanctuary

We praise Him in His mighty heavens Why do we praise Him? That's verse 2 We praise Him for His mighty deeds We praise Him according to His excellent greatness How do we praise Him? We praise Him with the trumpet sound We praise Him with the lute and harp We praise Him with tambourine and dance We praise Him with strings and pipe We praise Him with sounding cymbals We praise Him with loud clashing cymbals And verse 6 is the climax It says, let everything that is breath praise the Lord, praise the Lord

Praise is due to our great God and Savior because He's the creator God, He's the sustainer God, and He's our Savior God My Bible says praise is due to you, you If you were to count all the you's in the ESV, it would be 14 times, speaking of God The LSV actually, and we'll read a piece later, 19 times it says you, you The you is God Verse 1 continues and says that praise awaits in Zion, or Jerusalem Later this year we will look at Psalm 87, which is all about Zion But that's where the great Jewish feast of the tabernacles or bus was held

And most commentators believe that Psalm 65, the harvest is talking about the festival of bus, or called the festival of tabernacles Today there's no temple, but someday that temple will be rebuilt and praise will be given to God there So praise is due to our Lord Number two is vows are due This is still under the answers to our prayers He says, and to you shall vows be performed You know, the Old Testament believers made vows These were pledges to offer sacrifices of Thanksgiving when prayers were answered You have some good example

Hannah and first Samuel, remember she couldn't have the baby and she's crying out in the temple and Eli thought she was drunk, but she said to God that if you will give me a son, I will give him to you, the Lord And that was a good example Then you've got a bad example of rash and stupid vows Jephthah and judges vowed if God gave them the military victory, whatever came out of his tent, he was going to sacrifice, and you remember his daughter came out of his tent That was a bad rash example of vows. I don't think we take vows very seriously today

Even wedding vows, isn't the divorce rate somewhere around 50 percent? But what's the difference between a vow and a covenant? In modern English, they mean the same intention. A covenant is a written, signed agreement, whereas a vow is a solemn, spoken promise made to either another human being or as in marriage to God. I think we New Testament Christians don't think about vows and I don't think we sometimes think about covenants But Jesus said in Luke 9.23, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me

When you come to Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven, you're a new creation in Christ, are you not making a vow to follow Jesus Christ? Last week we had two baptisms, and those two men made a public profession in front of our church that they're going to follow Jesus for their life, even to the end Luke 9.23 says even to death So I think when we make a vow to follow Jesus Christ, that includes our prayers Jude 20 says, But you, beloved, build yourselves up in the most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit You have a relationship with the God of the universe and we need to pray to Him

Second, we need to give Him our lips Hebrews 13.15 says, Let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of the lips that acknowledges His name We sing songs on Sunday, but I hope that's not the only time you praise Him Our bodies. 1 Corinthians 3.16 says, Don't you know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? We are to keep our body holy because the Holy Spirit lives in you And we're to serve. 1 Corinthians 12.7 says, To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good

God gave every believer a spiritual gift and you have to unwrap that gift and use that gift in the body of Christ And lastly, tithing Proverbs 3.9 says, Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your produce It was an agricultural economy, so their money was in the grain and the wheat and the barley and the olives and the wine

We have a covenant card here at Christ Community Church and I'm afraid that when you join Christ Community Church, maybe you haven't joined Christ Community Church, so you haven't seen that covenant card, but when you make a covenant card, you're covenanting to do these things If you love the Lord, you'll love His bride, which is the church And you will attend, you will serve, you'll sing, and you'll love one another So I hope that you will perform your vows and start thinking about that

Psalm 66, which is the next psalm after 60, verses 13 to 15 says, I will come into your house with burnt offerings. I will perform my vows to you, that which my lips uttered and my mouth promised when I was in trouble. I will offer to you burnt offerings of fattened animals with the smoke and sacrifice of rams. I will make an offering of bulls and goats So prayers are due, vows are due, I'm sorry, praise is due, vows are due, and thirdly, prayers are due Verse 2 says, O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come

In verse 1, the praise was due for Israel, but here in verse 2, the praise is due from all the world We have a wonderful description of God here. O you who hear prayers We read our Bibles, we study theology and try to get a better understanding of who God is, but one thing I know is that God hears our prayers The first psalm we looked at this summer was Psalm 5, so I don't have to talk a lot about it, but I said then, God hears our prayers He doesn't sleep, He doesn't take a holiday, there's no answering machine in heaven that says, I'm currently awake now, leave a message

One verse from that Psalm 5 which we looked at, Psalm 5 verse 1 says, Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness You have given me relief when I was in distress Be gracious to me and hear my prayer And I probably quoted this quote from A.W Tozer 20 times in the last five years, but it's my favorite prayer quote And A.W Tozer said, Man is at his highest and greatest when he is on his knees where he comes face to face with God That's what happens when you're praying So prayers are due, praises due, and vows are due Subpoint number 2, He atones for sin

It says in verse 3, When iniquities prevail against me, I'll stop right there Some translations say, Our record of sin overwhelms me Iniquities or sin is described in this verse as overwhelming or burning him. A heavy burden of guilt and misery And it immediately reminds me of David in Psalm 32 Remember, David would not confess his sins with Bathsheba and the murdering Uriah for almost nine months And it says that in Psalm 32 verses 3 and 4, For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away Through my groaning all day long For day and night your hand was heavy upon me

My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer So God's heavy hand was upon David when he would not confess his sins Psalm 130 verse 3 says, If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities or count iniquities or keep a record of iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared It then says, You atone for our transgressions Five beautiful words Literally means you cover our transgressions Atone means to make amends, to provide or serve as reparation or compensation for something bad Our sins are bad

And our psalm tonight says that God atones for our transgressions The personal pronoun you is emphatic It says God alone can forgive transgressions Psalm 51.4, another one by David says, Against you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight Yes, he sinned with Bathsheba Yes, he sinned against Uriah But ultimately he sinned to God alone This verse here, Psalm 65 verse 2, is the Romans 5 verse 8 of the Old Testament You all know Romans 5.8 I hope, right? But God shows his love toward us in this While we were sinners, Christ died for us It's the Romans 5.8 of the Old Testament

You know, we talked a lot in our psalm studies about the penitential psalms We've looked at Psalm 32 We've looked at Psalm 51 We're going to look at Psalm 102 We've already looked at Psalm 130 There are six what they call penitential psalms that talk about forgiveness of sins It strikes me odd that with this verse, Psalm 65 verse 3, it's not one of the penitential psalms. I don't know why they left it out, but that's just a category people put But atonement is mentioned three times in psalms It means to cover or wipe away

Next time you read that wonderful book of Leviticus, you'll see the word atonement 48 times out of the 90 times in the Bible So Psalm 65 verse 3 says, You atone for our transgressions Psalm 78 verse 38 says, Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them Psalm 79 verse 9 says, Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name, deliver us and atone for our sins for your name's sake Probably the best description of atonement in the Bible is that beautiful chapter Lance read it recently. I even read it recently a few weeks ago Isaiah chapter 6

And if you don't want to turn there, you remember the story Isaiah 6, in the year that King Uzziah died, it says, I saw the Lord sitting upon the throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple Above him stood the seraphim, each had six wings, and two he covered with his face, and with two he covered with his feet, and with two he flew And one called another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts The whole earth is filled with his glory And the foundations of the threshold shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke

And verse 5, Isaiah says, And I said, Woe to me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips For my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. I would wager to say that Isaiah was probably the most righteous man in all of Jerusalem Yet when he saw God on the throne, he says, I am a man of unclean lips But verse 6 says, Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar

And he touched my mouth, and he said, Behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away, and your sin is atoned for God took his sins away The last time the word atonement is used in the Old Testament is in Daniel 9.24, that great chapter of Daniel 9, which says, Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgressions, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity We know that was when Jesus Christ hung on the cross, and he would provide atonement for everyone who would believe That alone is reason to praise God That alone is to make vows

That alone is the reason to pray every day, thanking him for his atonement The word atonement does not appear in the New Testament, but there is a like-minded word called propitiation And that means what God is now for us His anger against sinners has been taken away Our relationship has been restored Jesus died in our place and bore the wrath of God's punishment So have you believed in Christ's atonement? Don't leave here tonight without seeing me, Tom Mason, or Lance, if you're not sure

If you have Christ's atonement, it ought to cause you, as verse 1 and 2 say, to give praise that's due, to make vows or covenants and pray People all over the world need to know that God has provided atonement for sin through Jesus Christ Either God provides atonement for your sins, or you will pay the penalty for your sin in hell Let's look at some point in number 3 He accepts worshippers It says, You all know the Beatitudes in the New Testament, right? Matthew 5 says, You all know those Beatitudes, right? Well, do you know there's 25 Beatitudes in Psalms? And this is one of them

Blessed is the one you choose and bring near to dwell in your courts We are blessed because God chose us to bring us near to Him You know, visiting the sanctuary or the temple in the Old Testament, Israel, was a badge of membership that was something that they would be proud of True believers found satisfaction in that holy place You know, the Lord hears our prayers We talked about that in point 1 And He's chosen people to bring near to Him If you have Jesus Christ in your heart tonight, He's drawn us near for you to be near Now, we don't go to the temple

We come to the physical building of the church Now, some of you might ask, who are these people here? Could they be priests? Well, Numbers 16.5, Jeremiah 30.21 make a claim it could be priests But equally, they might be the entire covenant people of Israel Because Exodus 19.6 says to the children of Israel, you shall become a kingdom of priests And you know that we are a kingdom of priests in the New Testament When God forgives our sins, we begin a new relationship with Him by worshiping Him in His presence

What the Jewish worshipers had in their sanctuary, we believers today have in Jesus Christ We come to church to worship You know, there are no lone ranger Christians There's no what we call bedside Baptists There's no saying, I don't need to go to church. I can have church at my home You all know Hebrews 10.25 says that we are not to collect meeting together as the habit of some We are to encourage one another all the more as you see the day approaching Do we realize how blessed we are that God has chosen us to bring us near to Him? In sub point number four, He assigns blessings

That's the last part of verse four We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple The Lord promised to reward those who are devoted to Him And whoever is loyal to the Lord is blessed with good things You know, I could give a lot of verses here tonight, but I've got to keep going But Psalm 23.6, the last verse in Psalm 23, says surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever God's gifts include spiritual benefits

Of course, the forgiveness of sins that we just talked about when Christ atones for our sins And we'll see later in verses 9 to 13 the blessings that God gives us by sustaining our earth If you have Christ in your heart, you will enjoy God's blessings in this life and especially the life to come Let's look at point number two God is our creator And He causes great things He created the world He calms the nations And He calls for praise And I'm going through these real quickly because I want to get to those choice verses in 9 to 13 Number one, He causes great things, verse 5

He says, By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and the farthest seas Not sure what this psalmist is talking about Could it be the Exodus? Maybe Could it be the greatest miracle in the Old Testament when they parted the Red Sea? Could it be the conquest of Canaan? Maybe God answered all Israel's prayers and He established Israel in the promised land And they were to be the hope of all the ends of the earth But we know they fail in that So God, number one, our creator, causes great things Number two, He created the world

Verse 6 says, By one who by his strength established the mountains being girded with might In the poetry books of the Bible, especially Psalms, when it speaks of mountains, it's speaking of strength, or the omnipotence, the unshakable power and ability of God's created order Yahweh's power is demonstrated in that He created and sustains the mountains, which are the strongest and most solid parts of the earth God wants you to know that He is the creator Psalms 115, 15 says, May you be blessed of Yahweh who made the heaven and earth

Psalm 121, 2 says, My help comes from the Lord who made the heaven and the earth Psalm 124, 8 says, Our help is in the name of Yahweh who made the heaven and the earth Psalm 134, 3 says, May Yahweh bless you from Zion who made the heaven and the earth And Psalm 146, 6 says, Who made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that's in them, who keeps truth forever So He caused great things He created the world And then next, He calms the nation Verse 7, it says, Who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of the waves, the tumult of the people

Again, in the poetry books of the Bible, when it speaks of seas, it's commonly used to describe figuratively the nations of the world, especially those nations that oppose God, Israel, and God's program He controls the turban elements of nature and the tumultuous hosts of the nations which they symbolize Psalms 2, a psalm we looked at a long time ago We don't have time tonight, but you know Psalms 2 God mocks, God laughs at the nations that will not obey Him or follow Him Let's look at number 4 He calls for praise

Verse 8, it says that, So all those who dwell in the ends of the earth are in awe of your signs You make the going out and the morning and the evening shout for joy So maybe your Bible began verse 1, there will be silence before you Well, verse 8 ends with shouts of joy Begins with silence and verse 8 ends with joy The whole world is to be in awe of God's signs, not just Israel And that should cause there to be shouts of joy You know, when I look at creation, sometimes it's the rivers, sometimes it's the waterfalls You know, it might be the Grand Canyon or some national park like Death Valley

It might even be going down Via Verde when you can see Mount Baldy after the snow It's just spectacular It's beautiful And when I see that, I usually recite two Psalms And Tim already wrote the first one, Psalm 19 The heavens declare the glory of God and the skies above proclaim His handiwork And the other one is Psalms 8 And I'll just read you the first four verses Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth You have set Your glory above the heavens Out of the mouth of babes and infants You have established strength because of Your foes to still the enemy and the avenger

And verse 3 says, When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars which You have set in place It calls for praise, doesn't it? Alright, let's get to the best part of our message tonight Verse number 3 God is our Savior God is the Creator And finally, God is our Sustainer And this is where we get our title, the Harvest Psalm, verses 9 to 13 One commentator, H.C Leopold, says of these verses, We venture the claim that this is the most eloquent and beautiful description of the blessings that God bestows on field and meadow to be found anywhere in such a brief compass

Just saying these are the most beautiful verses in the Bible about the harvest And I think the Legacy Standard Bible, I'm not trying to sell you that Bible up here, but verses 9 to 11 in the Legacy Standard Bible, listen carefully to what it says By the way, you can get it online free on your iPhone, Samsung, or iPad You can download that Bible free and look at it and compare it to your translation But the Legacy Standard Bible says here in verse 9 to 11, You visit the earth and cause it to overflow You greatly enrich it The stream of God is full of water

You establish their grain, for thus you establish the earth You water its furrows abundantly You smooth its ridges You soften it with showers You bless its growth You crown the year with your goodness and your paths drip with richness You, you, you You know, praise is all about God, who he is and what he's done True worship is theocentric, God-centered And let's look tonight at how God sustains us And number one, he brings the water and he brings the crops, he beautifies the hills, and he celebrates in our rejoicings And number one, he brings the water

It says you visit the water and you greatly enrich it The river of God is full of water And then you've got to go to verse 10 You water its furrows abundantly, setting its ridges, softening it with your showers Water is the greatest blessing I think God can give us There's a beautiful verse in Isaiah 55 The whole chapter of Isaiah 55 is some of the best poetry in the Bible But Isaiah 55, 10 and 11 says, For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater

So here, people prepare the land before the early rains There's two rains There's early rains and there's latter rains But the people will make its furrows and ridges So they prepare it And then they rejoice when the early rains come that soften the ground And those rains usually would arrive in Israel somewhere around October, November And that would cause the vegetation, the main crops of barley and wheat to grow They rejoice even more when they get the latter rains or the heavy rains, which would be from December through February, which would make the crops really grow

Zechariah 10, verse 1 says, As rain from the Lord in the season of the spring rain, from the Lord who makes the storm clouds, he will give them showers of rain to everyone, the vegetation in the field So those rains permit the crops to mature and produce an abundant harvest Jesus said in Matthew 5.45, For he makes his sun rise on evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and the unjust The whole world is under common grace because God gives them rain You know, there's another harvest psalm in the Psalms And that harvest psalm, in addition to Psalm 65, would be Psalm 107

It's a very long psalm, but I just want to read a few verses in it This other harvest psalm, Psalm 107, verse 1, begins with the words, O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever What are we thankful for? Well, one thing is go to verse 33 to 38, and it says, He turns the rivers into a desert, springs of water into a thirsty ground, a fruitful land into a salty waste because of the evil of its inhabitants He turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water, and there he lets the hungry dwell and they establish a city to live in

They sow fields and plant vineyards and get a fruitful yield By his blessing, they multiply greatly and he does not let their livestock diminish So Psalm 107, God brings the rain, just like in Psalm 105 So he brings the rain, and in Subpoint 2, he blesses the crops You know, we take it for granted. I read the email from Pastor Kizza His tomatoes are gone, his cabbages are gone, he's struggling financially

But do you know the Bible, I was researching this psalm, do you know that the Bible mentions 14 famines? And there's a guy named Steve Shirley, he did a study on these 14 psalms, and I was looking at it and it's fascinating Now, some of them aren't outright called famines, but they have the characteristics of a famine. I'm just going to run down to them because we don't realize how many famines there are in the Bible or how many there are going to be in the future Genesis 12.10, you know that story Famine was in the land, so Abraham went down to Egypt without God's approval

Genesis 26, verse 1, there was famine in the land, so Isaac went to Gerar Amalek, king of the Philistines Genesis 41-47, you know the story of Joseph There were seven years of famine, and that's when Isaac came with his family to live in Egypt Ruth chapter 1, verse 1, in the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, so Amalek took Naomi and his two sons to Moab Second Samuel 21.1, I mentioned this last week, I think, there was famine in the land because Saul had killed the Gibbonites First Kings 17-18, there was famine in the land for three and a half years

The heavens were shut up because Elijah prayed that it would not rain Punishment for Israel's sins Then in Second Kings 4.38, Elisha came to Gilgal where there was famine in the land And then in Second Kings 6.24-33, there was a great famine in the land Second Kings 25.2-3, the famine was so severe when Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem And then Nehemiah 5.1-3, people were mortgaging their fields, their vineyards, their houses to get grain because of the famine Jeremiah 14.1-6, the words of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought

Joel 1.1-20, locusts, that's the locust chapter, four kinds of locusts, had devoured the land and there was no food to eat Haggai 1.10-11, God called for a drought because the people cared only for their houses and not for the house of the Lord And of course Acts 11.28, Agabus prophesied that there would be a great famine all over the world So the brothers sent aid to Judah, the Christians did But the Bible prophecy also says that there will be famines in the future

Matthew 24.7, Mark 13.8, Luke 21.11 are all the same story and they say that there will be famines and earthquakes in very places in the last days And Revelation 6.8 in the Tribulation says, And Revelation 18.8 says, And she will be burned up with fire for mighty is the Lord God who judged her So I just tell you that because there are a lot of famines in the Bible Many of them because God judged Israel or God judged the nations Other times we don't know why there was famine But famines happen quite often But in our psalm, God provided the rains God provided the grain and the crops

Verse 9 says, I read one commentator today that said 50% of the diet of the Israelites would be wheat and barley They would be the main staple So if anything happened to those crops, they'd be in big trouble Verse 10 says, Verse 11 says, So the opposite of famine was an abundance So in our psalm, it says, What's that mean? You all know the Oregon Trail when the wagoners would come through all the way up to Utah? There's actual places you can go where you can see the wagon tracks in the limestone of rocks where the wagon tracks have burrowed

And I want to go visit one of those national parks and see that for myself But so many wagon tracks went through the limestone that there's a rut now And you can see that today in our national parks here in America But here it's talking about the wagon tracks of Israel were so overflowed with abundance with the bounty of the crops that they too were making ruts in the grounds Your wagon tracks overflow with abundance It was just a time of joy, a time of excitement

Deuteronomy 8, verses 7 and 8 promised Israel that when they got to the promised land, it said, You know, we too, aren't we dependent upon God's manna? Just a few months ago, we had an egg shortage, right? So I was at Trader Joe's at 8 a.m. because I had to get dark yolk eggs, which my daughter Tessa likes But then sometimes we didn't have them Now that's a crisis, right? We didn't have eggs But, you know, we get our food at Albertsons, I mentioned, we get our food at Aldi's or Trader Joe's So I'm not sure we're as thankful as these Jews were in Psalm 65

You know, I was thinking, I do thank God for my food when I pray for my food, and I thank God for my wife who made it or whoever made it But I don't know if I've ever thanked the farmers who grew the food And Psalm 65 tells me that Maybe I need to But because we have such an abundance of food, we have so much food available that I sometimes think we just take it for granted and we're not thankful And the phrase in that in verse 11 says, You crown the year

That suggests that this psalm was written at the Harvest Festival in October, which would be the Feast of Tabernacles, which is described in Leviticus 17 and Leviticus 23 Let's move on He beautifies the hills The pastures of the wilderness, verse 12, overflow, and hills gird themselves with joy You know, when I drive up to Tulare to see my in-laws, Highway 99, on both sides going through that valley, there's just crops And I'm always wondering, What is that crop? What is it? Sometimes it's easy to know

But when I lived in Thailand and Myanmar, the most beautiful sight is the rice paddies on the mountains and hills Maybe you've seen a picture You know, they will cut ridges and they'll build furrows and build a wall and they will build the rice paddies right on the hills And you see it It's just majestic and beautiful So you can see here that the pasture and the wilderness overflow Maybe you can think about the super bloom You know what that is? When we have a huge rain, usually I think in February, we get what's called a super bloom And you used to be able to run down to Lake Elsinore

Lancaster has it Death Valley has it But you drive and there's just hill after hill after hill of beautiful flowers And it's just spectacular So God beautifies the hills, even if it's flowers and not just food that we eat And then lastly, number four there He celebrates with our rejoicing It says the meadows clothe themselves with flocks The valleys deck themselves with grain They shout and sing together for joy So our psalm begins verse one with praise, and it ends here in verse 13 with a crescendo of praise with shouting and singing for joy It's a happy time

Now, we know that meadows, valleys, flocks, and grains don't really shout or sing for joy But in the harvest splendor, the abundance of splendor, and the excitement of the Israelites gathering the bounty of their crop, it seems like they do It's like they could literally cry out The point here is is since that inanimate objects cannot literally praise God, we who are made in God's image should and can praise God What can I give you application tonight? I just want to give you two things tonight Number one, let's talk about thanks and thanksgiving

You know, it's usually at Thanksgiving we talk about thanksgiving We step back Maybe we count our blessings one by one, name them We realize just how good we have it And we give thanks to God for his abundant goodness God is good because he's all-powerful He's sovereign in the universe He's able to do good things and shower us with blessings, so we thank him But I didn't write this. I got this from one commentator But he says we need to be reminded to focus on giving God thanks because our society presents two very real threats to thanksgiving Number one, we live in a negative age

We live in a very critical age There's scandals that grab our attention The newspapers, every day there's a new scandal Whether it's this week or 60 Minutes or even the latest church scandal You just heard about G3 and the ministry that just got destroyed a few weeks ago Maybe it's the latest church split or the greatest tragedy There's just negative, negative There's always abundance of negative So we're so full of negative We talk about negative a lot Secondly, we live in a very prosperous society, don't we? You would think that we would be an encouragement to give thanks to God

But it actually presents a special trap To sit around with all that fat and happy thinking that we deserve all this abundance and actually complain that we don't have as much as someone else We tend to forget the goodness of God, don't we? I was thinking about this, that when I was a kid, McDonald's was a blessing But we only got it maybe once every six months And it was a 25 cent hamburger fries and I didn't remember if we got the Coke We weren't rich But today, your kids want wings and pizza and sushi and all those things And I wonder, are they really thankful? We have it so good

Thanks is mentioned 128 times in the Bible And there's no book of the Bible that even mentions thanks more than Psalms Psalms has 51 verses about giving thanks Psalms 136, every verse of 26 verses alone says give thanks Let me just give you some things we need to be thankful for Psalm 717 says, I will give to the Lord that thanks do His righteousness. I will sing praise to the name of the Lord the Most High So we need to thank God for His righteousness He is holy, holy, holy Psalm 9 verse 1, I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart. I will recount all your wonderful deeds

When was the last time you thanked God for His wonderful deeds? We need to give thanks for His wonderful deeds Psalm 33 verse 2 says, Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre Make melody to Him with the harp of ten strings We need to give thanks when we sing songs and we do that quite often, right? But not just on Sunday, but throughout the week Psalm 35 verse 18 says, I will thank you in the great congregation In the mighty throng, I will praise you So we as a congregation must give Him thanks together in corporate worship and we do that on Sunday and Wednesday night

Psalm 54 verse 6 says, With a freewill offering, I will sacrifice to you. I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good Another way of giving thanks is to giving back to God with our tithes and our offerings It's actually all His money we give back to Him because He's blessed us Psalm 100 verse 4 says, Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise Give thanks to Him Bless His name We thank Him for His holy, holy name Psalm 107 verse 8, Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wondrous works to the children of man

We thank Him for His love and the greatest demonstration of that love was when He hung on the cross and died for your sins and my sins if you have Jesus Christ in your heart Psalm 138 verse 2 says, I bow down towards your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word This is the first verse on the Christ Community Church statement of faith We thank God for His word

And then lastly, it says, Psalm 142 verse 7 says, Bring me out of prison that I may give thanks to your name, the righteous around me, for you deal bountifully with me. I love that word You deal bountifully with me Has God dealt bountifully with you? We need to thank Him because He's dealt bountifully with us In verses 1 to 4, I said God, God is due praise, vows, and prayers But we also need to thank Him for the harvest, for the many blessings

Whether you're a farmer, whether you're a vegetable grower in the backyard, or whether you're just a person who shops at Aldi's or Trader Joe's, we need to thank Him for the harvest Number two then, we need to let people know that God has made atonement for our sin through Jesus Christ. I said Psalm 65 verse 3 was the Romans 5-8 of the Old Testament When iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions Romans 6-23 says, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord We need to tell people that they are under the penalty of sin

We need to tell them Romans 5-8 which says that God showed His love toward us, that in this while we were sinners, Christ died for us Jesus Christ died for us on the cross And then we need to tell them Romans 10, 9 and 10 which says, if you confess with your mouth, Jesus Christ is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved For it is with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved People need to know that God has made atonement for their sin through Jesus Christ

Either they will pay the penalty for their sin in hell, or Jesus Christ paid it already on the cross But we have to tell people for that Let's pray Father in heaven, we thank you tonight that we can have, I think, a beautiful psalm It's a psalm of praise, a psalm of thanksgiving Father of all the people in the world, we have it so good

When we look at the wars that are going on in Israel and Myanmar and Ukraine, Russia, when we look at the food shortages that maybe are happening in Gaza, if it's true, when we see around the world the earthquakes and famines and pestilence, we are so blessed, Father, because we have a great nation And you founded that nation And you, like the children of Israel in Psalm 65, you blessed the United States of America with so many blessings And then we, Father, are so blessed that we want to give back to men like Pastor Jotham Kizza

So, Father, may we raise our children, our grandchildren to be thankful, to understand just how blessed we are, because you sustain us You're God our Savior You are our creator And you are our sustainer And, Father, give us opportunities as we leave here tonight to tell people that Jesus Christ has atoned for their sins if they will repent and believe in Him In Jesus' name, amen.