Season Of Creation 1, Psalm 65, The Bounty Of Our Saviour. Series

Psalm 65: Entitled or could be: The Bounty of our Saviour.

For the director of music. A psalm of David. A song.

1 Praise awaits[b] 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[c] 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.[d]

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.

For the next few weeks, we are looking at a sermon series on creation. We are going to look at a few points that come out of what God has created and how we can respond to God’s creation, all of it not just us as created people. I have decided to tackle this through reflection on a number of Psalms about creation.

Psalm 65 takes us on a bit of a journey and interestingly the Psalmist in it celebrates God’s goodness in provision for all of his creation not just humanity. God’s abundant provision.

I’m going to wander on through the Psalm in a way that will initially address God’s hand on the planet giving that this delving into creation series, the first being this is looking at, being thankful for what he has done for us in creating the world that we live in.

So, from verse 5, “You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds God our Saviour, the hope of all the ends of the earth and the farthest sea.” I will just point out here that in verse two the psalmist has already designated God as the one ‘who answers prayer.’

So, God answers us, and this stuff is more profound than the car park or passing that test that you didn’t study for, this is what? He answers with awesome and righteous deeds. Remember the Hebrew people's history, things like leading them by fire and by cloud, the parting of the Red Sea so that the whole nation could pass through, onto the promised land a promise that was 400 years old from the time of God’s promise of the land to the descendants of Abraham and Sarah.

From there a little more in verse six, ‘he formed the mountains by his power, here’s a bit of an aside, I have seen some pretty awesome stuff but one of the most awesome things I remember is the first time I saw Mount Sefton in the Mount Cook National Park, that hanging glacial wall... truly awesome, or that time as a child I first saw the moss and lichens in a Beech forest that looked like they were home to tiny little mystical creatures made all that more splendid by the frost that had lifted stones on their stretched frozen crystals, awesome, or in my youth to be caught up in the continuously powerful rapids of the Mighty Buller River before being spat back out to continue my journey. These things are all awesome but nothing like their creator.

Who formed the mountains?

Who formed that power-filled river, the river that powers your toaster, who stilled the roaring seas, the roaring of their waves and the turmoil of the nations...

The Psalmist has this understanding of the creator's power of his splendor God’s hand. When Rochelle and I were talking about this she pointed out that “we see the show but what’s going on backstage is what God has done” There’s a great sermon big idea.

In verse eight the Psalmist declares, “The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where the evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.” Bird song is one thing but really the volume we hear is nothing like it was when New Zealand was a pest free nation apparently it was deafening to the early explorers. Those of you who sing in the shower who whistle as you work join in this joy. Here’s an interesting thing, mice sing but only male mice and they sing love songs for lady mice, well is that not joy. No, we can’t hear them they are ultrasonic. The whole earth is filled with wonders, I had the pleasure last weekend of being down at the fish and chip shop last weekend and seeing and hearing a Kaka parrot cry out as he flew by towards Wellington. I guess he was off to one of the conservation reserves in the city. It is a great thing that is being done to preserve our remaining native wildlife. I often think of the pleasure that God must have in seeing his creations, the wonder of all that he spoke into being.