Like The Dew

Like the Dew

Montreal/Cornwall

August 28, 2004

Hot, clear, and sunny days can be quite a blessing to those in a farming community. Particularly, during haying season, at the end of June and beginning of July, and during harvest, in mid-to-late August and beyond, to have numbers of days like that can really have the work go on very well. I know that farming operations are, generally, larger, now, than the 640 acre farm that I grew up on, but even then, and ‘back then’ the time to do the work, sometimes in cooperation with a neighbour or two, in order to share equipment and lower the overhead cost for all the farms involved, could be two to three weeks.

With those hot, clear, and sunny days, often came comparable nights, with clear skies, the temperature hardly dropping from the daytime highs, so sleep was not all that easy to come by. So, the cycle of hot days, and hard work, were followed by hot nights and fitful sleep. But, sometimes, normally at the changing of the moon, there would be a cool night, even with temperatures approaching the freezing point (yes, in July or mid-August- in harvest), and we would wake up to a sparkling silver of dew on the grass. As the air and the ground met, the dew formed, leaving not only something beautiful, but bringing various blessings to us.

Because dew means that the grass is wet, it gave a bit of respite, where we couldn’t start as early in the morning as we might have otherwise. Of course, there were always other things to do, but that offered, at least, a change of pace- maybe even an opportunity for a quick trip into Brandon to get a needed part or to do some needed grocery, or school, shopping.

The dew gave a bit of water to gardens, too, and we could see the refreshing of the plants and flowers that were parched and wilting under the incessant sun of the past few days.

The dew gave us some refreshing, too, in the simple manner of better rest in the later hours of the night or early morning, as the temperature dropped to a more comfortable level, and this increased our energy for the work at hand, when we could get to it.

Dew is a blessing on the prairies of Canada. However, there are areas of the world where the dew is even more of a blessing, and where the blessing of it is more apparent. In fact, dew is used in a way to point to miraculous happenings, which carries lessons for us, today.

Please turn to Psalm 133, and we’ll read it together. This is a familiar psalm, which speaks of the blessing of the unity of God’s people. The images used here are incredible, though, and present a picture that we might miss, or simply intellectually give assent to, but which demands something a bit more.

Read. We read of God’s feeling, through David, of the fact that this is good. There is no question about it- this is good! Then, the picture of oil is given, which tells us something about the blessing and commissioning or setting aside that is involved in such fellowship. I want us to focus on the next image a bit, today, and think about what it tells us about something that we, sometimes, take for granted, or simply don’t give enough thought to. We come to the image of dew, which I introduced, but which God speaks of in a particular way.

Unity is like the refreshing dew. This image speaks of a heavy dew. As you know, sometimes, you can go out, in an autumn morning, and find that the grass looks like there has been a fairly substantial rain on it, and it is simply dew. The dews that fell on Mount Hermon, in the summer, were very heavy, and the image of their falling on Zion- on Jerusalem and, by extension, God’s people- speaks of all that I outlined above, and more. It speaks of refreshing, above all. The main idea of dew expresses the idea of divine refreshment, in God’s gift of life and fruitfulness. There’s a small picture of this in:

Psa.110.3- that speaks of life and energy tied with dew.

The linking of Hermon, which was located far away from Jerusalem- about 100 miles away, in fact, indicates that God gives His gift to His people when they are in fellowship.

Look at the map here to get an idea of the distances involved. There is really no chance for the dew of Hermon to fall on Jerusalem, yet the picture is of its happening. What is this saying? The message is that the falling of Hermon’s dew on Zion would be a miracle, and fellowship is a miracle of divine grace, wherein individual blessings are shared with mutual profit for all.