Earth is our Home
Introduction:
God is the creator of all creatures. We could read plenty of references in the Bible. There are many psalms known as Eco-Psalms. The beginning of the 21st century saw the emergence of an ecological crisis that threatens the existence of the planet and everything found in it including humans. In particular, the Psalms can play a crucial role in the ecological transformation of culture. There are three Psalms that deal specifically with creation Psalms 8,148 and 104.
Walker jones explores Psalm genres and important metaphors in the Psalms for the earth, the environment, and living things, while tracing their influence in contemporary culture, for example in recent films. He shows that Psalms, like the earth that is our home- can be dangerous but also provide wonderful resources for life.
I would like to write a sermon on Psalm 65:9-13. In this Psalm, we could see the relationship between God and the earth. How God formed all the waterways, pastures, and mountains. With three points I would like to explain the psalm. God’s provision in creation, including his care for the land (V.9) and the gift of rain (Vs.10-11), enables meadows and valleys to shout and sing (Vs. 12-13).
1. God’s care for the Land: -
Creativity is the chief attribute of God. We know God loves because experience God’s creating and creation. God’s caring for the earth. So, He handed over the Garden of Eden to Adam. (Genesis 2:15). ‘And the Lord God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. From the creation story itself, we can see the care of God on earth.
God is at work in the world not only in spiritual blessing and in the ordering of creation, but also in the interaction between human beings and their natural environment. The water needed by the earth is supplied from God’s unlimited supply.
James L. Mays mentioned in his book ‘Psalms interpretation’, “God, the ‘cosmic farmer’ so orders the course of nature that the needs of its inhabitants are met”. God visits the earth and waters it, God greatly enriches it. God cares for the earth and makes sure it has what it needs. He provides rivers of water and grain for the earth. Already we saw that our God is the farmer, who is the master of the cultivator, who cultivates the much more and much better than the farmer does.
The cultivation needs land and water. These two elements are given by God, because who cares about the earth? Our God is not only a creator God and also a God of provider and caretaker. In this verse, God cared for the earth and greatly enriched the water resources and the earth's resources.
God is represented as going through the whole globe, examining the wants of every part, and directing the clouds on how and where to deposit their fertilizing showers and the rivers where to direct their beneficial courses.
2. The Rain is God’s gift: -
Verses 9 and 10 talk about sources of water. ‘You drench its furrows and level its ridges, you suffer it with showers and bless its crops. Thou wateriest the ridges thereof abundantly. It shows a fertility situation for good cultivation. In seedtime thou send that measure of rain that is necessary, in order to prepare the earth for the plow; and then when the rides are thrown into furrows, thou make them soft with showers, so as to prepare them for the expansion of the seed, and the vegetation and development of the embryo plant. We can see here interconnectedness within the creatures. Earth needs water to grow its seed. So, we can understand that earth or water or seed alone can’t do anything. The relationship of all elements of nature should unite with each other.
Literally, thou will bless its germinations its springing buds. Thou watch over the young sprouts and it is by thy tender, wise, and provident care that the ear is formed; and by thy bountiful goodness that mature grains fill the ear, and that one produces thirty, sixty or a hundred or a thousand-fold.
The Psalmist praises God in Psalm 65:9-11 by describing God’s blessing of abundant fertility. This echoes the desire to be stated in Psalm 65:4. The word ‘goodness’ in Psalm 65:1, referring to abundant fertility, also connects the lost section of the Psalm to the second, where ‘goodness’ is used in relation to the temple.
Thou crown thy year with thy goodness. The harvest is the plainest display of the divine bounty and the crown of the year. The Lord himself conducts the coronation and sets the golden coronal upon the brow of the year. The providence of God in its visitations makes a complete circuit and surrounds the year.
3. Enabling Positive Vision: -
Wilderness is generally a place to be avoided. Life was hard there for people, who saw it as a dry and unproductive place and hoped that the desert wilderness could bloom and become both safe and fruitful. It is a great vision for new life. Wilderness gets a positive reference here. We see a significant shift in perspective. Wilderness has become a desirable destination for recreation and re-creation.
Even the places which are not cultivated have their sufficiency of moisture, so as to render them proper places not inhabited and uncultivated though abounding with timber, bushes, and herbage. Literally, the hills gird themselves with exultation. The metaphor appears to be taken from the frisking of lambs, bounding of kids, and dancing of shepherds and shepherdesses, in the joy-inspiring summer season.
They are with grass. They are so well stocked that they seem covered over with sheep and cattle, feeding or resting in them; the valleys are also covered with a can so that the face of the earth cannot be seen for its abundance of it. They shout for joy, they also sing. They seem to be full of joy and happiness. They are abundantly satisfied with thy goodness, and in their manner sing forth praises and declare the goodness of their creator and benefactor.
Conclusion: -
The Psalm reminds us of our dependency on the good earth and to recognize that all of creation is part of God’s creative work in the world. This imagery is a reminder to Christians today of the importance of God’s creation and why we should be good stewards of creation. God always cares about the earth. So that God gave the resources of water and land to cultivation and God blessed the earth for great enrichment of the future world. As we are children of God, we also think that the earth produces food for us. So, we have a good relationship with the earth and we have a mutual custodianship.
Rev. S. Vethamuthu,
Diocese of Madurai- Ramnad
