Latest / Reformed Thinking / The God Who Hears Prayer and Crowns the Year (Psalm 65) | Charles Spurgeon

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The God Who Hears Prayer and Crowns the Year (Psalm 65) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to Reform Thinking. I am glad you were here with us.
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  Today we are cracking open a book that has been sitting on
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  the shelves of pastors and theologians for over 100 years.
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  But, and I'm going to be honest here, it's a book that most of
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  us probably haven't opened since seminary or maybe ever.
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  It is a heavy one, physically and spiritually.
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  We are talking about Charles Spurgeon's The Treasury of
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  David, and specifically we are zooming in on Psalm 65.
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  Now for the listener who might know the name Spurgeon but
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  thinks of him just as that Victorian guy with a cigar and
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  the beard. Why this text?
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  Why are we spending an hour on Psalm 65?
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  Well. You know if you think of the
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  Psalms as a landscape, you have your peaks like Psalm 23.
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  The Lord is my shepherd that everyone knows.
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  But Psalm 65 is like a hidden valley.
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  It starts in this intense heavy theological silence inside a
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  temple and by the end of it you are standing in a mud soaked
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  harvest field with sheep bleeding and corn growing.
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  Wow. It covers the whole spectrum of
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  the Christian life, from the quietest internal conviction of
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  sin to the loudest external celebration of nature.
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  And that's our mission today. We are going to trace that line.
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  We want to see how David, the poet, the king, moves from the
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  silence of Zion to the shout of the harvest.
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  And we are just reading this as poetry.
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  We are looking at this through the lens of Reformed theology.
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  We're going to be talking about the Westminster Confession
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  election and how a sovereign God handles the dirt of the earth
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  just as carefully as he handles the soul of a thinner.
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  Spot on, and before we get to the text, we have to set the
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  stage. Spurgeon points out that this is
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  a lyrical poem. Ashur and Mizmore in Hebrew.
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  OK, pause there. Shur and Mizmore.
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  Yeah. Is that just, you know, a
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  categorization or does that tell us something about how we should
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  listen to it? Oh, it tells us a lot.
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  It tells us this wasn't a diary entry.
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  This wasn't David mumbling to himself in a cave while hiding
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  from Saul. This was dedicated to the chief
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  musician. This was high liturgy.
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  This was meant to be sung by a choir, likely accompanied by
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  instruments. It's public worship.
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  And the context seems pretty specific.
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  Spurgeon does a bit of detection of work here.
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  He looks at verses 7 and 8 where there's talk of tumult being
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  stilled, and he concludes this was written after a crisis.
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  Right. It's the calm after the storm.
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  Spurgeon suggests a double crisis.
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  First, a political 1A rebellion has been crushed.
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  Foreign enemies are subdued. The Kingdom is safe.
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  But second, an environmental crisis.
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  The end of the Psalm is all about rain, so the implication
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  is that Israel had been through a drought.
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  So you have a people who are afraid of being conquered and
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  afraid of starving, and suddenly peace breaks out and the rain
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  starts falling. That is it.
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  It is a song of relief. It's the exhale after holding
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  your breath for a year. I think that's a perfect place
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  to start. We are in the temple, the war is
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  over, the rain is coming. Let's look at verse one.
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  Praise waiteth for thee, O God in Zion.
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  Now this is where we have to slow down immediately because if
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  you have a King James Bible, it says praise waiteth.
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  But Spurgeon dives into the Hebrew, and he pulls out a
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  translation that completely changes the temperature of the
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  room. Praise is silent for thee.
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  Praise is silent. That feels counterintuitive.
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  When I think of praise, especially in a chief musician
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  context, I'm thinking symbols, trumpets, loud singing.
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  We are told to make a joyful noise.
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  Why on earth would praise be silent?
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  It's a psychological and theological insight.
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  Spurgeon argues that silence is actually the highest form of
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  praise. Think about it.
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  We can chatter away when we were talking about trivial things,
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  sports, the weather, politics. But what happens when you are
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  confronted with something truly majestic?
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  You stop talking. You stop talking if you stand on
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  the edge of the Grand Canyon. You don't start babbling.
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  You go quiet. The silence is an admission that
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  your words are inadequate. There's a Latin phrase for this
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  in the notes Selentium intellectus, the silence of the
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  intellect. Yes, it's the realization that
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  God is so high, so holy, and his deliverance is so massive that
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  anything you say would actually, well, it would take away from
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  the moment. Spurgeon uses a fantastic
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  analogy here. He compares the church to a
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  gathering of courtiers and a royal hall.
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  OK, paint that picture for us. Imagine you were in a medieval
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  throne room. The king, the absolute monarch,
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  is about to enter. The room is packed with his
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  servants, his generals, his advisors.
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  What is the atmosphere? Are they chatting?
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  Are they high fiving? No, I imagine you could hear a
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  pin drop. They are standing in respectful,
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  hushed anticipation. They are ready to burst into
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  song the moment he signals. But the silence itself is the
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  act of homage. It says we are ready, we are
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  attentive, we are yours. Praise waits like a servant.
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  That challenges our modern sensibilities a bit, doesn't it?
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  We get very uncomfortable with silence in church.
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  If there's 5 seconds of dead air, the worship leader starts
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  strumming a guitar because we panic.
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  We do. We feel the need to fill the
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  void with noise. But Spurgeon is suggesting that
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  a church bowed in silent adoration might be offering more
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  real praise than the loudest choir.
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  It checks our performative tendencies.
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  Are you singing to be heard by the guy in the next Pew?
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  Or are you silent because you are overwhelmed by God?
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  So. Silence isn't emptiness.
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  It's fullness. It's a pressure cooker waiting
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  to blow. Correct.
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  But the verse doesn't stay in silence.
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  It moves immediately to obligation.
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  Unto thee shall the vow be performed.
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  This feels like the other side of the coin.
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  Silence is the attitude, the vow is the action.
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  But Spurgeon gives a very stern warning here.
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  He says vows are not trivial. This is where the context of the
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  crisis comes back in. Spurgeon notes that people love
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  to make vows when they are in trouble.
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  We call it the foxhole prayer. Oh yeah.
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  Lord, if you Get Me Out of this mess, I promise I'll go to
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  church every Sunday. Or, Lord, if this medical test
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  comes back negative, I'll never sin again.
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  We have all done it. It's human nature.
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  When the rebellion was raging, or when the drought was killing
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  the crops, the people of Israel probably made thousands of
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  promises. Save us and we will offer
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  sacrifices. Well, now the rebellion is over,
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  the rain is falling. What happens to those promises?
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  Usually we forget them, the danger passes and we go back to
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  normal. And that is what Spurgeon warns
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  against. He says God cannot be mocked.
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  If you make a vow, you are obligated to pay it, not to be
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  seen by men. This isn't about public
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  reputation, but for God's acceptance alone.
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  He uses incredibly visceral language here.
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  He says a vow unkept burns the conscience like a hot iron.
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  That is a searing image. It really highlights the
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  integrity required of a believer.
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  We are under covenant. If we promise something to the
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  Lord, we don't just shrug it off.
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  It speaks to the immutability of God.
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  He doesn't change. He kept his side of the bargain.
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  He saved you. You must keep yours.
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  If we treat our vows lightly, we are treating Him lightly.
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  So we have this atmosphere established in verse one.
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  It's intense, it's silent, it's heavy with obligation.
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  And then verse 2 throws the doors wide open.
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  Oh, thou that hears prayer unto thee shall all flesh.
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  Come, this is one of the most beautiful titles for God in all
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  of Scripture. Oh, thou, that hearest prayer.
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  Spurgeon points out something interesting about the grammar
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  here. He says this isn't just
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  describing what God does, it's describing who God is.
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  Right. It is his name, it is his
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  nature. Spurgeon argues that because God
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  is immutable, meaning he cannot change, he must hear prayer.
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  It is inherent to his being. He can no more stop hearing
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  prayer than he can stop being God.
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  That is such a comfort, but also a contrast, because we often
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  have this image as God, especially in the Old Testament,
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  as the Judge, the Lawgiver. And Spurgeon draws that contrast
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  sharply. He says, look at Sinai, the God
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  of the law. Thunders, he says, Do not come
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  near, lest you die. If you approach God strictly
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  through the law, there is no hearing.
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  There is only condemnation, but here in Zion, on the mercy seat,
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  which represents Christ, he is the hearer of prayer.
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  It's the difference between approaching a judge in a
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  courtroom and approaching a father in the living room.
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  Or a doctor in a hospital. You go to the one who can hear
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  your problem and fix it, and look at who is invited unto thee
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  shall all flesh. Come all flesh.
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  That is a massive expansion up until this point.
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  Usually we are talking about Israel to chosen people, but all
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  flesh implies everyone. It is a prophetic glimpse.
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  Spurgeon notes that this points to the eventual inclusion of the
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  Gentiles. He says that false gods will
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  eventually lose their votaries, their followers.
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  Why? Because false gods are deaf.
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  Baal doesn't answer. The universe doesn't answer.
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  But the God of Zion hears. Eventually men will abandoned
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  the idols that don't work for the God who does.
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  But I want to drill down on that phrase.
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  All flesh, Spurgeon suggests. There's a reason they come, and
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  it's hidden in that word flesh. Yes, he says.
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  Flesh. They are.
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  What is flesh? It's weak, it's frail, it's
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  decaying, it's sinful. They come to God not because
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  they are great, but because they are broken.
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  Their very nature drives them to seek help.
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  It's the push of desperation, but there's also a pull, isn't
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  there? There is they are drawn by the
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  attractiveness of his love. But there is a deeper point
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  here, and the notes reference Thomas Boston.
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  Do you know Thomas Boston? The old Scottish theologian.
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  Human nature and its fourfold state.
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  That's the one. A giant of Reformed thought,
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  Boston connects this verse to what he calls an instinct of
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  prayer. An instinct like a bird flying
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  South. Closer to home, think of a
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  newborn baby. Does a baby need to be taught to
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  cry for milk? No, it comes out crying.
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  It's instinctual. It cries because it has a nature
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  that needs nourishment. Boston argues that the New Birth
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  regeneration installs a similar instinct in the soul.
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  If you are born of God, you have a supernatural instinct to cry
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  out to him. Unto thee shall all flesh come.
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  If you are alive spiritually, you must come.
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  You can't help it. So prayer isn't just a duty we
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  check off a list, it's the respiration of the new creature.
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  That's it. If you hold your breath, you
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  die. If a Christian stops praying,
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  they are choking their own spirit.
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  But, and here's the conflict. When we do come, when we follow
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  that instinct and approach this holy God, we run into a massive
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  problem. And that brings us to verse 3.
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  Iniquities prevail against me. This is the reality check.
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  We come to the God who hears prayer, but we don't come clean.
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  We carry baggage. And the Hebrew here is very
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  active. It suggests A struggle.
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  These iniquities aren't just passive mistakes, they are
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  enemies. Spurgeon describes them as
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  slanderers that rise up. It sounds like a courtroom
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  drama. It is.
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  Imagine you walk into that royal hall we talked about.
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  You are ready to offer your silent praise.
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  But suddenly someone grabs you, a guard, an accuser, and they
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  say you don't go long here. Look at what you did.
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  Iniquities prevail against me. It sounds like a cry of defeat.
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  It is the cry of a man who realizes he cannot win this
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  battle on his own. This is the Reformed doctrine of
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  total depravity in action. Sin prevails in the Court of
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  Justice. We are guilty.
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  It prevails in the court of conscience, We feel guilty and
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  it is too strong for the human will to overcome.
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  Spurgeon has a great line here. Unhappy is man who counts sins
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  as friends, but he implies that even for the man who fights
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  them, the man who counts them as enemies, they're still
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  overpowering. That is the critical
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  distinction. The Christian hates his sin, but
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  he's still often beaten by it. Paul talks about this in Romans
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  7. The good that I would I do not.
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  It is a prevailing force. So we are stuck.
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  We're drawn to God by instinct, but we are blocked by sin.
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  It's a hopeless situation. It would be if the verse ended
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  there, but look at the pivot in the very next phrase.
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  As for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away.
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  That is the turning point of the entire song.
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  And I want you to notice the grammar again.
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  It's subtle, but it's huge. Iniquities prevail against me.
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  Singular thou shalt purge our transgressions, plural.
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  The one man is speaking, confessing his personal defeat,
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  and then suddenly he realizes he is standing in a crowd.
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  He realizes he is speaking for the whole body of the faithful
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  in Zion. Every person in that silent hall
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  has the same problem, and they all have the same solution.
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  And the solution is not. I will try harder.
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  I know it is. Thou shalt purge.
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  This is pure monarchism. Let's define that for the
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  listener. Monarchism.
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  Mono meaning one, ergon meaning work.
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  It means there's only one active worker in the act of salvage.
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  We don't help God forgive us. We don't meet him halfway.
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  We stand there, defeated by our iniquities, and he steps in and
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  does the work. The word purge here, Yeah.
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  It's not just washing, is it? It sounds stronger.
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  No, it's deeper. It relates to the concept of
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  atonement, of covering. In the Hebrew mind, this goes
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  back to the Ark of the Covenant. You have the Law inside the Ark,
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  the law that condemns us. But over the Ark is the mercy
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  seat. The blood is sprinkled there to
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  cover the law. So God covers the accusation.
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  It urges it. Spurgeon makes the specific
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  point that I think is the anchor for this whole section.
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  He says iniquities may prevail against us, but they cannot
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  prevail against God. That is heavy.
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  Sin is stronger than you. It is stronger than me, but it
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  is not stronger than the atonement.
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  When God decides to purge, the sin is gone.
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  It is an effectual work. He doesn't just try to purge
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  them, He shall purge them. It is a.
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  Promise. And once that purging happens,
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  once that barrier is removed, the floodgates of blessing open
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  up. We get to verse 4, which
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  Spurgeon calls a body of divinity in miniature.
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  Blessed is the man whom thou choosest.
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  Here we are the heart of the matter.
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  We have dealt with the sin and now we see the cause of that
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  dealing. Why does God purge sins?
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  Why does he hear prayer? Is it because we are so lovable?
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  The text doesn't say that. It says, Blessed is the man whom
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  thou choosest. It brings us face to face with
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  the doctrine of election. Now election is a difficult word
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  for some people. They hear it and they think of a
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  cold robotic God picking people like lottery numbers.
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  But that's not how Spurgeon sees it here.
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  Not at all. Spurgeon sees it as the source
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  of all blessedness. It is The Fountainhead.
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  If God didn't choose, no one would be saved.
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  Remember verse 3, Iniquities prevail.
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  If it were left to our choice, our iniquities would choose for
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  us. We would choose sin every time.
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  So God's choice is the rescue mission.
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  You nailed it. And look at the sequence in this
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  verse. It is a systematic theology
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  lesson. First election whom thou
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  choosest, that's eternity past. Then effectual calling and
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  causes to approach unto thee causes to.
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  Approach. That answers the problem of the
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  all flesh weakness, doesn't it? We were talking about how we
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  were too weak to come on our own.
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  It does. We discussed earlier that all
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  flesh comes, but here we see the mechanics of how they come.
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  Left to ourselves, we run from God.
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  We hide in the garden like Adam, but God causes us to approach.
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  Is that force? Is he dragging us kicking and
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  screaming? No, it's magnetic.
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  He subdues the unwillingness. He changes the heart so that we
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  want to come. He removes the inability.
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  He draws us with those cords of love.
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  It's not coercion, it's regeneration.
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  He gives us a new nature that loves him, so we come willingly.
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  So we are chosen, we are called, and the text says that he may
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  dwell on my courts. This is access and perseverance.
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  If God chooses you and causes you to approach, it isn't for a
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  temporary visit. You aren't a guest who has to
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  leave at midnight. You dwell there.
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  Spurgeon Contrast the servant with the son here.
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  Yeah, a servant abides for a time but can be fired.
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  The son abides forever. Spurgeon argues that if God goes
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  to the trouble of choosing and calling you, he isn't going to
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  let you go. The gifts of God are without
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  repentance. And finally, the verse ends with
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  satisfaction. Satisfied with the goodness of
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  thy house. This is the result of it all.
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  Spurgeon talks about terminating blessings.
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  Blessings that end money, health, fame.
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  Those are half blessings. They run out.
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  But to dwell in God's house, that is a permanent blessing.
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  It satisfies the soul completely.
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  So just in these first 4 verses, we have gone from silent awe, to
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  the confession of total depravity, to the assurance of
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  atonement, to the comfort of election.
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  It is a journey from the pit to the pinnacle, and if the Psalm
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  ended here, it would be a masterpiece of soteriology, the
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  doctrine of salvation. But David isn't done.
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  He is about to pivot from the God who saves the soul to the
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  God who shakes the earth. And that pivot happens in verse
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  five with a phrase that frankly sounds a bit terrifying.
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  By terrible things in righteousness will thou answer
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  us. It is a jarring shift.
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  We are satisfied in his house and suddenly terrible things.
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  We need to unpack that word terrible.
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  In modern English that means bad.
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  I had a terrible day. The food was terrible.
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  Is David saying God gives us bad answers?
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  No, we have to look at the older meaning of the word.
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  Think of Ivan the Terrible. It didn't mean he was
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  incompetent. It meant he was inspiring
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  terror. He was awe inspiring.
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  The Hebrew word implies things that make you tremble.
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  Reverence. But the text says this is how he
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  answers us. That is the paradox.
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  We pray for Grace and he answers with awe inspiring terror.
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  It is a paradox, but every mature believer knows it's true.
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  Spurgeon gives some examples that really hit home.
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  We ask for sanctification. We want to be holy.
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  And what is the reply? Trial.
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  Affliction. Why?
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  Because that is the only way holiness is produced.
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  You can't learn courage without danger.
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  You can't learn patience without waiting.
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  You can't learn to trust God without being in a situation
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  where only God can help you. So the terrible thing, the
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  trial, the difficulty is actually the vehicle for the
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  blessing we asked for. Precisely.
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  We often want the result without the process.
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  We want the victory without the battle.
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  But God answers in righteousness.
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  He knows what is required to produce the fruit we are asking
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  for, and sometimes that looks like a storm.
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  It reminds me of is talking about God as a surgeon.
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  The cutting hurts, but it is for healing.
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  That is it. And Spurgeon notes that these
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  terrible things are working effectively for the Believers.
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  Good. They strip away our idols.
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  They humble us. This section also expands our
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  view of God. Again, He isn't just the God of
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  Zion, He is the confidence of all the ends of the earth and of
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  them that are a far off upon the sea.
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  We are moving outward now from the temple to the globe.
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  God's Providence extends to the frozen and torrid zones, as
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  Spurgeon puts it. And here Spurgeon takes a shot
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  at what he calls the Forget God school of philosophers.
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  I love that label. He is taking aim at the
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  naturalists, the deists, the people who look at the mountains
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  and the seas and see only physical laws.
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  They talk about volcanic action or glacier movements, the laws
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  of upheaval, but they ignore the upheaver.
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  The Upheaver. That is a great title for God.
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  David the psalmist is the true philosopher here.
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  He sees the Alps in the Andes and says God set these fast.
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  He sees the laws of nature as merely the expressions of God's
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  will. He refuses to shut the Lord out
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  of his own world. It is a critique that is just as
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  relevant today. We can explain the mechanics of
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  how a mountain is formed, plate tectonics, magma, but if we stop
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  there, we have missed the point, we have missed the artist behind
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  the canvas. And not just the mountains, but
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  the seas. Verses 6 through 8 give us this
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  picture of God stealing the noise of the Seas, and then, in
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  a classic move of Hebrew parallelism, it links the noise
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  of the Seas to the tumult of the people.
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  This is where we get into political theology, the mob as
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  the ocean. It is a common biblical
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  metaphor. The restless raging sea
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  represents the nations in uproar.
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  Spurgeon references the French Revolutions here, and remember
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  in his time the aftershocks of those those events were still
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  very much in the public mind. He saw them as proof of what
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  happens when human passions are unleashed without restraint.
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  It is a scary thought. If God didn't hold back the
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  tumult of the people, society would collapse.
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  Spurgeon argues that God is the maintainer of social order.
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  Without his restraining hand, envy and ambition would create
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  anarchy immediately. So when we see peace in a nation
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  or even just a functioning society, we shouldn't just thank
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  the police or the government. We should thank God for stealing
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  the tumult. He holds the mountains in place
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  and He holds the nations in check.
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  And then verse 8 gives us this beautiful image of the outgoings
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  of the morning and evening. Thou makest the outgoings of the
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  morning and evening to rejoice. It speaks of the universality of
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  Providence East and West. The sun rises and the world
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  rejoices the sunsets, and there is a different kind of joy, the
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  joy of rest. Spurgeon has a poetic turn of
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  phrase here. He talks about the dew as jewels
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  bequeathed by the departing day. It creates a rhythm of
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  gratitude. Faith sees God rounding the day
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  with joy. We wake up to his mercy, and we
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  go to sleep in His protection. It is a cycle that covers the
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  whole earth, not just the Holy Land.
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  And now we reach the final movement of the Psalm.
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  We've gone from the silence of the temple, through the
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  forgiveness of sins, past the mountains and the oceans, and
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  now we are standing in a field. Verse 9 Thou visitest the earth,
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  and waterest it. This is the song of the harvest.
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  And notice the language thou visitest.
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  It implies a personal attention. God isn't a distant clockmaker
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  who wound up the universe and walked away.
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  He is the gardener. He surveys his garden.
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  And he brings the water. The river of God is full of
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  water. Spurgeon.
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  Contrast this with earthly brooks in the Middle East.
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  A brook is a fickle friend. It is there in the winter and
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  gone in the summer. But the river of God, meaning
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  the clouds, the divine supply from above, is never empty.
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  It is inexhaustible. Then we get to Verse 9's mansion
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  of corn. Thou prepares them corn.
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  And here the source material dropped, a fact that completely
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  blew my mind. The mystery of corn.
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  Yes, Spurgeon and the commentators he quotes point out
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  that corn or wheat, the cereals we rely on, has never been found
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  in a wild state. It is a.
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  Fascinating botanical mystery. Cabbages have wild ancestors.
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  Sea cow apples have wild ancestors.
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  Crab apples you can trace them back to a natural wild state,
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  but corn? It seems to appear on the scene
• 21:48
  fully ready for man's use. Wait, really?
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  So if you go out into the deepest jungle or the oldest
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  Prairie, you don't find wild wheat.
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  You don't. It is constitutionally unfitted
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  to exist without man's care. If you leave a field of wheat
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  alone, it doesn't revert to a wild state, it dies out.
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  It needs a cultivator. That implies it was a direct
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  gift. The theological implication is
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  that it was likely a specific creation for man, possibly given
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  to Adam. The pagans felt this mystery.
• 22:14
  The Greeks attributed it to the Goddess series, but the psalmist
• 22:18
  corrects the record. It isn't series, it is Jehovah.
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  Thou prepares them corn. It is such a powerful evidence
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  of detailed Providence. God didn't just give us a world
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  where we could scrape by. He designed a specific fuel
• 22:31
  source for humanity and handed it to us.
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  And he doesn't just provide the seed, he manages the whole
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  process. Verses 10 and 11 are incredibly
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  detailed agrarian imagery. Watering ridges, settling
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  furrows, making it soft with showers.
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  It sounds like he's getting his hands dirty.
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  He is. We usually think of God in the
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  Holy of Holies, but this text shows him in the mud.
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  He is breaking up the clock of dirt.
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  He is softening the ground. Thou crownest the year with thy
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  goodness. That is the summary.
• 22:58
  The harvest is the coronation of the year.
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  And then we have this image. Thy paths drop fatness.
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  I love that visualization. It is as if God is walking
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  through the fields and wherever his foot lands, fatility springs
• 23:11
  up. It contrasts with the
• 23:13
  destructiveness of human armies. Spurgeon mentions the Tartar
• 23:17
  hordes. Where their horses trod, the
• 23:19
  grass ceased to grow. But where God marches, abundance
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  follows. By paths drop fatness.
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  And this abundance isn't just for the cultivated fields.
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  Verse 12 says it drops upon the pastures of the wilderness.
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  God is generous even where no man is watching, the wild
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  places, the little hills, they also receive His care.
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  And this leads to the grand finale in verse 13.
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  The personification of nature, the.
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  Pastures are clothed with flocks.
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  The valleys also are covered over with corn.
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  They shout for joy. They also sing.
• 23:48
  It is a choir. The inanimate creation becomes
• 23:51
  vocal. The bleeding of the flocks, the
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  rustling of the grain and the wind.
• 23:56
  David hears it as a well ordered hymn to the Eternal.
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  It is a shouting match of joy. The hills are shouting to the
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  valleys, and the valleys are singing back.
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  And remember where we started. We started in the silence of
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  Zion. Praise is silent for thee, O
• 24:09
  God. We started with the elect, the
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  chosen, standing in awe, unable to speak, and we end with the
• 24:15
  dirt, the grass and the sheep shouting for joy.
• 24:18
  That is a stunning progression. It seems the whole earth is full
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  of His glory, whether has the capacity for theology or not.
• 24:25
  Indeed, the world is a hymn to the eternal and the believer,
• 24:29
  the one who has been caused to approach, stands in the middle
• 24:32
  of this shouting creation and joins the chorus.
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  So what does this all mean for us?
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  We've walked through the text that we have seen the monarchism
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  of salvation, God purging ourselves sins.
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  We have seen the sovereignty of God over the nations.
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  We have seen his tenderness in watering the furrows.
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  I think the take away is the unity of God's work.
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  We often separate spiritual things from natural things.
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  We think God is present in the prayer meeting but absent in the
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  cornfield. Or we think he is saving souls
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  but has nothing to do with the rain.
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  Psalm 65 smashes that dichotomy. The God who purges iniquities in
• 25:04
  verse 3 is the same God who settles the furrows in verse 10.
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  Correct. The God of grace is the God of
• 25:10
  Providence. If you trust Him with your soul,
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  which is the greater work, you can certainly trust Him with
• 25:15
  your daily bread, your job, your physical needs.
• 25:17
  He is the householder. He doesn't neglect his estate.
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  And it also reframes how we look at the world.
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  When we see a storm we see terrible things in
• 25:25
  righteousness. When we see a harvest we see his
• 25:28
  paths dropping fatness. It re enchants the world.
• 25:31
  And it's not just physics, it is a personal visitation that visit
• 25:36
  us the earth. And it challenges us to
• 25:38
  reference if the hills and valleys are shouting, can we
• 25:42
  remain silent? We started with the silence of
• 25:44
  awe, which is good, but that silence must eventually break
• 25:48
  forth into the shout of harvest. We are the priests of creation.
• 25:52
  We should be giving a voice to the praise that the corn can
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  only wrestle. That is a challenging thought.
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  We are the conductors of this great Symphony.
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  And we are the recipients of the greatest blessing.
• 26:02
  The corn gets the rain, but we get the atonement.
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  We get the blessedness of the man whom thou choosest.
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  Before we wrap up, I want to leave our listeners with a final
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  provocative thought, something to chew on that builds on what
• 26:14
  we have discussed. Go ahead.
• 26:15
  We talked about the silence in verse one and the shouting in
• 26:18
  verse 13. Is it possible that the
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  inanimate creation, the hills, the valleys, the corn, are
• 26:25
  sometimes more vocal in their praise than the chosen man who
• 26:29
  stands in the courts of God? That is a convicting question.
• 26:32
  If the corn in the flocks shout for joy, simply for receiving
• 26:36
  rain and grass, how much more should those who have been
• 26:39
  caused to approach via the blood of atonement break their
• 26:42
  silence? Why is the dirt louder than the
• 26:45
  Saint? It suggests that our silence, if
• 26:48
  it isn't the silence of awe, might be the silence of
• 26:50
  ingratitude. And that is dangerous place to
• 26:53
  be. Indeed, let the stones not cry
• 26:56
  out in our place. Amen to that.
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  Thank you for joining us on this deep dive into Psalm 65.
• 27:01
  It is always a privilege to explore the treasury of David
• 27:03
  with you. We hope this has enriched your
• 27:05
  understanding of Reformed theology and, more importantly,
• 27:08
  stirred your heart to praise. Keep thinking and keep looking
• 27:12
  for the hand of God in both the Word and the world.
• 27:14
  Until next time.