You Are Not the Only One

Psalm Chapter 65 (KJV)

Unless otherwise stated all scriptures in this devotional are from the King James Version of the Bible-which is public domain!

You take care of agriculture: you also forgave our sins. But Lord, it is not done in reverse. First, we need to repent. Then the healing of nature will come.

It is apparent from the contents of this psalm that psalmist was dealing with two separate, but really related incidents.  1. Something went wrong with the crops (verses 5-13). 2. The people had sinned and needed to repent of their sins (verses 1-5.)

1 Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Sion: and unto thee shall the vow be performed. [ Zion was the place where God’s people worshipped HI. (See Psalm 48:2; also Psalms 3:4; 9:12; 24:3; 68:5; 87). Zion also represents the church today and its millenial role.

² O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come. Today many of us spend time in prayer to make request to God. Many of us pray just to speak to Him. There is a time al of humanity will stand before God. It is after we have accepted forgiveness that our sins will be purged from us; thus, opening the direct link to Him. ³ Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away. 1 John 2:2  ⁴ Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. We did not chose Christ. He chose us. We should be satisfied with that knowledge (John 15:16 “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and [that] your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.”). ⁵ By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation; who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea:  Salvation is not just promised to the children of the Hebrews. God hears and answeres the prayers of His children. He heard the cries of David and his people and He will hear our cries today. Nothing is too difficult for God. Longman declares, “After all, they have experienced God’s forgiveness and his abundant provision. They are those who are permitted to draw close to God as he makes his presence known in the sanctuary ( your courts , your house , your holy temple )” (Longman 2014, 251.)1 Corinthians 1:21 “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” Share his word with everyone. Watch as God allows it to produce fruit.

The awesomeness of the whole earth astounds me.

But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the underlying reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes, and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all but were illiterate regarding experience. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand (Romans 1:18-23 The Message Bible).

⁶ Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains; being girded with power: ⁷ Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people. David is enamored by the majesty and beauty of the mountains. The deafening roar of the ocean waves as just astounding to him. He cannot imagine a world with and or without them. He does not see the possibility of evolution. He knows that God created all of it.  Christ calmed the waves back then. He can chose to do it today. 

⁸ They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens: thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice. Matthew 5:45 “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” The devil has no control over the elements. We will not understand why calamity is occurring all over the world, but it fits within God’s plan for all of humanity. Will they chose to look and see Him in the storms, the natural disasters or even the clamanity caused by our own greed? Will we call out to Him and ask Him to forgive us because we have done all that we can to destroy what He created for us. When forgiveness of our human spirit comes, then the earth will produce as He created it to.

 ¹⁰ Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: thou settlest the furrows thereof: thou makest it soft with showers: thou blessest the springing thereof. ¹¹ Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness. ¹² They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness: and the little hills rejoice on every side. ¹³ The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.

References

Longman, Tremper, III. 2014. Psalms: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press. Accessed September 12, 2019. ProQuest Ebook Central.