Psalm 65:11 You crown the year with your goodness; and your paths drop fatness. Nothing can be more right than that Christian people should publicly render thanksgiving to the God of the harvest. And let there be thankofferings likewise. I. CROWNING MERCIES CALLING FOR CROWNING GRATITUDE. All the year round God is richly blessing us; both when we sleep and when we work, His mercy waits upon us. 1. If we begin with the blessings of the nether springs, the joyous days of harvest are a special season of favour. The psalmist tells us that the harvest is the crowning of the year. What would it have been for us as a nat:on had there been a total failure of the crops? Or even a partial scarcity. We none of us can fully estimate the amount of happiness conferred by a luxuriant yield. How shall we give praise? By inward gratitude; by words of thanksgiving in psalms and hymns; and by our gifts. 2. And there have been heavenly harvests. In ancient days there was Pentecost. And we have had revivals where spiritual life has been awakened and quickened. How the Lord has blessed us in this respect. As for conversions, has not the Lord been pleased to give them to us as constantly as the sun rises in his place? Scarce a sermon without the benediction of the Most High. We must not forget this. And we are looking for greater things still — the conversion of the whole world to God. II. PATHS OF FATNESS SHOULD BE WAYS OF DUTY. The paths of war, how terrible are they, but the paths of God — they drop fatness. It is so in providence. Do but trust the Lord. Yet more in things spiritual. In the use of the means of grace. If you come to them desiring to meet with Jesus, you shall do so, and you shall find our text true. And so is it with the path of prayer, and of communion, and of faith. Let the Lord come into our congregations by His Spirit, then would His paths drop fatness. This is what we want: let us pray for it. III. SUGGESTIONS AS TO OUR DUTY. Yield yourselves to Christ. What a harvest for you that would be. Serve Him more. As Churches let us pray more. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.WEB: You crown the year with your bounty. Your carts overflow with abundance. |
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