When your land was thirsty, you sent showers to refresh it (Psalm 68:9, CEV).

Azaleas in bloom, Butchart Gardens, Victoria, BC — photo by David Kitz

Reflection

This week’s I Love the Psalms theme is land.

Locally, we have had a very dry spring. For both May and June we received only about a third of the normal monthly rainfall. As might be expected, lawns have turned dry and crunchy underfoot. Every other day I’ve been watering the garden and flower beds. Field crops have suffered the most. Corn that should be waist-high is less than knee-high.

But on July first everything changed. We had three significant showers—showers that brought life and growth. That’s the promise in today’s verse from the Psalms.

When your land was thirsty, you sent showers to refresh it (Psalm 68:9, CEV).

Just as land goes through periods of drought, so too our spirits can become dry and parched. God can seem to be ten thousand miles away. For such times, Peter provides us with this advice, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus” (Acts 3:19-20, NIV).

Nothing brings refreshing quite like the manifest presence of Jesus. And nothing prepares the way for Jesus like a repentant heart that has turned to God.

Response: LORD God, I am thirsty for you. I repent of my sins and my waywardness. Right now I turn to you. Send your showers of refreshing on the thirsty soil of my soul. Amen.

Your Turn: Are you going through a spiritual dry spell?