Tag Archives: showers

From Your Bounty

18 Sunday Jul 2021

Posted by in Psalm 68, Psalms

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I will praise the LORD!

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Photo courtesy of Louie Foster, Durham, ON

(Psalm 68:7-10, NIV)*

When you, God, went out before your people,
    when you marched through the wilderness,
the earth shook, the heavens poured down rain,
    before God, the One of Sinai,
    before God, the God of Israel.
You gave abundant showers, O God;
    you refreshed your weary inheritance.
Your people settled in it,
    and from your bounty, God, you provided for the poor.

* New International Version, Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica

Volume II of Psalms 365: Develop a Life of Worship and Prayer by award-winning author David Kitz is available now. For a closer look at Volumes I and II click here.

Refreshing Showers

05 Tuesday Jul 2016

Posted by in Psalms, Tuesday's Truth

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

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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?

Thirsty Land

13 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by in Mid-Week Medtiation, Psalms

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

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Refreshing Showers — photo by David Kitz

Reflection

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

Yesterday, I read about a scientific report that indicated a severe drought over a large region can cause the earth to wobble on its axis. It seems the earth gets tipsy when the land hasn’t had enough to drink.

As urban dwellers many of us have lost our connection with the land, but farmers know the value of adequate rain in the right season. Our food supply depends on it. To put it simply, water is life.

In a very real sense God not only quenches our thirst; He also quenches the thirsty land. We see this truth reflected in the Psalms.

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

We can be thankful for the showers God sends our way. Without them this wobbly world would quickly become a place of desperate hunger.

Response: LORD God, I am wonderful at complaining about the weather, rather than being thankful for it. You sustain life on this planet. I want to be thankful for how you provide. Amen.

Your Turn: Do you gripe about the weather? (Who doesn’t?) Do you want a more positive attitude?