God Fills and Feeds Us

For centuries, people have celebrated the beginning and the end of harvest season by offering thanks to God for His provision. Churches would hold a special service titled Lammas, during which farmers brought loaves of bread from their first crop to use during the Communion service. Together they offered thanks to God for the harvest.

In today’s psalm, the author gives thanks to God for the land and for everything that grows on it. The nation of Israel was an agricultural society. Everything in their lives rotated around the production of the land. The author acknowledges that while the people might work the land, God is the ultimate provider.

Notice the repetition of the word you throughout this psalm, referring to God. “You care for the land and water it,” “you drench its furrows,” “you soften it with showers” (vv. 9, 10). People in the fields, working under the hot sun, were mindful that none of this would exist without the care and provision of God Himself. They had grain because God “ordained it”

(v. 9). Verse 11 speaks of the bounty and abundance of God’s provision. The word bounty in Hebrew is also used to denote blessing or benefit. A king’s table is described as bountiful—not only lavish but also blessing those who feast there. The word bounty has the connotation of generosity and is used in Scripture to emphasize the incredible generosity of God. We are not given meager portions; we are given an abundance of provision because we are children of God.

The author compares the provision of God to being clothed. The earth is carefully adorned by God; the hills are “clothed,” the meadows are covered by the “flocks,” and even the valleys are “mantled” with grain (vv. 12–13). The earth is dressed to its finest with God’s gift to us, the bounty of His blessing.

Pray with Us

Today, will you remember Moody’s Campus Post Office in your prayers? Thank God for its staff—Anthony Harper, Brenda McLemore, Bryant Rueda, and Nga Tran—who benefit Moody’s whole campus by providing efficient and timely mail delivery.

BY Jamie Janosz

Jamie Janosz serves as a content development manager for Moody Bible Institute. She writes monthly devotionals for Today in the Word and has published non-fiction essays with Christianity Today’s Her.meneutics blog. Recently Jamie wrote a book titled When Others Shuddered: Eight Women Who Refused to Give Up (Moody Publishers). Jamie studied theology and writing at Moody Bible Institute, Columbia College, and Illinois State University. She lives on the Atlantic coast of Florida with her husband, Milt, and daughter, Sabrina.