"You crown the year with your goodness; and your paths drop fatness." (Psalm 65:11)
This is the season of the year when this verse specially applies; for it is the glorious harvest that is the crown of the year. "The little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn." (Psalm 65:12-13)
Travel through the country in the autumn months, when the ripened grain yet stands in the fields, and the trees are loaded with beautiful and luscious fruit, and you will surely see that here is a glorious crown for the year.
But glorious as is this crown of the year, bringing life to mankind, it is but the dust from the feet of the all-glorious Lord. Even the glory of the firmament is but a little glimpse of the glory of His face. "The Lord has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet." (Nahum 1:3)
The showers of spring and summer--the overflow of the river of water of life (See Psalm 65:9-10)--prepare this rich crown for the year; they are the dust which shows where the Lord is walking, and in them is contained all the fatness that is needed for every living creature on earth.
Most people become fearful in times of drought, and think that they are sure to starve. They forget that He who has clouds of water for dust, can of the dust of the parched earth make streams of water. With Him dry sand is just as good for irrigating the soil as is a lake or a river. "[He] turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters." (Psalm 114:8)
Yes, He even makes His own people sources of living water, so that they need never fear a bad harvest. "If you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall your light rise in obscurity, and your darkness be as the noonday; And the Lord shall guide you continually, and satisfy your soulin drought, and make fat your bones; and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters fail not." (Isaiah 58:10-11)
Truly, "there is no want to them that fear Him." (Psalm 34:9)
Note the words, "You crown the year with your goodness." Then this fruit that we delight in is nothing less than the visible and tangible goodness of the Lord. If men would only open their eyes to see the goodness of the Lord, which He is making to pass before them so richly, they would all repent. The harvest of the year ought to be the time of the greatest ingathering of souls.
God not only makes His goodness pass before us, but He surrounds us with it. We are all familiar with the words, "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life." (Psalm 23:6)
This word "follow" is from the Hebrew word that means to pursue. God's goodness is not lagging behind us, but it runs after us; and since "His word runs very swiftly," (Psalm 147:15) we may know that it is ever present, even though we cannot always see it as plainly as we can this autumn.
But God does more. "The king shall joy in your strength, O Lord; and in your salvation how greatly shall he rejoice! You have given him his heart's desire, and have not withheld the request of his lips. For You prevent [go before] him with the blessings of goodness;You set a crown of pure gold on his head." (Psalm 21:1-3)
God's goodness goes before us, and it also follows after. We are surrounded by it. We breathe the atmosphere of God's grace and goodness. If we believe, we cannot fail to be made partakers of His goodness, and to be transformed by it.
Then do not forget to thank the Lord for the things which He has so richly given us to enjoy. Do not treat Him worse than you would a passing stranger who does you a favor. Let everybody give thanks to Him, and give thanks at every remembrance of His goodness.
Thus will you glorify God, and prepare the way for Him to show you His salvation.--Present Truth, October 4, 1900--Psalm 65:11-13.