Your footsteps are dripping with abundance

Some thoughts on texts from Psalms 65, 66 and 67

At the end of this article a short update on 'how things are going with your health'

We recently read a beautiful passage in Psalm 65 that reads

¹⁰  You looked to the land and gave it plenty, You make it very rich;
the brook of God is full of water; You give them corn; yes, this is how you give it:
¹¹  You drench its plowed earth, You pour water into its furrows,
You soak it with raindrops, You bless its crop.
¹²  You crown the year of Your goodness, Your footsteps drip with abundance,

Psalm 65:10-12

God's goodness and blessings in abundance. You will not be short of anything; enough water and the land produces crops in abundance. In the past year we have again been able to see the goodness of the Lord Himself. We experience that everything comes from His hand.

Yes, but if you are in a situation that you can simply say is lousy? Whatever it may be; an incurable disease that will never allow you to work again, a financial drama, a marriage that is going nowhere or ...... fill in the blanks. Circumstances in which you see no light at the end of the tunnel and in which you cannot say 'all's well that ends well'. What on earth are you supposed to do then?

Praise our God

It seems that the next Psalm addresses that question.

⁸  Praise, O nations, our God; let the sound of his glory be heard,
⁹  Who gives our soul [again] life, and does not allow our foot to falter.
¹⁰  For thou hast tested us, O God, thou hast refined us, as silver is refined.
¹¹  You had brought us into the net, You had put a pinching band around our waist,
¹²  You had made the mortal ride over our heads. We had come into the fire and into the water, but You brought us out into abundance.

Psalm 66:8-12

In this passage the focus is not on the difficulties, but on God. We are invited to think about Him and see if there are things with Him for which we could praise Him. Things that belong to 'His fame' and of which our mouth should make its sound. As a Christian you then arrive at everything that God has given us in Christ, as Paul writes, for example:

“Blessed [1] be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ . . . ” (Ephesians 1:3)

When we set our hearts in this way towards God and 'the things above', it will have its positive effect on our souls. It cannot be otherwise, for the psalmist continues in verse 9 with 'Who gives life to our souls, and does not allow our feet to falter'. Being busy with the Lord Jesus, Who He is, what He has done and His future means that we notice in our hearts what the real, eternal life is. The only thing that really feeds our soul. Moreover, it gives us – there is no other way – the confidence that He will also take care of us: “He won't let our foot falter”. That great God and Father who gave His Son and in this way brought about our eternally glorious salvation, would He let go of me – who as a lost sinner accepted His Son – and not take care of my life? He won't let me fall; that is what the psalmist testifies. That may also be our belief.

For you have tested us

Only then does the psalmist think back to the difficulties of his life. But in a different way than before, for now he involves the Lord God:For You have tested us, O God." He realizes that it is God who allows and uses the difficulties—and there are quite a few in verses 11 and 12. They are trials that befall him from God. The psalmist knows this and pronounces it, but without reproaching God for he ends the description of the disasters with “You have led us out into abundance”. The Lord has brought them into the afflictions, led them through it, and finally led them out. What a blessing to see your trials like this; as something that God sends in your path to reveal the worth of your faith (1 Peter 1:7).

Now you can easily write that down, but in practice, when the trials are great and intense, it is not always easy. Therefore the Psalm does not end here, but continues, with the following expressions of interest:

• “I will enter your house with burnt offerings (verse 13)
• “I will bring burnt offerings to you” (verse 15)
• “He was praised by my tongue.” (vs 17)
• “Blessed be God, who has not rejected my prayer” (v 20)

With your heart and with your mouth praise the Lord God, offer Him burnt offerings. For us, that means magnifying and honoring both the Father and His Son for the work Christ accomplished on Calvary's cross. When we are struggling – like the psalmist – this Psalm calls us again and again to draw near to God and offer Him sacrifices of praise and thanks.

Well, that's how it goes. You can read Psalms and let it sink in a little. You can even confirm it. But practice….. is often so unruly. Then we may cry out to God with the psalmist

“Have mercy on me and bless me;
Make Your face shine on me”

Psalm 67:2

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Does grandpa still have cancer? was recently asked by our 7 year old granddaughter. She may have thought he wasn't sick anymore, because you don't notice him. And that is correct, because indeed I have few to no complaints.
The course of chemo that I received in March has really cut it; we already let you know that once. The dip – especially great fatigue and shortness of breath – was big and it took more than two months before I was a bit 'on level' again. It was then decided that I would no longer have chemotherapy and that I would continue with immunotherapy alone. The CT scans indicated that the situation of the tumor and metastases is stable. Today (3-8-20) this has been confirmed again; the scan again shows a stable picture and the pulmonologist is very satisfied. I don't really experience any side effects from the immunotherapy. I have no or few complaints and I feel 'healthy'. That's weird by the way; you feel healthy and fit, knowing that you have a deadly disease among the members.

We can echo the psalmist of the past year:You crown the year of Your goodness, Your footsteps drip with abundance.” (Psalm 65:12). God's goodness and blessings in abundance. We lack nothing. In the past year we have again been able to see the goodness of the Lord Himself. We experience that everything comes from His hand and that He leads the way. We try to follow His footsteps, for we know that we can experience His abundance there.

We are grateful for your sympathy and for your prayers and we appreciate it very much for the coming time.

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[1] praised, believed