Psalm Meditation 1071 First Sunday After Christmas December 27, 2020 Psalm 65 1 Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion; and to you shall vows be performed, 2 O you who answer prayer! To you all flesh shall come. 3 When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us, you forgive our transgressions. 4 Happy are those whom you choose and bring near to live in your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, your holy temple. 5 By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance, O God of our salvation; you are the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. 6 By your strength you established the mountains; you are girded with might. 7 You silence the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples. 8 Those who live at earth’s farthest bounds are awed by your signs; you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy. 9 You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide the people with grain, for so you have prepared it. 10 You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. 11 You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with richness. 12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, 13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy. (NRSV) God gives us a lot to be thankful for. God hears our prayers as they range from praise and thanksgiving to prayers that ask for action on our behalf. God offers us forgiveness when we reach the point at which we are overwhelmed by our sinful actions. God draws us to live in the divine presence as a gift from God’s heart. God provides us a rich variety and abundance from the earth with which to satisfy our needs in proper season. We have every reason to be in awe of the power of God in our lives. The better things are going for us the easier it is to forget the source of all of our good things. We begin to believe that what we have is due to our own hard work and that we have somehow done enough to deserve all that we have. God is not mean spirited enough to take it all away from us so that we will once again see the hand of God at work in our lives. I am sure that God is content to provide for us without having that generosity acknowledged at every turn. And God is pleased when we do notice the divine hand at work in our lives. Some folks live in a constant state of awe, on the edge of being overwhelmed by the activity of God around us. Some folks take time in every day to give thanks to God for providing for our needs and wants. Some folks express gratitude even when they are not feeling very grateful in hopes that saying it will help make it happen. God is at work in our lives whether we notice and acknowledge it or not. “Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion; and to you shall vows be performed, O you who answer prayer! To you all flesh shall come.” December 21, 2020 LCM