They make it a place of springs.

 

Thursday, October 5, 2023


Psalms 82; 84

1 Kings 18:20-40

Matthew 10:1-15


They make it a place of springs.


The natural world was made for humans, and humans were made for the natural world. After God had planted His Garden of Eden, He then planted some gardeners to care for it. These gardeners were given His image, authority and power to rule over it in His name.


Then we disobeyed God; we spurned the wonderful gift we had been given, the gift of our own existence. But God did not leave things there; the Second Person of God came into this natural world, incarnate as a gardener of God’s garden.


When Jesus bled on the cross, and then after announcing that it was finished, and breathed His last, He redeemed a people for Himself: a great number of those fallen gardeners were reunited with Him through His blood, and we were restored to our original place as God’s representatives in the natural world.


This morning’s second Psalm, the 84th, is rich in imagery: it speaks of literally going to the physical Temple in Jerusalem, and how spiritually enriching this trek is. Living in the post-Easter era, we recognise that this Psalm now speaks of living closely to God through the blood of Jesus. We know from precious personal experience about how the dry valley of our souls have been turned into a place of springs because we drink living water from Jesus, the Fountain of Life. When we pass through dry valleys of strife, depression, hatred, fear, and all those other spiritual attacks under which we see our fellow humans suffering, our presence is the blessing of the early rain upon their souls. We are happy because we trust in the Lord Almighty, and He brings life everywhere we travel with Him.

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