May 6, 2024

Psalm 68.9 (NIV)
You gave abundant showers, O God.

God . . . loves to hook an ‘extra’ on the front of the ordinary.*

God's mercy is often compared to a shower. It is sovereignly dispensed, like rain, as to time, place, manner and measure;* but unlike rain, mercy arrives in just the right amount at just the right time. And while we may pray for rain, or in some cases, for the rain to stop, God doesn’t always give us the weather that we ask for.

Rain doesn’t always come in the quantities we might wish for. Too much or too little, neither is desirable. Like Goldilocks, we want it to be “just right.” Perhaps our definition of “abundant” needs an adjustment. Bible scholars think the “abundant showers” in this verse is a reference to the manna that God used to feed the Children of Israel while they were in the wilderness. The manna was plentiful but it was always just enough. Never too much, never too little.

If God took away everything but the air that I breathe, I would still be abundantly blessed. I have not earned the earthly things that I possess and even less have I earned the abundant life – the eternal life – that has been promised. 

When no one else would even give us the time of day the Son of God gave us the time of our life!*