Dry and thirsty land…Psalm 63…Abundance…Psalm 65…

 Dry and thirsty land….Psalm 63…

Abundance…Psalm 65…

All of my children were born In Nevada, “a dry and thirsty land”, average rainfall 8 inches…compared to national average of 38 inches…

We planned to plant our gardens Memorial Day weekend, with crops that could be harvested before Labor Day weekend…that was the timing because you could have major snow and frost at either end…and we did…

We learned how to utilize drip systems, rather than overall sprinklers to conserve precious water. ( traveling through Israel, observing their amazing use of drip watering, they have turned deserts into an oasis)

The harvest was usually plentiful, but every year was different…

Fruit trees, on the other hand, were a different matter, because of the usual short growing season…you may get a crop or you may not…provided good shade, if nothing else…and we gathered chokecherries and elderberries from the mountain canyons as well..

I still see pictures of friends with their gardens every year since I have moved away. Some have increased their gardens with greenhouses, which is amazing…

As I read psalms 63, 65 I thought of those times in Nevada compared to my present home…I have fruit trees which produce every year, raised boxes in which to grow whatever I sow, still using the drip systems for watering…

David wrote Psalm 63 while he was in the desert…

He wrote of the care and steadfast love of God…

“ O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;my soul thirsts for you;my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 

So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. 

Because your steadfast love is better than life,

my lips will praise you. 

So I will bless you as long as I live;in your name I will lift up my hands. 

My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed,and meditate on you in the watches of the night; 

for you have been my help,and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. My soul clings to you;your right hand upholds me.”

Ps.63.1-8

Psalm 65 is such a praise song as well, but David speaks of the care of the land too…

 “You visit the earth and water it;you greatly enrich it;the river of God is full of water;you provide their grain,for so you have prepared it. 

You water its furrows abundantly,settling its ridges,softening it with showers,and blessing its growth. 

You crown the year with your bounty;your wagon tracks overflow with abundance. 

The pastures of the wilderness overflow,the hills gird themselves with joy, the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,the valleys deck themselves with grain,they shout and sing together for joy.”

Ps.65.9-13

God is with us in the desert times and the abundance…providing either way…both physically and spiritually…thank YOU….

A view from my back patio…fruit trees …this years peaches, the big and the small…