“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.”
– Psalm 65:9
Is that not a great theology of rain in one verse? Let me read it again. Psalm 65:9, “You visit the earth and water it. You greatly enrich it.” What a great picture. And when you think about rain, realize that rain is never a natural occasion. According to Psalm 65, verse 9, rain is always a supernatural visitation. It is God visiting the earth and watering it, greatly enriching it. Just think about God’s provision for the earth, for our lives, for growth in the world, through the water, he gives through rain. And let this be one reminder to us today, that nothing around us is all ultimately natural, that everything around us is ultimately supernatural that the world is operating according to a divine design.
We praise God for His daily sustenance of this world, of our lives, in this world.
This Verse Reminds Us That God is a Faithful Provider
Now, to be clear, this is a fallen world marked by sin and evil, and creation. In the words of Romans, chapter 8, is, “Groaning, as in the pains of childbirth, longing for ultimate redemption.” This world is not as it should be and this world is not as it will one day be, in a new heaven and a new earth.
And yet we’re reminded on a daily basis in so many different ways. Specifically, when it rains, God faithfully provides for our lives here, and God faithfully provides for sustenance in the world. And in this, I want you to be encouraged today that the God who brings the rain is the God who promises to provide for you today in every single way you need provision. According to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus, Philippians chapter 4, verse 19 says, “God will supply all your needs.”
Psalm 65:9: Thanking God For Providing For Us
So we pray. God, we praise you for rain. We praise you for your daily sustenance of this world, of our lives, in this world. You are the creator of all, the sustainer of all. In the words of Job, you hold the store houses of rain, water falls from the sky at your bidding. You are sovereign over it all, and we praise you for your grace in it all.
We praise you for your provision for all that we need for breath, for water, for food, and for millions of other things that we take for granted on a daily basis. And so we pause before you, oh God, our creator and our sustainer. And we thank you. Additionally, we say together that we trust in you and we pray for your provision, every single need we have today.
Prayer For the Lost
God, we pray amidst all that’s going on in our lives, that we would see your good hand at work and that you would provide according to your word, all that we need, according to the glorious riches you have made available for us in Christ. And even along those lines, God, as we pray so often on this podcast, we pray for people who are dry spiritually, who have never even heard the good news of your love in Jesus, about how you will supply all our needs according to the glorious riches we have in Jesus, through faith in him,
God, we pray for the Domari Romani people of Afghanistan, where there are no followers of Jesus. God, we pray that they would experience the rain of your grace and your mercy and the gospel coming to them. Lord, we pray for 3 billion people in the world who are in this situation. Who don’t have the good news of your grace. Lord rain down the gospel on them, we pray. God, we pray that laborers would go to these 3 billion people. These 7,000 people groups, including the Domari Romani in Afghanistan and make the good news of your love known among them.
Praising God For His Provision
God, we praise you for your physical provision all over the world. We pray that you would give spiritual provision in the gospel. All over the world, all over the earth. That all the nations might sing and be glad in you as the giver of all good gifts and the sustainer of everything. The creator of all, and ultimately the savior of all who trust in you. We praise you, oh God, and we pray that you’d help us to live today with a supernatural awareness of your hand at work all around us. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
