Psalms 65:10

Thou waterest the regions thereof abundantly: Thou settlest the furrows thereof: Thou makest it soft with showers: Thou blessest the springing thereof.

Spring thoughts

1. Spring follows winter and ushers in summer according to an appointed order. This fact teaches the continuous control and government of God. The regular succession of the seasons seems to declare that “the Lord reigneth.” In some respects, during winter, God seems like a man travelling into a far country. Darkness and barrenness and coldness suggest absence on the part of God. The spring looks like His return.

2. The spring season is a time of resurrection to life throughout the vegetable kingdom. This suggests the continued life-inspiring power of God. There is not only infinite life in God, there is also an immeasurable life-giving power in God.

3. The great and various changes which the spring season involves show forth the unchangeableness of God.

4. The loveliness of the spring season is a reflection of the beauty of God. Every living thing is a thought of God expressed. What a glorious nature that must be which could devise and originate all that is beauteous in the spring!

5. The joyousness of spring speaks to us of the happiness of God. Beauty and joy are not always combined, but they exist together in God. God is happy, and His happiness is of a Godly sort.

6. The combination and co-operation of influences in the spring season are illustrations of the wisdom and power of God. “Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it,”--in the margin, “after Thou hadst made it to desire rain.” The dryness of the early part of spring works together with moisture and with spring rains to promote the fruitfulness of the earth.

7. The provision made in spring for a present and future supply of food exhibits the benevolence of God: “Thou providest them corn, when Thou hast so provided for it.” Sustenance of some kind or other would seem on some grounds to be the due of man. In this case, however, the quality, and abundance, and character of the provision may all afford scope for the display of goodness. The support of a prodigal child, however, is a matter not of debt, but of grace. God made man for himself, and when man began to live for his own self, he forfeited all claim upon God’s bountifulness

Conclusion--

1. Praise God for the spring season. And let no scientific or philosophical view of the changes involved in the spring at all exclude God from your minds and hearts. Whatever may be the law of these changes, God makes them.

2. Let the spring teach you the folly of anxiety. See, at this season, how God clothes the grass of the field and the flowers of the field. The grass of the field chides and reproves us for our carefulness, and exhorts us, saying, “Neither be ye of anxious mind.”

3. Let the spring encourage you in broad and unrestrained prayer. He who gives to us so bountifully in the spring season, is not likely to withhold any good thing.

4. Make all the sights and sounds of spring occasions of communion and intercourse with God.

5. God is renewing the face of the earth; let us seek the renewing of the Holy Ghost. We may be conscious of declension in the inward spiritual life. There is a power which can renew our spiritual life, and to that power let us turn with holy longing for its manifestation within us.

6. Let us learn from the spring season the firm foundation we have for hope. Time more or less is still before us. Cheered by the spring let us sing, “Jehovah is my shepherd, I shall not want.” We may be forewarned of a passing through fire and water; aroused by the spring, let us listen to His voice who saith, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee.” The religious state of mankind is most gloomy and depressing. Cheered by the spring, let us expect the day when the wilderness shall become a fruitful field, and when the desert shall rejoice and blossom as a rose. Let this spring season give to us all a lesson in hope, and let it teach us to hope in God. (S. Martin, D. D.)

Spring in the heart

I. Note the work previous to the springing.

1. The ploughing, God’s preparing the soul by conviction. The law with its ten black horses drags the ploughshare of conviction up and down the soul till it is all furrowed over. And then comes--

2. The sowing of the good seed.

3. The harrowing, the praying over what has been sown; this must by no means be neglected. But--

4. There is a work beyond our power. “Thou visitest the earth and waterest it,” says the psalmist. In vain are all our efforts unless God shall bless us with the rain of His Holy Spirit’s influence. Three effects are spoken of. First, we are told He waters the ridges. As the ridges of the field become well saturated through and through with the abundant rain, so God sends His Holy Spirit till the whole Heart of man is moved and influenced by His divine operations. Next, it is added, “Thou settlest the furrows,” by which some think it is meant that the furrows are drenched with water. Others think there is an allusion here to the beating down of the earth by heavy rain till the ridges become flat, and by the soaking of the water are settled into a more compact mass. Certain it is that the influences of God’s Spirit have a humbling and settling effect upon a man. He was unsettled once like the earth that is dry and crumbly, and blown about and carried away with every wind of doctrine; but as the earth when soaked with wet is compacted and knit together, so the heart becomes solid and serious under the power of the Spirit. Yet again, it is added, “Thou makest it soft with showers.” Man’s heart is naturally hardened against the Gospel; like the Eastern soil, it is hard as iron if there be no gracious rain. How sweetly and effectively does the Spirit of God soften the man through and through.

II. Describe the springing thereof. It is gradual. Remember the Lord’s words, “First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear.” Some of our friends are greatly disturbed because they cannot see the full corn in the ear in themselves. They must learn to wait. What, then, is the springing up of piety in the heart? We think it is first seen in sincerely earnest desires after salvation. The man is not saved, in his own apprehension, but he longs to be. That which was once a matter of indifference is now a subject of intense concern. “The springing thereof “ shows itself next in prayer. It is prayer now. Once it was the mocking of God with holy sounds unattended by the heart; but now, he really prays. There will also be manifest a hearty love for the means of grace, and the house of God. The Bible, long unread, which was thought to be of little more use than an old almanack, is now treated with great consideration. And then there comes faith in Jesus Christ; it may be small, but it is real.

III. There is one who sees this springing. Thou, Lord--Thou blessest the springing thereof. I wish that some of us had quicker eyes to see the beginning of grace in the souls of men; for want of this we let slip many opportunities of helping the weaklings.

IV. What a misery it would be, if it were possible, to have this springing without God’s blessing! “Thou blessest the springing thereof.” Think of how the springing would have been without the blessing. Suppose we were to see a revival amongst us without God’s blessing. It is my conviction that there are revivals which are riot of God at all, but are produced by excitement merely. If there be no blessing from the Lord, it will be all a delusion, a bubble blown up into the air for a moment, and then gone to nothing.

V. The comforting thought that God does bless “the springing thereof.” Let me tell you what that blessedness is; you have probably now a greater horror of sin than professors who have known the Lord for years; they might wish that they felt your tenderness of conscience. You have now a graver sense of duty, and a more solemn fear of the neglect of it than some who are further advanced. You have also a greater zeal than many; you are now doing your first works for God, and burning with your first love; nothing is too hot or too heavy for you; I pray that you may never decline, but always advance. Lessons:

1. Let older saints be very gentle and kind to young believers. God blesses the springing thereof--mind that you do the same. Do not throw cold water upon them.

2. Fulfil the duty of gratitude. If God blesses the springing thereof, we ought to be grateful for a little grace.

3. If God does so much for you now at “the springing,” what will He not do in after days? Trust Him, then, always. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The season and the service

1. Spring is the season of renewal--such is the aim of the Church--to renew by God’s grace spiritually, the face of the earth. And to do this, first, by a prior change within. No outward work without that can avail.

II. Spring is the season of seed time, of preparation, of promise. But what is all our Church work but simply the casting in of seed. Now is not harvest. Are we wondering that after nearly two thousand years, the Church should be still almost at the beginning of her sacred enterprise, and that we still have to wait? Perhaps it is not wonderful if we think what the preparation means, and how it has had to be carried on.

III. Spring is a season of delays and disappointments. And so it is in our spiritual work. But be of good cheer; the harvest will, must, come. (J. G. Rogers, B. A.)

The springing of the corn

Every season of the year utters a voice, and every succeeding day proclaims knowledge; yet, if any one of the revolutions of time speaks more clearly and distinctly than another, it is that which rapidly clothes and covers barren land with verdure and abundance. Then everything is vocal.

I. An intelligent recognition of Divine interference. Let this fact, which is so readily admitted, produce the proper practical effects on your heart and conduct.

1. Diligence will then result, under the powerful conviction that it is not the earth uncultured which God blesses, but that which has been furrowed by the plough, and sown with the valuable grain; this He smiles upon, there He “causes the bud of the tender herb to spring forth.”

2. Faithful dependence.

II. A claim on your gratitude. To whom are you indebted for the refreshing verdure of your fields, for the tender herb which appeareth? That which we hope to gather, God giveth. “I beseech you, therefore, brethren,” etc. (Romans 12:1). And has God blessed those other fields which you have cultured with a solicitous and parental care? When you are permitted to see your sons growing up as plants in their youth, to witness the domestic regularity of your children; and at the same time observe some neighbouring households, like the field of the slothful, grown over with the thorns and thistles, the nettles and briars, of unholy tempers and conduct; when you notice these things, and consider the inadequacy of your talents and toils to effect these pleasing prospects, can you refrain from praising God even with a loud voice, in that He has been mindful of His promise that “He would pour out His spirit from on high, so that the wilderness should become a fruitful field”?

III. An antidote to your apprehensions. When God begins any good work, the commencement is the best pledge of its completion. As farmers watch over their rising corn, but God alone preserves it from danger, and brings it to its destined maturity,--as fathers are solicitous about the health and support of their families, but find that it is vain to rise early, or sit up late, unless God giveth them the needful supply,--as mothers tenderly nourish their offspring, and dandle their little ones on their knees,--so will the Great Author be also the Finisher of their faith. He will watch with care the rising grain, He will support the life He has imparted, He will cherish the endeared resemblance of Himself; He will, in fine, bless the springing of the precious seed, will not let one grain be lost, but gather all into His garner. Conclusion--

1. Although God is the great Agent, He works instrumentally.

2. Is it not a painful consideration, that the promised benediction of Heaven shall prove to some the heaviest calamity?

3. The springing of the corn is frequently employed as an emblem of the resurrection of the body; the subject may therefore profitably lead our thoughts to that great day of decision--delight or despair. (W. Clayton.)

Spring a Divine visitation

See how the characteristics of spring testify to the presence of God. And there is--

I. Change. This tells that God is here, visiting the earth, and that He is at work.

II. Life. All really scientific experience tells us that life can be produced from a living antecedent only. All life is from God.

III. Beauty.

IV. Promise. (W. W. Sidney.)

A May homily

Nature in all her moods and phases is always ministerial, if we will have it. One may speak, for instance, of the opening of the spring, as a kind of annual Divine Sacrament, by attending upon which with wise and meek surrender, the better man in us may be awakened and stimulated. We speak of our Sundays, our religious services, our daily tasks and difficulties as means of grace; and the vernal advent and encompassment is no less really a means of grace, to be utilized to profit, or neglected to loss and condemnation.

I. Who is there who has not felt and acknowledged the softening, expanding, genializing influence of the spring; its sweetening effect upon the mental mood and temper? It is a Divine means of grace. What you have to do is, just to seize the vernal feeling that has risen in you, and cherish and go forth with it: namely, by starting from the height of it, under the impulse of it, with new resolves and endeavours to cultivate the genial and generous temper; and by seeking to put it at once, before it fades, into some corresponding deed.

II. Does not the present season tend to excite in us, at times, strange, vague, mysterious yearnings--yearnings amounting often to pain?.. . I recall vividly a sketch I once saw--a slight but very striking sketch--a lone evening shore, with the sun slowly sinking into the sea, and a woman sitting gazing at it from the beach, her hands clasped round her knees, a far-off, weary, wistful look in her eyes, her face as the face of one who listens for something that is unheard, and longs for more than is seen. It was as though the dying sun were drawing her to himself; as though presently she must arise and seek him through the waves, aching to find with him--she knew not what--but the larger, the brighter, the happier that seemed to be calling her. Now, that is an illustration of what I mean; when nature lays her hand upon us, and sees us dreamily yearning, as she is especially apt to do in her annual springing. Turn the feeling before it dies into a prayer--a prayer to be filled and satisfied from the Lord; a prayer to be made willing to seek and do in harmony with His will. .. It is an accepted time, a day of salvation; do not lose it.

III. Has not the loveliness of spring, and the beautiful order which it expresses and reveals, brought home to us now and again, by the force of contrast, the ugliness and disorders that abound in man’s world, and constrained us to ponder and bewail them afresh?.. . Whenever the spring leads you to lament thus, what is it but a fresh Divine call to you to philanthropic labour and effort; a fresh Divine impression upon you of humanity’s sore needs and woes; that you may be awakened to increased sympathy with them, and urged to attempt more towards their relief? Seek, then, to waken and urge yourselves with it. Go, with the tears for the miseries and evils of man’s world which the musical groves and the fine order of nature may have started in your eyes, to weep helpfully with them that weep, and to strive with renewed endeavour against the works of the devil. So shall the springing which the Lord blesses be blessed indeed. (S. A. Tipple.)