All Woven Together

I was once challenged about why we held a harvest festival in our church, when farming was remote from daily life. But its remoteness makes celebrating it more important, not less. When we’re so detached from farming the earth, it becomes easy to live in a world where food comes from a supermarket rather than the Creator.Our psalm is probably taken from a harvest festival. It reflects the concerns of the average Jewish peasant farmer: a fair return on labor, a wife to share concerns and bring delight, and vigorous children to be the boisterous life of the family. The promise seems simple: if you live right and fear the Lord, this will be yours. Yet the psalm ends with a blessing (5,6), spoken as the festival ends. We’re reminded that the outcomes (2-4) aren’t automatic but wholly depend upon the gift of God. They also depend on the state of the nation. If Jerusalem, heart of the nation’s religious and political life, isn’t prosperous, it’s unlikely that any of Israel’s people can be. We should ask for God’s blessing, seek it through reverent discipleship and seek God’s blessing upon church, community and nation.