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Prophets and Kings
“O Lord, how manifold are Thy works!
In wisdom has Thou made them all:
The earth is full of Thy riches.
So is this great and wide sea,
Wherein are things creeping innumerable,
Both small and great beasts....
These wait all upon Thee;
That Thou mayest give them their meat in due
season.
That Thou givest them they gather:
“Thou openest Thine hand,
They are filled with good.”
Psalm 104:10-15, 24-28
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Israel had had abundant occasion for rejoicing. The land to which
the Lord had brought them was a land flowing with milk and honey.
During the wilderness wandering, God had assured them that He was
guiding them to a country where they need never suffer for lack of
rain. “The land, whither thou goest in to possess it,” He had told them,
“is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou
sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs:
but the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys,
and drinketh water of the rain of heaven: a land which the Lord thy
God careth for: the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from
the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.”
The promise of abundance of rain had been given on condition of
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obedience. “It shall come to pass,” the Lord had declared, “if ye shall
hearken diligently unto My commandments which I command you
this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve Him with all your
heart and with all your soul, that I will give you the rain of your land
in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest
gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. And I will send grass
in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.
“Take heed to yourselves,” the Lord had admonished His people,
“that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other
gods, and worship them; and then the Lord’s wrath be kindled against