Thou crownest the year
“Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.”Psalm 65:11
Reflection
When a year is drawing to its close, or when we complete any turn of twelve months, it is natural to look back. And what we usually see first are the shortfalls: what did not work out, what we lost, what we planned and did not accomplish. Psalm 65 invites us to a different gaze: "Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness." A crown is what is placed on someone honored. The psalmist sees the year as a life that God honored, covered, adorned with His goodness.
This does not mean it was an easy year. Probably there were losses, illnesses, disappointments and weariness. But the psalmist asks us to observe the whole trail and perceive something greater: God's goodness over everything. The point is not to deny the pain, but to see also the hand that sustained. How many times were we protected without knowing it? How many provisions came at the right time? How many people did God place in our path? Only when we stop and look carefully do we realize that the goodness was there all along.
And the second part widens the image: "thy paths drop fatness". In the ancient world, God's passing left a trail of abundance, like the clouds that pour rain upon the earth and make it produce. Where the Lord passes, life sprouts. This holds also for our life: the paths by which God led us, even the arid ones, left fruit that we often recognize only afterward. God's fatness does not always arrive in the way expected, but it arrives.
Do a small gratitude review today. Take a sheet of paper and write at least one blessing from each month of the last twelve, or, if you prefer, twelve reasons for thanks. Include the small things: a meal, a conversation, a deliverance, a lesson learned. Then give thanks to God by reading the list aloud. You will notice the crown was there. And carry that awareness into what lies ahead: if God crowned the past year with His goodness, He will not fail to do so in the next.
Prayer
Lord, thank You that You crown the year with Your goodness. Open my eyes to see Your blessings, including those that went unnoticed. Forgive my ingratitude and my complaints. May Your paths drop fatness in my life, and may I walk with the certainty of Your faithfulness in the time to come. Amen.
Put it into practice
Write down one blessing from each of the last twelve months (or twelve reasons for thanks) and read the list aloud, thanking God for each one.
To reflect on
Which blessings of the past year went unnoticed by you and now deserve a thank-you?
Bible text: King James Version (public domain).