God Who Prepares Rain

​(Ps 147:1) Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him!
(Ps 147:2) The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the exiles of Israel.
(Ps 147:3) He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
(Ps 147:4) He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.
(Ps 147:5) Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.
(Ps 147:6) The Lord sustains the humble but casts the wicked to the ground.
(Ps 147:7) Sing to the Lord with grateful praise; make music to our God on the harp.
(Ps 147:8) He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills.
 
Introduction
Today is the last Sunday and also the last day of 2023. And I welcome and bless everyone who came today.
 
I want to begin today’s sermon with Psalm 147. It talks about how great, powerful, and wise our God is in everything He does and how we should respond to Him with thanksgiving, praise, and proper worship.
 
The author of the Psalm says it’s good, pleasant, and fitting to praise God. The reason that it’s good to praise the Lord is because He alone is good. And it’s pleasant to worship Him because that’s what we’re created for.
 
The Bible clearly reveals that worshiping God is the purpose for which He created human beings. As Is 43:21 says, “the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise” (Is 43:21).
 
All of creation, including all human beings, was made to reveal God’s glory and worship Him. So, praising God itself is good and pleasant, and we should continue to be devoted praising Him as His people.
 
However, here’s the thing that must underlie our worship. For us to give God good, pleasant, and fitting worship, we’ must know who He is. In fact, it’s very important for us to have the right knowledge of God because that’s what truly makes us His people and enables us to worship Him and glorify Him.
 
Those who don’t know God can’t worship Him appropriately. That’s why the prophet Hosea said in Hosea 6:3, “Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him” (Hs 6:3).
 
It doesn’t mean that the people of Israel never worshiped God. They did worship Him. They gathered in the temple on a regular basis, giving Him tithes, offerings, and other sacrifices. But God wasn’t pleased with their worship. Rather, God told them, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hs 6:6).
 
Even though the people of Israel gathered to praise the Lord and pray, their worship wasn’t good, pleasant, or fitting to God. He even said,
 
“The multitude of your sacrifices - what are they to me?”… I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats… Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations - I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them” (Is 1:11-14)
 
Why did God hate their offerings like that? That’s because their lives were not in accordance with God’s will. They outwardly worshiped God but they didn’t truly love Him. Even though they praised Him with their lips, their hearts were not desperate to know Him and experience His presence more.
 
Their worship was like the way the Israelites had worshiped right after they got out of Egypt. When they felt like it took too long for Moses to come down from Mount Sinai, they had Aaron, Moses’ brother, make a golden calf and started to worship it. The real problem was they called it the God who had delivered them from Egypt.
 
God definitely wasn’t pleased with that kind of worship. It was actually much worse than idolatry. They called it God and worshiped it the way that pleased them, not God, but God would never accept such false worship.
 
Therefore, in order for us to truly worship God the way He’s pleased with, it’s necessary for us to know Him. How can we love or praise someone whom we don’t even know well?
 
So, after saying how good, pleasant, and fitting it is for God’s people to praise Him, the author starts to proclaim who God is. There are a few things we come to know about God from this psalm.
 
God is the One who builds up what has fallen and brings together the scattered. God comforts the brokenhearted and He counts all the stars and calls them all by their names. Likewise, He knows each of us better than we know ourselves and He has special plans for us which are higher than our ways.
 
As David professed, “How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand…” (Ps 139:17-18)
 
All of these verses allow us to know who God is which makes us more eager and passionate to love Him and worship Him. The more we know God and acknowledge Him, the more we come to praise Him for who He is and what He has done and will do for all of us.
 
God Who Prepares Rain
But the God that I want us to focus on today is the God who prepares His rain for us. Psalm 147:8 says, “He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain” (Ps 147:8).
 
Here, the expression "He supplies the earth with rain" may not be that special to us, but to the people of Israel it meant a lot.
 
Rain was directly related to their survival. It doesn’t rain much in Israel and it’s also difficult to get groundwater because its soil consists of limestone and sandstone.
 
That's why we frequently encounter scenes in which Abraham and other patriarchs dig wells and argue with other tribes over them in Genesis.
 
So, in Israel, there are unique concepts about rain, which are called ‘early rain’ and ‘late rain’. Israel has dry and rainy seasons. The rainy season usually starts in October and lasts until April of the following year.
 
Here, the early rain refers to the first rain in October or November. With this early rain, the rainy season begins. Because it rains in autumn, it’s also called the autumn rain.
 
That’s the rain that farmers look forward to when they start farming. The land has been dried up during the dry season. So, they can’t start farming without this early rain. That's why farmers eagerly wait for the early rain after they’ve finished preparing everything to farm.
 
And the late rain refers to the last rain during harvest time in March or April when the rainy season ends. It’s also called the spring rain. This last rain also plays a significant role in bearing fruits of crops during the harvest season. Even though there was early rain, the crops could not produce well unless the late rain fell in time during the harvest. So, in the Bible, it’s considered a curse not to have the late rain.
 
The apostle James used these two concepts in his letter. James 5:7-8 says,
 
“Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.” (Jms 5:7-8)
 
So, in the Bible, the early and late rains serve as the symbols that represent God’s grace that sustains our lives. God knows all our needs. He prepares for what we need before we even ask Him and satisfies our needs with His timely rains of grace.
 
God said in the book of Deuteronomy,
“And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain…” (Dt 11:13-14)
 
When we look back on our lives, we find traces of God’s grace working in our lives. We came to exist in this world by God’s grace. And God will be with us until we breathe our last breath. And all the way to the very end of our life, our Savior guides us, feeding us and giving us what we need.
 
This principle can be applied to every aspect of our lives. It can be specifically applied to our journeys of faith as well. We might think that our faith started when we made the decision to go to church or to believe in Jesus. But when we think about it more deeply, we can’t help but acknowledge that it was also God who allowed us to start our journeys of faith.
 
God’s grace had already worked even before we were born in this world. He knew us even before we were made in our mother’s womb, and He saw us and called us. God allowed us to have chances to hear the good news of Jesus Christ through our surroundings so that we could know Him and believe in Him. So, God’s grace had worked in our lives even before we made the first decision to believe in Him.
 
So, our journeys of faith don’t begin by our decisions. They begin by God’s gracious early rain that He prepares for and gives us in time.
 
We can bear fruits of faith not because we’re strong enough to do so but because God has poured out His Spirit on us. And the God who made us start our faith and helps us in our times of need will always be with us and guide us with His goodness and faithfulness to the end.
 
Paul beautifully professed this truth in this way.
“And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Php 1:6)
 
In another letter, Paul also said, “By the grace of God I am what I am… I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” (1Co 15:10)
 
This is the God whom we believe in. God knows all our needs, prepares for them, and fills us with His gracious rain when we need it.
 
And this God, who began a good work in us, namely our salvation, with His early rain, will never let go of us but will constantly hold us tightly in His hand of grace until we reach the completion of our salvation on the day of Jesus’ return.
 
We may stumble from time to time and drift away from God out of our weaknesses and sinful nature, but God will never give up on us, but will keep hold of us so that we won’t completely fall. As David professed in Psalm 37:23-24,
 
“The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.” (Ps 37:23-24)
 
That’s the grace of God I want us to find today. In the Bible we see how God worked in many people’s lives. God called them and worked through them to accomplish His purpose.
 
But it seems that God didn’t call perfect, holy, and prepared people. Rather, most of them were weak, deficient, and unprepared. They didn’t have any special ability or power. But still, God called them, guided them with His grace, and did great things through them.
 
We can find many examples of these people—Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Jeremiah, and more. The apostle Paul also was a persecutor of Jesus before he saw His great light on the way to Damascus.
 
But, even though they themselves were not special, God was special. Even when they turned away from God’s calling and His covenant, God faithfully kept His covenant with them and made them ready for His great work of salvation. They all became great figures in Christianity but it was not because they themselves were excellent, but because God who called them and led them is great and He never gives up on His people but guides them with His grace and love.
 
And what we must know and profess now is the truth that the God who faithfully led our ancestors of faith in the Bible is alive and that He also calls us and guides us the same way with His grace, love, and covenant.
 
God doesn’t do this because we are special. Even though we’re weak and sinful, God still loves us and He wants to reveal His glory, goodness, and beauty through our lives. That’s the knowledge of God that we should experience and profess.
 
So, when we do something for God, we should not rely on anything but God’s grace and His strength. We may feel like we’re not ready to serve Him. Of course, it’s important for us to try to make ourselves ready for His good work, but we should also humbly acknowledge that we can’t carry it out with our own preparation, ability, or power.
 
No matter how hard we prepare and strive, if we’re not with God, His work will never happen through us. But, even though we feel like we’re not ready yet and our preparation is imperfect, if God is with us and we boldly follow His will, relying on Him and trusting in His promises, we’ll see His great works being carried out through our lives in ways we could never imagine.
 
So, what we need to trust is that when God allows us to do something, He also prepares everything we need to carry out His mission. God knows everything about us—even our weaknesses and deficiencies—and fills us with His grace accordingly. Because He is our God, we can keep walking the journey of faith despite our weaknesses.
 
Today is the last day of 2023 and a new year will begin tomorrow. How will you wrap up this year and prepare for next year? We should wait for God’s early and late rains for us.
 
Many things have happened this past year. There might have been a lot of joyful moments and things to be thankful for but there also have been many sad moments and regretful things. This year may have left a lot to be desired as well.
 
But the truth that never changes and that we can find from the past year is that God has always been with us and guided us with His grace. And, He will also lead you faithfully in the year to come with His strength and love.
 
So, as we’re wrapping up this year and greeting the new year, I want all of us to experience God’s late rain of grace that helps us sum up the past year along with His early rain that makes us more eager and passionate in everything we do for Him so that all your lives are filled with His traces of grace.
 
Let’s pray.
 
[Closing prayer]
Heavenly Father, thank You for teaching us who You are, giving us Your voice through Your word, and allowing us to understand it.
 
Lord, as we’re looking back on our past year, we profess that there has not been a single moment when Your grace hasn’t sustained us. Because You upheld up with Your gracious hand even when we stumbled in our weaknesses and sins, we were able not to fall completely.
 
Now Lord, we’re waiting for Your late rain as we’re wrapping up this year. Let all the unresolved relationships, problems, and sins be settled by Your grace so that we can wrap up this year full of joy, gratitude, praise, and worship that’s good, pleasant, and fitting to You.
 
And as we welcome the New Year, we also ask You to fill us with Your early rain of grace. We profess that You are God who can turn wilderness into pools of water. You send Your rain on dried grounds.
 
So we give our lives to You, surrendering all to You. Let us be filled with Your grace that’s renewed every day so that we can be restored and transformed to be more like Jesus Christ in the year to come.
 
We want our worship to be good and pleasant in Your sight. Please guide us and use us so that Your goodness, beauty, and glory can be revealed through our lives.
 
We pray all this in the precious name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
 
[Reflection Questions]
1. Have you ever experienced God’s early or late rains in your life? How did God work in your life and what happened as a result? Please share your experiences if you have any.
 
2. In what areas of your life do you think you need God’s rain of grace now as you’re wrapping up the past year and greeting the New Year?