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Central to this psalm is going into God’s paths anticipating the gratefulness involved and that there may be an overflow or excess of blessings of a longstanding nature on particular paths walked through with God.. Verse one and two in the King James version says, “ Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Sion: and unto thee shall the vow be performed." (God here is waiting on the praise and gratefullness.) O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee all flesh shall come;’ Verse 4 says," Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach thee, that he may dwell in thy courts, we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple." From verse one, we can see that God’s call or invite to a particular path or paths, is done partly with the anticipation of the praise and gratefulness to be given while going forward, anticipation that is there on the part of both parties, both the person in the path of God’s blessing and God as the one who is blessing and is also anticipating praise and thanksgiving coming his way as the road made clear by him is walked into and traversed further by the individual beneficiary of his blessings and grace. In this prayer, there is kind of a pre discussion involved, properly at times called a vow, where there anticipation of performing the vow involves the anticipation of gratefulness because God knows how much you in particular are going to be grateful for this happening and you know this already even though you don’t exactly know how it will play out, you know you are going to be extremely grateful for this path and God knows up front as well that you will be grateful for the chance to walk this road and the discussion can get into a prayer of praise and thanksgiving right at the outset of the vow. That you are receiving a sign of God's call to gratefullness, in and of itself is awesome in that is shows God's care going into this individual situation, real time situation and directed towards you as an individual person in an particular time and place in history and this is certainly evidence of the sun like overwhelming presence of God. The sun of God's presence is shining brightly right on you with overwhelming brightness. If for example, I do win the lottery, I can be extremely happy with anticipation that I am going to have all that money to spend. I haven’t put the specifics on it yet, but I know there are going to be lots of ways I can enjoy this money and maybe do some things that involve money that I couldn’t have done otherwise without it. The gratefulness for the winning ticket is up front, although the path taken to spend the money is uncertain at the outset. The anticipated walk involves a pre discussion all the way to an outright vow to the Lord that I would choose to go this way. This is the path that falls on the side of gratefulness on your part. The path has a visibility at least in terms of gratefulness. You’re going to be extremely grateful if you get to go this way, and God’s sees that and wants that from you. This psalm goes on to talk about the abundant provisions on these paths, with extensions of abundance involving time and a kind of overflowing abundance that would spill over to the sides of the paths. In verse 4 it says, “ and causest to approach to thee." Here is some sort of intervention where there is a degree of forcing someone to turn. It might be troubles, as in the case of Joseph, who had numerous troubles on his way to and in Egypt. It does say in James, if any one is in trouble, He should pray. This being from chapter 5 verse 13 in the book. When someone is in that much trouble, it is hard to see the other side, holding in contemplation that which you might be grateful for. For example, when Joseph’s was thrown in the well by his brothers, I’m sure he wasn’t envisioning being the overseer in all of Egypt. His prayer might have been simply, I want to get out of the well and work from there. We see later in the story, that he was satisfied with the goodness of the house. That God gave him so many things and turned things around for him in so many ways that it was probably unimaginable for him in prior moments. Although he did have imagination by shown by his ability to interpret dreams. The focus might be the trouble you are trying to get relief from and it would be hard to imagine even in prayer how this could be turned around into something that would be an overflowing blessing. And you do wonder, how much of everything that happened have to do with God wanting Joseph's personal gratefullness to him and just how much of the events revolved around that? The rest of the psalm talks about what the other side of trouble and the other side of gratefulness does and may contain due to the awesomeness of God. Verse 7 thru 13 says, [ 7] Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people. [ 8] They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens: thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice. [ 9] Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it. [ 10] Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: thou settlest the furrows thereof: thou makest it soft with showers: thou blessest the springing thereof. [ 11] Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness. [ 12] They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness: and the little hills rejoice on every side. [ 13] The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing. In verse 11 it talks about the whole year going well, straight thru and the paths dripping fat, indicating real excess for a long period of time. Blessings are overflowing, abundant and on every side, even into the little hills or the little nook and crannies of your life and of the path you are on that is indeed being abundantly blessed. This is a rich, detailed, fiil in the details or little hills, ongoing blessing. In the miracle of the loafs in the Gospels, witnesses of that happening in one gathering of thousands of astonished souls experienced what was a day where there was plenty left over from a situation that was marked intitially by scarcity. Here, the blessing might be to that extent, but not only for a day, but weeks, months, a year, even years on end. Like it says in verse 3," Iniquities prevail against me, as for our transgressions, thou shall purge them away." This favor is so encompassing, that anything you were guilty of is also purged away. All on the other side of a vow, a vow that might have been made in the midst of trouble. What this psalm in teaching us, in that as much trouble as you might be in, and might need a vow to the Lord, to get out of it, there is also anticipation not just of getting out of trouble, but of a great path with abundant and awesome provisions, for which we can hold in contemplation gratefulness right now. From verse 9 and 10, we see that the Lord, visits, enriches greatly, prepares, waters, settles, and makes the way soft, and blesses within the provisions on this path. Then he crowns or tops it off with something extra. And this is for a year. You might think that you are only getting a respite, and the trouble will turn around and meet you again on another corner. But this psalm is talking about the provisions that are long lasting, extensive not only in effect but in time. A turnaround that has abundance all along and all the way through as far as you can see both in distance and in time that can be anticipated with a trustful outlook and also have the quality where you are seeing and are believing. What this psalm is ultimately talking about is quite overwhelming, God's presence being so overwhelming, like the sun coming much closer to you and shining much brighter on you, and how this overwhelming presence contains abundance that extends deeply into the future, but first and foremost is a matter of presence.
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