Skip to main content

Psalms of Praise and Promise

You care for the land and water it;
    you enrich it abundantly.
The streams of God are filled with water
    to provide the people with grain,
    for so you have ordained it.[d]
You drench its furrows and level its ridges;
    you soften it with showers and bless its crops.
You crown the year with your bounty,
    and your carts overflow with abundance.
The grasslands of the wilderness overflow;
    the hills are clothed with gladness.
The meadows are covered with flocks
    and the valleys are mantled with grain;
    they shout for joy and sing.
                                      Psalm 65: 9-13

          This is Psalm 65; written by David to give glory to God for his power and goodness. These last few verses of the psalm proclaim God’s sovereignty over nature and man’s work within it. As a farming household, we understand the praises being given better than most. In bumper crop years, it is all we can do to give thanks for the blessings we have received.
          

         Unfortunately, not every year consists of high yields and favorable weather patterns. These past few weeks it has completely stopped raining. As a matter of fact, it has not rained since our second blog post about the heat. We have had forecast predictions that promised heavy rainfall and only gave a meager sprinkle. We have cracks forming in the ground that you can fit your foot into. The corn crop is starting to take on a sickly color and posture. Words cannot express how direly we need water.


          It is in times like these that the praises of Psalm 65 seem to run dry (pun intended). It is difficult to swallow the pain of helplessly watching a crop wither away. But Psalm 65 is not only a psalm of praise – it is a psalm of promise. It displays God’s hand over all nature, including the rain, and proclaims that all is in His control. At the Van Gilst household, that knowledge is the only thing that adds stability to the instability of farming.





          So yes, it hasn’t rained and it might not rain for quite some time (there is some predicted for tomorrow), but we rest assured knowing that all will turn out for our benefit and His glory. These few dry weeks are not the worst thing we have faced in agriculture, but we always aim to respond in the same way to trials. Give glory to the One who allows us the ability to farm His land and provide nourishment for His people – always trusting that everything is part of His divine plan and He will not forsake us. 

- VG Farms 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Employee Feature: Jon Phelps

          “This will take only 10 minutes, I promise”, I reassure the head of farrowing as he takes a rare break from his work. A familiar, bashful smile appears while we make our way to the office space of the building. “You’re the first employee we’re doing a feature on, so you should definitely feel special about this one.” He laughs and we begin.           This is Jon Phelps, the recently promoted head of farrowing here at VG Farms. For the past six years he has spent his time helping nearly a quarter of a million piglets into the world. It all started when he decided he wanted to return to hog farming since leaving an operation in Alexandria, South Dakota. “I saw the opening online and had previous experience in farrowing that I really enjoyed”, he explains, “I filled out the application and here I am.” Jon has come along quite a ways since first beginning with the VG Farms family; from doing chores at on...

Priorities

Much like fall, spring is a very busy time on a livestock/crop farm. Sometimes the most difficult thing to do is to decide what to do first. When the weather warms and the fields dry it is time to put the crop in the ground. Time is of the essence when it comes to planting. There are weeks were you may only get a few hours in the fields due to weather. An dry, early spring is no indication of a dry later spring. Despite the pressures of planting, the crops are not the first priority of the day.                                                                                                                    The pigs always get top billing. Chores, weaning, breeding, load for market, all get don...

Harvest Time

Harvest Time           Well harvest finally began this past week. It is always a much anticipated time of the year. This first picture is a combine that was purchased in about 1964.        It was a huge leap in technology. No longer did you pick the corn in the ear and then shell it later. This machine combined the two operations into one which is the reason it is called a combine.           Todays machines are leaps ahead of the originals.          Today we have air conditioned cabs with air ride seats. The ability to change settings on the go and yield monitors with GPS that tell you moisture and yield from a specific spot in the field.           The way we move the grain from the field to the farm has also change over time. The wooden wagon in the first picture held 100 bushels of corn. In 1974 my da...