Body-Loving God

¹Praise is due to you,
O God, in Zion;
and to you shall vows be performed,
²O you who answer prayer!
To you all flesh shall come.
³When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us,
you forgive our transgressions.
⁴Happy are those whom you choose and bring near
to live in your courts.
We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
your holy temple.
⁵By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance,
O God of our salvation;
you are the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas.
⁶By your strength you established the mountains;
you are girded with might.
⁷You silence the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves,
the tumult of the peoples.
⁸Those who live at earth's farthest bounds are awed by your signs;
you make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy.
⁹You visit the earth and water it,
you greatly enrich it;
the river of God is full of water;
you provide the people with grain,
for so you have prepared it.
¹⁰You water its furrows abundantly,
settling its ridges,
softening it with showers,
and blessing its growth.
¹¹You crown the year with your bounty;
your wagon tracks overflow with richness.
¹²The pastures of the wilderness overflow,
the hills gird themselves with joy,
¹³the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,
the valleys deck themselves with grain,
they shout and sing together for joy. ~Psalm 65:1-13

This is a body-loving God... a God to whom all flesh will come. This is a God who will satisfy us with the goodness of God's house. This God gives oceans and seas to remind us of the vastness of the divine. This God flexes muscles in forming mountains, makes the seas roar and silences the roaring. This God gives rivers brimming with water to nourish the earth, so that the grain with which we feed our bodies will grow.

The utter embrace by God of all that is earthy and earthly shivers in this psalm. Morning and evening shout, hill and valleys sing together for joy, meadows decorate themselves festively with sheep and goats. There is joy everywhere, joy in creation, joy in abundance, joy in plenty.

This is a God who arranged it all so that we should have all we need.

That we don't... that some don't... that countless millions don't... is a reproach upon the head of everyone who dares to claim they worship this God. On me, on my head.

Part of my praise must be to open my hands with grain. Part of my praise must be to love this bodily life as passionately as the flowers love blooming.