Psalm 72:6 He shall come down like rain on the mown grass: as showers that water the earth. I. CONSIDER THE INCARNATION OF THE SON OF GOD AS A DESCENT or coming down. II. THE MANNER OF THIS DESCENT. It was "sweet and peaceable, without trouble, without noise, scarcely to be perceived"; not in the strong wind, to rend us to pieces; not in the earthquake, to shake us; not in the fire, to consume us; but in "a still and small voice" (1 Kings 19:11, 12): not as thunder, to make a noise; not as hail, to rattle on the housetops; not as the blast and mildew, to wither us; but as the "rain "falling "sweetly on the grass," or "on a fleece of wool," and "as the showers which water the earth," and make it fruitful. III. Observe THE EFFECT WHICH THIS DESCENT PRODUCETH, or the fruit which springs up upon the fall of this gracious rain. 1. Righteousness springs up, and spreads herself: Justus florebit; so some render it: "The righteous shall flourish." 2. After righteousness peace shows itself, even "abundance of peace." 3. Thirdly, both these are not "herbs which spring up and wither in one day," but which will be green and flourish "so long as the moon endureth," which is everlastingly. IV. Observe — 1. The relation which is between these two, righteousness and peace. Where there is righteousness, there is peace; and where there is peace, there is righteousness. 2. The order: righteousness first, and then "abundance of peace." Take them all three, and you shall find a kind of subordination betwixt them; for no peace without righteousness, no righteousness without this rain; but if the Son of God "come down like rain," straight righteousness appears on the earth; and upon the same watering, and from the same root, shoots forth "abundance of peace," and both "so long as the moon endureth." (A. Farindon, B. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.WEB: He will come down like rain on the mown grass, as showers that water the earth. |
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