"He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle."--PSALM 104:14.
AT the appointed season all the world is busy with ingathering the grass
crop, and you can scarcely ride a mile in the country without scenting
the delicious fragrance of the new-mown hay, and hearing the sharpening
of the mower's scythe. There is a gospel in the hay-field, and that
gospel we intend to bring out as we may be enabled by the Holy Spirit.
Our text conducts us at once to the spot, and we shall therefore need no
preface. "He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle"--three things we
shall notice; first, that _grass is in itself instructive_; secondly,
that _grass is far more so when God is seen in it_; and thirdly, that
_by the growth of grass for the cattle, the ways of grace may be
illustrated_.
I. First, then, "He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle." Here we
have SOMETHING WHICH IS IN ITSELF INSTRUCTIVE. Scarcely any emblem, with
the exception of water and light, is more frequently used by inspiration
than the grass of the field.
In the first place, the grass may be instructively looked upon as _the
symbol of our mortality_. "All flesh is grass." The whole history of man
may be seen in the meadow. He springs up green and tender, subject to
the frosts of infancy, which imperil his young life; he grows, he comes
to maturity, he puts on beauty even as the grass is adorned with
flowers; but after a while his strength departs and his beauty is
wrinkled, even as the grass withers and is followed by a fresh
generation, which withers in its turn. Like ourselves, the grass ripens
but to decay. The sons of men come to maturity in due time, and then
decline and wither as the green herb. Some of the grass is not left to
come to ripeness at all, but the mower's scythe removes it, even as
swift-footed death overtakes the careless children of Adam. "In the
morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down,
and withereth. For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are
we troubled." "As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the
field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone;
and the place thereof shall know it no more." This is very humbling; and
we need frequently to be reminded of it, or we dream of immortality
beneath the stars. We ought never to tread upon the grass without
remembering that whereas the green sod covers our graves, it also
reminds us of them, and preaches by every blade a sermon to us
concerning our mortality, of which the text is, "All flesh is grass, and
all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field."
In the second place, grass is frequently used in Scripture as _an emblem
of the wicked_. David tells us from his own experience that the
righteous man is apt to grow envious of the wicked when he sees the
prosperity of the ungodly. We have seen them spreading themselves like
green bay trees, and apparently fixed and rooted in their places; and
when we have smarted under our own troubles, and felt that all the day
long we were scourged, and chastened every morning, we have been apt to
say, "How can this be consistent with the righteous government of God?"
We are reminded by the Psalmist that in a short time we shall pass by
the place of the wicked, and lo, he shall not be; we shall diligently
consider his place, and lo, it shall not be; for he is soon cut down as
the grass, and withereth as the green herb. The grass withereth, the
flower thereof fadeth away, and even so shall pass away forever the
glory of those who build upon the estate of time, and dig for lasting
comfort in the mines of the earth. As the Eastern husbandman gathers up
the green herb, and, despite its former beauty, casts it into the
furnace, such must be your lot, O vainglorious sinners! Thus will the
judge command his angels, "Bind them in bundles to burn." Where now your
merriment? Where now your confidence? Where now your pride and your
pomp? Where now your boastings and your loud-mouthed blasphemies? They
are silent for ever; for, as thorns crackle under a pot, but are
speedily consumed, and leave nothing except a handful of ashes, so shall
it be with the wicked as to this life; the fire of God's wrath shall
devour them.
It is more pleasing to recollect that the grass is used in Scripture as
_a picture of the elect of God_. The wicked are comparable to the
dragons of the wilderness, but God's own people shall spring up in their
place, for it is written, "In the habitation of dragons, where each lay,
shall be grass with reeds and rushes." The elect are compared to grass,
because of their number as they shall be in the latter days, and because
of the rapidity of their growth. You remember the passage, "There shall
be a handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains: the
fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall
flourish like grass of the earth." O that the long expected day might
soon come, when God's people shall no longer be like a lone tuft of
grass, but when they shall spring up as among the grass, as "willows by
the water-courses." Grass and willows are two of the fastest growing
things we know of; so shall a nation be born in a day, so shall crowds
be converted at once; for when the Spirit of God shall be mightily at
work in the midst of the church, men shall fly unto Christ as doves fly
to their dovecots, so that the astonished church shall exclaim, "These,
where had they been?" O that we might live to see the age of gold, the
time which prophets have foretold, when the company of God's people
shall be innumerable as the blades of grass in the meadows, and grace
and truth shall flourish.
How like the grass are God's people for this reason, that they are
absolutely dependent upon the influences of heaven! Our fields are
parched if vernal showers and gentle dews are withheld, and what are our
souls without the gracious visitations of the Spirit? Sometimes through
severe trials our wounded hearts are like the mown grass, and then we
have the promise, "He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass; as
showers that water the earth." Our sharp troubles have taken away our
beauty, and lo, the Lord visits us, and we revive again. Thank God for
that old saying, which is a gracious doctrine as well as a true proverb,
"Each blade of grass has its own drop of dew." God is pleased to give
his own peculiar mercies to each one of his own servants. "Thy blessing
is upon thy people."
Once again, grass is comparable to _the food where-with the Lord
supplies the necessities of his chosen ones_. Take the twenty-third
Psalm, and you have the metaphor worked out in the sweetest form of
pastoral song: "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth
me beside the still waters." Just as the sheep has nourishment according
to its nature, and this nourishment is abundantly found for it by its
shepherd, so that it not only feeds, but then lies down in the midst of
the fodder, satiated with plenty, and perfectly content and at ease;
even so are the people of God when Jesus Christ leads them into the
pastures of the covenant, and opens up to them the precious truths upon
which their souls shall be fed. Beloved, have we not proved that promise
true, "In this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a
feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of
marrow, of wines on the lees well refined"? My soul has sometimes fed
upon Christ till I have felt as if I could receive no more, and then I
have laid me down in the bounty of my God to take my rest, satisfied
with favor, and full of the goodness of the Lord.
Thus, you see, the grass itself is not without instruction for those who
will incline their ear.
II. In the second place, GOD IS SEEN IN THE GROWING OF THE GRASS. He is
seen first as a worker, "He _causeth_ the grass to grow." He is seen
secondly as a caretaker, "He causeth the grass to grow _for the
cattle_."
1. First, as a _worker_, God is to be seen in every blade of grass, if
we have but eyes to discern him. A blind world this, which always talks
about "natural laws," and "the effects of natural causes," but forgets
that laws cannot operate of themselves, and that natural causes, so
called, are not causes at all unless the First Cause shall set them in
motion. The old Romans used to say, _God_ thundered; _God_ rained. We
say _it_ thunders; _it_ rains. What "it"? All these expressions are
subterfuges to escape from the thought of God. We commonly say, "How
wonderful are the works of _nature_!" What is "nature"? Do you know what
_nature_ is? I remember a lecturer in the street, an infidel, speaking
about nature, and he was asked by a Christian man standing by whether he
would tell him what nature was. He never gave a reply. The production of
grass is not the result of natural law apart from the actual work of
God; mere law would be inoperative unless the great Master himself sent
a thrill of power through the matter which is regulated by the
law--unless, like the steam engine, which puts force into all the
spinning-jennies and wheels of a cotton mill, God himself were the
motive power to make every wheel revolve. I find rest on the grass as on
a royal couch, now that I know that my God is there at work for his
creatures.
Having asked you to see God as a worker, I want you to make use of
this--therefore I bid you to see God in _common things_. He makes the
grass to grow--grass is a common thing. You see it everywhere, yet God
is in it. Dissect it and pull it to pieces; the attributes of God are
illustrated in every single flower of the field, and in every green
leaf. In like manner see God in your common matters, your daily
afflictions, your common joys, your everyday mercies. Do not say, "I
must see a miracle before I see God." In truth everything teems with
marvel. See God in the bread of your table and the water of your cup.
It will be the happiest way of living if you can say in each
providential circumstance, "My Father has done all this." See God also
in _little things_. The little things of life are the greatest troubles.
A man will hear that his house is burned down more quietly than he will
see an ill-cooked joint of meat upon his table, when he reckoned upon
its being done to a turn. It is the _little_ stone in the shoe which
makes the pilgrim limp. To see God in little things, to believe that
there is as much the presence of God in a limb falling from the elm as
in the avalanche which crushes a village; to believe that the guidance
of every drop of spray, when the wave breaks on the rock, is as much
under the hand of God, as the steerage of the mightiest planet in its
course; to see God in the little as well as in the great--all this is
true wisdom.
Think, too, of God working among _solitary things_; for grass does not
merely grow where men take care of it, but up there on the side of the
lone Alp, where no traveller has ever passed. Where only the eye of the
wild bird has beheld their lonely verdure, moss and grass display their
beauty; for God's works are fair to other eyes than those of mortals.
And you, solitary child of God, dwelling, unknown and obscure, in a
remote hamlet; you are not forgotten by the love of heaven. He maketh
the grass to grow all alone, and shall he not make you flourish despite
your loneliness? He can bring forth your graces and educate you for the
skies in solitude and neglect. The grass, you know, is a thing we tread
upon, nobody thinks of its being crushed by the foot, and yet God makes
it grow. Perhaps you are oppressed and down-trodden, but let not this
depress your spirit, for God executeth righteousness for all those that
are oppressed; he maketh the grass to grow, and he can make your heart
to flourish under all the oppressions and afflictions of life, so that
you shall still be happy and holy though all the world marches over you;
still living in the immortal life which God himself bestows upon you,
though hell itself set its heel upon you. Poor and needy one, unknown,
unobserved, oppressed and down-trodden, God makes the grass to grow, and
he will take care of you.
2. But I said we should see in the text God also as a great _caretaker_.
"He causeth the grass to grow _for the cattle_." "Doth God take care for
oxen? Or saith he it altogether for our sakes?" "Thou shalt not muzzle
the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn," shows that God has a
care for the beasts of the field; but it shows much more than that,
namely that he would have those who work for him feed as they work. God
cares for the beasts, and makes grass to grow for them. Then, my soul,
though sometimes thou hast said with David, "So foolish was I, and
ignorant: I was as a beast before thee," yet God cares for thee. "He
giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry"--there
you have an instance of his care for birds, and here we have his care
for beasts; and though you, my hearer, may seem to yourself to be as
black and defiled as a raven, and as far from anything spiritually good
as the beasts, yet take comfort from this text; he gives grass to the
cattle, and he will give grace to you, though you think yourself to be
as a beast before him.
Observe, he cares for these beasts who are _helpless_ as to caring for
themselves. The cattle could not plant the grass, nor cause it to grow.
Though they can do nothing in the matter, yet he does it all for them;
_he_ causeth the grass to grow. You who are as helpless as cattle to
help yourselves, who can only stand and moan out your misery, but know
not what to do, God can prevent you in his loving-kindness, and favor
you in his tenderness. Let the bleatings of your prayer go up to heaven,
let the meanings of your desires go up to him, and help shall come to
you though you cannot help yourselves. Beasts are _dumb, speechless
things_, yet God makes the grass grow for them. Will he hear those that
cannot speak, and will he not hear those who can? Since our God views
with kind consideration the cattle in the field, he will surely have
compassion upon his own sons and daughters when they desire to seek his
face.
There is this also to be said, God not only cares for cattle, but _the
food_ which he provides for them is fit food--he causeth _grass_ to grow
for the cattle, just the sort of food which ruminants require. Even thus
the Lord God provides fit sustenance for his people. Depend upon him by
faith and wait upon him in prayer, and you shall have food convenient
for you. You shall find in God's mercy just that which your nature
demands, suitable supplies for peculiar wants.
This "convenient" food the Lord takes care to reserve for the cattle,
for no one eats the cattle's food but the cattle. There is grass for
them, and nobody else cares for it, and thus it is kept for them; even
so God has a special food for his own people; "the secret of the Lord is
with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant." Though the
grass be free to all who choose to eat it, yet no creature careth for it
except the cattle for whom it is prepared; and though the grace of God
be free to all men, yet no man careth for it except the elect of God,
for whom he prepared it, and whom he prepares to receive it. There is as
much reserve of the grass for the cattle as if there were walls around
it; and so, though the grace of God be free, and there be no bound set
about it, yet it is as much reserved as if it were restricted.
God is seen in the grass as the worker and the caretaker; then _let us
see his hand in providence at all times_. Let us see it, not only when
we have abundance, but even when we have scant supplies; for the grass
is preparing for the cattle even in the depth of winter. And you, ye
sons of sorrow, in your trials and troubles, are still cared for by God;
he will accomplish his own divinely gracious purposes in you; only be
still and see the salvation of God. Every winter's night has a direct
connection with the joyous days of mowing and reaping, and each time of
grief is linked to future joy.
III. Our third head is most interesting. GOD'S WORKING IN THE GRASS FOR
THE CATTLE GIVES US ILLUSTRATIONS CONCERNING GRACE.
I will soliloquize, and say to myself as I read the text, "He causeth
the grass to grow for the cattle. In this I perceive a satisfying
provision for that form of creature. I am also a creature, but I am a
nobler creature than the cattle. I cannot imagine for a moment that God
will provide all that the cattle need and not provide for me. But
naturally I feel uneasy; I cannot find in this world what I want--if I
were to win all its riches I should still be discontented; and when I
have all that heart could wish of time's treasures, yet still my heart
feels as if it were empty. There must be somewhere or other something
that will satisfy me as a man with an immortal soul. God altogether
satisfies the ox; he must therefore have something or other that would
altogether satisfy me if I could get it. There is the grass, the cattle
get it, and when they have eaten their share, they lie down and seem
perfectly contented; now, all I have ever found on earth has never
satisfied me so that I could lie down and be satisfied; there must,
then, be something somewhere that would content me if I could get at
it." Is not this good reasoning? I ask both the Christian and the
unbeliever to go with me so far; but then let us proceed another step:
The cattle do get what they want--not only is the grass provided, but
they get it. Why should not I obtain what I want? I find my soul
hungering and thirsting after something more than I can see with my eyes
or hear with my ears; there must be something to satisfy my soul, why
should I not find it? The cattle pasture upon that which satisfies them;
why should not I obtain satisfaction too? Then I begin to pray, "O Lord,
satisfy my mouth with good things, and renew my youth."
While I am praying I also meditate and think--God has provided for
cattle that which is consonant to their nature; they are nothing but
flesh, and flesh is grass, there is therefore grass for their flesh. I
also am flesh, but I am something else beside; I am spirit, and to
satisfy me I need spiritual meat. Where is it? When I turn to God's
word, I find there that though the grass withereth, the word of the Lord
endureth for ever; and the word which Jesus speaks unto us is spirit and
life. "Oh! then," I say, "here is spiritual food for my spiritual
nature, I will rejoice therein." O may God help me to know what that
spiritual meat is, and enable me to lay hold upon it, for I perceive
that though God provides the grass for the cattle, _the cattle must eat
it themselves_. They are not fed if they refuse to eat. I must imitate
the cattle, and receive that which God provides for me. What do I find
provided in Scripture? I am told that the Lord Jesus came into this
world to suffer, and bleed, and die instead of me, and that if I trust
in him I shall be saved; and, being saved, the thoughts of his love will
give solace and joy to me and be my strength. What have I to do but to
feed on these truths? I do not find the cattle bringing any preparation
to the pasture except hunger, but they enter it and partake of their
portion. Even so must I by an act of faith live upon Jesus. Lord, give
me grace to feed upon Christ; make me hungry and thirsty after him; give
me the faith by which I may be a receiver of him, that so I may be
satisfied with favor, and full of the goodness of the Lord.
My text, though it looked small, grows as we meditate upon it. I want to
introduce you to a few more illustrations of divine grace. _Preventing
grace may here be seen in a symbol._ Grass grew before cattle were made.
We find in the first chapter of Genesis that God provided the grass
before he created the cattle. And what a mercy that covenant supplies
for God's people were prepared before they were born. God had given his
Son Jesus Christ to be the Saviour of his chosen before Adam fell; long
before sin came into the world the everlasting mercy of God foresaw the
ruin of sin, and provided a refuge for every elect soul. What a thought
it is for me, that, before I hunger, God has prepared the manna; before
I thirst, God has caused the rock in the wilderness to send forth
crystal streams to satisfy the thirst of my soul! See what sovereign
grace can do! Before the cattle come to the pasture the grass has grown
for them, and before I feel my need of divine mercy that mercy is
provided for me. Then I perceive an illustration of free grace, for
_when the ox comes into the field he brings no money with him_. So I, a
poor needy sinner, having nothing, come and receive Christ without money
and without price. The Lord maketh the grass to grow for the cattle, and
so doth he provide grace for my needy soul, though I have now no money,
no virtue, no excellence of my own.
And why is it, my friends, why is it that God gives the cattle the
grass? The reason is, _because they belong to him_. Here is a text to
prove it. "The silver and the gold are mine, and the cattle upon a
thousand hills." God provides grass for his own cattle, and grace is
provided for God's people. Of every herd of cattle in the world, God
could say, "They are mine." Long before the grazier puts his brand on
the bullock God has set his creating mark upon it; so, before the stamp
of Adam's fall was set upon our brow, the stamp of electing love was set
there: "In thy book all my members were written, which in continuance
were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them."
God also feeds cattle because _he has entered into a covenant with them
to do so_. "What! a covenant with the cattle!" says somebody. Ay! truly
so, for when God spake to his servant Noah, in that day when all the
cattle came out of the ark, we find him saying, "I establish my covenant
with you, and with your seed after you; and with every living creature
that is with you, of the fowl, of _the cattle_, and of every beast of
the earth with you." Thus a covenant was made with the cattle, and that
covenant was that seed-time and harvest should not fail; therefore the
earth brings forth for them, and for them the Lord causeth the grass to
grow. Does Jehovah keep his covenant with cattle, and will he not keep
his covenant with his own beloved? Ah! it is because his chosen people
are his covenanted ones in the person of the Lord Jesus, that he
provides for them all things that they shall need in time and in
eternity, and satisfies them out of the fulness of his everlasting love.
Once, again, God feeds the cattle, and then _the cattle praise him_. We
find David saying, in the hundred and forty-eighth Psalm, "Praise the
Lord ... ye beasts and all cattle." The Lord feeds his people to the end
that their glory may sing praise unto him and not be silent. While other
creatures give glory to God, let the redeemed of the Lord especially say
so, whom he has redeemed out of the hand of the enemy.
Nor even yet is our text exhausted. Turning one moment from the cattle,
I want you to notice the grass. It is said of the grass, "_He causeth_
the grass to grow": here is a doctrinal lesson, for if grass does not
grow without God's causing it to grow, how could grace arise in the
human heart apart from divine operations? Surely grace is a much more
wonderful product of divine wisdom than the grass can be! And if grass
does not grow without a divine cause, depend upon it grace does not
dwell in us without a divine implantation. If I have so much as one
blade of grace growing within me, I must trace it all to God's divine
will, and render to him all the glory.
Again, if God thinks it worth his while to make grass, and take care of
it, much more will he think it to his honor to cause his grace to grow
in our hearts. If the great invisible Spirit, whose thoughts are high
and lofty, condescends to look after that humble thing which grows by
the hedge, surely he will condescend to watch over his own nature, which
he calls "the incorruptible seed, which liveth and abideth for ever!"
Mungo Park, in the deserts of Africa, was much comforted when he took up
a little piece of moss, and saw the wisdom and power of God in that
lonely piece of verdant loveliness. So, when you see the fields ripe and
ready for the mower, your hearts should leap for joy to see how God has
produced the grass, caring for it all through the rigorous cold of
winter, and the chill months of spring, until at last he sent the genial
rain and sunshine, and brought the fields to their best condition. And
so, my soul, though thou mayest endure many a frost of sorrow and a long
winter of trial, yet the Lord will cause thee to grow in grace, and in
the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for
ever. Amen.