Wagon Tracks of Abundance

Psalm 65:9-13:
You visit the earth and water it;
  you greatly enrich it;
the river of God is full of water;
  you provide their grain,
  for so you have prepared it.
You water its furrows abundantly,
  settling its ridges,
softening it with showers,
  and blessing its growth.
You crown the year with your bounty;
  your wagon tracks overflow with abundance.
The pastures of the wilderness overflow,
  the hills gird themselves with joy,
the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,
  the valleys deck themselves with grain,
  they shout and sing together for joy.

This passage never fails to intrigue me. It’s a vivid description of the bountiful blessings of the Lord and how He cares and provides for the world. The single phrase that I find most astounding is right in the middle: “your wagon tracks overflow with abundance”. This puzzled me for literal years, and it’s a definite possibility that I still don’t understand it. It started making more sense when the Oregon Trail came to mind. 

The sheer number of emigrants that traveled via the Oregon Trail resulted in deep ruts dug into the earth, 2 – 6 feet deep in some places, that still linger in many places today. As thousands of feet and iron wheels wore down those paths, whatever may have grown there in the beginning was quickly driven into the ground and destroyed. That’s mostly what one would – or should – expect from a regularly-traveled path. Even the deer in our backyard have worn a path leading up and out of our woods, clearly marked by the lack of undergrowth. 

Mark the contrast, then, between what is expected – a barren pathway devoid of all growing things – and what is described – tracks overflowing with abundance. The Lord’s providence abounds with grace and mercy for each of us, and our response should be, as the hills, meadows, and valleys model for us, one of us joy and gladness and thankfulness.