Why Mow?

Psalms 72:6 (KJV) He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.

(Proverbs 29 also read)

It always surprises me the things that catch my eye and get my brain to going as I read.  Today as I was reading this and I saw the reference to mowing grass and of course my mind went to getting my mower blades sharpened and wondering if it would start up after the cold winter.  Somehow I don’t see that fitting in with Psalm 72.

My first thought was that Solomon, the author of this Psalm, was having people manicure his lawn.  I guess it’s possible.  It just didn’t seem like the way things would be.  Mowing a lawn with a scythe or a sickle would take forever, but I guess he had servants to do that.  But then my mind started thinking about the culture of the day.

Why would the ancient Israelites mow the grass?  Probably for the same reason that the farmers of the Midwest would mow their fields.  They were harvesting the grass for the winter seasons to feed their animals.  Usually grass doesn’t grow well when it’s cold out.  And if you’ve ever driven past a field full of bales of hay, or those big rolls of hay, you see the results of farmers mowing their fields.

So?  You can do things for ornamentation or you can do things for augmentation.  As we do the things that God wants you to do such as reading the Bible, praying, meditating, serving others, we can do them for ritual reasons, or we can do them to enrich our lives, and the lives of others. Motivation and attitude are really important.