CHAPTER 1
Celebrating The Gift Of Life
PURPOSE
To help us celebrate the wonder of creation and the wisdom of God the Creator
BIBLE PASSAGE
Psalm 104:24-34
24 O LORD, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
25 Yonder is the sea, great and wide,
creeping things innumerable are there,
living things both small and great.
26 There go the ships,
and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.
27 These all look to you
to give them their food in due season;
28 when you give to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
they are filled with good things.
29 When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust.
30 When you send forth your spirit, they are created;
and you renew the face of the ground.
31 May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
may the LORD rejoice in his works—
32 who looks on the earth and it trembles,
who touches the mountains and they smoke.
33 I will sing to the LORD as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God
while I have being.
34May my meditation be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the LORD.
OUR NEED
Where do you feel truly a part of God's creation: serene, joyful, and delighted to be alive? Most people would like to spend more time in such places. But the demands of work and family, the restrictions of illness and physically challenging conditions, or the habit of focusing on indoor activities prevents many of us from doing so. We miss the first daffodils of spring, wrens nesting, the majesty of mountains and ocean, tomatoes from a garden, the glory of autumn leaves, the silhouette of bare branches against a winter sunset.
Circumstances of life today leave many people feeling divorced from creation, no longer at home in the universe. Often, we do not realize what we are missing until we take a vacation, go on a retreat, or just spend time in the back yard or in a park. Then we sense that for our own health and wholeness, we need to be related to the natural world.
When we think about God's creation, we may also feel anxiety, grief, frustration, and guilt. We may wonder how much longer we will be able to enjoy beauty we once took for granted and how much longer the earth will have the resources needed to sustain life as we know it. We may grieve for lost trees and open spaces, for lost farms, and for birds and animals that once were familiar neighbors. We may feel frustration at the difficulty of finding just and effective ways to care for the earth and to provide for human beings. And we may feel guilt that we have not done everything in our power to be good stewards of creation.
What feelings does contemplation of God's creation evoke in you?
FAITHFUL LIVING
Psalms are poetry. They are hymns and sometimes prayers. To understand and appreciate a psalm, begin by reading it aloud; get a feel for the meaning of the psalmist's words. Psalm 104 is a joy to read aloud. Give yourself the pleasure, at some time, of reading the entire psalm. It describes God's creation of the earth and God's wisdom and care in providing for all creatures, including human beings.
In the portion of the psalm for our study, verses 24-26 praise God for the vast number of things God has created and for the wisdom with which God has made them all. Verses 27-30 speak of the dependence of all creation on God. Verses 31-32 praise God's glory and God's power. Verses 33-34 are the psalmist's response to God in praise and in prayer for a life that will be pleasing to God.
In our study of Psalm 104, we need to note that the people of Israel had no concept of nature as we view it or of the Greek idea of cosmos. The Hebrew language of the Scriptures does not convey ideas of the earth and the universe as self-contained, ordered structures, subject to study and objective analysis by human beings. For the people of Israel, Creation was an act of God. Their experience of the world around them was a personal awareness of being present in the midst of evidence of God's actions in the past and of God's continuing activity in the present.
In considering the Psalms as a whole, the biblical scholar Gerhard von Rad spoke of the Psalms as "Israel in the presence of [God]." The Book of Psalms is a collection of songs, prayers, and Wisdom teachings that were most often sung or spoken when the people of Israel gathered for worship and celebrations. Like all Scripture, the Psalms address the whole people of God and express the people's praise, petitions, and response to God. However, some psalms clearly began as hymns that individuals addressed to God. Psalm 104 is such a psalm.
What role do the Psalms have in your life and in the worship of your congregation?
Proclaim God's Greatness
O LORD, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
(Psalm 104:24)
The psalmist lived in the midst of God's creation, observed it with care, and was filled with awe at the number and variety of the creatures God has made.
Verse 25 speaks of the sea filled with innumerable things, both small and great. The truth of that statement was brought home to me on a visit to the Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans. From the 350 known species of the shark family, we saw some sharks that were less than a foot long, others that were huge, and a model of the whale shark that grows to 40 feet in length. Size, color, body shape, and diet of the sharks vary greatly to fit the habitat of each species.
The fish that most impressed me with the wonder of creation, however, were those that looked like the work of a fine artist. Usually, they were small fish. Handsome white or silver fish were covered with intricate geometric patterns, meticulously drawn in black. Other fish looked like swimming jewels—scarlet, lapis blue, gold, orange, and lemon yellow. Sometimes an area of color or a stripe was outlined with a fine black line.
Intention and delight are the words my aquarium visit brings to mind. Attention to details that permit each species to function superbly, to adapt to its habitat, and to survive speaks to my faith in a God who creates with infinite care and purpose for the good of all. The beauty of the created world speaks to me of a God who delights in creation. Small fish could surely be created with the ability to find food, to mate, and to hide from predators without their being exquisitely beautiful as well. Indeed, "the LORD rejoice[s] in his works" (verse 31b).
The Creator who takes delight in each creature has also created them to take delight in their own living. The psalmist speaks of God's forming Leviathan to sport in the sea (verse 26). Leviathan is usually thought to be a sea monster, but I wonder if the psalmist could have been thinking of the play of whales.
In verse 32 the psalmist...
