God's Aquarium Series

Off the coast of the Italian Riviera a large bronze statue of Christ has been installed down

in the depths of the sea as a symbol that Christ is Lord of the deep. Jesus is the only man in

history who demonstrated He was also God by controlling this great force in creation-the

sea. The disciples were amazed that He could say, "Peace be still," and the raging waves

were calmed. He controlled the fish so that when He told the disciples to cast their nets on

the other side, they were filled to over-flowing. He sent Peter to catch a fish, and in it was

found a coin by which to pay the temple tax. Jesus could even walk on the top the water

demonstrating again that He was Lord of the sea. Not Neptune, not Posidon, the Greek and

Roman gods of the sea, but the Lord Jesus Christ is Lord of all, including the sea.

God made a big deal of Lordship over the sea when He spoke to Job. In Job 38:8-11 God

makes it clear He had to set limits to this great force, and say to the sea, "This far you may

come and no further." We cannot imagine the awesome power involved in establishing the

seas of the world, but we have the testimony of one who was there as an eye witness. Wisdom

is personified in Prov. 8 and says in verse 24, "When there were no oceans, I was given

birth, when there were no springs abounding with water." Then in verse 29 she adds,

"When He gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not over step His command and

when He marked out the foundations of the earth."

What must it have been like to be there watching God hand-crafting the world as we know

it? Maybe God videoed the whole thing and one of the wonders of heaven will be to watch

this marvel of marvels. But wisdom was there, and she tells us her reaction as she labored at

God's side in creation. In verses 30-31, she says, " Then I was the craftsman at His side. I

was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in His presence, rejoicing in His whole

world and delighting in mankind."

Here is the Biblical basis for enjoying all that God has made. Wisdom was there when

God made it, and she emphasizes that her primary emotion was that of rejoicing and delight.

The Bible would support the judgment that something is spiritually wrong with the person

who cannot see in God's works that which leads to joy and the worship of God as Creator.

Not only does wisdom rejoice in all that God created, but all God created rejoices in God as

its Creator. Psalm 96:11-12 makes it all inclusive. "Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be

glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it. Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in

them, then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy." In Psalm 98:7-8 we read, "Let the sea

resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Let the rivers clap their

hands, let the mountains sing together for joy." Does the sea really sing, and does

everything in it join the song?

Obviously we are into poetic language here, and we cannot take it literally that the seas

sing or that rivers have hands to clap, or that mountains form a choir. Yet we must not

dismiss poetry as if it has no relationship to reality. Every child has held a sea shell to its ear

to hear the song of the sea. The sounds of the sea have inspired a lot of music. Anton

Rubenstein called his second symphony, "The Ocean." An English composer wrote a series,

"Sea Slumber Song" "Sabbath Morning At Sea" "Where Corals Lie" "The Swimmer."

Ralph Vaughn's "Sea Symphony" first performed in 1910. But the most famous of all is "La

Mer" by Claude Debussy, who spent three years writing it. He grew up with deep

impressions of the Mediterranean, and in his music you could hear the crash of the waves

and the gurgling of the backwash. Jacqus Cousteau wrote that it "is surely the greatest

calling forth of nature in a work for orchestra."

The fact is, the sea does sing and everything in it. We may prefer the songs of birds, but

God loves to be praised with any voice. Marie Poland Fish is appropriately named, for she is

the director of the world's largest under water bioacustic library. In other words, she is the

world's authority on the sounds of fish. The U.S. Navy requested that she keep a file of

biological sounds. Since 1954 she has accumulated hundreds of miles of audio tape of sounds