Season Of Creation 2: Psalm 104; He Planned It And He Brings It About, He Is Faithful In His Provision To All Creation. Series

Psalm 104 He planned it and he brings it about, he is faithful in His provision to all creation.

Read Psalm 104, all of it.

I wonder if you recognise this drab little bird? PP Sky lark, often what we see does not give the whole picture, in nature what seems to be something may just be a small aspect or a glimmer of the whole picture. (SONG of the Sky Lark). As a child I would hear the bird and look for it in the sky, to high to see, until it dropped to the earth, one of God's wonders of creation.

As we continue with this the second week of looking at God’s creation in this time of looking at the season of creation, I am reading through psalm 104, one of the key points of the Psalm is that God is faithful to all he has created. The psalmist in the Psalm gives us another picture of God in his interactions with creation than we had in Psalm 65 last week. The Psalm is quite long and I will concentrate on a few parts of it and discuss some of Jesus interactions with creation and compare them to parts of this Psalm.

The first four verses focus on the Lord and the Psalmists depiction of Him, worthy of praise, great, clothed in majesty and splendor. He rides on the wings of the wind, clouds are his chariot, flames his servants. He is great, for those of you who saw the Louie Giglio video a couple of weeks ago, he pointed out that our God is not some nimby pamby little god, the Sun and all of the stars in their fiery glory were spoken into being out of his mouth. Something to think about over the summer while you are trying to avoid sunburn. A wee fact, The Sun produces the equivalent of 384.6 septillion watts (3.846×1026 W)/second. For those of you who like mathematical figures that is the equivalent of about 9.192×1010 megatons of TNT per second. The most powerful bombs made have an explosive power of around 25 megatons; There are 86400 seconds per day and this is just one of around 100 Billion of stars that make up our galaxy, which is one of billions of galaxies in the universe. As we think about those words let there be light it puts God into a different perspective, An all-powerful perspective.

But back to something that is a little more within the realms of my own personal understanding; verse six. The Psalmist refers to the passage of water and how it is placed where it is on earth, there is a reference in the verse and verse seven to both creation and Noah’s flood. At creation hearing God’s rebuke the Psalmist tells us the waters fled. If you read last week's newsletter the cover discusses Jesus’ interaction with the waves on Lake Galilee and how the wind and waves became calm at Jesus rebuke. To do this is to affect all the weather in that area of the middle east as it is all interconnected. Some commentators see this as echo of God’s interaction with creation.

The following verses from verse six to eleven, are all about God’s provision of water.

The Psalmist mentions the boundaries post the Great Flood, that’s Noah’s flood that the waters could no longer cross.

Verse 10, God makes springs pour water into the ravines, the water flows in streams and rivers between the mountains, all part of the great design.

The wild donkeys and all animals including birds are provided with water. The land is satisfied with water; the mountains are watered also.

The mountains are watered from the upper chambers, the land is satisfied. The thinking of the Psalmist is that all of creation receives its due amount of water. The soil, the creatures, the plants, all that flora and fauna get a fill of water, life encouraging and sustaining water. God provides in balance. What is it Jesus says about the spiritual water that he provides? John 4:14 “but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

God has provided and he calls on his people to provide for others. In the book of Revelation chapters 21 and 22 God declares he will give water in the new Jerusalem for example “To all who are thirsty I will give the springs of the water of life without charge.” 21:6.

The Psalmist tells us, the grass grows, the cattle are well feed, the land is cultivated, there are plants cultivated, initially all is provided by God, food for all. In this season of political mayhem, with the upcoming election, it is good to know that there is such a thing as a free lunch when God is providing. He is faithful to all of creation, he has planned it and brings it about. Our part is to sometimes pass on that free lunch, even if it is something that we have had to work for, to give it away. This is a social justice and faith issue. Or to quote The Russian philosopher, theologian and Christian Existentialist Nikolai Berdyaev “The question of bread for myself is a material question, but the question of bread for my neighbor is a spiritual question.” Fairly deep eh!