The Creator's Mark Is Everywhere Series

Four Psalms of Thanksgiving

Psalm 104 – God’s Mark is Everywhere

November 9, 2008

____________________________________

Reading of Psalm 104, using designated readers in the congregation (use video loop of creation scenes):

• Verses 1-4

• Verses 5-13

• Verses 14-18

• Verses 19-26

• Verses 27-30

• Verses 31-35

I personally thank God for his creativity. Through his creativity God has left his mark everywhere, on the world and everything in it and upon us and everything we are.

When I see God’s mark upon this world are feel it upon my heart, I am grateful because I know that this world is bigger than my problems and my soul can soar farther than I sometimes believe.

One morning this last week I was having a pity party and I only invited myself. I was shamefully grumbling and complaining and growing bitter; all of that at only 5:30 in the morning.

When I stepped outside to see Sandi off to work I turned around to see a beautiful red and orange and yellow sunrise. God had created a moment in which I could cool down, see his glory and realize my sinfulness and respond to it.

God’s creativity is very huge…and very personal.

One of God’s names is Creator.

Genesis 1, the very first chapter in the Bible, starts God’s story by showing us he is Creator.

And we need a Creator God.

We need him to always be creating those moments of beauty for us.

We need him to imagine for us the places we need to go to, the people we need to meet, the lessons we need to learn, and the life we are called to lead.

And so we need to remember he is that kind of God; to behold his creativity and realize the difference it makes in us.

• sparking our creativity

• lifting us out of the ordinary

• helping us believe more entirely.

Psalm 104 helps us to do that.

Commentary:

• Psalm 104 is a glorious psalm in praise of God’s marvelous Creation and of His sustaining of that Creation.

• This psalm is a poetic summary of God’s creation of the world as found in the first chapter of Genesis. What God created each day is mentioned by the psalmist as a reason to praise God. God’s act of creation deserves the praise of all people.

• This psalm portrays the Lord’s power, wisdom, and goodness to all Creation.

• The psalmist praised God who gloriously reigns over Creation and renews it by His Spirit.

• This psalm tells of his sovereignty over all creation. God has supreme, unlimited power over the entire universe. He creates; he preserves; he governs. As we understand God’s power, we realize that he is sufficient to handle our lives.

There is no doubt that God is creative. He has made the mountains and the seas and everything on them, in them and around them. He is the one who has set the cycles of life into motion and made the sun to rule by day and the moon to rule by night. He knows the name of every star and how many warts are on every frog. And he uniquely created each and every one of us.

We are told, and we believe for the most part, that we are made in the image of God, according to Genesis 1.

So it needs to be understood that we have been given by God the wonderful gift of creativity.

Jeremey Wright, Mosaic Artist: “I make this art for myself and for my community because I’m like my Father in heaven. I am a little creator, and if I don’t make something I will wither and die.” (Outreach Magazine, July/August 2008, p.91)

But too many of you are saying, “Pastor, I think I must have been hiding behind the door the day God handed out creativity.” Not true.

It’s there! It just needs to be recognized and drawn out. It needs to be practiced and enlarged.

You are creative. That’s God’s mark upon you and you should be thankful for it.

We are called to be like Jesus and Jesus was creative:

• “Consider the lilies…” find God’s mercy and grace and care in creation

• Through the parables he teaches us to imagine – “the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed”; “with faith you can tell this mountain to move and it will”; “in my Father’s house are many rooms…”

• He taught is to look at things from a different angle to find the answers we’re looking for, to “toss our nets on the other side of the boat”

• And he bestowed his creativity upon us: “and you will do greater things than this…” – we have tools to help us be creative that Jesus could only dream of, and we have the ability to be more creative than we even imagine.