Our psalm this week from the Lectionary of the Book of Common Prayer for the week of Pentecost is the last half of Psalm 104. This is a psalm proclaiming Yahweh as Creator of all things, and His care over all that He has created. It is a moderately long psalm, and we’ll focus only on the second half today.
Our psalmist doesn’t debate whether or not Yahweh is the Creator of all, or whether perhaps life just somehow started on its own and evolved into all of the different species. He states God’s Word as a fact that Yahweh created all (vs. 24). Creation reveals that God has a vast intellect that we cannot completely comprehend. Our knowledge is finite, while His is infinite. We see His intellect when we take a closer look at just about anything in creation, whether throughout the universe and galaxies, or here on earth with the multitudes of plants and animals.
In our segment of Psalm 104, our psalmist looked into the oceans, and the multitude of life found there (vs. 25-26). Living in the Chicago area I am quite far away from any oceans, and have only been at either coast many years ago, as a child, but I have seen many documentaries and read about ocean life. As verse 25 states, the oceans are teeming with innumerable types of fish, marine animals, corals, etc. These range from tiny, microscopic cellular creatures all the way to the giant blue whale. And He made such a variety, from whales with a horn like a unicorn, to the great variety of colorful tropical fish, to sea turtles, and then the other types of sea creatures like jellyfish, starfish, seahorses, squids, etc. The psalmist mentions the Leviathan in verse 26. This was some type of mighty creature, mentioned only a few times in the Bible, who could overwhelm man but who is no match for God. Some believe that this might be a type of large whale, others believing it is a reference to some type of aquatic dinosaur, or unspecified sea monster. Whatever the leviathan is or was, it was created by God.
All of creation, whether on land, in the air, or in the oceans, depends upon God for life (vs. 27-28). Many people go through life without giving God a thought, not caring that it is only through His mercy and love that they have food to eat and air to breathe, the atheist saying He doesn’t exist, and the agnostic not knowing or caring. Yet it is the Lord God who provides for their food. Let there be a shortage of their favorite food item, a few bare shelves in the grocery store, and they will complain and even curse. Yet when they sit down to a full plate, do they think to thank the Lord who provided it? It is the Lord who provides for our food, and the food of every living creature. And what a variety He provides! Just think for a moment of all the delectable food we get to enjoy, and then the wide variety of food that each animal, fish, and bird needs to eat, and the Lord provides for it.
The psalmist reminds us that every breath we take comes from the Lord God (vs. 29-30). He breathed into man’s nostrils when He created Adam, giving him the breath of life (Genesis 2:7). He gave man breath and He can take it away. I have asthma and a few other periodic respiratory problems, and I know what it is like to sometimes not be able to take a full breath, so I am thankful and grateful to the Lord for every good breath I take. Just a few years ago the whole world saw the Covid pandemic, and countless people were hospitalized and on respirators to breathe. Did they think to thank God for being able to breathe when they recovered? I’m sure some did, but how many didn’t give Him a second thought? Our every breath depends on God’s Spirit that He has breathed into us. We depend on Him for our very lives.
Our psalmist closes his psalm with a brief reference to the mighty power of God in natural events, such as earthquakes and volcanoes (vs. 32). I have experienced neither of those, and don’t really care to! If either of these events doesn’t get one to think about God, I don’t know what would! God has awesome power, and He is able to do with His creation what He desires.
Our Scripture closes with a benediction to the Creator (vs. 33-35)., and also a prayer that the ungodly might no longer spiritually pollute God’s universe. Although God has been merciful to let His fallen human creation live on, those who bless and praise the Lord desire to see the day when sinful men have been abolished from the earth, and the curse of the earth is reversed.
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