Wherever we look, God is at work.
Psalm 104 has been going through my mind all day, and it’s wonderful. It starts off by celebrating God’s work in the act of creation, but quickly gets into his present, active work in keeping the whole of creation going. Whether it’s through the ecosystem of the wild world or through giving humans the gifts of farming and industry, God is in it all.
That is great stuff in itself, but two other things strike me as part of the whole picture. The first is an echo of Psalm 8, with its note of wonder that the God who placed the stars in the sky should love us. The psalmist here addresses the creator and sustainer of all things not just as ‘God’ but as ‘my God’. For all the majesty of this Psalm, the praise is personal. God is so great that even while he keeps the waves splashing and the birds fed, he spares time to know me and hear my prayer and praise.
The second is the prayer in vs. 31 that the LORD should rejoice in all his works – that he should enjoy what he has made and delight in it.
So this Psalm leaves me with a renewed desire to see God in creation, ever active and sustaining. It also renews my desire to help protect the integrity and beauty of what he has made – I don’t think his joy will be increased by a world polluted, diminished and overheated by our greed and apathy.
Nick Watson 