1 Let all that I am praise the Lord. O Lord my God, how great you are! You are robed with honor and majesty.
2 You are dressed in a robe of light. You stretch out the starry curtain of the heavens;
3 you lay out the rafters of your home in the rain clouds. You make the clouds your chariot; you ride upon the wings of the wind.
4 The winds are your messengers; flames of fire are your servants.
5 You placed the world on its foundation so it would never be moved.
6 You clothed the earth with floods of water, water that covered even the mountains.
7 At your command, the water fled; at the sound of your thunder, it hurried away.
8 Mountains rose and valleys sank to the levels you decreed.
9 Then you set a firm boundary for the seas, so they would never again cover the earth.
10 You make springs pour water into the ravines, so streams gush down from the mountains.
11 They provide water for all the animals, and the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 The birds nest beside the streams and sing among the branches of the trees.
13 You send rain on the mountains from your heavenly home, and you fill the earth with the fruit of your labor.
14 You cause grass to grow for the livestock and plants for people to use. You allow them to produce food from the earth—
15 wine to make them glad, olive oil to soothe their skin, and bread to give them strength.
16 The trees of the Lord are well cared for— the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
17 There the birds make their nests, and the storks make their homes in the cypresses.
18 High in the mountains live the wild goats, and the rocks form a refuge for the hyraxes.
19 You made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun knows when to set.
20 You send the darkness, and it becomes night, when all the forest animals prowl about.
21 Then the young lions roar for their prey, stalking the food provided by God.
22 At dawn they slink back into their dens to rest.
23 Then people go off to their work, where they labor until evening.
I remember speaking with a surgeon at my first Air Force assignment. As we discussed his profession he said "Lee, I can sew a person up but I cannot make the incision grow back together. Only God can do that." Well said...a lot of humility for a surgeon.
In fact, I'm of the persuasion that, the more we know about life...the more awed we become at God's power. Today psalm seems to confirm this.
Although we have no title for this psalm, historians believe it was penned by David after accompanying his priests on a visit to the Ark of the Covenant. As he stood in the presence of God...David could hardly contain his sense of awe. In humility he says "Let all that I am praise the Lord. O Lord my God, how great you are! You are robed with honor and majesty."
Seems like a good start...
And, if you read the psalm line by line you will see that David attributes all the activity of creation to God's hand.
- You stretch out the starry curtain of the heavens;
- You lay out the rafters of your home in the rain clouds.
-You make the clouds your chariot; you ride upon the wings of the wind.
- The winds are your messengers; flames of fire are your servants.
- You placed the world on its foundation so it would never be moved.
- You clothed the earth with floods of water, water that covered even the mountains.
- At your command, the water fled; at the sound of your thunder, it hurried away.
- Mountains rose and valleys sank to the levels you decreed.
- Then you set a firm boundary for the seas, so they would never again cover the earth.
- You make springs pour water into the ravines, so streams gush down from the mountains.
- You send rain on the mountains from your heavenly home, and
- You fill the earth with the fruit of your labor.
- You cause grass to grow for the livestock and plants for people to use.
- You allow them to produce food from the earth—
- The trees of the Lord are well cared for— the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
- You made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun knows when to set.
- You send the darkness, and it becomes night, when all the forest animals prowl about.
- Then the young lions roar for their prey, stalking the food provided by God.
That pretty much covers the waterfront. God has orchestrated all of it. I enjoy watching the National Geographic channel...particularly the episodes where wild beasts stalk their prey (I know, my wife says that too). My mind rarely considers...as the lion stalks the antelope...that God is providing his food. The violence is something we prefer to leave God out of.
But we cannot.
This psalm tells us God is intimately involved in all the dimensions of our lives...how fast our heart beats...whether it beats at all. Our blood pressure. Our relationships...our jobs. What a magnificent thing.
And, of course, we use this as justification to blame God for our difficulties.
I'm pretty sure this is not the response God intended. More to the point, I'm pretty certain that if we take this attitude we likely have never truly stood before God.
Where are you standing today?
Live boldly out there today...
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