Psalm 135

1 Praise the Lord! Praise the name of the Lord! Praise him, you who serve the Lord,
2 you who serve in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.
3 Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; celebrate his lovely name with music.
4 For the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel for his own special treasure.
5 I know the greatness of the Lord—that our Lord is greater than any other god.
6 The Lord does whatever pleases him throughout all heaven and earth, and on the seas and in their depths.
7 He causes the clouds to rise over the whole earth. He sends the lightning with the rain and releases the wind from his storehouses.
8 He destroyed the firstborn in each Egyptian home,both people and animals.
9 He performed miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt against Pharaoh and all his people.
10 He struck down great nations and slaughtered mighty kings—
11 Sihon king of the Amorites,Og king of Bashan,and all the kings of Canaan.
12 He gave their land as an inheritance,a special possession to his people Israel.
13 Your name, O Lord, endures forever; your fame, O Lord, is known to every generation.
14 For the Lord will give justice to his people and have compassion on his servants.
15 The idols of the nations are merely things of silver and gold, shaped by human hands.
16 They have mouths but cannot speak, and eyes but cannot see.
17 They have ears but cannot hear, and noses but cannot smell.
18 And those who make idols are just like them, as are all who trust in them.
19 O Israel, praise the Lord! O priests—descendants of Aaron—praise the Lord!
20 O Levites, praise the Lord! All you who fear the Lord, praise the Lord!
21 The Lord be praised from Zion,for he lives here in Jerusalem.Praise the Lord!

So, now we are being told...by the high priests of the church of climatology... that the earth would be better off without people. Really?

And how would the earth know? And would the earth really care? It would if you were an animist and believed the earth had a soul.

Make no mistake...the radical climatologists truly are practioners of a religion. Actually, a very ancient religion...Pantheism. They have their dogma, their creeds and their rituals just like we Christians do. We see roots of their theology in Native American religious practice that espouses the sacred nature of creation. the sun god...the moon god...and of course, the mother earth god. All creation is sacred. Man serves creation rather than the other way around.

So...is this necessarily a bad thing? After all, as Bob Dylan said "You've got to serve somebody". Well, of course it's a bad thing...because it denies the symbiotic relationship that we are meant to have with God's creation...by God's design. We are not interlopers on this planet. The planet was created by God and given to us. In fact, the relationship we have with God's creation is similar, in ways, to a marriage relationship. And...as is the case in any good marriage, the partners ought to take good care of one another. So we need to be good stewards.

"Till death we do part"...the planet and I are stuck with each other until one of us dies! Pretty much like a marriage. But...to say the planet would be better off without mankind is like saying "my marriage would be much better without my spouse." We call this an oxymoron.

Now, to the central point of today's Psalm. The writer says we should "Praise the Lord" because "I know the greatness of the Lord—that our Lord is greater than any other god. The Lord does whatever pleases him throughout all heaven and earth, and on the seas and in their depths. He causes the clouds to rise over the whole earth. He sends the lightning with the rain and releases the wind from his storehouses.

We don't have to be particularly smart to recognize where the earth fits into the big picture here. The earth is not a co-deity with God. The earth is a canvas upon which God paints His masterpieces. We, on the other hand, would be ill advised to take our crayons and color over God's masterpiece.

So, be environmentally responsible. Not for the earth's sake, but for God's sake...because that is His design.

So why am I laboring over this this point?

It's this simple. The religion of climatology is a perfect example of how far astray we can roam if we take our eyes off of God. We invent new religions...with new catechisms. Buying and selling carbon credits become the new sacraments.

We also fashion new gods to worship. None of which will do us a bit of good if the planet really does give up the ghost. Our writer says " The idols of the nations are merely things of silver and gold, shaped by human hands. They have mouths but cannot speak, and eyes but cannot see. They have ears but cannot hear, and noses but cannot smell. And those who make idols are just like them, as are all who trust in them."

So we "praise the Lord, for the Lord is good". And which Lord do we praise? "the Lord who has chose Israel for His own treasure." Don't let the gods of this world confuse you...

Live boldly out there today...