Creation
Praises the Creator
Psalm 148 is a psalm of praise, specifically,
creation
praising the Creator.
All
creation praising God;
lifting
their voices in a symphony of praise.
Praise the Lord!
Praising God with joy!
This is a Hallelujah Psalm…
an
invitation to all creation:
Mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars!
and
all creatures:
Wild animals and all cattle,
creeping things and flying birds!
creeping things and flying birds!
All are invited to join in praising
the Lord!
From the heavens, a heavenly
choir:
Praise
him, all his angels;
praise him, all his host!
praise him, all his host!
From the earth, all creation:
Praise
the Lord from the earth…
his
glory is above earth and heaven.
All people of the earth join in:
Kings of the earth and all peoples,
princes and all rulers of the earth!
princes and all rulers of the earth!
Young
men and women alike,
old
and young together!
Earth, heaven, sky, sea, creation,
creatures, people…
all
together in a symphony of praise!
All creation praises the Creator!
This psalm brings up a
couple questions for me,
if you
take the people, the angels,
and the heavenly hosts
out of the picture,
what is left?
nature
and animals,
trees
and hills,
heaven
and earth.
So how does the wind, the rain, animals, and trees
praise God?
What is creation’s relation to God and
God’s relationship to
creation?
Let’s start trying to answer these questions
by looking at the
relationship between God and creation…
The hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful is
a hymn about creation and
providence:
each little flower that
opens,
each little bird that
sings,
the purple
headed-mountain,
the river running by,
the cold wind in the winter,
the pleasant summer sun,
the Lord God made them
all.
In Genesis, there is the beginning…
In
the beginning
when
God created the heavens and the earth…
And
God said, “Let there be…
light,
sky,
land,
seas,
vegetation,
living
creatures of sky, sea, and land,
and
humankind.
God proclaimed creation good;
creation
must respond with praise for its Creator.
As we recall animals in the Bible,
we see their purposes:
the
animals on the ark to preserve creation,
the
whale in which Jonah resided for 3 days,
the
donkey who carried Mary to Bethlehem
and the one Jesus rode upon as he
entered Jerusalem.
In the book Prayers from the Ark, we hear
the dove’s prayer…
the
ark waits on Your will,
and
the sign of Your peace.
I am the dove,
simple
as
the sweetness that comes from You.
The ark waits, Lord;
it
has endured.
Let me carry t a sprig of hope and
joy,
and put, at the heart of its
forsakenness,
this, in which Your love clothes me,
Grace immaculate. Amen[i].
How is creation to answer the call
to praise?
Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for he commanded, and they were created.
for he commanded, and they were created.
So how does creation fulfill its obligation to praise
God?
They fulfill the command of God by being what
they are meant to be.
Creation is part of God’s plan and purpose;
Biblical scholar James Mays states…
“The
creation and the creatures
praise in their very being and doing,
by
existing and filling their assigned place.”
So, this leads us to the big question…
What
can we learn from those relationships?
God and creation and creation to other creation.
Our relationships with God are important;
God also commands us to
love each other,
as God loves us.
I want to share with you a devotional poem
from the book Alters
Under the Sky,
Devotional Readings for
Outdoor Days;
the author of the poem is
unknown.
In
every patch of timber, you
will
always find a tree or two
that
would have fallen long ago,
borne
down by wind or age or snow,
had
not another neighbor tree
held
out its arms in sympathy
and
caught the tree that storm had hurled
to
earth. So, neighbors, is this world.
In
every patch of timber stand
Samaritans
of forest land,
the
birch, the maple, oak and pine,
the
fir, the cedar, all in line!
In
every wood unseen, unknown,
they
bear their burden of their own
and
bear as well another form,
some
neighbor stricken in the storm.
Shall
trees be nobler to their kind
than
men, who boast the noble mind;
shall
there exist within the wood
this
great eternal brotherhood
of
oak and pine, of hill and fen,
and
not within the heart of men?
God
grant that men are like to these,
and
brothers brotherly as trees.[ii]
This is creation praising its Creator!
Doing what God meant it to do; fulfilling God’s
purpose.
How are you and I to answer
the call to praise?
By being who God made us to be,
by living an abundant life, and
by
finding joy with creation and with each other,
we
too praise God!
We embrace our God given gifts,
using
the talents our Creator gave us;
We embody Jesus’ teachings and
become disciples,
taking
action as individuals and as a community of faith;
You and I proclaim our faith by our
everyday actions
being
guided by the Holy Spirit.
Every day we praise God.
Psalm 148 is a psalm calling us to
praise every day,
in
all seasons, in all times,
every single day.
We live as Christians, not just on Sunday, everyday;
not just in the Christmas or Easter
season…every season.
You and I respond in praise because of our
faith,
because
we know God’s grace,
because
Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer.
You and I respond in praise in love…
as
God loves us,
we
reach out to each other in love.
I have one other poem to share with
you about
God’s
continuing care of creation and
God’s
care for you and me;
I Saw God Wash the World
by William L. Stidger:
I saw God wash the world
last night
with His sweet showers on high,
and then, when morning came, I saw
Him hang it out to dry.
with His sweet showers on high,
and then, when morning came, I saw
Him hang it out to dry.
He washed each tiny
blade of grass
and every trembling tree;
He flung His showers against the hill,
and swept the billowing sea.
and every trembling tree;
He flung His showers against the hill,
and swept the billowing sea.
The white rose is a
cleaner white,
the red rose is more red,
since God washed every fragrant face
and put them all to bed.
the red rose is more red,
since God washed every fragrant face
and put them all to bed.
There’s not a bird,
there’s not a bee
that wings along the way
but is a cleaner bird and bee
than it was yesterday.
that wings along the way
but is a cleaner bird and bee
than it was yesterday.
I saw God wash the world
last night;
Ah, would He had washed
me
as clean of all my dust
and dirt
as the old white birch tree.[iii]
Amen.
[i] Prayers from the
Ark and the Creatures Choir by Carmen Bernos De Gasztold, translated by Rumer
Godden
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