CREATION THEN AND NOW
Opening Prayer
I come to you in worship today, Lord God, filled with gratitude for making yourself known to me. Thank you for providing everything I need to know you more deeply each day.
Read PSALM 104
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Psalm 104
1 Praise the Lord, my soul.
Lord my God, you are very great;
you are clothed with splendor and majesty.
2 The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment;
he stretches out the heavens like a tent
3 and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot
and rides on the wings of the wind.
4 He makes winds his messengers,[a]
flames of fire his servants.
5 He set the earth on its foundations;
it can never be moved.
6 You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
7 But at your rebuke the waters fled,
at the sound of your thunder they took to flight;
8 they flowed over the mountains,
they went down into the valleys,
to the place you assigned for them.
9 You set a boundary they cannot cross;
never again will they cover the earth.
10 He makes springs pour water into the ravines;
it flows between the mountains.
11 They give water to all the beasts of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 The birds of the sky nest by the waters;
they sing among the branches.
13 He waters the mountains from his upper chambers;
the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work.
14 He makes grass grow for the cattle,
and plants for people to cultivate—
bringing forth food from the earth:
15 wine that gladdens human hearts,
oil to make their faces shine,
and bread that sustains their hearts.
16 The trees of the Lord are well watered,
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
17 There the birds make their nests;
the stork has its home in the junipers.
18 The high mountains belong to the wild goats;
the crags are a refuge for the hyrax.
19 He made the moon to mark the seasons,
and the sun knows when to go down.
20 You bring darkness, it becomes night,
and all the beasts of the forest prowl.
21 The lions roar for their prey
and seek their food from God.
22 The sun rises, and they steal away;
they return and lie down in their dens.
23 Then people go out to their work,
to their labor until evening.
24 How many are your works, Lord!
In wisdom you made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
25 There is the sea, vast and spacious,
teeming with creatures beyond number—
living things both large and small.
26 There the ships go to and fro,
and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.
27 All creatures look to you
to give them their food at the proper time.
28 When you give it to them,
they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
they are satisfied with good things.
29 When you hide your face,
they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
they die and return to the dust.
30 When you send your Spirit,
they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.
31 May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works—
32 he who looks at the earth, and it trembles,
who touches the mountains, and they smoke.
33 I will sing to the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him,
as I rejoice in the Lord.
35 But may sinners vanish from the earth
and the wicked be no more.
Praise the Lord, my soul.
Praise the Lord.[b]
Footnotes
- Psalm 104:4 Or angels
- Psalm 104:35 Hebrew Hallelu Yah; in the Septuagint this line stands at the beginning of Psalm 105.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
‘Lord my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty.’1
Think Further
This psalm looks like parts of Genesis 1 set to music, as it celebrates God’s creative activity, past and present. It also weaves together words about God (‘he’ statements) and words addressed to God (‘you’ statements). It opens and closes with the psalmist calling on himself to praise the Lord, and then divides into five parts. Verses 1–5 celebrate the greatness of God, who set the earth on its immovable foundations. Verses 6–18 meditate on Genesis 1:6-7, where God set limits on the water. Verses 19–23 meditate on Genesis 1:16–18, where God created the sun and moon. Verses 24–30 acknowledge that God sustains all creatures. Verses 31–35 close the psalm with a prayer that the Lord’s glory will endure and the psalmist’s resolve to sing to the Lord all his life. In this psalm, humans are also God’s creatures and there is no hint that we are made in God’s image or have dominion (we learn that elsewhere in the Bible). God’s covenant people are also conspicuously absent.
Whereas Genesis 1 simply states that God set limits on the water, this psalm describes the ongoing benefits of life-giving water from God the ‘celestial sprinkler.’2 Whereas Genesis 1 tells of God creating the sun and moon to rule day and night, the psalm celebrates the rhythms of life with the flow of the seasons and alternating day and night. Verses 24–30 celebrate in delightful detail how all creatures depend on God, as we, along with the non-human creation, look to God to provide our needs at the proper time. Truly, when the Lord opens his hand, he satisfies us with good things (v. 28). Appropriately, the last line of the psalm calls on us to add our praise to the psalmist’s.
Apply
This psalm is about the world that God ‘so loved.’3 May we hear the challenge to love God’s world ourselves and learn to care for it as God does.
Closing prayer
Thank you, Father, for not only creating me, but for providing for my redemption and making me aware of your great power to make all things right in your time.
1 Ps 104:1 2 John Goldingay, Psalms 90–150, Baker Academic, 2006, p187 3 John 3:16
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