According to biblical commentator, Matthew Henry, the literary quality of Psalm 104 is considered by many to exceed that of the Greek and Latin poets: “This noble poem is thought by very competent judges greatly to excel, not only for piety and devotion (that is past dispute), but for flight of fancy, brightness of ideas, surprising turns, and all the beauties and ornaments of expression, the Greek and Latin poets upon any subject of this nature.” It is commonly referred to as  the “creation psalm.”

As we continue in the theme of gratitude this Thanksgiving weekend, I thought it would be good for us, at least for a few moments, to take our minds off man-made things, sports, and entertainments to consider this awesome celebration of the creation, which gives us life and health—and give praise to the Creator of us all.  I think this is particularly fitting on this day when NASA is planning to launch its $2.5 billion, one-ton Mars Space Laboratory’s  rover “Curiosity” to see if perhaps there might be traces of water or life on our nearest fellow planet.  So far the contrast between lifeless Mars and our living planet is stark.

Psalm 104

(as paraphrased by Eugene Peterson in The Message)

O my soul, bless God! God, my God, how great you are! beautifully, gloriously robed, Dressed up in sunshine, and all heaven stretched out for your tent. You built your palace on the ocean deeps, made a chariot out of clouds and took off on wind-wings. You commandeered winds as messengers, appointed fire and flame as ambassadors. You set earth on a firm foundation so that nothing can shake it, ever.

You blanketed earth with ocean, covered the mountains with deep waters; Then you roared and the water ran away—your thunder crash put it to flight. Mountains pushed up, valleys spread out in the places you assigned them. You set boundaries between earth and sea; never again will earth be flooded.

You started the springs and rivers, sent them flowing among the hills. All the wild animals now drink their fill, wild donkeys quench their thirst. Along the riverbanks the birds build nests, ravens make their voices heard. You water the mountains from your heavenly cisterns; earth is supplied with plenty of water. You make grass grow for the livestock, hay for the animals that plow the ground.

Oh yes, God brings grain from the land, wine to make people happy, Their faces glowing with health, a people well-fed and hearty. God’s trees are well-watered—the Lebanon cedars he planted. Birds build their nests in those trees; look—the stork at home in the treetop. Mountain goats climb about the cliffs; badgers burrow among the rocks.

The moon keeps track of the seasons, the sun is in charge of each day. When it’s dark and night takes over, all the forest creatures come out. The young lions roar for their prey, clamoring to God for their supper. When the sun comes up, they vanish, lazily stretched out in their dens. Meanwhile, men and women go out to work, busy at their jobs until evening.

What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations. Oh, look—the deep, wide sea, brimming with fish past counting, sardines and sharks and salmon. Ships plow those waters, and Leviathan, your pet dragon, romps in them. All the creatures look expectantly to you to give them their meals on time. You come, and they gather around; you open your hand and they eat from it. If you turned your back, they’d die in a minute—Take back your Spirit and they die, revert to original mud; Send out your Spirit and they spring to life—the whole countryside in bloom and blossom.

The glory of God—let it last forever! Let God enjoy his creation! He takes one look at earth and triggers an earthquake, points a finger at the mountains, and volcanoes erupt. Oh, let me sing to God all my life long, sing hymns to my God as long as I live! Oh, let my song please him; I’m so pleased to be singing to God. But clear the ground of sinners—no more godless men and women!

O my soul, bless God!

Several years ago my son Dave and I were on a trail ride in one of southwestern Utah’s seemingly endless awe-inspiring canyons: Kodachrome Basin. Riding along with us was a California family that included the grandparents, par­ents, and children.

Our trail boss, Bob, a good-humored, experienced wrangler, patiently put up with our amateur horseman­ship on the trail and even took time to give us the natural history of the land and the vegetation. One of the unusual plants he pointed out was what he called “corral grass.” Its unique feature is that it grows in circular patches and, as he explained, by making a ring of tight growth, it pro­tects its root space from other encroaching plants. When Bob finished his explanation, the grand­father, who had been matching wits with the trail boss, quipped, “Yes, but what’s it good for?” And we all chuckled.

As the horses plodded on toward the next spectacular vista, I thought about the grandfa­ther’s comment: While I knew it was meant to be funny, almost unconsciously it influ­enced three gen­erations to continue thinking, like the majority of the Western world, that natural things have little value unless we can identify some practical use for them. If they have no obvious value for me or for mankind in general, they are mere curiosities—not worth much, if anything.

Ecological studies, however, are providing overwhelming evidence that the survival of the earth’s ecosystems depends upon a vast diversity of plants and animals that interdepen­dently maintain life. Living things once considered worthless, or even harmful, are now known to be vi­tal ingredients in the recipe for a healthy environment.

In fact, Christians can declare without fear of contradiction, “God believes in biodiver­sity.” How else can we interpret the account of Noah’s ark? Since God created the earth with biodiver­sity, we can logically conclude that he in­tended for that biodi­versity to continue. All of us who claim the authority of the Bible as the Word of God should be willing to accept biodiversity as a basic fact of creation. Further, I believe we have a responsibility to honor all things created because God has reasons that we may have no knowledge of.

We also have an important statement in Scripture about biodiversity and the place of human utility in relationship to what God has created in Genesis 2:9: “The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.” Here there is biodiversity in “all kinds of trees,” and the beauty of the trees is mentioned before their utility.

I feel it’s wise for us to gain knowledge of all things God created. Consider all that was included in the gift of wisdom God gave to Solomon

KEY SCRIPTURE:
God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore. . . . He spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered a thousand and five. He described plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also taught about animals and birds, reptiles and fish (1 Kings 4: 29, 33).

So, anonymous California grandfather, if you want to match wits with Solomon, you’ll probably have to care more for such things as hyssop—and corral grass.

[Kodakchrome Basin photos from Utah State Parks]

I’m sure you’ve been mesmerized as I have been by the perfect butterfly, the perfect sunset, the perfect mountain lake, the perfect tree, or the perfect flower.  The beauty of nature’s perfection sometimes grips my soul to the extent that tears well up in my eyes.

George MacDonald, the Nineteenth Century writer and scholar who inspired C. S. Lewis apparently shared my feeling:

[Flowers] come from the same Heart as man himself, and are sent to be His companions and ministers.  There is something divinely magical, because profoundly human, in them.  Our feeling for many of them doubtless comes from certain associations of childhood.  But how did they get hold of us even in childhood?  Why do they enter our souls at all? It is because the flowers are joyous, inarticulate children, come with vague messages from the Father of all.  If I confess that what they say to me sometimes makes me weep, how can I call my feeling for them anything but love?

The psalmist in the great meditative hymn Psalm 119 reflects further on the source and perfection of the natural world:

KEY SCRIPTURE:
Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth, and it endures. Your laws endure to this day, for all things serve you. . . . To all perfection I see a limit; but your commands are boundless (119:89-91, 96).

There are a couple statements in that Psalm that are mind-bending: First, that “all things serve” the Creator.  When we stand amazed in the presence of natural beauty, if our souls are attuned to the Great Soul, we will see that these glories are made more beautiful in that they are serving the Creator by doing the work He made them for.  That’s one reason we  should treat the creation with utmost care.

But consider this even more remarkable truth:  The writer of the psalm says “to all perfection I see a limit”!  How can there be a limit to perfection? The answer is in the next phrase:  “[The Lord's] commands are boundless.”  I believe the implication is that the Creator delights to take us from perfections we’re familiar with to never ending new perfections.  Our creativeness is limited.  His is not.

What joy there will be in the coming restoration of all things after the purging of the earth.  We will never cease to be amazed at God’s handiwork.  The beauty, grandeur, and glory we see in His creation today is only a foretaste of what’s to come.  We have Pheasants Forever, Ducks Unlimited, and Trout Unlimited, but God has perfections unlimited!  His “website” is the cosmos: this one and the one coming, which will be even more perfect.

When I watched Ken Burn’s PBS series “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea” I was impressed with how many of those who championed these natural wonders saw in them the hand of the Creator, not just the raw forces of nature. Many were no doubt familiar with the biblical passage from Romans 1:

KEY SCRIPTURE:
The basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of His divine being (Romans 1:19-20 The Message).

The many ways we understand God’s eternal power and His right alone to be worshiped in what He has created can somewhat be experienced vicariously through pictures or words. Few people fail to be touched by a stunning photo of natural beauty or a gripping verbal description of natural events. But that’s not enough for our souls. To truly grasp creation’s meaning, one must experience it. Being in the wild highlights our finiteness, vulnerability, and our utter and complete dependence upon the creating and sustaining power of God.  And our national parks are ideal places for us experience this soul healing activity.

John Calvin called the natural world the “theater of God’s glory,” but it is even more than a theater; it’s a cathedral. And awareness of God’s holiness (His right alone to be worshiped) occurs only when we enter it with the right spirit. The word “cathedral” comes from the Latin term for “chair”: cathedra. Traditionally a cathedral is the sacred place where a church bishop has his chair of authority—his throne. While human bishops are supposed to keep us mindful of our stewardship role in the created order, too often the trappings and traditions of man hinder our capacity to hear the “still, small voice” of God inside our church buildings.

For that reason, it’s important for us to preserve and treasure the cathedral of wilderness where we see that God, the ultimate authority, is clearly on the throne and where His wordless revelation can still be clearly seen and understood (Romans 1:20). When truly attentive people enter the wild places, they immediately recognize the signs that this is sacred ground—a place where to them a flaming autumn maple is no less evidence of God’s miracle-working power and presence than the burning bush was to Moses.

Also important is for us to recognize that in the wilderness sanctuary we’re not alone in the impulse to worship. God’s other creatures worship there as well. As the prophets Isaiah and David remind us, all created things in their own nature respond to God—even trees, rivers, and mountains. (Isa. 55:12; Psa. 98:8) This amazing truth from the Old Testament is echoed in the Revelation where all God’s creatures are seen as worshiping the One who died in order that the cosmos may be redeemed: “Every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: ‘Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb [Jesus Christ], forever and ever!’” (Rev. 5:13)

Note in that passage how the apostle John explicitly includes the entire biosphere: creatures in the sky, on the earth, under the earth, on the sea, and in the sea. Imagine the scene: larks, dragonflies, rabbits, badgers, moles, trap-door spiders, Portugese men-of-war, sharks, and sea stars all attending to the Redeemer-Creator and singing!

Who says Narnia is fiction? Aslan is the Lion of Judah who will make things right! Think of the joy that will fill the Hundred-Acre Wood. Tigger will jump higher than ever and Eeyore, then the eternal optimist, will “bouncy-bounce” with him. Earth will be Peralandra, and Neverland will become Everland!

Let us repent of our sinful lack of compassion for the other creatures of the earth and of our lack of care for the marvelous handiwork of God that has faithfully given witness from the beginning of His divine nature and eternal power. With our hearts and with our hands, let us work toward the anticipated restoration of the good Earth. And allow this wonderful hymn, penned by a Hebrew psalmist some three thousand years ago, resound in our hearts whenever we worship in creation’s cathedral:

Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise Him in the heights! Praise Him, all His angels; praise Him, all His hosts! Praise Him, sun and moon; praise Him, all you stars of light! Praise Him, you heavens of heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the Lord, for He commanded and they were created. He also established them forever and ever; He made a decree which shall not pass away. Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all the depths; fire and hail, snow and clouds; stormy wind, fulfilling His word; mountains and all hills; fruitful trees and all cedars; beasts and all cattle; creeping things and flying fowl; kings of the earth and all peoples; princes and all judges of the earth; both young men and maidens; old men and children. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is exalted; His glory is above the earth and heaven (Psalm 148:1-13).