...the blessings of creation...

I have been blessed in my life to live in two farming cultures, the first in Tanzania Africa, where every morsel of food that you ate came from the fields of grains and vegetables you grew for yourself and your family. I also lived in Nebraska, where corn and soy beans and a few other grains were grow to sell and to feed great herds of the black and red angus cattle.

The parables of Jesus that were specifically about farming and planting seeds and raising herds of sheep — these parables meant so much to the farmers. As the farmers in Tanzania often told me, “God is speaking directly to us! He understands our life!”

Well, the psalms are also very celebratory of the land, the space that is God’s and the space that is ours. The physical aspects of creation are celebrated in the Psalms. Farming, great herds of sheep, planting and harvesting crops, especially the time for planting and the time for harvesting crops. The winds and rocks, as well as the nights and days, matter greatly in the Psalms. Time and space and the world in which we live are hugely important to the Psalms.

But yet, Jesus’ kingdom was not from this world. The kingdoms that grow up from within the world often come about by fighting and wars, while Jesus’s kingdom proceeds on a different basis. His kingdom was and is most emphatically for this world.”  Our western worldviews have made it quite difficult for us to hear Psalm 19:1–2 as anything but a pretty fantasy.

“1 The heavens are telling the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.

  2 Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge” (Ps.19:1-2).

But think about it, does not all creation praise it’s Creator? Our problem is that we have allowed our hearts to be closed to what is in fact going on in creation. When even our poets try to draw our attention to it—we often find them a bit strange or removed from reality, as well. But creation praises its Maker! Even in the New Testament the heavenly throne room glimpsed by John in Revelation, the “four living creatures” praise God without stopping, day and night, singing,

“Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,

Who Was and Who Is and Who Is to Come” (Rev. 4.8).

Only we human beings, it seems to me, have the capacity to live as something other than what we are. We are, in fact, reflectors of God and bearers of the image of God!  And yet, trees behave as trees; rocks behave as rocks; the sea is and does what the sea is and does. But the psalmists look out on all of creation and see it as a great shout of praise to the God who has made it to be and to flourish!

“6 By Your strength You established the mountains; You are girded with might. 

8 Those who live at earth’s farthest bounds are awed by Your signs; You make the gateways of the morning and the evening shout for joy”

(Psalm 65: 6 & 8).

Can you not see what the psalmist saw, especially in verse 8 above, something special in the quality of light at either end of the day? But the psalmist heard, as we mostly do not, something else going on: a shout of joy at this moment of strange, transient glory. And the shouts of joy are increased as every harvest passes, and every lamb and calf is born, not just as an example of “the natural order.” No, the psalmist understands these things as “signs and marvels” of God Himself for the fertile and fruitful earth!

“9 You visit the earth and water it; You greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; You provide the people with grain, for so you have prepared it. 

10 You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. 

11 You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with richness. 

12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow; the hills gird themselves with joy; 

13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks; the valleys deck themselves with grain;     they shout and sing together for joy” (Psalm 65:9-13).

Psalm 95 celebrates God’s creative power, as we all should:

“3 For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods.

4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.

5 The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed” (Psalm 95:3-5).

So, this reminder of the Psalm’s glorious view of God’s creation leads us today to pray that the blessings of God continue to surround us each day with love and appreciation of the blessings of creation. Creation is not an afterthought, but an invitation for us to pray for the divine glory of God to fill the whole world.

So, today, make God's creation your prayer of thanks and praise to God!

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.