A devotion of Psalm 104:19-35
When God created the earth, he repeatedly said, “It is good.” What a great time he had envisioning and speaking galaxies into place. What a delight to have created Leviathan to play in the water and that little pudu – did you see the pudu?? Yesterday’s reading continues today with grand scenes of order and seasons. With rhythm and in cycles the earth inhales and exhales “O Lord, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all. The earth is full of Your possessions,” v. 24.
19 He appointed the moon for seasons; The sun knows its going down.
20 You make darkness, and it is night, In which all the beasts of the forest creep about.
21 The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their food from God.
22 When the sun rises, they gather together and lie down in their dens.
23 Man goes out to his work and to his labor until the evening.
24 O Lord, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all. The earth is full of Your possessions—
25 This great and wide sea, in which are innumerable teeming things, living things both small and great.
26 There the ships sail about; there is that Leviathan which You have made to play there.
27 These all wait for You, that You may give them their food in due season.
28 What You give them they gather in; You open Your hand, they are filled with good.
29 You hide Your face, they are troubled; You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.
30 You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; And You renew the face of the earth.
In all this grandeur, only one thing ever broke God’s heart. “And the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart,” Genesis 6:6. All this spectacular creation must have stood still in horrified silence. For the first time, God was sad. Sin entered the world, and with it, death. Where wonderful life and vigor had been exploding everywhere, the cold hand of death breached the world and creation froze in dismay.
Fortunately, God had foreseen this. So perhaps this wasn’t the first time he was sad. Scripture says, “the Lamb… was slaughtered before the world was made,” Rev. 13:8 NLT. What? God foresaw all this and he carried on with his plan anyway?
“O Lord, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all,” v. 24. God’s wisdom saw to all this. And he said it was good. Very good, (Genesis 1:31.) Though God takes “away their breath, they die and return to their dust,” v. 29b, David then says, “You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; And You renew the face of the earth,” v. 30. Hallelujah! There will be renewal. The old will be done away with and he will make a new heaven and a new earth.
“The creation waits in eager expectation for the revelation of the sons of God,” Rom. 8:19. NASB calls it “anxious longing.” It reminds me of waiting for dad to come home from work. Whatever I was working on or enjoying, a significant part of my heart and brain kept causing me to look towards the driveway in eager expectation, anxious longing. Do you feel that way as you await Jesus soon return?
“For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies,” 2 Peter 3:10.
31 May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in His works.
32 He looks on the earth, and it trembles; He touches the hills, and they smoke.
33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
34 May my meditation be sweet to Him; I will be glad in the Lord.
35 May sinners be consumed from the earth, And the wicked be no more.
Bless the Lord, O my soul! Praise the Lord!