Creation Song
Psalm 104
Download the PDF file here (print it out and read over a coffee!)
I often find myself in conversation with people who can explain all the mysteries of the universe – no problem! These are not scientists or philosophers – those guys usually have more sense than to make such claims – no, these are ordinary people who know enough about science to feel that they can explain everything, but don’t know enough to understand that science doesn’t work that way.
I always ask the same question in conversations like this, “And where did that come from?” Work back through chimps to monkeys, from mammals to amphibious fish, way back to primeval scum and the big bang, and keep asking the question, “And where did that come from?” You would be amazed at how irritated people get!
Where did the big bang come from? Silence… no-one knows.
Of course, clever pagans can turn the tables on us. If we insist that God is the source of everything, they just have to ask, “And where did God come from?” That usually shuts us up!
But God didn’t come from anywhere, he is not part of the world we inhabit, he is from outside – not outside our solar system, nor even outside of our galaxy, he is from outside our universe! Psalm 104 begins with a few verses that attempt to express in words what this outside is like…
Lord of Heaven Psalm 104:1-4
I like the way that the songwriter passionately struggles to express what cannot be put into words. He wraps himself in light… he stretches out the heavens like a tent [1] … he lays beams on water… he rides on vapour and wind and fire. God is not human. He is not anything we can imagine! Think of something great, and he is greater.
We sometimes forget that the sight of God would leave us flat on our faces – not on our backs but on our faces – with the sheer brilliance of his majesty and the weight of his glory. Don’t fool yourself; nothing can stand in the presence of this God.
He is outside the natural world, he belongs to another dimension altogether, and he brought this whole physical universe into being.
There is a remarkable moment in the life of Jesus when he takes his closest friends to the top of a mountain and there he is transformed. This is how Matthew describes it:
As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was transformed so that his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light. Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared and began talking with Jesus… a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy. Listen to him.” [2]
The imagery is unmistakable – Jesus is dressed in a robe of light, he is surrounded by a brilliant cloud, he shines like the sun. And he is talking to two dead guys.
It is as though Jesus has taken a knife [3] and cut through the membrane separating this world from heaven. Through this window the disciples see Jesus as he really is – the one and only Son of God, the creator, the man from outside. It is a momentary glance and the window soon closes, leaving Jesus and his friends alone on the mountaintop.
This Jesus blazes with the same glory as the Creator. The God of Psalm 104 is mighty, but not remote; he dwells in unapproachable light, but he became accessible to us in Jesus. Remember that song, Meekness and majesty, manhood and deity, in perfect harmony, the man who is God?
Now, if you want to know more about the artist, you need to look at his masterpiece…
Lord of Earth Psalm 104:5-9
We may find it hard to imagine heaven but the songwriter describes something here that we are quite familiar with. It is a stormy earth at the moment of its creation. A violent place; huge geological forces are in motion and the whole earth is covered with water; the mountains heave up out of the oceans and become dry land. This is the picture of a primeval world we often see in science books. But what is happening here is not accidental – it may have taken days, or it may have been aeons, but God was active in creating order and organizing chaos.
Look at the active expressions; he is setting the earth on foundations, he covers it with sea, he assigns a place for water and dry land. This is Genesis chapter one in a new and dynamic form. In common with Genesis, God speaks and things happen (7-9).
Words are powerful things. A novelist can create a world so convincing it pulls us in and we don’t want to leave it [4] . This ability of human beings to create a world of our own is one of the ways we take after our Father; here he is creating worlds out of words, but these ones really exist, they are solid and not figments of the human imagination!
So here is the might and majesty of God from another point of view, looking at the big stuff, oceans and mountains, which he moves around with a word.
He is the Lord of all the earth, but he is not just interested in the big stuff…
Lord of Lord of Creation Psalm 104:10-18
Now if you know any really great people you may notice that the greater they get the less time they have for all the little people. The higher your status, the more remote you become. So it may come as a surprise that the greatest being in existence is also the most approachable, the God of the big stuff is passionately concerned with the little things.
Do you remember Jesus saying this?
Not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows. [5]
This majestic God who leaves us prostrate at the splendour of his majesty is intimately involved with the well-being of the smallest of his creatures. So the poet picks a ridiculous animal to make the point – a wild donkey (11). It is quite a thought, you may be a mighty stallion or a ridiculous donkey, but God wants to make sure you have enough to drink!
Rainfall is next (13-15) and the earth soaks it up and produces everything we need. More than that; look at verse 15. Wine, oil and bread – God gives both the necessities and the luxuries and encourages us to enjoy them.
A lot of people don’t like our church’s strap line, Knowing God – Enjoying Life – Building Community. It is the ‘enjoying life’ bit that is unpalatable for some, we have grown up believing that enjoying things is sinful and should be stopped, and we are programmed to see misery as our birthright. Yet Psalm 104 tells us that God gives us the necessities (bread) but the luxuries (oil and wine; oil is a cosmetic and the wine is to gladden your heart!) – the New Testament tells us that God richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment [6] . Life may be tough, and we will often have to fight and struggle, but from time to time it is your sacred duty as a Christian to go out and enjoy yourself!
The more you look at the world that God has made, the more it is impossible to imagine how it could have come into being by chance. There are subtle and powerful systems in operation; everything has its place (16-19), everything works together, he is the Lord of Creation.
Lord of Time Psalm 104:19-26
Living creatures work to a rhythm, be it seasonal or diurnal, and God created the huge chunks of rock and gas that make this happen. And different creatures work their own shifts, be it crepuscular, nocturnal or diurnal. Think about this and you realize that there is profound wisdom in this design; he knows what he is doing (24).
Wise people can be a bit boring. There are lots of exciting things to do, but wise people don’t do them in case they get hurt, so wise people can lead a rather boring existence. This is what makes God so different –he is wise but never boring.
That is why the songwriter bursts into praise at this point (24-26). The earth is full of Gods creatures – look at the sea, you can’t count the creatures that inhabit it, and they all have a purpose, each one fulfills a function! But it may not be the function you expect… think of the biggest of them all – the mighty sperm whale – what is its purpose in the great scheme of things? To frolic, that’s what; for the Lord of time, it is reason enough to make something just for the fun of it!
He is the Lord of time. All these creatures work to a rhythm set by him.
Lord of Life Psalm 104:27-30
These verses may strike you as somewhat chilly – when you take away their breath they die and return to dust. But look at how death turns into life as this stanza continues; When you send your Spirit new life is born. Here is the thing we must all know, and internalize and absorb deeply into our being; He is the lord of life itself and we are dependent on him completely [7] .
He is Lord of our life; and he is Lord of the moment of our death.
A month or so ago I met with a guy who had recently lost his father. He grew up in a Christian home, went to church all his life. He was committed young people’s work and youth camps. But he said something to me that shocked me to the core, “Nothing I learned in all those years has prepared me for this”.
He had been taught that when people fall ill, you pray for them and they get healed. He cannot cope with the fact that spiritual reality is not that simple. God, the Lord of the moment of his father’s death, took his dad. This is what the songwriter tells us; when he takes away our breath we die and return to the dust. Faith – in it’s clearest form – is believing him, knowing and loving him, and refraining from trying to teach him his business. He does know best – even when it hurts so much.
And one day he will take you, and he will take your loved ones. We will not always be impressed with his timing, we may feel that he has treated us unfairly, but we know that he is Lord over the moment of our departure, and the faithful heart rests in this knowledge.
This is faith… to trust him in tragedy. Take this truth into your heart and you are ready for anything!
Lord of my heart Psalm 104:31-35
Now if you think that all of this explains anything you have not been listening! Every question we try to answer about God and his world only raises more questions we can’t answer. What is God like? How does he make things if he has no body? Can God make time go backwards? Why can’t we see God? Why doesn’t he always give us what we pray for?
I don’t know about you but I am suspicious of those Christians who seem to have all the answers at their fingertips – a Bible verse for every question. They remind me of those friends of mine who seem to be able to explain all the mysteries of the universe.
The whole point is that, however much we know, it only leads us to more questions we can’t answer and that leads us to adoration and worship of the creator God who is greater than anything we can imagine.
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live.
I will praise my God to my last breath!
May all my thoughts be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the Lord. [8]
Because if you are passionate about the natural world, you will be passionate about its designer, its builder, it’s engineer; the consummate artist behind everything.
[1] This is the NIV translation of verse 2
[2] Matthew 17:2-5 (New Living Translation)
[3] I got the idea for this image from the atheist children’s author Philip Pullman. In his book The Subtle Knife one of the characters can make windows between worlds using a special blade.
[4] I read this in a book review recently. “Certain writers create worlds that readers do not want to leave, ever. Extreme devotees of Austen do not simply enjoy her novels, they want to sit in the living room at Longburn with the Bennett sisters, drinking tea and analysing Darcy's behaviour”. If you know fans of Austen then you see how true this is. Tolkein wrote about our ability to be sub-creators of worlds.
[5] Matthew 10:29-31 (New Living Translation)
[6] 1 Timothy 6:17 (New Living Translation)
[7] On the wall of an ancient Egyptian temple is written a song of praise to the Egyptian God Aten – the Sun Disk. It goes like this: “When thou hast risen they live, when thou settest they die. It is a long hymn and it bears an incredible resemblance to Psalm 104 (have a look at verses 28-29). It is as though the songwriter were saying, “The Egyptians praise the sun, because that is all they know, but our God is greater than the sun… he made the sun!”
[8] Psalm 104:33-34 (New Living Translation)