Rev Rod Benson, Blakehurst Baptist Church

6.30 pm, Sunday July 30, 2000

Psalm 104

When American poet John Crowe Ransom published his first book in 1919, he titled it Poems about God. Psalm 104 is another poem about God ö one of the most majestic and profound reflections on God and his works ever penned.

American theologian Walter Brueggemann describes this psalm as ãan extended celebration of the goodness and awesome character of creation.ä English academic Derek Kidner observed that ãvariety and breadth, sharpness of detail and sustained vigour of thought, put this psalm of praise among the giants.ä Nineteenth century London preacher C.H. Spurgeon cast the psalm as ãone of the loftiest and longest sustained flights of the inspired muse.ä When eminent Anglican preacher and pastor John Stott wrote his Favorite Psalms, this psalm was among them.[1]

Psalm 104 is a song of sustained praise to God, celebrating and revering his worth. It commences with a call to praise (v 1a); suggests how God reveals himself in the natural environment (vv 1b-4); describes some of the ways in which God created and sustains the universe (vv 5-30); and closes with a prayer that God will rejoice in his creation, and a commitment to lifelong praise of God (vv 31-35).

Unlike many of the biblical psalms, ãwhile praise psalms are filled with the speakerâs emotions, we do not look at the speaker. Instead we look with the speaker at God.ä[2] There is no plea for help, no request for provision, no cry for vindication: simply pure and unclouded praise. When did you last pause to allow your spirit the luxury of sustained praise and gratitude toward God?

At a first reading, it is clear that Psalm 104 is about God as Creator and sustainer of the world. On a closer reading, we discover that its structure loosely reflects the six Days of creation in Genesis 1.

Verses 1-4 correspond to the first two days of creation (Gen 1:3-8 ö where God creates light and establishes the sky). Some environmentalists, science fiction enthusiasts and others live as though God and the universe were synonymous. They often identify the forces of nature, and natural substances, with God.

This is pantheism, denying the personality and transcendence of God. Psalm 104 eloquently refutes pantheism. While God ãwraps himself with light as with a garment; [and] stretches out the heavens like a tent . . .. makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the windä (vv 2-4), he has not become light or clouds or wind.

In contrast to virtually every other ancient culture, Israel understood that God was distinct from nature. Next time you hear the words, ãMay the Îforceâ be with you,ä consider what the Îforceâ may reveal about the God who created it!

God is distinct from creation, but not distant or remote from it. He is spirit, and therefore in his essential being invisible, yet he makes himself known through the natural environment ö its systems, rhythms, events and creatures. ãGodâs eternal power and character canât be seen. But from the beginning of creation, God has shown what these are like by all he has madeä (Rom 1:20a, CEV).

Verses 5-8 correspond to Day 3 of creation (Gen 1:9-13 ö where God separated land and water, allowing the continents to emerge from the primeval ocean, and plants and trees to appear). Often in Scripture the sea (and especially the ocean) is regarded as malevolent, or seen to symbolise evil structures or people. And the Israelites were lovers of the land, not the sea. They tended to establish communities in the desert or plains, not on the coast. To them, the sea was dangerous and unpredictable.

Yet God created even the sea and all its teeming life forms, and the sea responds to his command (vv 5-9, 25-26). Even ãleviathanä (v 26), the mythological monster of the deep ocean, perhaps a whale or giant squid, is merely Godâs aquatic entertainer, conceived and created by him, ãformed to frolic there,ä for his pleasure.

In verses 5-8 the verbs are in past tense, describing Godâs original acts of creation. The verbs in verses 10-23 are mostly in present tense. We have seen that Christians whose worldview is drawn from Scripture are not pantheists because they donât equate God with nature. Neither are they deists, because they donât believe in a God who created everything but who never interacts with his creation.

God retains a vital and detailed interest in every aspect, every moment, of his beautiful creation. He did not merely create the universe and leave it to function by itself, as a clock maker may construct a magnificent clock, wind it up, and leave it on a shelf to run down by itself, taking no further interest in it.

God is distinct from his creation, but not remote, and not passive: he is constantly and actively involved with the universe and everything in it ö sustaining, providing, nurturing and renewing each creature and plant. That is the significance of the present tense verbs in verses 10-23.

ãThe world is impressive and to be celebrated. But it has no independent existence . . . The world is well-ordered and reliable. But on its own, it has no possibility of survival or well-being. All of that is daily gift.ä[3]

The psalm affirms humanity as part of creation, similarly blessed (vv 14-15). Wine, oil and bread were staples of life in ancient Near Eastern culture, and each requires ingenuity and purposeful labour to be produced. With human life comes responsibility: plants are cultivated; food is produced.

ãThe sun rises . . . People go out to their work and to their labour until eveningä (vv 22a, 23, NRSV). Too easily we reduce Godâs magnificent design to a bland reflection of the reality, or transform it into a secular counterfeit. ãLife is not simply a task to be achieved, an endless construction of a viable world made by effort and human ingenuity. There is a givenness to be relied on, guaranteed by none other than God.ä[4] Purposeful labour is part of the order of creation. Do your work, then, with a consciousness of Godâs presence, in response to God, in honour of God. Treat your work as part of what it means to be human, as part of your daily worship. You too were created for Godâs pleasure.

Verses 19-23 correspond to Day 4 of creation (Gen 1:14-19 ö where God designates the sun and moon as timekeepers). Here God provides night for nocturnal animals to seek food (vv 20f), and day for people to work (v 23). There is a time to labour, and a time to rest. There is a God-designed rhythm to the good life, a gift given by God for plants and animals and people alike ö ãa regularity that brings no monotony but only enrichment.ä[5]

Verses 24-26 correspond to Day 5 of creation (Gen 1:20-23 ö the creation of creatures of the sea and air). The vast diversity and beauty of life on earth give us some idea of the wealth of Godâs creativity and resources, and the range and precision of his thoughts.

Verses 27-30, and verse 23, correspond to Day 6 of creation (Gen 1:24-31 ö where God creates animals and people, and provides food for all). God maintains the rhythms of life itself: birth and death. Everything about life, even consciousness itself, is dependent on the life-giving Spirit of God.

The psalmist now brings his awesome reverie to a close in verses 31-34, expressing the hope that God will rejoice in his creation even as creation rejoices in God. As God surveyed his newly created worlds and affirmed them as ãvery goodä (Gen 1:31), so his human creation echoes back conscious adoring agreement.

There is just one discordant note in this symphony of praise to the Creator ö verse 35: ãBut may sinners vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more.ä Every creature possesses a profound creaturely trust in the daily working of the systems of which they are a part, and profound creaturely gratitude for the order, reliability and care provided by God. The one thing spoiling Godâs resplendent creation is the rebellious human heart that revolts against God, turning trust on its head, and gratitude into greed.

ãThe world is a free gift from God, but with it comes an expectation and a cost . . . Every generation learns what the first humans in the garden learned (Genesis 2-3).ä[6] Uniquely gifted with God-image and God-consciousness, humans are moral agents and therefore possess the power to distort the harmony and desecrate the holiness of Godâs creation. How frequently we exercise that power to fuel our own trivial pleasures and fruitless ends, and with what tragic results!

But the psalmist speaks now from beyond his or her battles with self and sin, having emerged on the side of God, and expressing a desire for a pure creation, and the reclaiming of Godâs world for God alone ö a sacred place where unrepentant sinners and the unregenerate wicked cannot come.

The glory of the Lord will indeed endure forever, and the righteous will share his unspeakable eternal joy. But sinners will perish.

ãHow many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures . . . Praise the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lordä (vv 24, 35b).

Copyright © 2000 Rod Benson. All rights reserved. Sermon 332, Blakehurst Baptist Church, Sydney, Australia, on Sunday July 30, 2000. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: New International Version (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1980).

[1] Walter Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms (Minneapolis: Augsburg Press, 1984) 31; Derek Kidner, Psalms 73-150 (Leicester: IVP, 1975) 367; Charles H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David Volume 2 (Peabody MA: Hendrickson, n.d.) 301; John R.W. Stott, Favorite Psalms (Chicago: Moody, 1988).

[2] ãPraise psalm,ä in Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (ed. Leland Ryken et al; Downers Grove: IVP, 1998) 659.

[3] Bruegemann, 32.

[4] Bruegemann, 26.

[5] Kidner, 371.

[6] Bruegemann, 33.