Devotion:
Read Psalm 104:1-13.
As I read this passage, I thought of my English grammar teachers’ admonitions not to change person (first, second, and third person) in a paragraph. The writer breaks this rule, changing from the second person to the third in verse 2 and back to the second person in verse 6. This works to give a powerful image of the writer praising and speaking directly to God and then turning to address us in witness of God’s awesome creating power. The psalm emphasizes the power of God, clothed in splendor and majesty and wearing light as a garment. The results of God’s acts of creation are solid and unshakable, as God provides order out of chaos. In Israel’s culture, expanses of deep water were scary and dreaded images, and God covered everything including even the mountains with water and then dispersed it to valleys and places to which he set boundaries, with water never again to cover the earth. The image of water as a destructive force is replaced by images of its life-giving properties for the land and all creatures.
Psalm 104 sings of the Spirit of God bringing forth life and then sustaining life in an orderly, predictable way. It speaks of the environment as God-centered and God-dependent, reminding us of our role of stewardship of God’s creation.
Personal Worship Option:
Give thanks today for the beauty and balance in God’s creation, with reminders of that all around us. Reflect on the way God left little to chance but instead created in an orderly, sustainable way. Give thanks to God who continues to bring order and abundant life when we submit to God’s will.
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