Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Praising the Creator | The Writings | Psalm 104

Episode Date: August 29, 2024

Why do you praise God? Is it because He saved you? Because He knows you? Because He loves you? In today’s episode, Patrick shares how the author of Psalm 104 praises God for a different reason: His creation. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 104

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. Why do you praise God? Because he rescued you? Because he saved you? Because he knows you. Because he loves you.

Those are all superb reasons to praise him. But the Bible starts in a different place. In Genesis 1, we meet God as a triune creator, father, son, and Holy Spirit, conspiring together to make a universe of grandeur and beauty. Just stop and imagine. The universe is 13.5 billion years old. God is eternal. He's older than that. And it all began with an explosion from a point smaller than the tip of a needle.

There are more stars in the universe than grains of sand on Earth, at least a billion trillion. And there are somewhere between 200 billion and 2 trillion galaxies in the universe, full of stars and nebulous and planets entirely unique from one another. And who created this universe from nothing, who oversees the laws of physics, who can number the stars and speak intimately of their every detail, there's only one being, and will only ever be one being, the Creator God. He's not distant from his creation, but well acquainted with every single Adam. And it's not a small miracle that of all the galaxy stars and planets, he has chosen one upon which

he has poured particular care and devotion, our planet, the planet Earth. this garden for us, and he calls us to be his co-rulers, to reflect his glory into the world even as we praise him. How could any creature deserve to reflect so great a creator? How could any mind approach the mind of the one who made all things and knows all things? And yet, that's what we've been invited to do, to glorify him, to study his creation, to draw near to his heart and his head. Doesn't that make you want to praise him? I mean, who is like him? Who compares to him? Who deserves our praise and trust more than him. Psalm 104 puts words to that praise. It gives us words to sing to our Creator God. It poetically describes how he created all things, how he guides all things, and superintends

over all things unto his glory and our delight. Verse one, praise the Lord my soul. Lord, my God, you are very great. You are clothed with splendor and majesty. The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment. He stretches out the heavens like a tent. and lays the beams of the upper chambers on their waters. He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. He makes winds his messengers, flames of fire, his servants. He set the earth on its foundations. It can never be moved.

You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment. The waters stood above the mountains, but at your rebuke the waters fled. At the sound of your thunder, they took flight. They flowed over the mountains. They went down into the valleys, to the places you assigned for them. You set a boundary they cannot cross.

Never again will the waters cover the earth. He makes springs pour water into the ravines. It flows between the mountains. They give water to all the beasts of the field. The wild donkeys quench their thirst. The birds of the sky nest by the waters. They sing among the branches. He waters the mountains from his upper chambers.

The land is satisfied by the fruit of his work. He makes grass grow for the cattle and plants for people to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth, wine that gladdens human hearts, oil to make their faces shine, and bread that sustains their hearts. The trees of the Lord are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted. There the birds make their nests. The stork has its home in the junipers. The high mountains belong to the wild goats. The crags are a refuge for the hyracks. He made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down. The psalmist continues like this for 14 more verses, but I want to make some observations. The first is that God cares for all of his creation,

not just humans. This passage says that he waters his mountains and trees. He gives food and drink to the donkeys, the beast and the cattle. He gives shelter to the birds. And later verses, the psalmist describes God's provision for predator and prey alike. It describes his care for the fish and the whales and all life in the seas. The psalmist concludes in verse 27, all creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up. When you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. We are God's vice regents in the world.

We've been invited to join God's plan to conserve and care for his creation. Christians may debate how best to do this, and that's okay, but we should all agree that God loves and cares for what he's made, and that because he's called us to reflect him, we should love and care for his creation as well. We cannot praise the Creator in one breath and then decimate his creation in the next. So we should praise him as Creator and reflect his praiseworthy goals for creation. The Psalm ends on what might strike us as a strange note. The poet transitions from praise of God for his creation to a meditation on good and evil. In verse 33 we read,

I will sing to the Lord all my life. I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. my meditation be pleasing to him as I rejoice in the Lord. But, here's the interesting part, may sinners vanish from the earth, and the wicked be no more. Praise the Lord, my soul. Praise the Lord. So why does the psalmist end here? I think it's for one very profound reason. If we trust God to superintend over the laws of physics and biology to bring about the good of his creation, then how can we not trust God to superintend over the moral law? of the universe for the good of his creation. Just as pollution mars the beauty of his world, human sin mars the beauty of the universe. Sin vandalizes God's creation and God's creation

cannot be truly beautified until sin is eradicated, until sinners vanished from the earth, as the psalmist says. Now, of course, that includes all of us. We are all sinners. But the good news is that Jesus has not only forgiven our sin, he's also refurbished us morally. In this life, we're being made holy and in the resurrection, we will be perfect as he is perfect. And so, in a strange way, part of how God protects his creation is by transforming humanity from sinful rebels into holy stewards of all that he's made. No one listening to this doubts that gravity will cease to exist tomorrow. We know that the laws of nature carry on without ceasing. That's God's work, praise him. And in the same way, know that God's moral law is unchanging. It will not end.

That's God's work. Praise him.