Variety: Psalm 104v24–30

Psalm 104.24–30, NKJV

O LORD, how manifold are Your works!
In wisdom You have made them all.
The earth is full of Your possessions –
This great and wide sea,
In which are innumerable teeming things,
Living things both small and great.
There the ships sail about;
There is that Leviathan
Which You have made to play there.

These all wait for You,
That You may give them their food in due season.
What You give them they gather in;
You open Your hand, they are filled with good.
You hide Your face, they are troubled;
You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.
You send forth Your Spirit, they are created;
And You renew the face of the earth.

Psalm 104 is no scientific catalogue. Yes, it describes the heavenly bodies and lists a whole range of animals and plants. But this is poetry, not David Attenborough.

Take this psalm literally and you’re in trouble. Only bad poems want to be taken literally. The essence of poetry is image, symbol and metaphor. Take verse 5, for example: ‘You … laid the foundations of the earth, so that it should not be moved for ever’. Does this mean that Copernicus was wrong to claim that the earth was moving round the sun?

If you read Psalm 104 and feel like saying, ’Well, that’s not very scientific,’ remember what kind of writing it is. Shakespeare wasn’t talking about meteorology when he penned the line, ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’

The same is true of our psalm. Tracing the creator’s wisdom in his works, the writer uses poetic language to express awe and wonder.

To ancient Israel’s neighbours, the world was a confusing blend of competing divine and demonic forces. The poetry of Israel tells of a different worldview. Psalm 104 recalls the moment of creation, when God called chaos to order.

Centuries ago, the pioneers of modern science concluded that the world had to make sense because God had made it. Science depends on nature being a system governed by laws.  Without natural constants, we can neither send people to the moon nor boil potatoes. The sixteenth century astronomer Johannes Kepler believed that a scientist’s job was to read God’s thoughts in the book of nature. And a couple of centuries later the physicist Lord Kelvin said, ‘If you think strongly enough, you will be forced by science to the belief in God’.

The writer of Psalm 104 puts it like this: ‘O LORD, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all’ (Psalm 104.24).

Respond
Take a walk and stop now and then to take a closer look at a branch swaying in the breeze, the structure of a leaf, or a soaring bird overhead. What might the intricacy of nature tell you about God? Take a moment to thank and praise him for the work of his hands.

Bible Society