#DailyDevotion Give Thanks To The LORD For His Creation
Psalm 104 Give Thanks my soul, bless the LORD! O LORD my God, You are very great. You dress in majesty and splendor, 2wrap Yourself in light as a garment, stretch out the heavens like tent curtains, 3lay the beams of Your home in water, make the clouds Your chariot, and move on the wings of the wind. 4You make Your angels winds and Your servants flames of fire.
As many of the psalms before this one and many more after this one, this one two is a call of praise and thanksgiving. Again, like the previous psalm, our conscious mind speaks to our soul to give thanks to the LORD. To thank the LORD is to bless the LORD. So at the end of a divine service, the pastor may shout, “Bless we the LORD!” and we respond, “Thanks be to God!” The rest of the psalm is giving thanks to God for all creation and His sustaining it.
Creation declares the glory of God. The LORD wraps Himself up with it. He is not creation. He is the Creator. Yet the LORD clothes Himself with light and wraps Himself with the heavens. The sun, the moon and the stars are not to be worshiped. They point us to their Creator. The depths of the oceans and the clouds, majestic as there are, are merely His servants. His angels are made wind or spirits and they are flames of fire. They are not material beings but spiritual ones. They too are not to be worshiped but they serve the LORD pointing us to Him.
5You set the earth on its foundations never to be shaken. 6 You covered it with deep water as a garment, the waters standing over the mountains. 7When You threatened the waters, they fled, when You thundered at them, they ran away – 8the mountains rising and the valleys sinking down to the place You appointed for them. 9They can’t cross the boundary You set or come back to cover the earth.
We see direct allusions to the creation account in Genesis 1 here. As the LORD made the earth He made it covered with waters. But when He spoke there was dry land, the waters fled and ran away. Such imagery gives us the sense of urgency of His word. The LORD made the dry land, with mountains and valleys as He so desired. He set boundaries for the water that they did not cover the land as they once did. Of course we know He did allow it once but again, His voice dried up the land for us to live upon.
10You make water gush from springs into the ravines and flow between the hills 11to let every animal in the field drink, so the wild donkeys can quench their thirst. 12Beside the water nest the birds of the air, singing among the leaves. 13From Your home above You water the hill-country, and satisfy the world by what you do, 14making grass grow for the cattle and plants for man to cultivate to get food from the ground:
The dry land was going to be populated with animal life and human life. It would be populated with vegetation. For all these things to live, He provides the springs, creeks and rivers to flow. The LORD sends rain to all these things so they may live and grow. So He provided for both man and beasts, calling forth vegetation from the ground and providing the vegetation what it needed to grow so man and beast may live off the vegetation. How marvelous it is that He provides for His creation.
15wine to cheer up a man, olive oil to make his face shine, and bread to strengthen him.
It was not enough to just provide the basic necessities to man. He made wine to cheer up man, olive oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen him. We should bless the LORD for all His benefits to us. He blesses us more than we need just to survive. He gives to make us glad.
Gracious Father, You created the heavens and the earth and everything in them for the benefit of man. Give us thankful hearts so we may forever bless you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.