Meditate on the word of the Lord with me:
Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35c
Bless the LORD, O my soul.
O LORD my God, you are very great.
You are clothed with honor and majesty,
wrapped in light as with a garment.
You stretch out the heavens like a tent,
you set the beams of your chambers on the waters,
you make the clouds your chariot,
you ride on the wings of the wind,
you make the winds your messengers,
fire and flame your ministers.
You set the earth on its foundations,
so that it shall never be shaken.
You cover it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
At your rebuke they flee;
at the sound of your thunder they take to flight.
They rose up to the mountains,
ran down to the valleys to the place
that you appointed for them.
You set a boundary that they may not pass,
so that they might not again cover the earth.
O LORD, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
Praise the LORD!
How do we bless God? What is it that we have to give God? The praise from our heart and our mind, the songs and prayers that cross our lips, these are the blessings we place at the feet of the Holy One. Yes, even praise offered out of duty is praise. Yet the praise that is purest and the greatest blessing to the giver and recipient is that offered from a grateful heart.
The beautiful praise of this song begins with God as this powerful other, in the distant reaches of our universe, the place where light begins. God gradually descends, closer and closer to the divine creation. The song will end with God on the face of the world where we live, shaping the life that surrounds us.
This God is so holy, so other, that only light is suitable for clothing. This God is so powerful that God stretches the stars, the planets, and moons to cover us with the same dexterity and sureness that parents pitch tents for their families in the desert. Every night God stops the journey to stretch this amazing cover over our heads. Every morning God gathers it up again.
The greatest of kings, the pharaohs, ride their barges down the river in order to see the full extent of their kingdom. God places the beams of heavenly chambers into the river of the firmament itself, regally observing the work of the people of God, and fully aware of the actions of those who oppose them.
The great kings ride their glorious chariots, decorated with precious metals, pulled by the noblest and most beautiful of horses. God rides a chariot of cloud through the sky, simple, yet beautiful beyond description. It is beyond human ability to create, changing shapes in the sky as might please its maker. The winds are the horses that pull the chariot of God: powerful, invisible, mysterious. As God travels, the divine one sends forth messengers: fire, flame, lightning make known the divine presence.
God set this world in its place. As God has clothed Godself with light, God clothes the world with water. The ancients saw water to be dangerous and destructive, the seas as chaos itself. Yet these rebellious waters retreat to where God sends them, and flee like disobedient children from his angry presence. Submissive, they follow their divinely prescribed course from the heavens, to the mountains, down the streams and rivers, to the seas. The waters may crash and rage, but never again will their rebellion be allowed to rage unbridled.
All the world submits to the power of God, because God made all of the world. As if this universe were not glorious enough, God populates this planet with life: diverse, plentiful, amazing. And among this life he creates the human. This humanity can see, can comprehend, and can praise the work of this Creator God.
So may we praise the name and work of God today.
Blessings,
Ron
