Psalm 104:1-32, 35b

One of the most amazing things to watch is parents with their newborn babies.  The look in their eyes is unlike anything you’ll see anywhere else.  It is a look of wonder, a realization of the miracle that they’ve been a part of, the miracle of creating life.  It is a look of love.  One father commented that he never really understood love at first sight until he first laid eyes on his new daughter.  It is a look of hope, full of wonderful dreams and plans for that child.  And it is a look of fear, as the new parents begin to recognize the enormous task ahead of them.  Mostly, it is a look of pure joy.

It must be something like that, what you might see in God’s eyes as he looks at the world he has created.  This God who creates out of nothing, whose vastness we can never understand, whose love is unlike that of any other, whose will is always for our good.  His heart is also full of love and hope and fear, because he knows better than any earthly parent would what lies ahead for each new life.  But God’s heart is also surely full of joy, joy over his creation, joy over life.

Psalm 104 describes some of the wonders of the created world and makes the statement that God rejoices over all of it:  springs, mountains, animals, birds, fish, grass, and plant life.  God provides for the beasts of the field, the creatures of the sea, and all of humankind.  God made the moon to mark the seasons, and a sun that knows when to rise and when to set.  God made time for both light and darkness, and time for men and women to work.  God wraps himself in light.  He makes the clouds his chariots and he rides on the wings of the wind.  And, can you imagine, God even created one sea creature for the sole purpose of playing!  God made the leviathan to frolic in the ocean. 

We sometimes take the world around us for granted, which must cause a sense of sadness in God’s heart.  After all, he took such joy in creating it, and after each stage of creation, according to Genesis, God declared it to be good.  When you pay attention to the world around you, you begin to share the joy of God over all creation.  The smell of the lake and the sound of the water as it ripples up to the shore.  The flowers whose bright colors catch our eye.  The warmth of the sun as it shines on our backs, the songs of the birds in the trees, the smell of the bark mulch that you spread around your shrubbery, the sound of the wind in the trees. 

Of course, it can be a little hard to appreciate some of God’s creatures.  For example, horseflies, mosquitoes, and fire ants.  There is a story about a church camp for children, where the counselors were leading a discussion about the purpose God had for everything that he had created.  The children began to think of good reasons for the clouds, the trees, the rocks, rivers, animals, and just about everything they could see around them.  Then one child asked, “If God has a good purpose for everything, why did he create poison ivy?”  That one had the counselors stumped.  But another child gave a great answer. “God made poison ivy to teach us that there are some things we should keep our hands off of!”  Great answer!

There are many scientists who are not reluctant to discuss the fact that the universe had to have been created by something greater than random chance.  Even Carl Sagan, the famous astronomer and author, has recognized the complexity of the design of creation, in spite of his own profession to having no belief in God or the Bible.  In his book, The Dragons of Eden, he described the complexity of just one chromosome: 

A single human chromosome contains twenty billion bits of information.  How much information is twenty billion bits?  What would be its equivalent, if it were written down in an ordinary printed book in modern human language?  Twenty billion bits are the equivalent of about three billion letters.  If there are approximately six letters in an average word, the information content of a human chromosome corresponds to about five hundred million words.  If there are about three hundred words on an ordinary page of printed type, this corresponds to about two million pages.  If a typical book contains five hundred such pages, the information content of a single human chromosome corresponds to four thousand volumes.  It is clear, then, that the chromosome contains an enormous library of information.  It is equally clear that so rich a library is required to specify as exquisitely constructed and intricately functioning object as a human being.

There is a story about a science professor who constructed a planetarium, a precisely scaled model of the known universe.  A student came into his office and asked him who made it.  The professor said, “No one.”  The student laughed and asked again, “Come on, who made this piece of work?”  The profession responded again, “No one.  It just happened.”  The student was getting confused and a little angry, and the professor finally said, “Well, if you can go out of this classroom and look at nature around you and believe it just happened, then you can also believe this precise piece of work just happened.”

David Ben-Gurion, a former prime minister of Israel, once commented, “Anyone who doesn’t believe in miracles isn’t a realist.”  Look around you this afternoon and ask yourself how many miracles it takes for this life to work.  The miracle of photosynthesis produces oxygen, the miracle of a human nose and lungs convert that oxygen to provide for the body, which the vascular system pumps through miles of intricate plumbing, if you will, and back again, disposing of the waste products as you exhale.  The miracle of sunshine, from a sun just exactly at its precise location from the earth, allows for things to grow, including food, which is miraculously processed into nourishment by means of our gastrointestinal system, which also provides for waste removal.  The miracle of rain provides water for the grass in our yards and the crops in the fields.  The miracle of sound allows us to communicate with each other, by means of vocal cords and a diaphragm.  The miracle of hearing allows us to hear one another speak, laugh, cry, or pray.  The miracle of electricity keeps our homes cool in the summer and warm in the winter.  The list goes on and on.

Take time today to notice the miracles.  And take time to rejoice over the wonderful works of God the Creator.  Think about hummingbirds and jellyfish, dandelions and orchids, cotton and corn, sea horses and pack mules, pine trees and azaleas, oaks and dogwoods.  Think about the way the sound of the water relaxes your mind.  Take a minute to look at the clouds the way you did when you were a child, and notice what kinds of shapes you find.  Look up at the sky tonight and try to count the stars and pick out the constellations.  Look into a friend’s eyes and think about how many good times you’ve had together.  Hold your children or grandchildren and think about the miracle of life.  Laugh.  Sigh with contentment.  Walk through the grass.  Pet your dog or cat.  Look at photographs and remember fun times.  Rejoice!  God does.

Leslie Brandt has written a wonderful paraphrase of Psalm 104 which is a fitting way to close this sermon: 

O Lord, how great and all-powerful you are!  And how beautiful is the world you created for our habitation!  Even before man was brought forth from the dust, you prepared for him a place in which to live and grow.  And everything man saw about him reflected the beauty and power of the living God.  There was clean air.  Pure water from snowcapped mountains flowed through green valleys and gathered together to become great lakes.  The skies shone with a million lights.  The land brought forth flowers and fruits to delight the eye and the palate of God’s creatures.  And every part of the land and the waters that covered the land and the skies that looked down upon the land were filled with uncountable forms of life; the world was vibrant and alive.  Your power and your beauty were spread throughout the universe, but it was only upon the heart of man that you imprinted your image.  And this creature, in his short stay upon this world, was destined to be your child and co-worker in the ever-continuing process of creation.  Your creative activity has never ceased.  It continues in and through the life of creature human.  Limited and fallible as human is, his mind and his hands are assigned to corral your life-giving energies and to direct them in controlling and replenishing the earth that life might be given and sustained throughout the world.  O Lord, how great and all-powerful you are!  And how beautiful is the world you created for our habitation!