Psalm 104:24 O LORD, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.
See God in the World He Created
We all know that from time immemorial to this very day, there have been people who attribute what they see, the natural world, to some god they have concocted in their own minds. Even today, if you were to go into the deep jungle somewhere, you could find people who still worship idols in an attempt to imagine an answer to the world they see around them.
Indeed, this world is an amazing place! While we should reject pagan idols, I think that those of us who live in a modern country have the tendency to rationalize God right out of the world He has created. This is definitely a mistake.
Psalm 104:24 says, “O LORD, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.” This entire psalm is a picture of God in His world. It talks about the animals He has created and the magnificent, geographical characteristics that define this world. But let me take one element alone and show you how we should not take God out of the picture. Let’s look at water.
Verse 1 says, “Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.” Then it says, “Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain.” There is a picture here of natural phenomena, but beyond this poetic language is a truth that there is a God behind all that we see.
Verse 3 says, “Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind.” You have water, clouds, and wind. Then, verse 6 says, “Thou coverest it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.” He is talking about the Flood. Verse 7 continues, “At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.”
It goes on to talk about how those same waters ended up in springs that flowed to the beasts of the field and quenched the thirst of all that live on the earth. What is interesting is that you get this picture of water in all its facets, both the power of water to destroy and also the power of water to give life.
Verses 25-26 say, “So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. There go the ships.” He goes on to talk about all the mighty creatures in the ocean.
These waters receded to their appointed places and gave life to the earth. God has also used water to judge the earth. The lesson here is that we should not fail to see God in the world that He has created. We are not pagans who believe in some made-up god to answer every phenomenon we see in nature. Poetically, the psalmist talks about a real God Who literally created this universe and Who is in control of it even to this day.
When you see water, a storm, creatures that God has made, the magnificence of the mountains, the depths of the oceans, or the simplicity of a bird in the morning, do not forget that there is a God behind it all, and that this God knows and cares about you.