God’s Creative Power
Psalm 136 starts by saying to us “give thanks to the Lord of Lords”. And from verse 4, it goes on to say:
“To him who alone does great wonders, His love endures forever.
Who by his understanding made the heavens, His love endures forever.
Who spread out the earth upon the waters, His love endures forever.
Who made the great lights— His love endures forever.
The sun to govern the day, His love endures forever.
The moon and stars to govern the night; His love endures forever.”
(Psalm 136:4–9 NIV)
That phrase keeps repeating! All of these things are pictures of the way that God loves. And in this particular passage we can see God's love through his creative power.
Praise Him for Creation
The Psalmist said that we must give thanks to God and praise Him because He does great wonders. He made the heavens by his understanding. He spread out the earth upon the waters. He made the great lights, the sun, the moon and the stars. Isn't it wonderful to serve a God who is not made in our image, but who is far above anything we can ever imagine? Who beautifully and wonderfully created a majestic world?
Caring for Creation
Of course, we as human beings have to a large extent messed up God's creation. Our sinful nature makes us do all sorts of silly things. And one of those is to disrespect the beauty of God's creation. Here in South Africa, we have a particular litter problem. These days people will just throw papers out the car window. And so our streets are lined with garbage. It's sad because we live in a beautiful land, but so many of us disrespect that land.
There are all sorts of initiatives in the world to try and help us respect the planet more. Recycling, for example, or using materials that can be recycled instead of polystyrene and plastic and things like that. A lot of us think, oh that's just silly. But really, if we see the world as God's wonderful creation, if we see the heavens and the earth and the sun, the moon and the stars as God's beautiful creation, maybe we need to be asking ourselves, what can we be doing to care for this creation?
Marvel… and Commit
Take a moment today to marvel at God's world. Maybe the sun or the moon or the clouds or the stars are going to lead you to praise today. Or maybe the birds or the grass or the trees are going to lead you to worship. But then let's go further and ask ourselves, “How can I, as one of God's creations myself, care for this world that He's placed me on?”
We, as Christians, above all people, should be caring for the land that God so lovingly and creatively gifted us with.
