Lord of Creation (Abide Devotion for August 26, 2016)

Psalm 104:1-9

¹ Praise the Lord, my soul. Lord my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty.

² The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent

³     and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters. He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind.

⁴ He makes winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants.

⁵ He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.

⁶ You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.

⁷ But at your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took to flight;

⁸ they flowed over the mountains, they went down into the valleys, to the place you assigned for them.

⁹ You set a boundary they cannot cross; never again will they cover the earth. ^[1]

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This psalm focuses on God as the creator and preserver of creation, poetically depicting God as being clothed with nature and inhabiting it.

But what struck me in these verses is the fallenness of God’s perfect creation.  Recent events around the world have illustrated how broken the creation is, groaning in its bondage (Romans 8).  In verse five the earth is depicted as never moving.  But the earth does move.  The horrible earthquake in central Italy reminds us of this aspect of the broken world.  The waters are not to cross their boundaries, but we’ve seen on the news the awful flooding in Louisiana.

Now, I’m not doubting the truth of the psalm.  The psalmist is poetically depicting the Lord’s rule and reign over creation.  But just as we display our fallenness every day, even though the Lord is Lord of all, so also creation shows its brokenness as well.

Jesus’ cross and resurrection is for our redemption, our salvation.  But not only ours.  He came to bring reconciliation to all the earth, all the creation.

So my prayer today is for those who are especially suffering because of the brokenness of the fallen creation.  I’m praying for those in Italy who are suffering because of the earthquake. For those in Louisiana who are afflicted by flooding.   Praying for those who have lost much because of the wildfires in our own state.  There is no lack of the evidence of the “groaning” of creation.  And no lack of people to pray for.  May God in His mercy bless them all.

What is the Word leading you to pray about today?

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^[1] The New International Version. (2011). (Ps 104:1–9). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.