Abundance and Diversity – Psalm 104

A text – Psalm 104:24-34

²⁴ O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
²⁵ There is the sea, great and wide; creeping things innumerable are there, living things both small and great.
²⁶ There go the ships and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.

²⁷ These all look to you to give them their food in due season;
²⁸ when you give to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
²⁹ When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.
³⁰ When you send forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.

³¹ May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works—
³² who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke.
³³ I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
³⁴ May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord.

A reflection:

The psalmist is praising God for the abundance of Creation and also for its diversity and wonder. Big and small things, creeping things and majestic things, and food for every kind of thing created. Sea and land respond to God. God’s glory fills them all.

The psalmist is clear that God formed everything, and that God can take away their breath. But when God’s spirit is sent forth to them, everything is renewed.

In the week we celebrate the giving of the Holy Spirit to all who believed in Jesus, it’s good to remember that back hundreds of years further in time, people were singing of God’s glory in sending out the Spirit upon creation to renew it and give it life. We, like the psalmist, sing to the Lord as long as we live, while we have our being. God is worthy to be praised for the abundance and diversity of Creation and the wonder we feel to be part of it. Amen.

A prayer:

Lord God, thank you for loving us. Thank you for creating abundant and diverse life and sustaining it with your spirit. Help us to remember that your are the start of everything and can finish everything according to your will. Help us to rest comfortable in the knowledge of you, the author of our world. Amen.