Instruction
Scripture: Psalm104:27-35
The first three-quarters of this psalm praise God for His
glory, His acts of creation, and His continued provision for creation. This
text is the last quarter of the psalm and it, too, focuses on God’s providence,
confessing that God created and sustains all things. The psalm then moves into
a prayer which asks God to continue caring for His creation and for the
psalmist to be kept in awe to continue to worship God for all He has done. The
psalm functions as a reminder of our dependence upon God for all things, and
helps us to see God’s gracious provision as a reason to worship Him and to not
sin against Him.
Teaching
God made us and everything that exists. That message
resounds through the whole of the Scriptures. We are all dependent upon God for
every aspect of our lives. He did this for His glory and for the joy of
creating. That He created us is one of the reasons we worship Him and why we
are accountable to Him.
The psalmist wanted to live in a right relationship with His
Creator. Sin is a violation of that relationship. Wickedness is not what we
were created for, so the psalmist longs for both to be removed from the world.
Instead he longs for his soul to bless and praise the Lord his maker.
Life
Some believe that this world and all that is in it came into
being through some kind of cosmic chance. In that view you and I are nothing
more than accidents. In that view there can be no sin, no right or wrong,
beyond what our opinions form into sin.
The view the Bible presents is very different. We are not
accidents. We were created, fed, sustained, and provided for by our gracious
loving God. He loves us so much that He would make us. Being created means that
we are accountable to our Creator and we know our sin. But once again we see
our God’s love because He gave His only-begotten Son to rescue us from our sin.
Prayer
This prayer is written
in the themes of Instruction, Thanksgiving, Confession, and Petition.
O Lord God, we look to You as our Creator and the source of
our lives. You provide food for us. If You were to withdraw Yourself from us,
we would certainly perish. For Your loving kindness in creating us we worship
You and seek to live according to Your will.
We thank You for this world that You’ve created, the
creatures that roam it, and the lives You’ve given to us. Thank You for
graciously providing a world in which we have all that we need to support this
body and life. And thank You for putting it into our hearts to worship and obey
You.
We confess that sometimes we see this world and even
ourselves as things that just exist separate from You, our Creator. We also
sometimes think that just because someone doesn’t believe in You they are free
to live however they please without regard to Your will. Indeed, we ourselves
sometimes worship created things instead of You. Forgive us!
We pray that You would continue to sustain this world and
our lives. Guide us to use this world’s resources wisely, with thankfulness to
You, and in obedience to Your will. Amen.
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