Reading 18—Praising Our Creative Creator
Psalm 104

READ PSALM 104

This psalm poignantly describes creation and most importantly points to God as the Artist behind the canvas and the Creator responsible for creation. There is an interesting Hebrew word used in this psalm (yada) which delicately mingles confession and praise as flowing from the same heart. This dynamic duo of praise and confession reminds us that this is a worship psalm and that God is the object of our attention. Confession comes when we know that the One that we pour our hearts out to is the One who is always “faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Praise, particularly in this psalm of creation, is not just enjoying the quiet simplicity of a Walden Pond, as much as being utterly caught up in the hidden mystery and overwhelming grandeur of creation. To the psalmist it is impossible not to notice the signature of the Creator written all over creation.

As someone has said, “praise is simply letting off esteem.” God is the focus of our highest praise and blessing not because He needs it, but through our humble transparent confession and our awestruck wonder of creation, we are the ones who are fulfilled in our connection with Him. As C.S. Lewis wrote, “I think we delight to praise that which we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment, it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.” It is frustrating to discover a new book or a good joke and have no one to share it with. David is inviting us in this psalm to enjoy God as Lewis shares elsewhere to praise is to be, “drowned in, dissolved by, that delight which, far from remaining pent up within ourselves…, flows out from us incessantly in effortless and perfect expression.”

So, it is no wonder that this Psalm was written by a shepherd who, perhaps as he lay on his back at night under the brilliant luminous starlit sky, must have felt that he could reach out and touch one of God’s bright mysteries. This is the same shepherd who patiently tended to obstinate sheep and who relentlessly rescued many a runaway, who would know firsthand how praise was embedded in confession to a Good Shepherd who time and again rescued him.

David knew what true praise was as he wrote elsewhere, “Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless His Holy Name.” To bless is to surrender ourselves in abject wonder and in so doing to not only find ourselves but to find the heart of the Creator behind it all.

To Consider

Remember when you were so overtaken and awestruck by creation that you could not help but in utter silence, song, or prayer, give thanks to the Creator.

Remember when the act of confession before God was so freeing and exhilarating that you knew as David did, that our God is, “gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” How is this similar to the speechless-beyond-expression feeling we can have as we are caught up in the wonder of God’s creation? Does it make sense that the Spirit at times needs to intercede for us when, at such moments, words utterly escape us?

Take a moment to simply be still and know that He is God. As closing prayer time watch on YouTube the song, “So will I”

by Hillsong.

For 33 years Pastor Mike Stone has been blessed to serve thriving congregations of all sizes and ministry settings in Ohio, Florida and North Carolina. He currently resides in Hickory, NC with his wife Laura, serving as pastor of Mt. Pisgah Lutheran Church.