READ Psalm 104:19–24. 19 He made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun knows when to go down. 20 You bring darkness, it becomes night, and all the beasts of the forest prowl. 21 The lions roar for their prey and seek their food from God. 22 The sun rises, and they steal away; they return and lie down in their dens. 23 Then people go out to his work, to their labor until evening. 24 How many are your works, LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
THE EARTH IS FULL OF YOUR CREATURES. Verse 24 stops for reflective worship. There are 5,000 known species of sponges on the ocean floor and over 300,000 species of beetles. There are multitudes of different flowers, trees, birds, and animals, some of them enchantingly beautiful, others enchantingly odd. Why? They reveal the unsearchable wealth of God’s creativity, the infinite range of his thought, his love of beauty, even his sense of humor. And because it is all designed by divine “wisdom,” this verse invites us not just to marvel at it all but to explore and study it too. It is an invitation to both science and art.
Prayer: Lord, your Word says that your creatures tell us about your existence and greatness, if we don’t stop our ears to it. Open my ears! “In reason’s ear they all rejoice, And utter forth a glorious voice. Forever singing as they shine, ‘The hand that made us is divine.’”104 Amen.