“Praise the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are magnificent. You are robed in splendor and majesty. He covers himself with light as if it were a garment. He stretches out the skies like a tent curtain, and lays the beams of the upper rooms of his palace on the rain clouds. He makes the clouds his chariot, and travels along on the wings of the wind” (Psalm 104:1-3 NET).
What a wonderful description of God! He is magnificent, robed in splendour and majesty, wearing light as if it were a garment, living and traveling in a place outside of our earth. How appropriate that John, in his first letter, would remind us that “God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Light, that which dispels the darkness of sin, is not only what God “wears” but it is what God is.
This magnificent, majestic God is the one who created all things. “He established the earth on its foundations; it will never be moved” (Psalm 104:5). Because the earth was created by God we can be confident that he will also sustain it. With God in charge, we have no worries.
Even when God destroyed all that was living with water, he was still in control. He brought the waters of the Flood and he also took care of the water.
“The watery deep covered it like a garment; the waters reached above the mountains. Your shout made the waters retreat; at the sound of your thunderous voice they hurried off – as the mountains rose up, and the valleys went down – to the place you appointed for them. You set up a boundary for them that they could not cross, so that they would not cover the earth again” (Psalm 104:6-9).
Notice that this is talking about the Flood, as we can see from verse 9: God set a boundary for the water so they would not cover the earth again.
One of the questions that people have concerning the Flood in the days of Noah is “where did the water go?” Notice what this psalm tells us: God didn’t evaporate the water or in some other way remove the waters that he sent. Instead he “adjusted” the earth – the mountains rose up and the valleys went down. Even in the oceans we find these mountains and valleys. God didn’t need to remove the water – he has the power to adjust the earth to accommodate it!
God, the creator of the earth and all life, the one who can adjust what he has made, is also the one who sustains all life. Yes, he used water to destroy the earth, but the water he sends also sustains life. The water he provides allows all living things to drink (Psalm 104:10-12) and also causes food to grow (Psalm 104:13-18).
God also gave us a way to mark time. “He made the moon to mark the months, and the sun sets according to a regular schedule” (Psalm 104:19). The sun and moon which God created on the fourth day of Creation not only were made to give us light but are also a means for marking time. And both night and day have a purpose (Psalm 104:20-23).
What a wonderful God we serve in providing all of this for us! What should our response to him be? May we echo the praise that the psalmist gives to God.
“How many living things you have made, O Lord! You have exhibited great skill in making all of them; the earth is full of the living things you have made…May the splendor of the Lord endure! May the Lord find pleasure in the living things he has made!… I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God as long as I exist!” (Psalm 104:24, 31, 33).
Jon Galloway