Rejoicing in His Works?*
Toward the end of Psalm 104, having spent thirty verses praising God’s greatness made manifest in Creation, the Psalmist says in verse 31: “May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works…” What God has created is worth an eternity of praise! It is the Psalmist’s hope that God can “rejoice in His works.”
We know that when God created the earth that following each day God paused and “saw that it was good.” Like an artist (or photographer) standing before his or her work, God looked upon what He had made and took delight in it. In the Psalmist’s words here he seems to be hoping that this delight will be ongoing, that God would always be able to take delight in what He had made. Did the Psalmist have reason for concern?
I don’t know if he did then or not but as we observe God’s Creation now there does, in fact, seem to be reason for concern. We have polluted the skies and water that once were clean. We have destroyed mountains and made new ones piled high with waste. We have hunted some of God’s creatures into extinction or destroyed their habitat to the point that they can no longer survive. We have poisoned the land and cut down the majority of the earth’s forests. If present day scientists are correct we have even altered the environment to the point where the climate is being changed in a detrimental fashion.
Is God still able to rejoice in His works? My guess is that God still does find much to delight in (just as we do) but I also cannot help but feel that God must experience some degree of sadness at the current state of the world. That which God created “good” has been marred. Out of love for God we should all seek to do everything we can to preserve and restore God’s Creation. It should be our concern, as it was the Psalmist’s, that “the glory of the Lord endure forever” and that God “rejoice in His works” always.
–Chuck
*This blog was originally posted August 23, 2009.