Praise Him All the Earth!
About every other year I try to read the entire Bible through. I’m doing it again this year. Currently I’m in First Chronicles. A couple of nights ago I was reading the 16th chapter where it says King David “first appointed the singing of praises to the Lord by Asaph and his kindred.” The verses that follow (vs. 7-36) appear to be a medley from a number of Psalms. In these verses God is offered praise and thanksgiving for a number of reasons. Not surprisingly, one of those reasons is He is the Creator.
In v. 30 it says, “Worship the Lord in holy splendor; tremble before him, all the earth.” When all the earth is called to worship God one might think the writer is calling all humans to worship but it truly is “all the earth” that is exhorted to praise God for verse 32 says “Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it.” Later the writer says “the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord.”
How do you explain this? I honestly don’t know. Perhaps the biblical writers were only speaking figuratively and the idea of the sea, field and trees praising God is not to be taken literally. But then again, who are we to say that all of Creation does not, in fact, join together in offering praise to its Creator?
Considering the fact that we humans do a pretty lousy job offering God praise I hope that somehow, someway, the Creation does in fact offer continuous praise to God. There have certainly been times when I have been in the mountains, beside the sea or in the desert and felt that all of Creation was indeed worshiping God. I’d like to think those moments were not just my imagination getting carried away but were, instead, nature responding to the biblical call to “worship the Lord…all the earth.” In Colossians 1:16 Paul says concerning Jesus, “all things were created by him and for him.” That being the case, “all things” should join in offering their Creator praise and that includes us.
–Chuck
(The field of flowers and ocean scene above were taken on my recent trip to California. I believe in their own way they, too, offer God praise.)