Creation praises God
by Neil Bergmann
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I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live (Psalm 104:33).
Read Psalm 104:24–35
The recommended reading for today is Psalm 104:24–34,35b. That immediately made me think, why leave out part of one verse (Psalm 104:35a)? The ‘offending’ passage is: ‘But may sinners vanish from the earth, and the wicked be no more.’
Now, we are all sinners (as well as saints), so perhaps we are afraid that we are calling for our own destruction. Maybe we don’t like to ask God to punish people who are not much different from us.
However, we now live in the light of our post-resurrection understanding of what it means to be human, which changes how we understand such passages. At the same time, we are saints and sinners, as are all children of God. So maybe this problem verse is really asking God to get rid of the ‘sinner’ side of our nature and increase the ‘saint’ side.
This saint side grows as we praise God beside the praise of all other creatures, it grows as we acknowledge that it is God, not us, who is in control of the world, and it grows as we look at the world with awe and wonder.
Our sinner side is greedy, proud and reckless, and it believes we are in control. Our sinner side is small-minded, petty and vindictive. Let that side vanish from the earth and be no more.
Creator God, your creation is too wonderful, too awesome and too glorious for us to think we are in control. Help us give up our delusions of mastery and instead sing praises to you as long as we live. Amen.
Neil Bergmann worships at Our Saviour Lutheran Church, Rochedale, Queensland. He enjoys the quieter pace of life after retirement, being able to spend more time with his wife, Margit, and their daughter, Elina.
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