Day 21: Psalm 65

In the mind of the Psalmist, the world was a giant art gallery with no price tags. We live in a world where we are taught that everything in creation is really just filled with lifeless matter.

Even as Christians, we have a hard time shaking our western worldview and seeing the mountains as the psalmist would. In the Psalms, the whole creation is pulsing with God given life. Notice Psalm 65:

You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds, God our Savior, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas, who formed the mountains by your power, having armed yourself with strength, who stilled the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations. The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy. Psalm 65:5-8

Every day, you and I can look out and see mountains. We have a choice with what we see. It is either the natural scenery that happens to be where we live, or it is the demonstration of God’s power looming around us. There is a connection between these “worship” Psalms and the Psalms we read of despair and hope. Many of the Psalms are written in horrible circumstances, and all the people have is a promise from God that he will be faithful to them, even though it didn’t seem so. The mountains, the seas, all of creation was a reminder that if God can transform matter, well, then what can He do with the circumstances of our lives? On this Sunday morning, we may not be able to put on our Sunday clothes and go to church. However, we can look around. All of creation is putting on its finest clothes, singing it’s songs, and preparing for a celebration. We experience creation, from a harvest to a sunrise, but we do not make it happen.

The God who made the mountains around us is the facilitator of this worship. Let us listen in. Let us see the mountains as a reminder of a God who holds every bit of matter under his domain, and then let us trust him with our burdens and worries.  

Jared