O Lord, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all. The earth is full of Your possessions.
— Psalm 104:24
OVERWHELMED by the beauty God has created, the psalmist uses his most picturesque language to try to describe God's handiwork.
He describes the rain cycle, how God lifts the water to the tops of the mountain where it then runs down in the stream, how the springs then break forth in the valleys so that the wild animals can quench their thirst, and how, though the water flows into the sea, the sea never overflows.
In all this, the psalmist sees God's wisdom. And as he contemplates the spectacular design and beauty of the things God created, the psalmist worshiped.
There are some people today who look at nature and see the same design, the same beauty the psalmist saw—but instead of worshiping God for His creation, they worship creation itself. They worship nature. How foolish to smell a rose and touch the softness of its petals and admire the intricacies of its design and the beauty of its coloring—and then conclude: "The rose is God." That's irrational.
THE ONLY RATIONAL THING TO DO WHEN ONE ENCOUNTERS THE BEAUTY OF A ROSE IS TO BREATHE IN ITS FRAGRENCE AND SAY: “THAT IS A CREATION OF MY GOD.”
And then, like the psalmist, we ought to worship the God of all that beauty—the God of the clouds, and the mountain stream, and the sea…and the rose.
Father, we worship and praise You for the beauty of Your creation in which we marvel at Your wisdom and Your goodness. We are amazed at the work of Your hand. May You work something beautiful within each of us.
Amen.