BROADCASTS.com

All creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground\u201d (Psalm 104:27-30).

We return to the Spirit and Creation, that is, God\u2019s physical creation, the cosmos. Let me make an unconventional assertion: We are just as lost without the Spirit as we are without Jesus. Psalm 104 calls us to praise God for his ongoing relationship with his creation. Any notion that God is indifferent to his creation is dispelled here. We are invited to join the rest of creation to revel in God\u2019s creative wisdom, to see his pure joy in creating and to give him glory.

Let us talk first about God\u2019s wisdom. Some people have a brilliant intelligence. They know stuff. They have PhDs and hobnob with the most intelligent. But they have no practical wisdom, no street smarts. Other people have great street smarts. They just know how to fix things and find solutions to problems. God is both brilliant and street smart. The cosmos he created worked harmoniously and fruitfully for all his creatures. There is a good reason for every aspect of creation. Sin has introduced chaos \u2013 so we cannot make sense of it all and some things have become dangerous, such as mosquitos and viruses.

God did not create a world that was absurd or dangerous. It was a safe and trustworthy space in which life could flourish. In the ancient world, water was chaos. But God harnessed it to sustain life, satisfying the thirst of the wild donkeys, making dense foliage grow, producing vegetation that serves his will: feed for cattle and plants for humanity to cultivate.

God created the heavenly bodies \u2014 sun and moon \u2014 which regulate the rhythms of life in days and seasons. The Lord brings on night when wild living beings stir from their rest, to hunt and eat. King of the animals is the lion, which receives its food from God as a gift. The Lord then brings on day with the rise of the sun, at which time the creatures that rule the night retire to their caves, and human beings go out to their work, to their labor until the evening comes. The Psalm emphasizes the trustworthy and discernible order embedded in creation.

And God created for the pure joy of it (31). In ancient poetry, sea monsters embody evil; here they are responsive to God, his pets. God provides for both spirit and body, making wine to bring joy to human hearts as well as food to sustain human body. We are invited to see God as a parent rejoicing over his children, as a friend rejoicing over lifelong companions, as an artist rejoicing over her handiwork.

\xa0

As the psalm ends, we are challenged to pray that the glory of the Lord will endure; that the creation, despite the ravages of sin, will continue to exude its Creator\u2019s glory. It foreshadows the end of Romans 11: \u201cOh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them? For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.

All this life, God sustains it all. Only God has life in himself to give. If God gives breath, creatures live; if God withholds it, they die. The whole cosmos is daily dependent on God\u2019s sustenance, God\u2019s face, God\u2019s presence, God\u2019s breath. The world is impressive and to be celebrated, but it has no independent existence. The world is well-ordered and reliable. But on its own, it has no possibility of survival or well-being.

All of it is sustained by His Spirit (30), even though it is marred by sin. This is the same Spirit Jesus breathed on his disciples (John 20:19), which is the same Spirit of Acts 2. As much as the Spirit brought forth life in the beginning (Genesis 1:2), as much as the Spirit has sustained God\u2019s creation ever since, so the Spirit is at work renewing everything, including us.

Psalm 104 strengthens our confidence in the future. The same Spirit that was there in the beginning, the same Spirit who gives physical life, is the same Spirit sent by Jesus to carry on His ministry. This is the Spirit at work in us. No wonder Paul could wrote, \u201cIn all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy...being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus\u201d (Phil. 1:5-6).