Man in Relation to God
As we head into a new year, the editors settled on the topic of God’s Wisdom – studies in Psalms and Proverbs. It felt natural then to make the first of those topics to be about man in relation to God especially around the topic of creation.
Mankind is a curious bunch, and we have now spent centuries trying to understand the mysteries of our world and how it works. There are many creation myths to explain where we came from and many scientific studies that try to explain our planet and universe. How does the Bible explain it?
Genesis starts with the statement “When God began to create heaven and earth, and the earth then was welter and waste and darkness over the deep…” Gen. 1:1-2a (The Hebrew Bible).
I have quoted from this translation to focus on the statement, “the earth was welter and waste”. The Hebrew saying here is tohu wabohu. This translator is trying to capture the alliteration in the original language and translates the saying as “welter and waste.” Essentially, in the beginning was chaos – but God began to create. God steps in and brings chaos into order. In fact, you may recognize the Greek term “cosmos” and how we use it to describe the universe around us, but the term actually means “order.” So, the heavens and the earth are the order created from the chaos. However, then the fall occurred, and nature no longer appeared to be the orderly garden Adam and Eve started in. Now it would be hard work to get food from the ground and the world around us would be a reminder of our fallen state. In fact, the second law of thermodynamics is essentially the scientific law of this fallen state. Everything breaks down or falls apart over time – it takes intervention to prevent this. You see this with all your possessions: from clothing, to cars, to homes. Honestly – even our bodies!
Keep that chaos in mind, and now turn to Psalm 148. Psalm 148 is part of a grouping of five psalms at the end of the book of Psalms that begin and end with the phrase “Praise God” or “Hallelujah”. This psalm in particular is praising God in creation. It starts with the heavens (the utmost heavens – the realm of God) and moves down to the earthly heavens, land, and water. It should bring to mind imagery of Genesis chapter 1. In fact, the Psalm appears to be praising God in groupings that are similar to the days of creation.
Now take a look at what in particular is being asked to praise God. The angels and heavenly armies. The sun, moon, and stars of light. The sea monsters of the deep. The lightning, hail, and snow. Mountains and wild animals. All people including kings, princes, young men, maidens, elders, and youth.
Why did I give you that list? What do these things have in common? When you look at the list closely – these can be some of the wildest and most uncontrollable things of nature. Can you control heavenly armies? Can you control the sun, moon, and stars? What about sea monsters or weather? Can most men ever completely conquer wild animals or really even ourselves?
Honestly – isn’t this the struggle of man? Don’t we try and conquer all of these things? We have space programs to understand and explore the highest realms. We have civilized areas on land and explored the depths of the seas. We have developed ways to try and stop aging. We are in a constant battle with nature. But have we won?
Well – think about going out to the wilderness for just two or three days alone. How do you think you would fare against nature on your own? Even the reality TV shows that we have that detail this sort of struggle allow their participants to take ten items. What if you could take nothing? How would we fare against nature? You see – we are no longer in the Garden of Eden. We are surrounded by a broken world. However – there is someone who this broken world of chaos is still subservient to, and that is God!
The end of the Psalm states, “He has raised up a horn for his people, resulting in praise to all his faithful ones, to the Israelites, the people close to him. Hallelujah!” What does this mean? The horn is originally a symbol of a horned animal raising their horn in victory over another animal. However, there are also cases where a horn is used as an instrument to declare victory over another. Do you know who can proclaim victory over this list in Psalm 148? God can. In fact, by the end of the Bible, we see a whole book, Revelation, that is about this victory over the world including death and the heavenly armies of Satan.
Maybe, like myself, you sometimes look at the world around us and start to despair. You think everything appears out of control and maybe even start to look to human institutions to conquer these issues – things like government, or non-profit organizations, or academia. Unfortunately – not one of these groups will be able to raise up a horn. They will not declare ultimate victory. That victory can only come from God alone. The next time you sing “Hallelujah! Praise Jehovah!” sing out in confidence to the One who has declared victory over ALL of creation – to the One who ultimately wins against the cosmic powers of darkness. To the One who is worthy of all glory. The next time you walk out the front door and see nature surrounding you – let it remind you of the One who created all of this in the first place and do your best to provide order to your small part of the world as a representative and image-bearer of God.
