Daily Meditations

Psalm 148:7 Looking beneath the surface! Well, we’ve enjoyed eavesdropping on the praises of the angels and the heavenly bodies, the waters and all inanimate objects in creation, now it’s time to take a dip into the oceans! The sphere of life that is explored here is the ocean depths and the psalmist calls out songs of praise from the creatures that inhabit these dark, secret places. In Genesis 1:21 we read, “ So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds  …” In Psalm 74:13-14 we saw that the primeval, chaotic waters were depicted as a many-headed monster that the creator God overcame, He is the same Lord who parted the Red Sea to make a path through for the Israelites as they fled from Egypt. The Bible suggests that these waters were all part of God’s creative purposes and that it was He who placed living creatures within them. What cannot be argued is that the oceans and seas al...

Psalm 148:6 Established forever Listen to these words from Jeremiah 31:35-36. “ This is what the Lord says, He who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moons and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar – the Lord Almighty is His name: “Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,” declares the Lord, “will Israel ever cease being a nation before me.””  Comments on previous verses in this Psalm suggest that maybe the inanimate objects that inhabit the heavens are able to respond in some way to the Lord. At the very least, the fact that they studiously fulfil their functions causes them to give glory to His Name. They clearly announce that God is alive and well and keeping His promises to us all. As Paul succinctly puts it in Romans when he talks about the wickedness of people,   “Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualiti...

Psalm 148:5 He is our Creator! This verse gives us the reason why even inanimate objects are prompted to praise the Lord. It’s because He created them! The same principle applies to us, we may find 10,000 reasons why we should praise the Lord, but the first reason is simply that we exist! We can add up the events and circumstances, the moments and the experiences that we have enjoyed when the Lord has revealed Himself to us, but the first cause for celebration is that we have been granted life! He could have ignored us or left us out of his plans for planet earth but, no, He decided that we should be allowed to live in His world and He chose the parents that would make that possible. I am here, because God wanted me here. I live and breathe and enjoy the beauty of the planet because God enabled it to happen. We are incredibly privileged, to be born human and to be planted on the earth for our time. Not only that, but the Lord has organised our future as well, the fact that He made us f...

Psalm 148:4 Even the clouds praise Him! God is so carefully maintaining and managing our planet that even the depths of the great oceans and the moisture held by the clouds are under His command! The great masses of rain-filled clouds that journey around the earth are not just random phenomenon that can be rationally explained, they have a purpose, they work to a divinely conceived plan. They are the waters that fill God’s storehouses or cisterns, that are emptied and filled above the earth’s crust as He commands and calculates what, where and when they should operate. So, the clouds are the “deep” above us and they pour out their contents to fill our rivers and streams that eventually flow to the oceans which are the “deep” below. It’s only as I read these verses that I realise afresh just how fundamental to our existence the divine management of the planet really is. Again, it throws doubts over the claims that climate change is caused solely by man’s abuse of the earth and its resou...

Psalm 148:3 Praise Him, sun and moon This is not the first time that we’ve been made aware that the psalmists believed that all creation, even inanimate objects, join in worshipping their Maker. It’s not just the psalm-writers, Job believed it and so did Isaiah. In fact, this is a premise that is adopted throughout Scriptures, and we would do well to meditate upon it for a moment. We are people living in a scientific age where it’s possible to identify the processes that give life ,accurately, and to ascribe all matter on earth to particular categories and states of existence. Thus, rocks and stones, mountains and deserts and all other matter has apparently been in existence for millions, if not billion of years and is basically dead! That Is, until amazing discoveries are made of some of the precious minerals and Rare Earth elements that are now fundamental to our modern technologies. Trees, plants and all forms of vegetation exist through processes like photosynthesis and give and ta...

  Psalm 148:1-2 Another hymn of praise to the Lord from all of creation We are just three Psalms away from the end of this glorious and unique collection of hymns and songs. This offering is dedicated to every created aspect of the heavenly and earthly spheres, that all things that God has made should be willing to praise Him, even inanimate objects like the stars or the weather! The icing on the cake of this symphony of worship is the nation of Israel, or all God’s chosen people, that we too should unite in bringing Him tribute and expressing our gratitude and wonder at who He is and all that He has done.     V1-2    The origins of worship are in the heavens and the first 6 verses of Psalm 148 call upon the celestial beings and objects to recognise the Creator who brought them into being. This is a common theme of the Psalms, that actually we owe the Lord our gratitude and undying admiration, simply because we exist! The few insights that the Scr...