Psalm 136:5

Psalm 136:5

The creative mind of God

A curious phrase this, what does it mean that God made the heavens by His own understanding? Proverbs 3:19-20 elaborates on this theme, “By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding He set the heavens in place; by His knowledge the watery depths were divided, and the clouds let drop the dew.” Jeremiah had a similar view when he wrote, “But God made the earth by His power; He founded the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.” Jeremiah 10:12.

Firstly, I think these ancient writers had grasped that the formation and structure of creation is not random, or composed of various add-ons to a central project. The universe was not constructed as an ongoing experiment; it was designed and assembled according to a pre-prepared divine plan. And let me just say, that plan is so detailed and so elaborate that there is no hope of the human race ever being able to decipher or grasp any of its intricacies! For all our modern scientific knowledge we have not begun to even scrape the surface of what is really going on in creation! That is what is so arrogant about the theories and speculations that are promulgated by those who have no belief in God. They base their speculative ideas on barely any information at all!

Secondly, the visible universe is a vast window into the mind of an immense brain that is able to convert ideas into solid matter and to create life that can thrive in the midst of incredible beauty and diversity. Everything that is created and that exists around us is a signpost, everything points to God, everything that He has made is a display of the way He thinks and the wisdom, understanding and knowledge that distinguish Him as God. To be honest it’s a real conundrum trying to put this God of wonders into the same mould as the God of Calvary and the One who desires to be our heavenly Father and wishes that we might call Him Abba. Even Jesus seemed to be in awe of His Father and dared not speak out of turn or make any pronouncements that were not approved from heaven. 

How small minded we are to try to contain this God, as religion does, or to think that we know His mind, or to present Him as any kind of man-made object. How gracious is He to bend and take us in His arms and call us His children! What a God!

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