Psalms and Creation Series

The Psalms scroll, one of the Dead Sea scrolls

There is no way I could cover all that the Psalms have to say about Creation in one post, but I wanted to share with you some of the verses I’ve run across in my Bible reading this past week.

I’ve been using Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s Bible Reading Plan this year and I’m really enjoying it.  The first time I read through the Bible completely was when I was 16.  There’s nothing that can replace studying God’s word for yourself.  The Jesus I read about didn’t always act the Jesus we learned about in Sunday School!

The first few times I read through the Bible I just used a dollar store paperback that scrunched everything together with no gaps at the end of books.  With a little calculation I figured out that 3 1/3 columns a day would get me through in a year.  I do NOT like reading plans that have you read 3 chapters a day whether they’re Psalm 121-124 or Luke 1-3.  It’s also tough for me to push through some of the OT sections like I Chronicles 1-6 and all the chapters on building the Tabernacle and Temple.  That’s why I like having 4 different sections every day with M’Cheyne’s plan.  People have been using this plan for over 150 years so there is a connection with our fellow Christians of old as well.

Well, that was introduction; on to what I read about this week!

Maschil [poem, thoughtful song] of Ethan the Ezrahite.  I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.  For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever:

thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens. Psalm 89:1,2

Verse two really stood out to me because of our study on the Laws of Physics.  Because of this promise, Bible believing scientists, like Newton already knew that if they studied carefully enough, they would be able to find out what the laws controlling the universe would be !

A long exposure of the North Star

The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them. 

The north and the south thou hast created them:

Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name. Psalm 89:11,12

I’m not quite sure what this means about God creating north and south.  The word “created” is the same one used in Genesis 1, so it means just what it sounds like in English.  It makes me think of the magnetic field (which I haven’t covered yet) that protects us from dangerous particles coming from the sun.  There’s also the North Star, but it hasn’t always been as close to due north as it is now and there isn’t one like it in the South.  Anyway, it is fascinating to know that God keeps the world from tumbling end over end!

Then today I read this:

Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise? 

He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see? 

He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know? Psalm 94:8-10

The psalmist starts out the chapter complaining about the wicked and asking God to deal with them.  Then he talks to those people with these verses.

This is the root of the fight between Evolution and Creation.  If there is a Creator, He knows us and has power over us.  If there were none, we would be “free” to do whatever we could get away with.  God’s right to judge the world and avenge the wrongs done to His people has its foundation in this truth.

Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.  And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great;

and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. Revelation 11:17,18

I’m not going to read this chapter for a few more days, but I love what it says about God’s attitude toward everything He has made.  He isn’t happy with the death, decay and destruction that sin has brought into the world.  There is no way that you can read through the Bible and see God as the kind of being who is okay with millions of years of pointless death and suffering to climb to the level of life we see today.

The confusing thing about this is that the way God deals with these destroyers is to burn everything up first!  Just as trillions of animals and plants were swept away by the Flood, so nearly everything will be either burnt up or poisoned when Jesus comes back.  But that isn’t the end of the story!  I’ve used this passage before, but it is one of my favorites and shows what happens afterwards:

And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh. 

And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it from Engedi even unto Eneglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many.  Ezekiel 47:8-10

And don’t forget the land dwellers:

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.  And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. Isaiah 11:6-9