Psalm 104-The Creation Hymn and Us

Many times, with the messages that we give, has to do with different feasts or special days that are coming up, and certainly giving thanks to God for what He has done for us this past year. This is a time of thanksgiving, where we meet and be able to think about God in a much more deeper way. From the time of the pilgrims on, this has been a tradition that has been carried out, and it's a very appropriate one. It also fits very well in the subject that I'm going to be covering, because I've been focusing the last time I spoke on Psalm 104, which is called the Creation hymn. This hymn, usually you don't really study it that deeply, but it is a marvelous hymn. It goes along with Psalm 103, where it talks about God's mercies, and it's focusing on God's forgiveness. Then, Psalm 104 focuses on God as a creator, and also as a sustainer of everything that we see around us. I was just commenting on my wife, how impressed I am, how God's word can be so profound and so exact in the way it describes things. I want to share with you some of that, because it helps us to appreciate God far more. It's not just an abstract concept, but as it was brought out that God is a loving Father. Jesus Christ has many titles, the one that we generally use as the elder brother. There's also that relationship of Father and Mother, that God gives that same type of attitude toward all of us.

We're going to be covering, then, Psalm 104. This is the second part. It's an elaboration, a development of Genesis 1 and 2. When you read Genesis 1 and 2, Psalm 104 gives you more detail about the creation and what God is carrying out. I want to highlight a couple of points that I didn't have a chance to in the first sermon. The purpose here is to finish this psalm, to appreciate all it says, because it's very profound, and give glory to God. It helps strengthen our faith, and I want to elaborate more on the verses that I didn't fully cover in the last time. I'd like to focus on Psalm 104. You can turn there in verse 1. I want to add something I didn't mention the last time, and it's very important.

Psalm 104 in verse 1. It says, Bless the Lord, O my soul, O Lord, my God, you are very great, you are clothed with honor and majesty, who cover yourself with light as with a garment. He covers himself with the brightness of his glory, the light that we see. I mentioned the last time a little bit about the physical aspects of light, and how it is a miraculous thing, a phenomenon, because it can travel at the speed of light, and that's about 180, 186,000 miles per second. If you can imagine just dealing with that, how many times would you go around the earth?

That's just in one second. Yet, light, although it's an electromagnetic effect, doesn't have mass. It doesn't weigh anything. That's why it can travel so fast, because it doesn't have friction. It doesn't have anything to slow it down. But I also wanted to bring out here that God is clothed in this light. It's not only about the shining presence, but also it is dealing with the spiritual elements of light, which they symbolize. Light symbolizes righteousness, and it symbolizes holiness. Light is something that brings out the truth of a matter.

God is holy, and he is righteous. Light in the Bible also is a symbol of something pure, honest, and true. Notice in 1 John 1, verse 5, here's a description of God. 1 John 1, verse 5-7. It says, This is the message which we have heard from him, and declare to you that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin. So here it brings out this element of light not just being this physical property. Without light, of course, everything would die immediately. If the sun all of a sudden went out, there would be instant blackness, and the freezing of the planet would just take very short time.

We wouldn't have any energy to warm us. And so light is so essential that it's related with life as well. So how to have fellowship with God is to walk in the light. And it's a formidable thing for a human being to think he can do that, because we all have this carnal human nature. But God says, look, I can help you. You can be filled with my light. I can work in you if you allow me and make you into an infinitely better person. But we have to be willing to walk in the light and not in darkness. What does darkness symbolize? Well, sin, everything that is dark and wicked and that comes from Satan. Society is filled with darkness, and God is not involved in that.

He says God is light, and there is no darkness in him. So as we walk from darkness into light, we are able to draw closer to God. And as it was brought out, develop those fruits of God.

But it's him working through us. In a sense, it's the same relationship with the sun and the moon. We can't generate it ourselves, but if the sun is shining, then the moon is able to reflect it. And in the same way, we can walk in light and righteousness and holiness. In Colossians, let's go to John 1. Notice how this is repeated by John, the same message, but with different words. In John 1, verses 1-9 talks about the beginning of everything. And of course, when it's talking in the beginning, it's not talking about in the beginning of eternity. Because eternity doesn't have a beginning. It always has existed. And God has existed. And also the Word, who became Christ, has always existed.

So here, it's just talking about in the beginning of all created things. In the beginning of all created things, there was God the Father and God the Word. Notice it says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So you have two divine persons here. He says, He was in the beginning with God. He's always been there. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. So it says, God the Father instructed, and the Word here was the one that actually carried it out.

He was the master architect. He was the one that built things, but from the instructions of God the Father. It says, verse 4, In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. So again here, light is equated with life. And without spiritual light, our life is filled with darkness.

Oh, we can be nice people. We can be decent people. But this is very different than having that spiritual light in you from God that you can reflect outwardly. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. Those people, they didn't recognize who was walking among them. The great majority just saw the ministry of Jesus Christ for three and a half years.

Literally thousands of miracles were performed during that time. Jesus Christ, before He began His ministry, He actually fasted 40 days and 49. God had to give Him a special type of strength. But what He was doing was He was charging His spiritual batteries. Because once He started in His ministry, there was no time to have a 40-day fast.

He was just nonstop healing people wherever He met, having compassion on them. It was three and a half years of tremendous service. And He was there for all the people. He saw most of them, didn't know who He was, had no idea. The great majority, after being healed and listening to Christ, they went back to the synagogues. And their leaders said, oh no, He's not part of us. He's not credentialed.

He's got these miracles. Well, we don't know what source He uses for that. But for three and a half years, He raised up people from the dead. And so it says here that the darkness did not comprehend it. People that were in darkness did not understand what they were dealing with. Just as today, people have no idea what they are dealing with. And when you come to the truth and you come to the light, it's the same responsibility. Because we're not talking here of man's words or whatever.

You go to another church. No, you're going to listen to God's Word, the truth of the matter. Light is going to be there. Now, whether you want to accept it or not, that's something different. And so it goes on and says here, There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. Talking about John, he was not the light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.

That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. And so there's still that light out there. It's not being heated. It's not being recognized, but it is there for everybody who wants it. And then God's calling has to get involved, but a person has to desire it first.

So let's go to Colossians chapter 1. I think this is just as important of a subject as you can find in a person's life as well as in the Bible. Colossians 1 verse 16 through 17. It says here, talking about Christ, So yes, through Christ, the Word at that time, everything was created. All the angels were created by Christ, as well as everything physical, this whole universe. Space, matter, energy, all of it was created by Christ.

It says, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, it doesn't matter whether you're talking about heavenly angelic responsibilities, because angels have different hierarchy of power. Satan is in charge of a third of those angels, and there are two thirds that have remained holy and did not go along with Satan. But then we have human powers, and all of that is given by God. Man does not have that power by himself. It says, All things were created through him, and then there's a mind-blowing concept for him.

Can you imagine? You have the Creator here making it happen, and yet God the Father is the one that gives him the instructions. He says to the Word at that time, you're going to create all of this, and all of this is for you. For you to one day be able to see all the beauty and the plan of God being carried out, and having all of these sons and daughters be part of our spiritual family and inheriting all things. So it's not just that he did something, and then you just walk away. No. In the end, he's still going to be there for him.

Notice in Romans 8, 16. Romans 8, 16, and 17. It says, and here the term should be it. It says, The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit. If you have a King James Version, you would have it, because the Spirit is in the neuter gender. It's not a person. It's an it. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. So right now, although Christ has carried everything out, there are opposing forces out there.

Christ is not guiding everybody. Not everybody is being part of the family of God and growing. But eventually, Christ is the ultimate heir of all things. And he says, we are co-heirs. We're going to share all of these things created. And so that's why it says it was created by him and for him. So let's go to Psalm 104, verse 13, because I covered in the first part up to verse 12. Psalm 114, verse 13. As I say, Psalm 104, I meant. Psalm 104, verses 13 and 17.

It starts out saying, he waters the hills from his upper chambers, upper chambers having to do with the sky. That's where the clouds, because of the condensation from the upper chambers, waters the hills. The earth is satisfied with the fruit of your works because of the rain that comes down.

You have greenery. You have fruits. You have all kinds of living things that live off of that water that comes down. He causes the grass to grow for the cattle and vegetation for the service of man, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine that makes glad the heart of man oil to make his face shine and bread which strengthens man's heart. The trees of the Lord are full of sap, the cedars of Lebanon which he planted, where the birds make their nests, the stork has her home in the fir trees. Again, appreciating God's care, because trees are part of the homes for all of these creatures and birds and others.

Notice it says here that all of these trees are watered and the sap is full in these trees. The term sap, according to the dictionary, is the fluid, chiefly water with dissolved sugars and mineral salts that circulates in the vascular system of a plant. Just like human beings have a circulatory system where the blood flows and you have a heart, well the tree has a comparable vascular system, but it doesn't have a heart. So how do you pump all of this water and nutrients from the roots all the way to the top of the branches to the very twigs?

And that's done every day, or else the tree will dry out. And it doesn't. So I want to just focus a little bit on that right now. There are not 6,000, but 60,000 types of trees that have been identified by man. 60,000. And yet, as the biologist Elizabeth Stacy brings out, she says, there are at least 60,000 identified tree species in the world, but we know next to nothing about how they got here. So where are all the fossil records of trees evolving and slowly coming up?

They say we have no idea. All of these 60,000 types of trees. It says, trees form the backbone of our forests and are ecologically and economically important. Yet, we don't know much about how the species and the spread, which is called speciation, how these happen in trees. How do they divide up into these 60,000 types, which are very different? There's no evolution. There's no missing links here. One type is evolving into another. That's a big admission. So, how about the transport system in plants? How does a giant sequoia tree up to 300 feet?

That's basically a football field. The water has to go up and also circulate down. That's over 30 stories high. So, the way it does it is it has this very thin layer called the silum, which is a hydraulic system that goes from the roots all the way up to the branches and to the leaves.

They are like straws. These cells come together just like bamboo. They're hollow inside and they go all the way up to where the branches and the leaves are. Where's the heart of this? How does it pump it all? It uses what we call osmosis, which is as the branches and it goes into the leaves and with the heat and the light, the water evaporates and it creates a vacuum. From the bottom of the tree, it's always filling up as the water is evaporated on the top.

It automatically brings it up. That's the heart of this tree. The silum is the one that brings the water. Then there's another very thin layer, which is called the phloem. The phloem is the one that brings the nutrients, the sugars, and all the minerals up. It's this elevator that goes up to the trees and then it also comes down because from the photosynthesis of the leaves, you need to bring all of the nutrients back into the tree.

Now, how do you think that thing evolved? They have to say, we don't know. No idea.

Going on to verse 18, it says, the high hills are for the wild goats. The cliffs are refuge for the rock badgers. We think of the mountains and hills as something beautiful to see, but actually there are creatures that need that type of terrain. That's where they live. So God had to think all of this out to be able to create animals that would be able to live comfortably where even man can't reach some of these areas. I'm sure you've seen some of those videos of some of these goats climbing the face of a cliff. Incredibly how they can do that. So no matter what the terrain is, these creatures are created to have a home there. Verse 19, it says, He appointed the moon for the seasons. The sun knows it's going down. This is a very important scripture because it talks about God's sacred calendar. See, people, they assume things. But God has a sacred calendar that He developed in scripture. He set up this system and yet hardly anybody thinks of it, uses it, knows it even exists. But here it says that He appointed the moon for the seasons. Now, actually the term seasons here is better translated from the Hebrew, mo'ad, which signifies, as the word-study dictionary, a specified appointed time, usually for a sacred feast or festival. And so you have a couple of translations that are better. The easy reading version says, Lord, You made the moon to show us when the festivals begin. And the sun always knows when to set. The sun governs the day and the moon governs the months of the year. And the Tree of Life version, it says, He made the moon for appointed times. These are God's invitations to attend and worship Him. For appointed times, the sun knows it's going down. So this is the truth. If you want to follow all of God's word and live by all of God's word, you have to live according to God's calendar. And not the Egyptian calendar that was adopted by Julius Caesar and set up as a Roman calendar, which then the Catholic Church adopted and threw out God's sacred calendar. And you can see it in history when they did that, the first council of Nicaea. They kicked out God's calendar and inserted the Roman calendar. And of course, Sunday would become the first day of the week that then people would get to meet. And then the church's different feast days. Christmas is coming up. That's one of the ones that they set up. See, Christmas, it talks about Christ's birth. But actually, if you kept God's calendar, you already would be celebrating. Christ's birth, because the Feast of Trumpets has to do with the coming of Christ. Not only in the Second Coming, but also the First Coming. Because it says there that you shall blow the trumpets, and it has to do with Christ's coming. And in His First Coming, there the angels in heaven announced. This is a glorious time! And it has to do with the Feast of Trumpets. So anything man has invented, God has something so much better. He has so much better meaning than these Roman Saturnalia and Bromalia, which had to do with all kinds of festivities of people running around, giving gifts to each other. Getting drunk, orgies, just read about it. Saturnalia. And it tells you the origin of Christmas comes from that.

So it tells us that the moon is the key to setting up God's sacred calendar. And of course, we have that calendar, and we have a pocket calendar. And we know exactly when God's feasts are according to the moons. And here next year, we know exactly when to pass over on the first moon of the year at the 14th. That's what the word here, month, comes from moon in the Bible. And that's a primary term. And so we know just the first moon, the 14th of the month. That's when we're going to be keeping pass over. See, we don't need Roman councils. We don't need all of these other pagan systems at all. And yet, people say, oh, that's not important. Well, truth is important. Even if they're smaller truths, they're still truths. They come from God's Word. So continuing on, notice I want to read from the Kyle Delich commentary. Hebrew experts, scholars on it, it says, He describes the moon in Psalm 104 verse 19 as the principal star of the calendar. Star being the shiny object. The principal measurer of these for civil and ecclesiastical life, which means religious life, is the moon. And so we in the church follow faithfully the Hebrew calendar because they were given that calendar back in the book of Exodus. God says in Exodus 12.1, This shall be the first month for you in the year. And although the Jews did not accept Christ, and they have a lot of other teachings, but they have preserved that calendar up to this time. And they calculate the moon and when it's supposed to be the appointed time of God. Continuing on, notice in verse 20, he goes now to some of the animals. Why did God make nighttime? It says, Did you know that lions are nocturnal creatures? How many knew that? Okay, pretty good group. I didn't know that myself.

When I went to the zoo, I always thought, well, you see, they're awake. Yeah, but they're usually sleeping, groggy. But actually, look at from this website, which is called sleep.com. It says, and it has been reported that lions have a higher success rate when hunting on moonless nights. Lions have excellent night vision and they are nearly six times more sensitive to light than humans. So they do prowl around.

See, again, how does the Bible know all of these things? And puts it down. Here, we got all of these investigators and they say, yep, the Bible's right. And we take it for granted. Notice verse 22. It says, So God created it, so they're not going to be awake during the daytime when man is out there normally. They're usually groggy. They've already done their eating at night. And it says, So we don't have to be dealing with animals prowling during the daytime as much. Verse 24 through 28 focuses from the land animals to the sea animals.

And again, marveling at everything that God has created. It says here in verse 24, Oh, Lord, how manifold are your works in wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your possessions, this great and wide sea in which are innumerable teeming things, living things both small and great. There the ships sail about. There is that Leviathan, which you have made to play there. So what is the Leviathan? The Leviathan is a word talking about an enormous creature.

Notice, it's a very large sea creature, but here it's very playful and tame. It says where the Leviathan actually is made to play there. Another translation, the Passion Translation, says about verse 26, Trading ships glide through the high seas, and look there are the massive whales bounding upon the waves.

Now some people might say, well, how could David, the author, how would he know about whales? Are there whales in the Mediterranean Sea? There are. And not only that, there are also killer whales that enter through there. Notice again, this is from the French Oceanic Institute. It says, there are several thousand whales living in the Mediterranean waters. It is even relatively common to see them spouting from afar when on a boat crossing to Corsica, the island. And so, yes, whales were known, and sailors would be there impressed how these creatures, if they would have been deadly, would have destroyed ships. But instead, you see them there, playfully going up and breaching, as they call them.

And here, in that area of Neoport Beach, you can take out a boat and watch the whales sport and play on the sea. How many have seen that? Let's see how many. Yeah, quite a bit. Quite a bit. I haven't seen it yet, so we need to get together and go one of those times. Tell me when it's a good time to go. I want to have that, you know, scratch. I want to check that out in my bucket list.

Yes, I saw these creatures, kind of like that leviathan, sporting in the ocean, because that's part of the fulfillment of Scripture. It goes on to say, These all wait for you, that you may give them their food in due season. God is actively sustaining them, making sure all of these little fishes are produced. So all of this chain, food chain, works every day, so they're not depleted. What you give them, they gather in.

You open your hand, they are filled with good. But what happens if God is unpleased or displeased? You hide your face, they are troubled. You take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. You send forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. And we're talking about being created here. It's very interesting, because going back to Genesis, verses 3, where it talks about how the earth was renewed.

It had been in a chaotic state. This is after the rebellion of Satan, and the earth was marred, and it was full of destruction. And then God started raising the continents up, beautifying it. Notice what the scholar Arthur Custance wrote. In his book, Time and Eternity, Arthur Custance, a Hebrew scholar, he says, yet if it is true that in Genesis 1.3 we have a picture of how God renewed the face of the earth by sending forth his spirit.

And then he quotes Psalm 104, verse 30, which we're reading now. After a judgment in which he had hidden his face, so that animal life had perished by reason of a major catastrophe, what follows may very reasonably be understood as six days of recreation. This is what we teach. Actually, the creation of Adam and Eve, approximately some 6,000 years ago, was part of the re-creation, the re-storing of mankind. So you have what's called a pre-idamic period, which is the one that we witness through the geologic record, with the dinosaurs and all of these creatures.

Adam was not there at that time. God intervened, and Satan rebelled, and that whole earth with all of these monsters, the angels had just gotten completely out of hand, and that God had to renew the face of the earth. So there are six literal 24-hour days, which God renewed everything and brought everything back, and on the sixth day created Adam and Eve. But that's another truth that is very little known. How you can reconcile the creation account and see how it fits the six days 24-hour period, but at the same time there was a time of chaos and destruction prior to that, and then God intervened.

So let's go to verse 31. It says, May the glory of the Lord endure forever, may the Lord rejoice in his works. He looks on the earth and it trembles. He touches the hills and they smoke. And David says, verse 33, I will sing to the Lord as long as I live. Is that what we will do? Sing to the Lord as long as we live? Praising him, thanking him?

I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. May my meditation be sweet to him. I will be glad in the Lord. May sinners be consumed from the earth and the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord. One last comment. This comes from the Bible Believer's Bible commentary. It says, just as the psalm opened with the original creation, now it closes with a passionate prayer. For the Golden Age, what we call the kingdom, the coming kingdom of God, when the ravages of sin will be suppressed and when the Lord will be honored and glorified for his greatness and goodness by everyone. The Psalmist David longs to see it all brought back, restored to find himself in all God's creatures parts of the mighty harmony, that a new Sabbath of creation may dawn, the seventh thousandth year, that is very close to happening, a rest of God in which he shall rejoice in his works, and they in him. And the universe becomes a temple filled with the anthem of praise. Yes, as David finished, praise the Lord, and I might add, a happy coming Thanksgiving.