February 6, 2019 (Wednesday)
Whenever I read Psalm 114, I think of the hymn, “Joy to the World,” and the lyrics, “Heaven and nature sing.” This psalm quotes the sea, the river, the mountains, the hills and, indeed, all of nature as the Lord is praised.
As great as nature is now, there is a better day coming. The Apostle Paul “personified the creation, as does this psalm. He ascribed emotions to the material creation. He represents it as longing for deliverance as a prelude to that time when its purpose shall have been accomplished: “the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” (Romans 8:21-22).
Psalm 114
New International Version (NIV)
1 When Israel came out of Egypt,
Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
2 Judah became God’s sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.
3 The sea looked and fled,
the Jordan turned back;
4 the mountains leaped like rams,
the hills like lambs.
5 Why was it, sea, that you fled?
Why, Jordan, did you turn back?
6 Why, mountains, did you leap like rams,
you hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turned the rock into a pool,
the hard rock into springs of water.
The hymn, “For the Beauty of the Earth,” was written by Folliot Sandford Pierpoint (1835-1917). This is a hymn found in most hymnals and is one of the most popular in many congregations. Frequently sung at Thanksgiving, the message praises God not only for the natural world, but for love of friends, family and all others.
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FOR THE BEAUTY OF THE EARTH For the beauty of the earth, For the beauty of each hour For the joy of human love, For each perfect gift of thine, For thy Church which evermore |