Daily Lesson for Sunday 14th of January 2024
Read Psalms 8:1-9 and Psalms 100:1-5. How are God and people portrayed in these psalms? What do these psalms reveal about God’s character?
Creation plays a crucial role in the Psalms, in upholding God’s sovereignty. The heavens, which are “His handiwork,” proclaim His glory and power (Psalms 19:1-4, Psalms 97:6). God’s name is majestic in all the earth (Psalms 8:1,9).
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The Lord has created everything; He has no beginning (Psalms 93:2) and no end (Psalms 102:25-27). He is everlasting and superior over the gods of the nations, which are only “the work of men’s hands” (Psalms 115:4), nothing more. The idols “have hands, but they handle not” (Psalms 115:7); as for the Lord, “in his hand are the deep places of the earth . . . and his hands formed the dry land” (Psalms 95:4-5).
Several psalms portray God’s power over the forces in nature that other nations believed to be divine (e.g. Psalms 29:1-11, Psalms 93:1-5, and Psalms 104:1-35). These psalms reassert the claim that the Lord reigns over all creation and is supreme in power and dignity. Psalms 100:3 strikes one subtle form of idolatry—self-reliance, stressing that God made us, “and not we ourselves.”
Creation also testifies to God’s love. Everything that exists owes its existence to God, who also sustains life (Psalms 95:7, Psalms 147:4-9). Notice that God not only granted people existence but He also made ancient Israel “His people and the sheep of His pasture” (Psalms 100:3, NKJV). The notion of “His people” and “His sheep” reveals God’s desire for a close relationship with His people.
Only the Creator has the power to bless and cause His people to increase, and thus, He is the only One worthy of their worship and trust. Numerous psalms call everything that has breath, all the earth, the sea, and everything in it to shout for joy before the Lord.
The glory of God is seen in the creation, even in the fallen earthly creation, and the Psalms point us to God alone as worthy of worship.
“What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” (Psalms 8:4, NKJV). What is your response to God as your Creator? When God calls the stars by their names (Psalms 147:4), how much more do you think God cares for you?
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