Meditating on the Maker

but it's not certain. It's been suggested by

some that this psalm is to accompany the psalm

that we just finished, Psalm 103. Again, it's

hard to say. We really don't know. But regardless

of who wrote it or when it was written, it really

just kind of recounts the creation. of god it

recounts the creation that we see in genesis

the psalmist here is praising the lord acknowledging

the greatness of the lord that the lord has created

everything and so it kind of follows that same

that same pattern uh of creation and so we're

just going to read through it it's it's poetry

and so it's just uh uh we're not going to break

it up we're just going to read through the whole

song and then we'll talk about it just real briefly,

one little part of it there at the end. So let's

pray, and then we'll get started. Dear Lord,

we come to you. We thank you for these words,

and I pray that as we read them that we would

rejoice in your creation, dear Lord, that it

would be a reminder to us of how mighty and powerful

you are, God, that everything that there is you

have created, that there is nothing that occurs

in this world. that occurs apart from you, dear

Lord. You know everything that goes on. You are

in control. You have the power to do or the power

to not do anything that you desire, dear Lord.

And so God, I pray that we rejoice in your greatness

and just remember that you are God and you are

on the throne, dear Lord. We have to remember

that in this day and age where things are really

tough. Our world is really tough. We just know,

God, that... Even though things may not be good

from what we can see, that everything that occurs,

you know about it, dear Lord. And so let us just

find some comfort in that. And I ask these things

in Jesus' name. Amen. Psalm 104, verse 1. My

Psalms 104:1

soul prays Yahweh. Lord, my God, you are very

great. You are clothed with majesty and splendor.

He wraps himself in light as if it were a robe,

spreading out the sky like a canopy, laying the

beams of his palace on the waters above, making

the clouds his chariot, walking on the wings

of the wind, and making the winds his messengers,

flames of fire his servants. He established the

earth on its foundations. It will never be shaken.

You covered it with the deep as if it were a

garment. The water stood above the mountains.

At your rebuke, the waters fled. At the sound

of your thunder, they hurried away. Mountains

rose and valleys sank to the place you established

for them. You set a boundary they cannot cross.

They will never cover the earth again. He causes

the springs to gush into the valleys. They flow

between the mountains. They supply water for

every wild beast. The wild donkeys quench their

thirst. The birds of the sky live beside the

springs. They sing among the foliage. He waters

the mountains from his palace. The earth is satisfied

by the fruit. He causes grass to grow for the

livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate,

producing food from the earth, wine that makes

man's heart glad, making his face shine with

oil and bread that sustains man's heart. The

trees of the Lord flourish, the cedars of Lebanon

that he planted. There the birds make their nest.

The stork makes its home in the pine trees. The

high mountains are for the wild goats. The cliffs

are a refuge for hyraxes. He made the moon to

mark the festivals. The sun knows when to set.

You bring darkness and it becomes night when

all the forest animals stir. The young lion roars

for their prey and seek their food from God.

The sun rises. They go back and lie down in their

dens. Man goes out to his work and to his labor

until evening. How countless are your works,

Lord! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth

is full of your creatures. Here is the sea, vast

and wide, teeming with creatures beyond number,

living things both large and small. There the

ships move about. And Leviathan, which you formed,

play there. All of them wait for you to give

them their food at the right time. When you give

it to them, they gather it. When you open your

hand, they are satisfied with good things. When

you hide your face, they are terrified. When

you take away their breath, they die and return

to the dust. When you send your breath, they

are created. And you renew the face of the earth.

May the glory of the Lord endure forever. May

the Lord rejoice in His works. He looks at the

earth and it trembles. He touches the mountains

and they pour out smoke. I will sing to the Lord

all my life. I will sing praise to my God while

I live. May my meditation be pleasing to Him.

I will rejoice in the Lord. May sinners vanish

from the earth. And wicked people be no more.

My soul prays Yahweh. Hallelujah. Now this psalm

is pretty basic. Just a basic praising of God.

Just acknowledging what God created. The beauty

of nature. The beauty of all the things we see.

That you look at this planet. And you look at

these huge mountains and these huge oceans and

everything and all the animals that God has created

and God made everything just the way it needs

to be and he keeps everything in check and everything

is dependent on God. God has created this world

and it's God that sustains this world and all

of creation is dependent on God and that includes

you and I. And the psalmist here is just acknowledging

and praising God. for the creation. And maybe

that's something that we need to do from time

to time. Maybe in our hustle and bustle, maybe

we need to take a moment to just acknowledge

the bigness of God. That was something we talked

about at VBS last year. The bigness of God, just

that we see that in the whole universe around

us. And how many times do we stop to smell the

roses, as the old saying is? Sometimes we're

so busy, maybe we fail to stop and look into

the sky. and look at the countless stars that

are there. And to see the grandeur of a mountain,

its peak extends into the clouds, or the vastness

of the oceans, and all of the creatures that

we see and their intricacies. It's unbelievable

how many insects and how many creatures that

there are. Things that you've never heard of

before. Even here sometimes you may see something

and you say, man, I've never seen a bug like

that before. What is that? And you ask somebody

and they say, oh yeah, them things have been

here forever. And there are so many things that

we've seen so much that God has done and we have

only begun to scratch the surface of all the

beauty that God has done. And do we rejoice in

that? Well, we should. We should rejoice in the

beauty of what the Lord has done. And that's

what the psalmist is doing here. And what he

says in verse 34, we're going to look at that

for just a moment. He says, May my meditation

be pleasing to him. I will rejoice in the Lord.

May my meditation be pleasing to him. Meditation

is just pausing and thinking on something. That's

maybe another way to say it. I'm not talking

about crossing your legs and doing your hands

like this. I'm just talking about just sitting

for a moment. Kind of like what we talked about

Sunday morning. Just kind of sitting in the silence

and just thinking. Like when we slow down, like

where does our mind go? Like where do our thoughts

go? Like what are the meditations of our mind?

He says, may the meditation of my mind be pleasing

to God. Okay, well that's a good prayer for us

to consider too. Are the things that we meditate

on, the things that we think about, are they

pleasing to God? Maybe they are, maybe they're

not. Maybe some of the things that we meditate

on is stress and worry and work and things like

that. Well, that takes up part of our time that

we think on. But there are other things that

take up our time. What do we think about? Maybe

there's been something in your life that you

really desired and you just thought of that.

Your mind was on that all the time. You meditated

on that day and night. Maybe one day you were

in love. And that boy you were in love with,

and that girl you were in love with, and oh,

you just, you thought about them all the time,

right? That's what you do. You think about them.

And you can't wait to see them. And then when

you see them, you don't want to leave them. And

when you leave them, you just keep thinking about

them. And you meditate on that. That consumes

you. I remember when I was a teenager, I wanted

a four -wheeler so bad, I just thought about

that all the time. I just meditated on that.

I had magazines with four -wheelers, and I would

look at them, and I would dream at night that

I would have a four -wheeler. And I would know

I was dreaming, and I wouldn't want to wake up,

because I knew if I did, I wouldn't have a four

-wheeler. And that just consumed my mind. And

maybe there are things like that for you guys.

Maybe some of them are serious things that we

ponder and think on. And maybe there are other

things that kind of consume us that we meditate

on that fights for our attention. And we spend

way too much time meditating on things that aren't

pleasing to the Lord. Things that may not necessarily

be bad. However, they may be. There are some

things that are on our mind that we desire and

that we think about and we long for that are

not good. There are other things that... that

in and of themselves they aren't bad. Getting

a four -wheeler is not bad, but, man, if it consumes

you and that's all you think about all the time,

well, that's not a good thing. I mean, some of

our thoughts, maybe the majority of our thoughts,

should be focused on the Lord. Like, how many

times do we stop and think, is this pleasing

to the Lord? Maybe you do that with every decision

you make. Maybe you don't ever do that. Maybe

we don't do that enough. Alright, I'm fixing

to do this thing. I'm fixing to set out on this,

whatever it is, on this endeavor. Is this going

to please the Lord if I do this? Is this word

that I'm about to say going to please the Lord?

Maybe it is or maybe it isn't. Maybe we need

to take a little more time to stop. Acknowledge

who God is. He's pretty awesome. Very great,

as the psalmist said at the very beginning of

this psalm. God, I see that you are really great,

God. You created all this stuff. That's pretty

phenomenal. So if God created all this stuff,

God created us, and God loved us enough to send

Jesus to die for our sins, and God gives us his

commands through Scripture and through the words

and the teachings of Jesus, if that great God

did all of that, then maybe he's worth a little

bit of our time to focus on. We probably spend

a lot of time meditating and thinking about all

kinds of stuff. Probably spend a lot of time

thinking about what other people say, listening

to our favorite podcasts or our favorite news

anchors. We may meditate on their words hours

a day, but do we meditate on the Lord's words?

And so the psalmist says, may my meditation be

pleasing to him. Well, maybe that's a good prayer

for us, that we would take a little moment throughout

our day just to think about the Lord and think,

hey, are the things that I'm focused on, are

these things pleasing to God? Or are they just

a distraction that's keeping me from hearing

God? And sometimes we may find that that's the

case. But the psalmist gives us a good instruction

here for us to follow. Let's pray. God, we come

to you. I thank you for your greatness. I thank

you for the beauty of all that you make. And

help us all to just see your greatness through

your creation, dear Lord. And just to rejoice

in you, dear Lord. You're pretty awesome. And

we just need to stop and acknowledge that sometimes,

dear Lord. Maybe there are a lot of things that

our mind focuses on that we just meditate on

a lot of junk, dear Lord. We think about a lot

of junk all day, every day. And I pray, dear

Lord, that you just help us to take a step back,

help us to fight for some of our brain space,

dear Lord, to give you a little bit of that time

to focus on you, dear Lord, to ask this same

question, dear Lord, that we see in this song,

to ask if our meditations are pleasing to you.

Think about that, dear Lord. The things that

we're doing, the things that we're thinking about,

the things that we're focused on, are these things

pleasing to you? Help us to see if they are,

and if they're not, dear Lord, help us to see

that as well. I pray that you would help us to

see you, to seek you, to trust you, and to seek

to please you in all we do. And I ask these things

in Jesus' name. Amen.