Creation | Knowable Word

Psalm 104: Praise the Lord Who Governs the Earth and Cares for His Creatures

April 8, 2024 By Ryan Higginbottom

Some of the psalms stick in our memories because of their vivid imagery or their just right phrasing of a meditation or longing of our heart. The psalms which have been set to recognizable music are especially memorable.

But we don’t always study those psalms which move us deeply. Today we’ll take a close look at Psalm 104.

Yahweh is Great

After exhorting his soul to “bless the Lord,” the psalmist begins his prayer with one of its main themes: “O Lord my God, you are very great!” (Psalm 104:1) The rest of this stanza—and the rest of the psalm—provide his reasoning.

The Lord is “clothed with splendor and majesty,” shining like light. He is also majestic in the way he governs heaven: riding on the clouds and the winds, putting them to work for his purposes (Psalm 104:1–4).

God Governs the Waters

The Lord is worthy of blessing because “he set the earth on its foundations” (Psalm 104:5). Verses 5–9 of this psalm describe the way God commands the waters on the earth, either at creation or after the flood (or both?). Regardless, God is the one who rebukes, appoints, and sets a boundary for the waters, “that they might not again cover the earth” (Psalm 104:9).

God Waters the Earth and his Creatures

God not only controls the oceans and seas, he directs each spring and stream. In verses 10–13 we see that God wants his creatures and even the mountains to be well-watered and satisfied. “Every beast of the field” drinks from God’s springs; the birds find shelter in the trees and sing a song of contentment (Psalm 104:11–12). God is the one who “water[s] the mountains” and “the earth is satisfied” with his provision (Psalm 104:13).

God Provides so Man can Provide

God governs the water so the earth will produce good things. The livestock benefit from the grass growing and man uses the plants to “bring forth food from the earth” (Psalm 104:14). God provides for necessities and more: wine, oil, and bread are given to “gladden” and “strengthen” his people (Psalm 104:15).

God Provides Shelter for Animals

God plants and waters the trees (Psalm 104:16). One of the reasons? So that the birds would have a place to build their nests (Psalm 104:17). But God cares for other animals too—the wild goats and the rock badgers find refuge in the mountains and among the rocks (Psalm 104:18).

God Governs the Seasons, the Sun, and the Moon

In this psalm, we get a tour of the earth and the heavens, all the different elements of creation that God’s hand controls. God made the moon and he makes darkness (Psalm 104:19–20). The darkness of night provides a time for “the beasts of the forest” to hunt for food (Psalm 104:20). In their roaring and in their retreat, the young lions are “seeking their food from God” (Psalm 104:21). The day and night are even markers for the labor of humanity (Psalm 104:23).

Earth is Full of Creatures Dependent on God

Verses 24–30 are the heart of the psalm. The psalmist takes another survey of all earth’s creatures and concludes that God is worthy of praise. God’s works are “manifold” and full of “wisdom.” “The earth is full of your creatures” (Psalm 104:24).

For the first time in the psalm, the writer turns to the sea, “great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great” (Psalm 104:25). God deserves praise for the ships in the sea as well as Leviathan (Psalm 104:26).

Verses 27–30 show just how dependent the creatures of earth are on their creator. They look to God for food, and they are filled with good things when he opens his hand (Psalm 104:27–28). But God can also hide his face or take away their breath, returning them to the dust (Psalm 104:29). In contrast, God renews the face of the ground as he sends forth his Spirit to create (Psalm 104:30).

Responding to the Great Creator and Ruler

The final five verses of this psalm represent the psalmist’s response to meditating on God’s creative, sovereign rule. He is to be praised!

The psalmist cries for God’s glory to endure forever (Psalm 104:31) even as we read what this glory involves: God can make the earth tremble and the mountains smoke by his glance and touch (Psalm 104:32). It is appropriate to sing long and loud to this God, to rejoice in the Lord (Psalm 104:33–34).

The final verse of the psalm contains a cry for the elimination of sinners and the wicked (Psalm 104:35). This may seem like a tangent, but the psalmist connects the Lord’s holiness to his ruling power and praiseworthiness. Such a powerful and pure God cannot dwell with sinners! They must surely be “consumed.”

As Christians, we confess that Christ is all and that the entire Bible points to him. Here is another such instance. How will sinners (and sin) be eliminated from the earth? Christ will come; the Spirit will come; the Father will transform sinners into glad and grateful children.

If you’re anything like me, the last line of this psalm is easy to say with the psalmist: “Bless the Lord, O my soul! Praise the Lord!” (Psalm 104:35)

Creation and Application

March 29, 2024 By Peter Krol

A firm grasp on the doctrine of creation will take your application skills to the next level.

silhouette of tree near body of water during golden hour — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Doctrine of Creation

Humans were created to be different from every other creature. Humans alone were created in the image of God.

God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:26-27

The fact that humans were created by God means that those humans are not themselves God. There remains a distinction between creatures and their Creator.

And yet there’s something special about humans. They are not merely a part of the “circle of life,” distant cousins to other species on planet earth. “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

What does that mean to be made in God’s image? In the most basic sense of defining terms, it means simply that humanity is like God. Humanity reflects or represents God. But in what way does humanity reflect God? In what way are human men and women like God?

Does it mean that the human body looks like what God would look like if we could see him? Does it mean that humans have a unique capacity for morality, intelligence, or relationship? Does the phrase “image of God” simply identify the unique value of every human person?

Such questions are worth considering in light of the rest of Scripture. But in the argument of Genesis 1, the way humans are like God has particular reference to God’s delegation of authority to rule the earth. After stating his intention to make man in his image, God gives them dominion over all the earth. And the narrator concludes: “So God created man in his own image.”

And how is humanity to rule the earth? If men and women are reflections of God, what should they learn from who God is and what he does?

In Genesis 1, we should learn that we—in contrast to every other creature—were made to be creative like God is creative. We were designed to bring order to chaos. To fill the empty spaces of our planet, and to spread the true knowledge of God in all the earth.

God made us for these things. He gave us authority to do these things. And he has equipped every one of us to follow through on these things.

Help with Application

So how does this doctrine help us to improve at applying the Bible?

In nearly any text, you can ask “creation” questions with respect to the author’s main point:

How does this text help us to recognize and delight in our creatureliness?
What is the distinction between the Creator and the created?
How can we exalt Jesus as the very Creator God?
What is the difference between humanity and the rest of the creation?
How has God given authority to us in this area? How can we exercise loving dominion under his guidance?
Where are the “empty spaces” in our world or our lives, where this text is not yet obeyed? How can we fill those spaces with the obedience of faith?
How can we bring order to the chaos that resists obedience to God in this area?
How can we proclaim God’s truth, so others can replicate it, until the whole earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of God?

I am intentionally sidestepping matters of direct sin, repentance, and redemption when I ask these questions. That’s not because such matters are unimportant, but only because I haven’t gotten to them yet.

All I’m doing here is applying the doctrine of creation. Drawing application from the way God originally intended (created) things to be. There is much work to be done in our application, before we even get to our sin and need for Christ.

Sometimes, robust reflection on God’s creation of humanity will give us ample material to speak into the issues of our age: human rights, the environment, secular humanism, same-sex attraction, gender identity, global justice, racism, stewardship, work and rest—to name just a few.

Deepen your grasp of the doctrine of creation, and you’ll take your application skills to the next level.

Proverbs 8 and Jesus

August 4, 2014 By Peter Krol

Last week, I drew these four “credentials” for wisdom from Proverbs 8:22-31:

Seeking wisdom is seeking the Lord.
Life without wisdom isn’t truly life.
The way of wisdom is tried and true. God’s wisdom makes the most sense of how the world works.
Wisdom gives you eyes to see who alone can make you happy.

In this chapter, Solomon praises God’s wisdom to motivate us to pursue it. Since wisdom can deliver what it promises, we’d be foolish not to chase it.

Before I move into more specific application from these points, I’d like to reflect on the connection between this wisdom and the Lord Jesus. This case presents a helpful example of how to see Jesus in any passage.

A Little History

Proverbs 8 provides a mine field for Christ-centered interpretation because it’s been so often misused. Because of the potential for misuse, many interpreters try to distance Jesus from this passage altogether.

“Baptistery.Arians06” by Georges Jansoone

Here’s the problem: In the third century, a heretic named Arius came to prominence with his teaching that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, did not always exist. According to Arius, Jesus was subordinate to God the Father because God had created him. Arius and his followers put much stock in verses like “The Father is greater than I” (John 14:28) and in biblical phrases like “the only begotten Son” (John 3:16) or “the firstborn of all creation” (Col 1:15). If he was begotten—the thinking goes—there must have been a time before he was begotten.

Arianism saw clear parallels between Jesus and Proverbs 8, since “all things were made through him” (John 1:3) and “when he established the heavens I was there” (Prov 8:27). If God created everything by his Word, and the Word is Jesus, and Jesus made everything—then Solomon’s declarations about wisdom’s creative work in Proverbs 8 must be about Jesus.

And so Prov 8:22 became a key verse for the Arian cause: “The LORD possessed me at the beginning of his work.” Some early Bible manuscripts use a word for possessed that could be translated as created, and the Arians had a field day with it. Proverbs 8 is about Jesus→Proverbs 8 says wisdom was created→Jesus must have been created. The links in the chain appear to hold tight.

Ramifications for Today

Far from being an obscure 3rd century problem, Arianism remains alive and well. Some of its most populous adherents include many Unitarians and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons). Leland Ryken also cites a tract from the Jehovah’s Witnesses that make this very argument from Proverbs 8.

Thus Christian interpreters, careful to guard against the dangers of Arianism, sometimes hesitate to acknowledge any connection between Proverbs 8 and Jesus. Proverbs 8 speaks of wisdom→The New Testament speaks of Jesus→Reading Jesus back into Proverbs 8 does violence to the text. By separating the person of Jesus from the personification of wisdom, they avoid the potential Arian problem.

How to See Jesus

However, there is a problem with making too sharp of a distinction between Proverbs and Jesus: We can’t deny that Jesus believed all the Old Testament was about him (Luke 24:44-46). Paul considered Jesus our wisdom from God (1 Cor 1:30). And, well, Jesus was present at the creation as a master workman, just like wisdom (John 1:1-3).

In addition, if you review the four conclusions with which I began this post, connections to Jesus should pop out.

Seeking Jesus is seeking the Lord (John 14:9).
Life without Jesus isn’t truly life (1 John 5:11-13).
The way of Jesus is tried and true. Knowing Jesus makes the most sense of how the world works (Acts 17:22-31).
Jesus gives you eyes to see who alone can make you happy (Mark 8:22-9:1).

We could support all four of these statements from the New Testament. That doesn’t mean, however, that we must say Jesus was created (Prov 8:22 – even if “created” is the best translation).

My point is this: Proverbs 8 doesn’t have to be an exact, direct prediction about Jesus in order for it to be about Jesus. If you want to see Jesus in the Old Testament, first discover the author’s main point (in this case, wisdom’s four credentials). Then connect the main point to Jesus. It’s okay if not all the details match up exactly.

Wisdom’s Credentials

July 28, 2014 By Peter Krol

Even if you like baseball, you probably haven’t heard of Rowan Wick, but someday you might. He rocked our town earlier this summer, but now he’s gone.

The State College Spikes are a Single-A short season minor league affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. Our family goes to enough games that we feel like we get to know the players. This season, Rowan Wick needed only 19 games to break the Spikes’ single-season home run record. After Wick’s 14 homers, 38 RBIs, and a .378 batting average, the Cardinals decided it was time to move him up the chain, and they relocated him to the Peoria Chiefs in Illinois.

We miss Wick and the high-strung energy that rippled through the stadium when he was at the plate. But he was well-qualified for the next level of baseball, and his credentials earned him a place of honor and advancement in the Cardinals franchise.

Similarly, Proverbs 8:22-31 describes wisdom’s qualifications for honor and advancement. In this chapter, Solomon has already promised wisdom’s surprising availability and unimaginable fruit. Now he backs up his assertions with some particular credentials.

Wisdom is the Lord’s Possession

The LORD possessed me at the beginning of his work,
the first of his acts of old. (Prov 8:22, ESV)

Wisdom is an affiliate, not an independent. Because wisdom belongs to the Lord, those who find wisdom find God’s favor (Prov 8:35). And because godly wisdom provides a pipeline to the God of wisdom, becoming wise and drawing near to God are the same. You can’t know God without receiving his instruction and becoming more like him.

The point is this: Seeking wisdom is seeking the Lord.

Wisdom was brought forth before God made the world

Ages ago I was set up,
at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
Before the mountains had been shaped,
before the hills, I was brought forth,
before he had made the earth with its fields,
or the first dust of the world. (Prov 8:23-26)

Observe the fourfold “before” and the double repetition of “I was brought forth.” There’s a sense in which wisdom is passive; it exists because God chose to bring it out. Before the Lord made anything tangible—before his work of shaping the earth—he brought forth wisdom and paraded it around.

In other words, wisdom is more fundamental and central to existence than any other created thing. That’s why wisdom is better than jewels (Prov 8:11) and gold (Prov 8:19). Wisdom is more intimate and satisfying than sexual activity (Prov 7:4-5). Nothing we desire compares with wisdom (Prov 3:15). If we get anything at all on earth, it should be wisdom and insight (Prov 4:7).

The point is this: Life without wisdom isn’t truly life.

Wisdom was present when God made the world

When he established the heavens, I was there;
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
then I was beside him,
like a master workman. (Prov 8:27-30a)

Notice how “I was brought forth” in the previous stanza (Prov 8:24-25) has shifted to “I was there” (Prov 8:27) and “I was beside him” (Prov 8:30). Wisdom was present in the world from Day 1. When God created the heavens and the earth, wisdom saw what God did and how he did it. Wisdom saw what worked and gained experience as a “master workman” (Prov 8:30).

The point is this: The way of wisdom is tried and true. God’s wisdom makes the most sense of how the world works.

Wisdom delights

I was daily his delight,
rejoicing before him always,
rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the children of man. (Prov 8:30b-31)

In this stanza, wisdom finally gets active. It goes from being possessed, being brought forth, and being present to delighting and rejoicing.

Wisdom delights in two ways: It is both delightful to God and delighting in others. Note the progression:

God delights in wisdom.
Wisdom rejoices before God.
Wisdom rejoices in the world.
Wisdom delights in humanity.

God didn’t implant the world with wisdom because it would kill joy. No, quite the opposite. He knew wisdom’s delight would go viral. He understood that his world would be dull without wisdom. What use would sex and money and music and sports and hiking and productivity all be if we couldn’t know the fear of the Lord, receive instruction about how life works best, find satisfaction in God’s ways, and have hope that anything can change? “Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness” (Eccl 2:13-14).

And joy will be joyful only when we know the joy God has in us.

The point is this: Wisdom gives you eyes to see who alone can make you happy.

Satisfaction is God’s Design, Part 1: Creation

April 15, 2013 By Peter Krol

Satisfaction is the fruit of both finding and keeping wisdom. Why?

The Lord by wisdom founded the earth;
By understanding he established the heavens;
By his knowledge the deeps broke open,
And the clouds drop down the dew (Prov 3:19-20).

These two verses form the hinge on which the main point of Prov 3:13-26 swings: God designed the universe by means of wisdom. Wisdom is not an end in itself; it ought to lead us to the Lord and Giver of wisdom. Thus, finding satisfaction in wisdom really means finding satisfaction in the Lord. There are at least three biblical reasons why this point is significant. This week I’ll explain the first.

1. In creating the world, God demonstrated wisdom.

"The Old World" by Mark H. Evans (2010), shared under a Creative Commons Attribution License

Mark H. Evans (2010), Creative Commons

When God created the world, he set an example for us to follow. He exhibited wisdom then, and he expects us to imitate him now. In particular, Genesis 1 describes how God made a world that was initially dark, shapeless, and empty: “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep” (Gen 1:2). He proceeded to give it light (Gen 1:3, 14), shape (Gen 1:4-10, 17-18), and stuff (Gen 1:11-12, 20-25). After doing so, he made people “in his own image,” expecting them to imitate his model (Gen 1:26-28). It pleases God when we bring the light of truth to the darkness, the shape of organization to the wildness, and the fullness of more worshipers to all the corners of the earth. We can do this personally (as we grow in Christ), corporately (as we join and serve a church), or socially (as we engage the culture or help those in need). Such is wisdom: Follow God’s example.

What does God’s example have to do with satisfaction? We’ve already seen the blessings of finding and keeping wisdom. It will go well for us when we do things God’s way. God demonstrates how life works best. When we imitate him, we reap the satisfying fruit of it. Or, to approach it conversely: If you want to know the right thing to do, you’ll have to go to the Lord to find out what it is. Wisdom pushes us toward the Lord to learn his ways.

For example, many single people seek satisfaction in romance. Since Jesus’ relationship with the Church sets the pattern for all human romance (Eph 5:22-33), finding wisdom in this realm begins with imitating Jesus’ example. That means men must learn to serve others more than themselves (Eph 5:25). They should become mature enough to teach the Bible (Eph 5:26), and influential enough to help others flourish (Eph 5:27). Women will benefit from holding out for such men, so they can have husbands worth following on their journey toward the Lord. I advise singles to habitually imitate Jesus’ character before dating another person. Failing to do so will result in unsatisfying romance, which is worse than having no romance at all.