Praise the Lord!

The Psalms never cease to amaze me. They take me to new places in the spirit each time I read verses in them. Consider Psalm 148. It tells me of the beauty of this world God has created, this world that we enjoy.

I am reminded of a story I heard while in seminary.

A preacher spoke of spending a summer evening as a child with his grandfather, a Presbyterian Elder. They were by a lake and their ears rang with the noises of crickets and bullfrogs and birds and God knows what else. While they were sitting and listening to the racket of the wildlife; the grandfather asked the child, "Do you know what they are saying?"
"No," he said.

"They are praising God," the grandfather replied.

Certainly the grandfather knew that Presbyterian Westminster catechism begins with the affirmation that the 'purpose' of human life is "to glorify God and to enjoy [God] forever." Even more importantly, this grandfather was familiar with the Psalms, many of which like Psalm 148, speaks of all creation praising God.

Maybe praising God is the purpose of all whole creation. Maybe this is what the grasshoppers are doing when they whine through the heat of an summer night. Maybe this is what the coyote is doing when it pierces the desert night with a howl. Maybe the short, funny melody of the turtle dove, is praising and enjoying God. When dogs bark at the moon or when seagulls swarm and screech or when a rattler rattles its rattle, when a robins sings its morning song, then maybe they are being more faithful to God in their innocence than we are in our vast knowledge. Maybe they are simply praising God without guile or pretense.

It was the American theologian Jonathan Edwards who articulated the idea that the beauty of the natural world is an expression of God's glory. And seeing things that way ought to make us approach nature with awe and wonder, because there is a sense in which when we look at the creation we are seeing reflected all around us the work of the Creator.

Psalm 148 delights and dazzles, dancing between the mysterious majesty of the angels; the gossamer beauty of new fallen snow; the thundering storms, the melodies of larks and the leaping, crashing, breaching of humpback whales. The whale image comes full stregth to me from my time in Alaska. They are sea creatures of the deep, sea monsters of the gentlest variety, and there sheer size is beyond amazing. There are few things as impressive to see as is a 40 ton whale launching above the waves. We witnessed it on numerous occasions, and never ceased to be fascinated by these herculean water dancers.

This Psalm reminds us that we are not alone in praising God. In fact, it may be that we are the slowest of God's creatures to praise our Creator and Redeemer. But praising God -- and living lives with an attitude of gratitude -- is key to the Christian life.