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
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.