November 22, 2021 – Psalms 131-135

Lots of rain, yesterday morning, before tapering off and finally stopping in the evening. The day was just what I consider a normal November day in Louisville: cold, gray, and wet. When you think about it, though, the earth’s distance from the sun, its orbit around the sun, its rotation, and its tilt . . . well, it’s all just right for a luscious, green, life-filled planet. And I haven’t even mentioned the earth’s core and how it produces the magnetic field around the planet, which protects from the sun’s radiation. And I haven’t even mentioned . . . well, there are so many precise factors; but the Creator has not missed a single one of these matters. What do we read in Genesis? “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).

The words of the psalmist: “Praise the Lord! Praise the name of the Lord, give praise, O servants of the Lord . . . Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses” (135:1,7). This morning, I would just reflect on my thoughts on the weather, above, and be reminded, with the psalmist, that our God has not only created all things, but he rules over his creation, even over the clouds and lightnings and rain and wind. How great and beautiful is the creation but even more the One who rules over it. Indeed, praise the Lord!

Fairest Lord Jesus,

ruler of all nature,

O thou of God and man the Son,

Thee will I cherish,

Thee will I honor,

thou, my soul's glory, joy, and crown.

Fair is the sunshine,

fairer still the moonlight,

and all the twinkling starry host:

Jesus shines brighter,

Jesus shines purer

than all the angels heaven can boast. –Anonymous (17th century)