Psalms 104:1-35 NLT Let all that I am praise the L ord . O L ord my God, how great you are! You are robed with honor and majesty. You are dressed in a robe of light. You stretch out the starry curtain of the heavens; you lay out the rafters of your home in the rain clouds. You make the clouds your chariot; you ride upon the wings of the wind. The winds are your messengers; flames of fire are your servants. You placed the world on its foundation so it would never be moved. You clothed the earth with floods of water, water that covered even the mountains. At your command, the water fled; at the sound of your thunder, it hurried away. Mountains rose and valleys sank to the levels you decreed. Then you set a firm boundary for the seas, so they would never again cover the earth. You make springs pour water into the ravines, so streams gush down from the mountains. They provide water for all the animals, and the wild donkeys quench their thirst. The birds nest beside the streams and sing among the branches of the trees. You send rain on the mountains from your heavenly home, and you fill the earth with the fruit of your labor. You cause grass to grow for the livestock and plants for people to use. You allow them to produce food from the earth— wine to make them glad, olive oil to soothe their skin, and bread to give them strength. The trees of the L ord are well cared for— the cedars of Lebanon that he planted. There the birds make their nests, and the storks make their homes in the cypresses. High in the mountains live the wild goats, and the rocks form a refuge for the hyraxes. You made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun knows when to set. You send the darkness, and it becomes night, when all the forest animals prowl about. Then the young lions roar for their prey, stalking the food provided by God. At dawn they slink back into their dens to rest. Then people go off to their work, where they labor until evening. O L ord , what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your creatures. Here is the ocean, vast and wide, teeming with life of every kind, both large and small. See the ships sailing along, and Leviathan, which you made to play in the sea. They all depend on you to give them food as they need it. When you supply it, they gather it. You open your hand to feed them, and they are richly satisfied. But if you turn away from them, they panic. When you take away their breath, they die and turn again to dust. When you give them your breath, life is created, and you renew the face of the earth. May the glory of the L ord continue forever! The L ord takes pleasure in all he has made! The earth trembles at his glance; the mountains smoke at his touch. I will sing to the L ord as long as I live. I will praise my God to my last breath! May all my thoughts be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the L ord . Let all sinners vanish from the face of the earth; let the wicked disappear forever. Let all that I am praise the L ord . Praise the L ord !

Land of Delight Psalm 104 is a song of praise to the Creator God. It paints a picture of a land of delight, a land created by a God who is 'clothed with splendor and majesty' (v.1). It is a land as Eden must have been: the waters are plentiful, the food grows in abundance for the animals, and humans cultivate the earth. The days come and go, the seasons turn and God breathes in and out, giving breath to all he has created and also taking it away. He sends his Spirit and new life is created; the earth is renewed. Everything is as it should be. Everything is in balance just as it will be again when all things have been renewed: God, humans, animals, plants, earth - all living in harmony. Peter DeVos and the other authors of Earthkeeping in the Nineties address the nature of that harmony: Relathionships, among the living things and between them and the non-living environment, are highly complex. Relationships and interactions are essential to the perpetuation of the health and beauty of the ecosystems! As we understood more of the balanced intricacy of the biosphere, fewer and fewer people are willing to consider it all a meaningless accident; in the past decade it has become increasingly common for people to speak of the earth in terms of some mysterious purpose! Once again, in stumbling ways, creation is turning us toward the Creator. For this balance in the ecosystem is, to the Christian, an indication of a Creator who does all things well. The life-sustaining beauty of the created earth declares the glory of God, as God declares its goodness. Thus the more we understand of the intricacy of a healthy ecosystem, the more we learn of the Creator. Nevertheless, the intricacy occurs within healthy ecosystems, the balance is maintained by death. And death - of a plant, an animal, or another person - reminds us that we too are creatures. We are part of the biosphere! It is true that we have a personal relationship with God, we are 'made in his image' and thus we stand apart in some ways from the rest of creation. But it is also clear that God has created us as he has all other creatures. We, too, are organisms, living within a rich but limited world. We share with all creatures fundamental biological needs: the need for energy and minerals, for food, air, and water! The life of the earth is our life, and we depend upon it. Thus the Christian respect for creation has a twofold source: believers delight in it as God's work and respect it as they respect their own bodies - for in a sense the biosphere is our extended body.