Tu’apulelulu ‘Okatopa 12, 2023
God's Land
Ko e Mamani ‘a e ‘Otua
PSALM 104:24
O LORD, HOW MANIFOLD ARE YOUR WORKS! IN WISDOM HAVE YOU MADE THEM ALL; THE EARTH IS FULL OF YOUR CREATURES.
SAAME 104:24
Hono ‘ikai ko e fu‘ufu‘unga me‘a ho‘o ngaahi ngāue, ‘e Sihova! Pea ko e poto kuo ke ngaohi ‘aki hono kotoa: ‘Oku fonu ‘a māmani ‘i ho‘o koloa.
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." These opening words of the Bible declare that all creation hangs on God's Word. Nothing has an independent existence, from atoms to humans to planets. Psalm 104 translates this truth in soaring poetry. "The eretz ['earth'] is full of your creatures." Not brimming with autonomous entities, but creatures. That is why, as Jewish scholar Abraham Heschel puts it, "Psalm 104 is a hymn to God rather than an ode to the cosmos." Not "mother nature" but the Father is worthy of blessing, for he "set the earth upon its foundations, so that it should never be moved" (v. 5).
The word eretz can mean "land," as in Eretz Yisrael ("the land of Israel"), but also the "world" or "earth." And fittingly so, for from Israel were to flow the blessings that irrigated the whole earth. When Jesus sent his followers to "make disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28:19), he sent them with pockets full of promises and lips full of praise, for "all authority in heaven and on earth" had been given to him. He, the Word who hung on the tree, sent them to proclaim that all creation hangs on his word of grace and power.
"Be exaited, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!" (Ps. 108:5).
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