1 Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise him in the heights!
2 Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his hosts!
3 Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, all you shining stars!
4 Praise him, you highest heavens,
and you waters above the heavens!
5 Let them praise the name of the Lord!
For he commanded and they were created.
6 And he established them forever and ever;
he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away.
7 Praise the Lord from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all deeps,
8 fire and hail, snow and mist,
stormy wind fulfilling his word!
9 Mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars!
10 Beasts and all livestock,
creeping things and flying birds!
11 Kings of the earth and all peoples,
princes and all rulers of the earth!
12 Young men and maidens together,
old men and children!
13 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for his name alone is exalted;
his majesty is above earth and heaven.
14 He has raised up a horn for his people,
praise for all his saints,
for the people of Israel who are near to him.
Praise the Lord!
So God and an atheist scientist are having a discussion. “I don’t think making man out of clay was such a big deal,” says the scientist. “I could do that too.” God strokes his chin and says, “Go ahead. I would like to see this.” The scientist reaches down to gather some earth, and God says, “Hey, get your own dirt.”
The joke is silly but it makes a very important point. When we confess in the creed that God made the heavens and the earth, we are saying that everything comes from him. I don’t know how or even when God did all this. I confess that He did it. We are all dependent upon God for our very being, not only all us humans as descendants of that man whom God shaped from the earth, but also all of creation, the earth itself.
The psalmist goes through what he thought were various orders of creation here, exhorting them all to praise and thank God for their very being. The angels and heavenly hosts, the sun, moon and stars, the forces of nature like wind and hail, and then the creatures, including people, but also the mountains and hills. They praise him because he gave a command and they came into being. We join will all creation in praising God in our hymnody and songs. The mountains and forests are there too in the mighty beams, stone and concrete which make up the building. The material which covers the elements is made of flax and the silver vessels themselves were mined from the hills. He is Lord of them all, their creator and their judge.