Praise of heaven and earth is the cosmic theme of Psalm 148. Verses 1 states, “Praise the Lord from the heavens”. Then follows an inventory of heavenly creatures called to praise God, including the angels, the sun, moon, stars and the highest heavens, including the waters above the heavens. Then verse 7 reads, “Praise the Lord from the earth,” and again another inventory follows, containing sea monsters, deep oceans, lightning, hail, snow and wind, followed by mountains, trees, animals and birds, and finally humans. Significantly, humans are just one of the many heavenly and earthly creatures called to worship and praise the Lord. For all are called to praise God.
How do the stars and mountains, and so on, worship the Lord? By being mountains with all their height, steepness and ruggedness. Similarly, the stars praise God by being stars, burning brightly with all their nuclear energy, like our sun, white dwarfs and black holes, etc. Likewise, we humans worship God by being human to the full extent of what that means. Thus, we, as human beings, are made to worship and praise God by working together with the earth and the heavens, using our God given ability to cooperate with God to care for, renew and transform our earthly environment sustainably and creatively, bringing glory to God, the creator and sustainer of the whole created order.
PRAYER:
Lord, enable us to become fully human. So that we might genuinely worship you and work with you for the renewal of the whole of the created order to the praise of your name. Amen.
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