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God's Creation

Psalm 104:24-35 (https://www.biblegateway.com, NRSVA)
We’re often told that the people of ancient Israel feared the sea, but here the psalmist seems to positively relish it. The earth is full of God’s creatures, and the psalmist has already thought about the birds and the beasts earlier in the psalm, but here he or she begins to describe life in the great, wide ocean deeps. 
Innumerable creeping things are there. The mind boggles! Are these crabs and lobsters? What about the innumerable fish that used to swim among the Red Sea reefs? 
Leviathan gets a mention. Is that meant to be a whale? Or a crocodile? Or a dragon, as in the Greek translation of the Old Testament? Or is it the seven-headed sea monster which battled with the rain god Baal in ancient Canaanite religion? If so, it’s no longer a frightening foe but a playmate or clubbable friend created for God to sport with.
God’s wisdom has created life on earth and his spirit or breath gives breath to all living things. God creates and regenerates.
The last section of the psalm celebrates God’s creativity and power on an even grander scale. He is the God of earthquakes and volcanoes, responsible not just for life but for the very building blocks of the earth itself, the tectonic plates and their ceaseless movement.
Rather petulantly, the psalmist prays that those who are disobedient might ‘be consumed’ or ‘disappear from the earth’ and in the lectionary this verse is omitted so that the psalm ends with a paeon of praise. But in an age of global warming perhaps the psalmist is reminding us that those who undermine the fragile unity of creation do not deserve to share in it. Could that be all of us? No wonder that the psalmist prays that our meditation might be pleasing to God.

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