A Closer Walk
"Great are the works of the Lord; They are studied by all who delight in them. Splendid and majestic is his work; And His righteousness endures forever. He has made his wonders to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and compassionate," Psalm 111:2-4 NASB. Great are the works of the Lord. Splendid and majestic is His work. He has made His wonders to be remembered. So what are the works of the Lord? What are His wonders?
Look at Genesis Chapter 1. Our God started with less than nothing and created all that we see. The sun, the moon, and the stars; all the heavens. Then the whole geography. Oceans and lands. Mountains and valleys. Plains and hills. He created all the vegetation. Grass and trees. Flowers and all kinds of plants. Plants to grow for food , and plants to enjoy looking at. The Lord created all the creatures and critters and beasts of the field. Some of these for food. Creeping things, and crawling things, and some that fly through the air. All kinds of birds; even some that sing. “For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, But formed it to be inhabited) 'I am the Lord, and there is none else,'” Isaiah 45:18 NASB. And when He was done with all that, "Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them," Genesis 1:26-27 NASB.
Want to see God's works? Look outside. There are God-made things and man-made things. But the man- made things are made of or taken from the God-made things. Want to see God's wonders? Go look in a mirror. After everything our God created the Bible says, "...and God saw that it was good". After our Lord created the man and the woman the Bible says, "...and God saw that it was very good." Now this referred to all of creation as well as to the man and the woman.
We, you and I, are created in the image of God. No other created thing can claim that. We are a work of His hands but also a wonder of His hands. He has made His wonders to be remembered. Being created in the image of God do we bear any responsibility for upholding the name of the Lord?
"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing," Benjamin Franklin. Mr Franklin did both of these. He wrote and published "Poor Richard's Almanac" for twenty-five years. He sold ten-thousand copies a year. This made him wealthy enough that he could work for and serve our country, which was just being formed, whenever we needed him. He was a delegate for the conventions which produced both the "Declaration of Independence" in 1776 and the U.S. Constitution in 1787. Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing? There likely would be a strong consensus that he did both of these above and beyond. How about us? Are we upholding the name of our Lord?
"Crowns and thrones may perish, Kingdoms rise and wane, But the church of Jesus Constant will remain; Gates of hell can never 'Gainst that church prevail; We have Christ's own promise, And that cannot fail. Onward, Christian soldiers, Marching as to war, With the cross of Jesus Going on before," words written in 1865 by Sabine Baring-Gould 1834-1924. Music written in 1871 by Arthur Sullivan 1842-1900 (this is the Sullivan of the famed Gilbert and Sullivan).