Creation Now

Psalm 33

This is one of a number of psalms that bring together the work of God in creation (verses 6-9) and active in history (starting at verse 10) through his Word. Creation was made good, complete. Creation is dynamic, but everything necessary was provided.

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. - Genesis 1:38a

Creation is complete. But the pattern of creation is repeated daily in the lives of those who trust God. God’s Word in creation spoke into chaos and darkness and formed beauty, order, and room for life, not just to survive but to thrive. He can do that with us daily if we let him speak his creative Word into our life. Do I put him on the throne of my life daily? Do I let him address those chaotic and dark places in my heart and in my circumstances, or do I think “I can handle it,” or I might just rather complain about certain outward circumstances and use them as excuses for other things, or maybe it’s just easier to coast. That’s to invite further chaos. Better by far:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. – Romans 8:28

And

I can do everything through him who gives me strength. – Philippians 4:13

1. Creation is complete.
2. God’s creative, redemptive work can be invited and experienced in our daily life.
3. And God’s creative work is at work in human history, the psalmist celebrates. That’s harder to see, because it is not complete. Are we on the verge of a world recession unlike anything we have experienced? Is there about to be as terrorism wildfire, as the Afghan president has warned? Are we already at a tipping point in the world’s climate? We are hardly to be complacent about those things any more than we are to say “whatever” to our personal circumstances. On the contrary, those and other problems will worsen as long as we as a race and as leaders among us see ourselves as gods unto ourselves. All world events are part of the chaos in which God’s eternal creative Word is presently active toward bringing about a new creation in its fullness, already begun with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. With gracious, loving power, it is now growing toward its fulfillment in and through Christ’s Body in the world, the church. What form does that take? It starts very simply:

Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them. – Matthew 18:19-20

What is the end of all this?

And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
- Ephesians 1:9-10

Prayer:
God, make a fresh start in me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
- Psalm 51:10 The Message