psalm 96 - even nature praises God - 21st week tuesday

We continue to reflect on the psalms, this time psalm 96.

Psalm 96 has several things to teach us.  First.  It is not just the people or the nations that are praising God.  Nature is also praising God, the very fabric of creation praises God. The sky, the earth, the seas, the field are all commanded to praise the Lord.  In the bible nature, the things around us, has sacred meaning.  For example, the mountain because of its height and grandeur symbolizes the place of divine encounter.  The rain symbolizes God's care for the earth.  The oceans speak of God's immensity and vastness.  The waves of the ocean and the roar when it reaches the shore or smashes on the rocks and outcrops, these waves speak of God's power and might.  The clouds speak of God's presence, as light also does, as its opposite, darkness, speaks of God's absence.

I happened to go to a place where the mountains are so high and so big and the forest so vast they advertise this place saying "come and see how small you are."  Sometimes it is good to be overwhelmed by the size of these things so that self-important and arrogant people such as ourselves will see that we are like insects, tiny insects before the grandeur that is God.

So psalm 96 is telling us that nature can be a place of God's revelation.  The trees, the wind, the sky, the birds... all of these speak of God.  So this is an invitation for us especially people of the mall, the mall rats who would only think of malls as the only alternative when we have nothing to do.

Another thing which psalm 96 teaches us is this – all these realities which we find in nature speak that God reigns, God is in control of the earth, of the history of nations, God is in control of our lives.  IF we forget this sometimes God sends reminders that there is a power greater than ourselves even if arrogant man would sometimes believe himself to be on top of the situation.  When the earth quakes we all shout ay dios ko, or when the rain pours so hard it floods our cities and homes, or when we are in an airplane going through a terrible turbulence and the big plane is shaken like a little plane toy... we are reminded of our own helplessness and need. But precisely it is in these feelings of helplessness that psalm 96 assures us that we are in God's hands that God will come to renew our world, that God will bring justice, equity and well-being to all. 

And so when you are in despair pray this psalm because despite your creepy outlook in life, despite your anxieties and fears, despite the dangers you face, you will be asked, you will be commanded by the psalm to praise God.  Somewhere I have said that the psalms many times would encourage us to be stubborn in our praise.  Bisan budlay, dayawa ang Dios, bisan pigado, bisan subo, bisan palpak praise God, be stubborn in your praise because this praise helps you to put failures in a proper perspective, in a faith-filled perspective, that in God all things will work out for the good because God is in control.