Daily Devotion – May 13, 2020 – Roy Hammerling
Psalm 148:7
“Praise the Lord from the earth, you sea monsters. . .”
Singing Sea Monsters
Ecclesiastes says that there is a time for every season under the heavens, “. . . a time to weep and laugh.” In times like these, tough times, coronavirus times, we reflect on the past, and hopefully look forward to what lies beyond; we pray for more dancing than mourning, more peace than war, less bickering in politics and more working to help people. Psalm 148 relates that fire, hail, snow, and stormy winds praise the Lord. Even the sea monsters lift their voices with the angels. Perhaps, we need these aspects of our world that cause us to wonder, if we are properly to praise God aright. As the ecological crisis threatens entire species and the climate, perhaps our very ability to praise God is at stake as well. As Ray Petry, the great church historian, once told me, “You can clear away all the forests for parking lots, and build concrete skyscrapers to the heavens, so you can’t see trees any more, and you can build your summer homes in the mountains and drive the wolves from their habitat, but in the end what will this get you? I fear that the only legacy of such behavior will be our inability to praise God. For if we destroy God’s creation, we will lose sight of the Creator as well.” As Augustine once said, “There are two books of revelation: the bible and nature. Both point to God. So sing on sea monsters, sing on.
Prayer: Grant us praise, O Creator, so that we too might lift our voices with the sea monsters and angels to honor your love for all creation. Amen
Prayer Concerns: For sea monsters and all creation.
