Bishop’s Message Bishop Dr Gordon Wong was elected Bishop of The Methodist Church in Singapore in 2020. He served as President of the Trinity Annual Conference from 2013–2020.
Creation Care in Psalm 104
P
salm 104 is one of the most extended meditations
lovingly concerned for all creation, and humanity should
on Creation Care in the Bible. The Psalmist praises
not lord herself over her fellow created beings. (The list in
God for both creating and caring for the many,
Psalm 104 puts both inanimate and animate beings alike
many different created beings in our world. The long
under the care of the one God who created us all.) Indeed,
list includes the heavens, the clouds, wind, lightning,
the mandate to humanity in Genesis 1:28 “have dominion
the earth, the seas, the mountains (verses 2-9), valleys,
over” other created beings would seem to lay the lion’s
springs, wild animals, donkeys, grass, plants, humans,
share of responsibility upon humans to help God—in whose
trees, birds, storks (verses 10 -17), goats, badgers, the
image humanity is made—to express care for all God’s
moon and sun, lions, big fish, small fish, and even
creation. This mandate probably lies behind the sudden and
monster fish (verses 18-26). All of these are created by
unexplained anger with which the Psalmist ends:
God and depend on God’s hands, face and breath to be sustained (verses 27-30). By using the same Hebrew word in verses 11 and 13, there is a playful implication that even the mountains, just like the animals, need God to provide them water to drink!
May sinners vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more! Psalm 104:35
In such a long list of created beings, one writer
Was the Psalmist angry at the way humans in his or her
comments that “humanity has only a bit part”. This is an
time were abusing God’s creation rather than caring for
exaggeration (humanity is named three times, although
it? We cannot be certain, but we can certainly do our
the mountains take pride of place with six references).
part to care for all of God’s creation. May all who abuse
But the writer’s point is that the God of Psalm 104 is
God’s creation be no more!
METHODIST MESSAGE June 2022
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