Earth Crammed with Heaven

Psalm 104 is one of my absolute favorites. It was written as a poem or perhaps it was a song. And it begins and ends as a personal statement of faith.

Bless the Lord O my soul. And then: O Lord, my God, you are very great. 

But then, very quickly, we come to see that God who is my God – is also the God of all creation, and the God of all creatures. 

In fact, the psalm seems to take inventory. It moves from the largest creature – the Leviathan –  which was thought to be fierce – but here playful – to the smallest and most intimate – to the birds who sing in the trees, all the way to wine and oil and bread, which, not coincidentally, have become our most treasured sacred symbols. 

Poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote, “Earth is crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God; but only he who sees takes off his shoes…”

Ultimately, this Psalm is about God. It is you, O God, who stretches out the heavens. You who rides the winds. You who sets. You who makes. You who covers. You, O God. And it is not just the creatures who are named, but also the heavens, the beams, the clouds, wind, fire, flame, foundations, the deep, waters, thunder, mountains, valleys.

Earth is crammed with heaven… 

It does us well to marvel at creation, and to name the blessings in our lives. Just that simple noticing and naming can shift our perspectives.  know for me – it can work against my sense of entitlement. It works against my natural tendency to feel as though the world is coming apart at the seems.

The Psalmist ends with a type of doxology: “I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being.”

May we never fail to notice the good and beauty we see in the world around us. And may we give thanks and praise.

Let us pray: Open our eyes, O God, to the beauty and good in the world around us, even here, even now. Amen.