Creation’s Promise

I have read and prayed this psalm in many different circumstances, especially in hospitals and at gravesides, to comfort the sick and grieving, the fearful and devastated, and those who love them. Imagine the psalm writer being outside, looking to the hills on the horizon and asking the question, “from where will my help come?” The question could have been provoked by any number of challenges. And it may have been pondered for a long time, or like the next verse that follows, an answer may already have been on the writer’s lips, “My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”

The invitation to go outside to experience creation holds this same promise of God for many of us. Martin Luther spoke of creation being a mask of God. Whether hills, or trees that provide some much needed shade from the hot sun, or whatever is just outside our door, the psalm’s invitation is to go out and look and see signs of God’s faithfulness all around us, and to trust in that carrying us through any and every circumstance from our going out to our coming in, today and forevermore.

God, help us see in all you have made your faithfulness in every circumstance of life. Amen. — LM