Psalm 104:19-23 “You have made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting. You make darkness, and it is night when all the animals of the forest come creeping out. The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God. When the sun rises, they withdraw and lie down in their dens. People go out to their work and to their labor until the evening.” Today's episode touches on how magnificent God created nature to be. How great it all just flows together. It also touches on the fact that although God provides for all of His creatures, including all His children, some still don't have enough and some reasons why that is. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Psalm 104 The Lord’s Majesty (Part 5)
Psalm 104:19-23 “You have made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting. You make darkness, and it is night when all the animals of the forest come creeping out. The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God. When the sun rises, they withdraw and lie down in their dens. People go out to their work and to their labor until the evening.”
It just amazes me how perfectly everything in nature flows. Everything in the world doesn’t flow nicely because we have created many things that mess everything up. However, if we look at nature, we can’t help but be in awe of God’s majesty. Today’s verses start our talking about the moon and how we have seasons. What is even more incredible is that the seasons aren’t the same worldwide. There is a season for everyone. There are places you can go and leave the cold winters if you don’t like the cold. There are also places you can go to leave the heat if you are not a fan. Whatever type of weather you are looking for, there is somewhere on this planet called Earth that you can move to.
Consider the sun, faithfully following its natural course. Each morning, it rises, and each evening, it sets as if it knows the perfect time. This, too, is a wonder. Each day brings a subtle change, a slight variation in the sun's stay. It's a testament to the ever-changing yet perfectly orchestrated nature of our world.
Next, it says, “You make darkness, and it is night when all the animals for the forest come creeping out. The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God.” How great it is that the animals can hunt under the cover of night. They can come out while most humans are sleeping and get the whole night to themselves. Then, when humans are awake, they get to sleep and rest up. I like how the verse says, “The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God.” It reminds us that God provides for all of us. God created this universe with everything we would need to survive. There is enough food for everyone.
Right after I said that, I thought about all the people that are starving to death every day. I looked it up, and one website said 25,000 people die every day due to hunger and related causes. This is a scary number. My first thought is, why isn’t God providing for these people? Why isn’t he giving them what they need to survive? Then He reminds me that we live in a broken world. There are many man-made reasons why they don’t have food. Here is what the actionagainsthunger.org website says, "The planet produces enough food to feed everyone on Earth. Yet more than 3 billion people can’t afford to eat a healthy diet. Why? Interconnected issues of poverty, inequity, conflict, climate change, gender discrimination, and weak government and health systems all play a role in keeping nutritious food out of reach for millions of families around the world.”
God has created enough food and resources for the world and all of the people he created to be in it, yet so many are still starving. This isn’t because God doesn’t care or is not generous. This is because we live in a broken world. We have people who take a lot more than they need and who use their power to prevent others from getting what they need. We have people who are selfish and keep the resources to themselves. All they care about is getting more and more power and wealth for themselves, and they don’t even care about what that means for others.
This is not how God created us to be nor how He created the world to be. However, once sin entered the world, so did this corruption. That doesn’t mean all is lost. God has placed good people in the way of the corrupt people. Yes, there are a lot of people in the world who do despicable things. There are also a lot of good people who are fighting against those people. I know it can sometimes feel overwhelming, and we can start to wonder if the whole world will fall apart. What we must do is to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. If we keep our eyes on the Lord, we will see that He is bigger than anyone and anything that we run into in this world. God is sending people all the time to help those in need. Yes, I am sure it breaks his heart any time one of his children dies for any reason. I am sure it is particularly sad if it is for a lack of resources when He has ensured plenty of resources for His children.
This is why God sends missionaries and organizations who fight for the rights of people who are starving, who are being sold into slavery, who don’t have drinking water and anyone else who is in trouble. God sees all of His children. He sees their plight and He is sending people to help fix it. He didn’t create this mess, but you can bet He is not ignoring it. He sees it, and He is helping with it.
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for how amazing you are. We thank you for providing all you have given us. Lord, we are sorry that some people are hogging all the wealth and resources you have given this world. We ask that you put on our hearts how we can help those who are starving or who do not have drinking water. Lord, put on our hearts where we are being wasteful and what we can do to change our wasteful habits. Lord, thank you for being so awesome and for creating nature the way you have. It is amazing how you created everything to work so smoothly. Everything has a time and a place, and that is great! We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name. Amen.
Thank you for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. If this podcast has blessed you in some way, would you consider supporting the production costs of this podcast? There is a link to donate below. Also, tomorrow is our last night in the surrender series. There is still time to sign up, so you can join us tomorrow night for week #4 of the surrender series. I hope to see you live on Zoom Tuesday night at 8 PM ET. I look forward to meeting everyone else here tomorrow morning. Remember, Jesus loves you just as you are, and so do I. Have a blessed day!
Today’s Word from the Lord was received in February 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group, these words, or how to join us for a meeting, please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today’s Word from the Lord is, “But you must step forward and not step backward. When I call you, you will know. Don't doubt. Send that doubt to me. And know that I live in you as you live in me.”