Psalm 104:30 Jenn Norton
When God began to create heaven and earth, and the earth then was welter and waste and darkness over the deep and God's breath hovering over the waters, God said, let there be light, and there was light.
Genesis 1:1-3 Robert Alter translation
I was musing this past week about yesterday's Feast of Pentecost, the Sunday we celebrate the birth of the Christian Church in those extraordinary events in Jerusalem two millenia ago. All during my ministry I focussed on Acts 2 and the enlivening work of the Holy Spirit that day.
I wondered about what a Creation themed Pentecost would look like, or whether that would even make sense. Yet the very first verse of the Hebrew scriptures and our Christian bible says that the wind/breath/spirit of God hovered over the "welter and waste" of Creation, the translation provided by Hebrew scholar, Robert Alter. It could be argued that Acts 2 is a creation or re-creation story which resonates with the first of the two creation stories found in Genesis. The followers of Jesus are in disarray, and the enlivening Spirit transforms their "welter and waste" into a community of Good News.
I decided to look at the psalm for Pentecost, which I never bothered to do in my preaching days. Lo and behold it was a passage from Psalm 104, the magnificent Creation psalm (see below.) I decided to reinstate the portion of verse 35 which is often expunged because it was likely added later, the bit about sinners and the wicked being expunged from the Earth. I put it back because it may be that our foolish ways will degrade our planetary home to the point where it is unlivable for humans. This will be a form of self-punishment, and sadly already is in part of the world.
Enough sermonizing for one day? Get a life, you say? Thanks for your patience!
Let there be light amidst the welter and the waste, and may God renew the Earth.
O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all;
the earth is full of your creatures.
There is the sea, great and wide;
creeping things innumerable are there,
living things both small and great.
There go the ships
and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.
These all look to you
to give them their food in due season;
when you give to them, they gather it up;
when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.
May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works—
who looks on the earth and it trembles,
who touches the mountains and they smoke.
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
May my meditation be pleasing to him,
for I rejoice in the Lord.
Let sinners be consumed from the earth,
and let the wicked be no more.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
Praise the Lord!
Psalm 104:24-35 NRSVue
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