Transcript

The well-known hymn, “This is My Father’s World,” was written by Maltbie Davenport Babcock and was published after his death in 1901. He died just a few months short of his 43rd birthday in a hospital in Naples, Italy, during a trip to visit Israel.

Babcock was known both as a skilled amateur musician, playing the organ, piano and violin, and was recognized as a sportsman with achievements in swimming and baseball. He enjoyed nature and was an avid fisherman.

God called him to be a minister of the Gospel, and he followed the call faithfully.

Babcock was a minister in Lockport, New York, and he would often take morning walks overlooking a cliff, where he would enjoy the view of beautiful Lake Ontario and the surrounding country. As he prepared to leave for his walks, he would often tell his wife that “I’m going out to see my Father’s world.”

The original poem written by Babcock contained sixteen stanzas of four lines each. The poem was set to music in 1915 by Franklin L. Sheppard, a close friend of Babcock, and he selected three verses for the final hymn.

“This is my Father’s world, And to my listening ears, All nature sings, and round me rings, The music of the spheres. This is my Father’s world: I rest me in the thought. Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas, His hand the wonders wrought.

“This is my Father’s world: The birds their carols raise, The morning light, the lily white, Declare their Maker’s praise. This is my Father’s world: He shines in all that’s fair; In the rustling grass I hear Him pass, He speaks to me everywhere.

“This is my Father’s world: O let me ne’er forget, That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the Ruler yet. This is my Father’s world: Why should my heart be sad? The Lord is King: let the heavens ring! God reigns; let earth be glad!”

Psalm 104 is an account of praise to God for His creation. It presents the God who created and sustains a bountiful world that reflects His glory. This is our Father’s World.

The Psalmist is careful to lift up the Creator, not the creation, in this Psalm. The Psalm speaks of, but does not focus on the actual created thing, but rather on the Creator and on how God provides for and sustains His creation.

Verses 5 and 19 in the psalm refer to the creation record in Genesis 1. But most of the psalm speaks of the creation as it appears to the psalmist at the time he is living and writing. This is evident in the way the subject matter is described, particularly with the use of present tense verbs throughout the Psalm.

And the Psalm speaks of the world post-flood, as seen from verses 6-9. So the way the Psalm is written in describing the creation, for the most part is the same way we see it currently in our time.

In spite of the fact that creation is in bondage to sin since the fall of man, we still live in an amazing world and universe, which is run and maintained by divinely ordained laws.

Whether we just look around, or use a telescope, or a microscope, we see the handprint of God’s wisdom, power, care and design everywhere around us at all times.

Psalm 104:1-4: “Bless the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, thou art very great; thou art clothed with honour and majesty.

“Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment: who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain: Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind:

“Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire.”

Psalm 104 is bookended with similar praise in verses 1 and 35: “Bless the Lord, O my soul.” The detailed description of creation in between these two verses serves to explain why the Psalmist believes God should be praised, blessed, and worshipped.

The opening of the psalm conveys the sense of the writer being bowed down before the greatness of Divine Majesty.

The psalmist blesses the Lord with “MY soul.” This reminds us that while we praise and worship God collectively, it is something to be done individually on our own as well.

The reason why the psalmist calls on his soul to bless his God is because God is not just great, but “very great.” He is exalted, set apart and very great in His perfections, and in all that He is and does.

The wonder expressed in this chapter is not in reference to the creation and its greatness, but instead of God’s greatness. It’s not “the universe is very great,” not “Your creation is very great,” it’s “Thou art very great.”

Kings and notable people sometimes get “Great” attached to their names. We read of Alexander the Great, Constantine the Great, Peter the Great, and Frederick the Great. Muhammad Ali was nicknamed: The Greatest, Wayne Gretzky was called The Great One.

But in comparison with the God of heaven, their greatness dwindles into nothing! God is the true definition of greatness. The greatness of God is the keynote for the Psalm, and the rest of the Psalm is a development of this theme.

In His greatness, God is “clothed with honor and majesty,” wrapped with inexpressible splendor, glory and grandeur. He wore this honor and majesty at creation, and He still wears it as He continually preserves what He has created.

And God “coverest” or shrouds Himself in light. No description of God Himself is attempted. God in His greatness is too magnificent to even attempt to describe.

Only His robe is seen. And as a Monarch wears a glorious robe, light is the glorious robe and royal apparel of God.

In a small way, we can understand this idea of light as a garment by the appearance of Christ at His transfiguration. Matthew 17:2 reads, “And was transfigured before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light.”

But light is just His outer garment. And as Charles Spurgeon points out, “If light itself is but his garment and veil, what must be the blazing splendour of His own essential being!”

All light is the result of God. Before the heavens and earth were created, God’s first creative word produced light. And the sun and stars and all light sources owe their light and brightness to Him who covers Himself with light as a garment.

Verse 2 further teaches that God stretches out the heavens like a curtain. God’s greatness is also apparent as the One who created the vast heavens. Since the Creator is greater than His creation, the God who created the immense heavens is astonishingly great.

Light was created on the first day and the firmament of heaven was created on the second day, and likewise, in this creation Psalm they follow each other in this verse.

God spread the immense, infinite stellar universe and heavens above over the earth like a curtain, or a canopy, or as a tent within which to dwell.

The size of the universe is relative to the size of the Creator who made it. It tells us the kind of space that is necessary for the Creator to be able to live in it as a tent.

In verse 3, the Psalmist teaches that the foundation of God’s upper chambers rests in the watery cloud-cover, above and over the earth, or on a floor of rain clouds in the atmosphere above.

The exalted abode, chamber, and dwelling place of God is raised above all other edifices, and is high above this world.

Ancient rulers in the days of the Psalmist, often put on their glorious apparel and then would sit in state within curtains, and the Lord is spoken of under that image.

But that picture and illustration is raised far above human comprehension. God’s glorious robe is essential light, and the curtain and tent is the infinite universe studded with stars for gems. And the foundation of it rests on the upper atmosphere above this world.

The picture teaches that God made everything and He owns it all. The whole creation exists for His purposes. God is over it all as its Creator.

And as a King would ride in chariots in ancient times, so God has a chariot also. If you think you have a sweet ride, consider God’s. The clouds are His chariot.

The God of all creation can do what no one else can. He does not share the limitations of the creation. As the clouds and the winds are His and since He created them, He can walk on the wings of the wind; He can make the clouds His chariot.

The image is of Him as King coming out of His lofty chambers and tent and moving within His creation. It is symbolic of His presence, governance and authority over His creation.

And these things tell us that if light is His garment, if the universe is His tent, if He can walk on the wings of the wind, and make the clouds His chariot, then we should “bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, Thou art very great.”

One author wrote this, “If God is indescribable, where does that leave us? It leaves us walking more humbly than we’ve ever walked before, bowed at the thought of such a mighty and mysterious God.”

Proverbs 9:10 says that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” It is wisdom to humble ourselves before this God, and to depend on Him and His strength, follow His Word and wisdom, and to rest in His control.

As the description of the Creator continues, verse 4 shows that God “maketh His angels spirits; His ministers a flaming fire.” A King is surrounded by servants.

And God is served and waited upon by holy, angelic spirits in His royal court. God “maketh His angels,” and as their Creator, God rules over the angels, equipping and commissioning them as it pleases Him.

Psalm 103:2-3 reads, “Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.”

The word “spirits” in verse 4 means winds. And in making his angels like the “winds” it speaks of their invisibility and the energy and force with which they carry out God’s will. It also refers to the wind-like velocity and swiftness of their obedience to God.

They are His ministers, under His command, always ready to do His bidding. When God commands they must obey and are swift in doing so.

Being made as a flaming fire, speaks to the awesome power the angels were created with and how they can be used of God as instruments of judgment. We see that done in the events of the future Tribulation as recorded in the Book of Revelation.

God’s angels obey His will with the speed of wind and they carry it out with the fervency and power of flames of fire.

Psalm 104:5-9: “Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever. Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.

“At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them.

“Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.”

The psalmist understood that God was the Creator of all things, and that it was He who laid the foundations of the earth. It did not happen by chance or random events or a big bang. There is a Creator behind all things.

The times in which we live are significantly defined by mankind’s rejection of God as Creator. Having abandoned this fundamental truth, humanity is drifting without a proper sense of responsibility or accountability toward its Creator.

The Lord asked Job in Job 38:4: “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.”

The great Creator, in His infinite power and wisdom, “Laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed forever.” As Psalm 78:69 also says, “And He built His sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which He hath established for ever.”

Whatever God builds, He builds well and it cannot be toppled. The earth’s foundations are solid and stable and permanent. God formed the earth on invisible foundations, and the foundations He laid are so established, the earth will “not be removed forever.”

The earth is solidly set even though as Job 26:7 says, “He hangs the earth on nothing.” We’ve all seen the pictures from space of the earth which confirms this verse.

The earth is hung on nothing, but by God’s unwavering, omnipotent power He holds it there, and thus it remains firmly fixed. And with God holding it, the earth rests on an infinitely stable, solid, eternal foundation.

And there’s a practical truth in this, that when we build our lives on God and His Word, we build upon the surest and most stable foundation of all.

The Psalmist referred to the original creation of the earth and how its foundations were laid and it was established forever, and then recalls in verse 6 when God in His righteous judgment covered the earth “with the deep as with a garment” at the Flood.

But this did nothing to the permanence or stability of the earth when He judged the world with water. As God wears a “garment” of light in verse 2, the earth at that time wore a “garment” of water. And as verse 6 says, “The waters stood above the mountains.”

This recalls Genesis 7:19, which says, “And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.”

No dry land was visible and the water covered the entire earth. When the waters had covered the earth long enough, God made them recede, “And the waters returned from off the earth continually,” Genesis 8:3 says.

As the angels obey the bidding of their Creator, so the waters did as well at the great flood. And when the Creator rebuked the waters, those flood waters “fled” and subsided.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the great Creator, and during His earthly ministry He rebuked the waters of the Sea of Galilee and it obeyed Him.

During a storm on that sea, as He was on a boat with His disciples, Matthew 8:26 reads, “And He saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then He arose, and REBUKED the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.”

The sea of Galilee had to obey the rebuke and voice of its Creator and those stormy waters immediately became calm. And Christ was also the one who rebuked the water in the days of the flood and sent it fleeing.

His voice as the voice of God, is a voice of thunder, it is a voice of power.

And when the Creator spoke in the days of Noah, those flood waters “hasted away.” The idea in the original Hebrew is like the waters were suddenly in fear and hurriedly rushed away at the sound of their Creator’s thunder-like voice.

How and where they rushed away to is described in verse 8 which refers to the tectonic movements in the earth’s crust during the recessional stage of Noah’s Flood.

God at that time, as Creator, raised His mountains and lowered His valleys, both on the dry land and within the seas, as God lowered the ocean valleys and basins too.

The Mariana Trench comes to mind with the valleys within the ocean.

The Mariana Trench is located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is 1580 miles long, with an average width of 43 miles. Its maximum known depth is 6.85 miles deep at what’s called the Challenger Deep.

Mount Everest is the tallest point on the earth at 29,035 feet high. If Mount Everest were placed in the Mariana Trench, there would still be 6,500 feet of water left above it.

The raised mountain ranges, and the lowered valleys and ocean basins all led to the hasty retreat and run-off of the waters after the flood.

And all the water went “unto the place which Thou hast founded for them.”

As Creator, God was in complete control of this, and the water went to the locations God had established and appointed for them. God controlling the waters of the world demonstrates His sovereignty over His creation.

And God also at this time “set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth,” as the Creator set a boundary for the “deep,” the seas and oceans, so they are prevented from destroying and inundating the entire world again.

This refers to the Lord’s rainbow promise in Genesis 9:11: “I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.”

Psalm 104:10-13: “He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench their thirst.

“By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches. He watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works.”

The psalmist referred to what God did with the waters of the earth after the flood in Noah’s day in raising the mountains and lowering the valleys. Now he considers how God distributed waters across the land.

God’s post-flood water system then began operating as it still does today. But it didn’t just happen. Verse 10 says “He sendeth” the springs.

It was by God’s design, by the Creator sending that water by “springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.”

Springs began pumping out water in abundance. The streams flowed downhill through the hills, to the valleys and lowlands and eventually to the seas.

In His mercy, God has designed the springs to care for His animal creation and to “give drink to every beast of the field.” God has graciously provided water fit to drink. Wild animals quench their thirst in these streams, rivers and lakes.

The streams and rivers water the trees that grow beside these water supplies, and in them the birds find nesting places, and among the tree branches those birds sing.

The Psalm goes from the high, exalted description of the Creator in the heavens and among the clouds in the upper atmosphere, and then it descends all the way down into the valleys where wild donkeys drink and birds sing among the trees that grow beside God’s water sources, showing how the Creator cares and provides for His creation.

Verse 13 points out another part of God’s water department: the rain. The rain comes from “His chambers” in the atmosphere above, in other words, from rain clouds.

In the New King James Version, Job 36:27-28 reads, “For He draws up drops of water, Which distill as rain from the mist, Which the clouds drop down and pour abundantly on man.”

This great sprinkling system waters the peaks of the mountains and high hills whose vegetation cannot be moistened by the streams that flow from them, and from the rain and the snow this also causes the continual flow of water from these hills and mountains.

The Psalmist states that the earth is satisfied with the fruit and results of God’s works, or His wise design and coordination of its water supply.

Psalm 104:14-18: “He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;

“And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man’s heart.

“The trees of the LORD are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted; Where the birds make their nests: as for the stork, the fir trees are her house. The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats; and the rocks for the conies.”

Verse 14 says “God causeth” the grass to grow. It doesn’t just happen by chance. By His water supply, God causes grass to grow and provides vegetation in abundance and variety for the cattle.

God also causes “herb for the service of man,” or grains for man to cultivate, both for himself and as food for livestock.

By a slow, silent consistent miracle, that we often take for granted, food comes “out of the earth” as verse 14 says, as God makes things grow that give food for animals and mankind.

God, through His creation, sees to it that man has all he needs, providing the juice of grapes for wine, providing oil with its wide variety of uses, and grain for bread, the staple which strengthens man’s heart for his life and labors.

God provides for the trees by His water supply and thus they “are full of sap.” The huge cedars of Lebanon “which He hath planted” by the seeds which blow off of them by the wind, provide protection and a dwelling place and nests for birds.

These cedars can grow 80 feet tall and spread anywhere from 30-50 feet.

Verses 17 and 18 teach how God gives storks a home in fir trees, high mountains provide sanctuary for wild goats, and rocks a place for the “conies,” or rock badgers.

God in His wisdom and care provides habitats and places of protection for all His creatures.

Psalm 104 is a song of providence and care. God’s Word does not speak of God as completing the machinery of earth and the universe, setting it in motion and leaving it be.

Rather, it portrays God as ever living, watching, caring, sustaining and providing for His creation in His mercy.

God cares for His creation and provides for its needs. This reminds us how out of His love and care for mankind, He provided for our greatest need, by sending His Son to this earth to die the death of the Cross in payment for our sin debt.

When we trust God’s provision for our sins, that Christ died for our sins and rose again, we are saved from our sins and have eternal life.