The LORD possessed me at the beginning of his work,
the first of his acts of old.
Ages ago I was set up,
at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
Before the mountains had been shaped,
before the hills, I was brought forth,
before he had made the earth with its fields,
or the first of the dust of the world.
When he established the heavens, I was there;
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
then I was beside him, like a master workman,
and I was daily his delight,
rejoicing before him always,
rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the children of man.
“And now, O sons, listen to me:
blessed are those who keep my ways.
Hear instruction and be wise,
and do not neglect it.
Blessed is the one who listens to me,
watching daily at my gates,
waiting beside my doors.
For whoever finds me finds life
and obtains favor from the LORD,
but he who fails to find me injures himself;
all who hate me love death.”
Comment: When I watch some things on ‘Nature’ TV, I don’t like what I see. I don’t like seeing the big fully grown lion snatching the helpless little buffalo and strangling it to death and then the pride tearing it to pieces. I’m sure that there are things which you don’t like as well. But when I read this passage, as it talks about springs of water and I quickly think of how rain replenishes the water on the ground and brings life to the soil, I am amazed. When I think of frozen water rising to the top of the river or lake and not sinking to the bottom and crushing and killing all life below as it sinks. Solid ice should be heavier than liquid water. When my eyes, through a telescope lens, looks to the outer extent of the universe or through an electron microscope I look to the inner structure of a cell; when I think about the foundations of the earth holding things in their rightful place – then I am amazed at the Wisdom that has gone into it all.
When I watch children playing, growing into adults and developing creative skills and creating the next generation I sense something of what the passage means when it says delighting in the children of man.
As we look at the world around and consider its beauty and wonder over all of created things, the passage oozes with the Creator’s sense of joy and delight in the results. From the isolated snow flake to the most distant and huge star there is shown the complexity and beauty of it all. In view of the smallness of man, I’m startled by the phrase that he delights in the children of men. As one of the Psalms says ‘what is man that you are mindful of him’! We are pleasing to the Creator but…
And at end the plea of Wisdom is when you consider all this you are foolish to not listen to me; whereas if you listen you are truly blessed.
I don’t know the ‘how’ of creation, but I do know that it takes a lot more faith than I have to believe that it all ‘just happened’!
Prayer: Please help me to see beyond the seeable.
As I read it! 