The Outer Limits

Bless the Lord, all you works of His, in all places of His dominion; bless the Lord, O my soul! Psalm 103:22 NASB

You works – In the final address of the psalm, David moves from personal self-reflection to the widest possible view, the whole cosmos. “All you works” is the Hebrew kal-ma’asay. It means everything YHVH has made; all created existence. The idea is not limited to sentient beings. “In all places,” the poetic parallelism, suggests that David has the entire scope of the universe in mind. This helps us realize that inanimate and well as animate is involved in praising YHVH. In fact, the purpose of creation is to praise the Creator. That is the final end game. Insofar as we bless Him, we participate in what is happening in the whole creation. We add our voices to everything else in equal harmony.

David’s insight does not always ring true of our experience. After all, bad things happen. Hurricanes, volcanoes, tsunamis, earthquakes damage and destroy. They don’t seem to be praising the Lord in the process. Evil is present in the world, and for all we know, in all of creation. That hardly seems appropriate for a universe designed to bless its Creator. But David’s insight is not limited to our interpretation of the events of creation, nor is it limited to the temporal span we understand, even if that is 14 billion light years. David is viewing the creation from the perspective of eternity, and from eternity past to eternity future, everything YHVH does serves the purpose of glorifying who He is.

My job, and yours, is to glorify Him. When we do that, we are in line with the ultimate direction and directive of the universe. And in the end, all that glorifies Him will remain.

David began this psalm, twenty-two verses ago, with a self-exhortation, an imperative to the man in the mirror, to bless YHVH with his entire person, with everything in him. Now, twenty-two thoughts later, David invokes all of creation to bless YHVH. But does he really have to? All of creation is already under the duty and the desire to glorify its Creator. I don’t have to tell the mountains to bless the Lord. I don’t have to instruct lions to bless the Lord, or ants for that matter. They are automatically designed to do that. The only interruption to this harmony of the spheres is the only one created in His image. We are the ones out of tune. We are the ones who need reminding. And because we need reminding, we are the ones who exhibit the discordant notes in the universe today, causing the whole symphony to sound quite strange.

It’s time to get on the same score with the rest of creation, to play the notes that harmonize with the real melody of the cosmos.

“Bless the Lord” is a hymn written in the rocks, the seas, the stars and the leaves. There is a vocal part waiting for you to sing along with these instruments of praise.

So sing.

Topical Index: bless, you works, kal-ma’asay, Psalm 103:22