Meditations on Psalm 24: Order & Regard

Psalm 24:1-2
Genesis 1 - 2:4
Matthew Henry Commentary on Genesis 1
Matthew Henry Commentary on Psalm 24: 1-2

Ever since God created the world, His invisible qualities, both His eternal power and His divine nature have been clearly seen; they are perceived in the things that God has made.

Romans 1:20

Creation may well be the most apt example of 'a labor of love'. According to the Psalm, God 'built' the earth on the deep waters and 'laid' its foundations. This poetic imagery expresses the care with which God created the earth. It was no slapdash affair, no throwing together of stars and water and soil. It was thoughtfully and carefully planned and meticulously executed. It is an example of the patient and orderly way in which God works. 

I think of the created order as an enormous signpost, pointing all those who have the eyes to see toward the very nature and being of God. 'See!' The galaxies shout. 'See the power of the One who spoke us into existence!' While the smaller things; the ants or the beetles, invite us to marvel at the intricacy, the immense care, that went into forming each of them in their unique way and at precisely the correct time. 

Did God rush madly about, ensuring that each star was fixed firmly in its proper place?

Did He begrudge the words that brought the humblest worms or grains of sand into being?

I don't see God fretting about the time 'wasted' on the little things any more than I find Him worrying over the creation of the enormity of outer space. He neither hurried over the small things nor lingered on (what are, to human eyes) the larger ones. He honored each aspect of creation by allotting to it a proper portion of time and thought. All of it was done, and done well, and God looked at it and said that it was good.

The Creator could have made his work perfect at first, but by this gradual proceeding he would show what is, ordinarily, the method of his providence and grace.1 [God created the world] in six days, that he might show himself a free-agent, doing his own work both in his own way and in his own time,—that his wisdom, power, and goodness, might appear to us, and be meditated upon by us, the more distinctly. 2

Everything that happens in the world happens at the time God chooses.3 He patiently ordains the times of cold and heat, the migrations of the birds and animals, the seasons of birth, adulthood, and death, the rise and fall of nations. Everything, from the turning of the ocean tides to the dropping of a single hair from my head, has its own proper place and space beneath the oversight of God.

If there is nothing too little or too big to escape the notice and care of my all-powerful Heavenly Father, then who am I to impose boundaries upon my own spheres of notice or influence?

Who am I to decide that anything is so tiny or so enormous that it has no proper place in my regard?

Do I allow worldly concepts of value and importance to supplant those of the Divine?

Lord, show me how to go through this day with all the orderly carefulness that You displayed in its' creation. Help me neither to begrudge the small tasks, nor to be intimidated by the large ones. Help me to regard each person, circumstance, and thing with Your eyes. Show me how to do everything properly and in order, so that I may be a good steward of the earth and make a good account of the life and the spiritual gifts that You have entrusted to me.

From what we see of heaven and earth we may easily enough infer the eternal power and Godhead of the great Creator, and may furnish ourselves with abundant matter for his praises. And let our make and place, as men, remind us of our duty as Christians, which is always to keep heaven in our eye and the earth under our feet. 4 

1 Matthew Henry Commentary on Gen. 1:1-2

2 Matthew Henry Commentary on Gen. 1:31

3 Ecclesiastes 3:1; Good News Translation

4 Matthew Henry Commentary on Gen. 1:1