Monday 25 September 2023

Psalm 123

Background

In some translations verse 1 is a separate sentence declaring God to be the Creator (which all religions essentially believe regarding their god and the universe). Others like the NRSV quoted above put the focus of the Bible’s first sentence upon the complete disorder of matter when God began working with it as described in verse 2. It matters little, and we can be sure the writer did not intend to answer much later theological questionssuch as whether God created matter itself out of nothing or only imposed order on pre-existing matter, or scientific questions about what happened in those nanoseconds after the Big Bang which the known laws of physics are unable to describe.

What does become clear in verse 2 is the poetic nature of this chapter, which uses familiar images to try to describe that which still remains largely mysterious to those who do understand modern physics. It is stylised poetry in which each of the six days of creation, of which today’s passage refers to the first three, is described (with variations) in four statements: God says that something should happen and it does; God describes the result as good/beautiful (except on day two); God names things created (but only on the first three days); and finally the statement “there was evening and there was morning” declares the completeness of the day’s work.

 Light seems a logical element of creation with which to begin, and the separation of day and night is itself a necessary prerequisite when speaking of 'days' of creation. The sky is created on day two, and then the land and the oceans on day three, along with all the vegetation.

 Any reader must conclude that the author’s primary purpose in this chapter is to declare that the world as we know it came into being step by step in line with God’s purpose. Moreover, we begin to get the message that everything God made was good, contrary to some other creation accounts in which both good and evil were created together. 

To Ponder:

• You likely already have some familiarity with this well-known passage, but what particularly stood out for you in reading it today?
• Creation is described as taking place during the course of six earth days; the well-evidenced scientific theories suggest billions of years. Why might some readers find the difference to be a problem?

Prayer

Creator of light, make new light shine in all places where people feel they are in darkness, and shine your light also in the dark corners of my life. Amen.