Psalm 111:2 The works of the LORD are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. 1. Consider — (1) The variety and multiplicity of the objects that constitute theearth and the creatures that dwell on it. How varied is the form of its surface! What an alternation of enormous ridges with summits of different heights, of hills and plains, of spacious, open fields, and of impassable, impenetrable forests, of continents and seas, rivers and lakes! What diversity and what riches in various kinds of precious gems, stones, ores, minerals, lie concealed in its bowels! What a world of wonders is enclosed in its fathomless abysses! (2) Their beauty — no less great and admirable than their variety; consider the outline, the form, the hues, the infinitely blending shades of colours, the delicate texture, the artificial structure, the arrangement and composition of the several parts of every herb, every flower, every leaf, every tree, every plant, every greater and smaller, visible, and invisible, animal. (3) The accurate and admirable connection that subsists between the several parts and creatures of the earth, causing them all to promote one grand design, the greatest possible welfare of the living. (4) The gradual progress of all things to higher perfection. See how the plant, the tree expands, grows, flourishes, arrives at maturity, bears fruit, propagates and multiplies, from a seed so small as to be indiscernible to thy naked eye; how the crawling maggot rises into a butterfly; how every animal gradually acquires and communicates to others his agility, his powers, his habitudes; how the infant grows into the stripling, the youth into the man, and the man into the citizen of another world. (5) The magnitude and inexhaustibility of the energies which animate and actuate all nature; those energies which operate so uniformly and silently, and yet so powerfully and irresistibly in all and through all; those energies which are in perpetual exertion through all successive evolutions, renovations, transformations of the whole innumerable host of creatures, and through all their efforts and effects, and in such various methods; those energies which, from what appears to be confusion and strife, produce the fairest harmony — from what we term death and destruction, incessant life and action. 2. Having considered these things, ascend in thought to the original, eternal energy, from whence these powers are derived — to the original, eternal fount of life, from whence these several kinds of life and efficacy flow — to the Supreme Dispenser of all that joy which fills the capacity of thy soul — to that God who predisposed, accomplished, and called them into being, who bears, upholds, connects, enlivens, and rejoices all, who through them all reveals Himself to His intelligent creature — man — speaks to him by a thousand voices, appears to him in a thousand varied forms, and in all and by all as Author, Benefactor, Father. (G. J. Zollikofer, D.D.) Parallel Verses KJV: The works of the LORD are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.WEB: Yahweh's works are great, pondered by all those who delight in them. |
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