Killing the Praise of God - Part 1

Summer is a time to get outside, to enjoy God’s creation – and many people do this by retreating to their cabins, or embarking on a camping trip, or even simply by taking an evening stroll by the creek. There is something restorative to being out in nature. Last year Doctors in Scotland began prescribing nature as part of treatments for chronic illnesses. According to one of the health improvement practitioners for the National Health Service in Scotland "Through the 'Nature Prescriptions' project doctors and nurses can explain and promote the many benefits which being outdoors can have on physical and mental well-being." Being out in God’s creation is good for us, plain and simple.

Celtic Christianity has a deep understanding of the connection between God and nature, and the rediscovery of early Celtic Christianity’s unique approach to faith and life in recent decades has given birth too many new expressions of this emphasis of seeing God in God’s creation. In one of my Celtic worship resources I came across a poem that captures this beautifully. It was written in 1986 by Donald Evans in Gaelic, and translated by Cynthia and Saunders Davies.

The Christ of Nature

He loved cherry sunsets growing heavy on the branches of the evening;

He loved bud coloured dawns opening from the east’s earth.

He loved the sea, green in its happiness, seeking the shore;

He loved to see it languishing back stonily from its crest to its groove.

He loved the character of birds, the flock that trusted in His Father;

He loved lambs, the most skillfully fashioned: the lambs,

the most innocent in their nature.

He loved the beasts of the borders: the ones that dwelt in the world;

He loved their sure dependence on that which the wilderness provided.

He loved wheat shivering as it became golden and heavy headed with nourishment;

He loved the fortressed mountain country, the desolation where peace grew.

He loved the earth, loved it as a lover, because it is God’s earth;

He loved it, because it was created by His Father from nothingness to be Life’s temple.

When we spend time in nature I think that we sense deep down the goodness of creation, that God brought all this diversity, complexity, balance and beauty into being in a mysterious and wondrous manner – and that nature truly is Life’s temple, where God’s sustaining presence intersects with all of life, including our own.

The Psalmists knew this too. There are a number of psalms that speak of creation as an expression of God’s power, beauty, creativity and providence. These psalms see various elements of creation as evidence of God’s active presence in the world. An example of one of these creation centered is the 148th Psalm:

Psalm 148  (ESV)

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens;

praise him in the heights!

Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts!

Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars!

Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens!

Let them praise the name of the Lord!

For he commanded and they were created.

And he established them forever and ever;

he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away.

Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps,

fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word!

Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars!

Beasts and all livestock, Creeping things and flying birds!

Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth!

Young men and maidens together, old men and children!

Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted;

his majesty is above earth and heaven.

He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his saints,

for the people of Israel who are near to him.

Praise the Lord!

Here the Psalmist sings of how all of creation praises God, simply by being what it was created to be. The sun, moon and stars praise God simply by shining in the heavens. The mountains and hills praise God simply by bringing contour to the landscape. The beasts of the earth and the birds of the air praise God simply by their very existence. This idea is echoed in other places in the Bible, for instance Isaiah 55:12 which speaks of mountains and hills bursting into song and the trees clapping their hands in praise of the greatness of God.

The past few years Beth and I have started taking more notice of the birds in our area. We have set up a few bird feeders in our yard, which I try to keep well stocked. This year we have had everything from Goldfinches to Mallards, Hummingbirds to Downy Woodpeckers visit us – over 20 different species that we have identified so far. I enjoy the bird song that fills our yard, to me it sounds like praise-filled music. I am particularly delighted when I hear the sound of rare birds, for I am aware that many of these songs are disappearing.

In a CBC report on the work of Dr. Christy Morrissey, an avian toxicologist at the University of Saskatchewan, she is quoted as saying "Farmers will tell you they used to see meadowlarks on every fence post and now the meadowlarks are increasingly rare, you feel it's a special thing when you actually see a meadowlark or hear one singing." It is sad to think of the silencing of the meadowlarks’ praise. Regina author Trevor Harriot also writes of the decline of the song bird population on the prairies in his book Grass, Sky, Song: Promise And Peril In World Of Grassland Birds. Mostly this decline is the direct result of human activity.

What we see happening on the prairies is amplified when we look at the whole of creation. In a shocking report from the United Nations released just this spring we learned that Nature’s Dangerous Decline is ‘Unprecedented’ and that Species Extinction Rates are ‘Accelerating’. Perhaps it’s most shocking revelation from this U.N. report is that up to 1 million species are threatened with extinction, many within decades. When I read that I thought to myself “When we wipe out a species we are killing the praise of God!” By causing species to go extinct we are silencing the unique praise of God emanating from that particular animal, fish, reptile or insect. I wonder what the Psalmists would think if we could go back in time and tell them that large portions of God’s living creation would be decimated by humans in the future. I think they would see such human activity not as praise of God, but rather the cursing of creation.

 

The poem The Christ of Nature is from
A Celtic Primer: The Complete Celtic Worship Resource and Collection   compiled by Brendan O'Malley.

The picture of the American Goldfinches by Dennis Hendricksen.