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SUBGROUP OF DESCRIPTIVE PRAISE

Nature Psalms

Nature Psalms

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A SUB-GROUP OF THE DESCRIPTIVE PRAISE PSALMS

Praise to Yahweh as the creator and sustainer of the physical world.

One of the ways that Israel was distinguished from the other nations around it.

Clear doctrine:

A transcendent God had created nature.

The Psalms

Nature Psalms

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ENTIRELY DIFFERENT THAN THE WORSHIP OF NATURE

In these psalms there is no trace of the pagan belief that various objects in nature are divine.

God and nature are separate and there is no attempt to populate the streams and trees with local deities.

The Psalms

The Psalms

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WHICH PSALMS ARE

NATURE PSALMS

• 8

• 19:1-6

• 29

• 65

• 104

• 148

“The heavens declare the glory of God”

Psalm 19 verse 1

The Psalms

Nature Psalms

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SOME SEE IN THESE PSALMS TWO DIFFERENT REASONS TO GLORY IN THE LORD

THE DEPENDABLE ORDERING

THE ACTIVE SUSTAINING

The Regularity of nature, in seasons and otherwise, are reliable, equitable, and generous. Our times are ordered.

Alternatively:

Order is maintained by God in the face of frequent challenges. The world will fall into chaos unless God holds it back.

The Psalms

Nature Psalms

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PSALM 29: (A PSALM CONCERNING DAVID)

1Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings,ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.

2 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness.

3The voice of the LORD is over the waters;the God of glory thunders,the LORD, over many waters.

4 The voice of the LORD is powerful;the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.

The Psalms

Nature Psalms

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PSALM 29: (A PSALM CONCERNING DAVID)

5 The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon.

6 He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,and Sirion like a young wild ox.

7 The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire.8 The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness;

the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

The Psalms

The Psalms

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PSALM 29: (A PSALM CONCERNING DAVID)

9 The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birthand strips the forests bare,and in his temple all cry, “Glory!”

10 The LORD sits enthroned over the flood;the LORD sits enthroned as king forever.

11 May the LORD give strength to his people!May the LORD bless his people with peace!

The Psalms

“Psalm 29 lets us wonder at the frightful power of God in the thunder, and yet its goal lies in the power, the blessing, and the peace which God sends, to his people.” -Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The Psalms

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Nature Psalms

Baal worship became prominent in the northern Kingdom of Israel during the days of King Ahab (9th century bc) when he married Jezebel of Tyre, a city in Phoenicia (1 Kgs 16:29–33; 18:19–40).

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Name of the most prominent Canaanite deity. As the god of fertility in the Canaanite pantheon (roster of gods), Baal’s sphere of influence included agriculture, animal husbandry, and human sexuality.

VOS, H. F. (1988). . IN BAKER ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BIBLE (VOL. 1, P. 239). GRAND RAPIDS, MI: BAKER BOOK HOUSE.

Also War and weather

The Psalms

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Nature Psalms

PSALM 8: (TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO THE GITTITH. A PSALM OF DAVID)

1O LORD, our Lord,how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens.2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants,you have established strength because of your foes,

to still the enemy and the avenger.

The Psalms

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Nature Psalms

PSALM 8: (TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO THE GITTITH. A PSALM OF DAVID)

3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

4 what is man that you are mindful of him,and the son of man that you care for him?

5 Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings[b]

and crowned him with glory and honor.

The Psalms

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Nature Psalms

PSALM 8: (TO THE CHOIRMASTER: ACCORDING TO THE GITTITH. A PSALM OF DAVID)

6 You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;you have put all things under his feet,

7 all sheep and oxen,and also the beasts of the field,

8 the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

9 O LORD, our Lord,how majestic is your name in all the earth!

The Psalms

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Nature Psalms

PSALM 65:5-13

5 By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness,O God of our salvation,

the hope of all the ends of the earthand of the farthest seas;

6 the one who by his strength established the mountains,being girded with might;

7 who stills the roaring of the seas,the roaring of their waves,the tumult of the peoples,

The Psalms

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Nature Psalms

PSALM 65:5-138 so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs.You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.9 You visit the earth and water it;[b]

you greatly enrich it;the river of God is full of water;

you provide their grain,for so you have prepared it.

10 You water its furrows abundantly,settling its ridges,

softening it with showers,and blessing its growth.

The Psalms

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Nature Psalms

PSALM 65:5-13

11You crown the year with your bounty;your wagon tracks overflow with abundance.

12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow,the hills gird themselves with joy,

13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks,the valleys deck themselves with grain,they shout and sing together for joy.

The Psalms

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Nature Psalms

PSALM 1041Bless the LORD, O my soul!

O LORD my God, you are very great!You are clothed with splendor and majesty,2 covering yourself with light as with a garment,

stretching out the heavens like a tent.3 He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters;he makes the clouds his chariot;

he rides on the wings of the wind;4 he makes his messengers winds,

his ministers a flaming fire.

The Psalms

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Nature Psalms

PSALM 104

5 He set the earth on its foundations,so that it should never be moved.

6 You covered it with the deep as with a garment;the waters stood above the mountains.

7 At your rebuke they fled;at the sound of your thunder they took to flight.

8The mountains rose, the valleys sank downto the place that you appointed for them.

The Psalms

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Nature Psalms

PSALM 1049 You set a boundary that they may not pass,

so that they might not again cover the earth.10 You make springs gush forth in the valleys;

they flow between the hills;11 they give drink to every beast of the field;

the wild donkeys quench their thirst.12 Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell;

they sing among the branches.13 From your lofty abode you water the mountains;

the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.

The Psalms

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Nature Psalms

PSALM 104

14 You cause the grass to grow for the livestockand plants for man to cultivate,

that he may bring forth food from the earth15 and wine to gladden the heart of man,oil to make his face shine

and bread to strengthen man's heart.16 The trees of the LORD are watered abundantly,

the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.

The Psalms

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Nature Psalms

Nature Psalms