Creative Hands

Pete Phillips June 01, 2025 0 0

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Psalm 97: 1-7 (NIVUK)

1 The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad;
    let the distant shores rejoice.
2 Clouds and thick darkness surround him;
    righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 Fire goes before him
    and consumes his foes on every side.
4 His lightning lights up the world;
    the earth sees and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the Lord,
    before the Lord of all the earth.
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness,
    and all peoples see his glory.

7 All who worship images are put to shame,
    those who boast in idols –
    worship him, all you gods!

When I read this passage, I thought of God the great creator as pictured in Job 38-42 – a God who forms worlds, creates the universe, scatters the stars into space; a God, as Moses finds at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19), who seems to bring his own furnace to meetings – surrounded by fire and smoke, no wonder the bush was burning when Moses had met with him before at the beginning of Exodus (Exodus 3). God who fashions…God the smithy, God the craftsman, God who weaves gold into the sunset, God the midwife who knits us together in our mothers’ wombs. The God who transcends definition, the God who is all, the pantocrator (the ‘all ruler’), the pantocreator (the ‘all creating’), the God who holds all things in being. The God who is the very ground of who we are.

This creator God is the one in whose image we are made, each of us as human beings. Made in his image and likeness. Makers. Co-creators with God. Re-forming, re-shaping, re-purposing what he has given to us day by day. We shape life itself in a way that hopefully reflects His love and care for us.

In verse seven, the psalmist seems bamboozled that others would choose to bow before idols of their own making, to choose their own inventions as gods, to… Well… all our mini-gods should worship the God of all being.  For those who make idols, who believe in other Gods, the psalmist splutters, hesitates… As for those who worship idols, well… let other little gods worship Yahweh!

A prayer:

Are we tempted, Lord, to worship the creations of our own hands

When you fashioned each of us with your own hands?

When you used your hands to teach us how to walk?

When you lifted us in your hands to kiss our cheek?

When you hold us in those hands

When we see the marks of the nails which pierced those hands

When you call us by name, and invite us to lift up our hands.

We worship you, Creator God, with hands lifted high.

Amen