Archive for September 26, 2012
Sep 26
Creation and Mental Health
This Sunday, Ryan preached a message from Psalm 104, “God’s Intimate and Intricate Care for Creation.” Psalm 104 encourages us to look to God’s creation with wonder, curiosity, and delight.
Ryan quoted from former Wheaton English professor, Clyde Kilby’s, “Resolutions for Mental Health“:
At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above and about me. . . .
I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a unique event, filled with worthy potentialities. . . .
I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. . . .
I shall sometimes look back at the freshness of vision I had in childhood and try, at least for a little while, to be a “child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder.”
Psalm 104 is one of many psalms that focus on God’s glory in creation that we have heard preached in our series through the Psalms, Pour Out Your Heart to Him. Here are a few others:
- “How Majestic!“ – Psalm 8
- “A Picture Worth a Thousand Words” – Psalm 19:1-6
- “Lord of the Storm” – Psalm 29
- “Nothing to Fear, the Lord is With Us” – Psalm 46
- “The Growing Crescendo of God’s Praise” – Psalm 96
- “The Dark Side of Creation” – Psalm 97