Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1715
January 11, 2026
Psalm 104.24-35 Click here for audio worship.
Dr. Ed Pettus
(This is an extended outline, not a verbatim transcript.)
“The Glory of the Lord”
O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great. There go the ships, and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it. These all look to you, to give them their food in due season. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground. May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works, who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke! I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord. Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more! Bless the Lord, O my soul! Praise the Lord!
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Doxology Abounds
Last Sunday we looked over the first 24 verses of this Psalm and focused on the term “doxology” which encompasses praise and thanks to God. Our purpose in life is to bring glory to God and His name and the Psalm is something like an inventory of all God’s creation for which we praise and thank Him. Doxology is a major aspect of Psalm 104. As I emphasized before, verse 24 is the doxological statement of the Psalm, “O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.” I ended the reading here last Sunday and began it here this Sunday to emphasize its importance. In essence it is a statement of amazement at what God has done in His creation. “How manifold are Your works” is a “Wow” to God. It lifts God’s wisdom in creating and as the Creator. It give all credit to God as the Creator for He has “made them all”. These are all God’s creatures for there is no other god like our God.
The Psalm is also enveloped in praise. Verse one: “Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are very great!” The Psalm ends in praise: “Bless the Lord, O my soul! Praise the Lord!” There is a thought among some that Psalms like this, that are enveloped in praise, could be viewed as a reflection of our lives as created in the image of God, in that, we take our first breath as a praise to God and we take our last breath as a praise of God. It may be tied to the notion of the Hebrew and Greek terms for breath, which also can mean spirit or wind. Our lives are an expression of praise in the very breath we take as God has given every one of us the gift of life in the breath of life. At the creation of Adam, God breathed life into his nostrils (Genesis 2.7). Breath-praise at the beginning and at the end!
The Psalm also includes doxology in 31-35:
“May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works...I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord...Bless the Lord, O my soul! Praise the Lord!”
It may seem a little strange to pray, “may the Lord rejoice in His works”, but this is a blessing to the Lord in praise and thanksgiving for His works. And God does rejoice in our songs and words of doxology. There is a fascinating verse in Psalm 22 about the praises of Israel. I’m not real sure what to make of it, but we know Psalm 22 mostly because Jesus quotes verse one while on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” But if we read on in Psalm 22 the lament does continue until verse 3, “Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.” Verse three begins with a pivot, “Yet”. “Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.”
There may be sufficient reason for us to cry out to God in times of struggle, and yet, we also must maintain the awareness that God is holy. In His holiness, there may be reasons to cry out why? But the “why” does not overtake the “holy”. And because God is holy, we continue to praise and give thanks through both good times and times of trouble. “You [O God], are holy, enthroned on the praises of Your people.”
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God’s Open Hand
Let’s go through a few other points of doxology. We praise God for His open hand. “These all look to you, to give them their food in due season. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.” God supplies our every need. He even supplies our desires that are in line with His good will. We pray each Sunday for God to give us our daily bread. This is a prayer for God to open His hand and provide food, shelter, clothing, and more. And the Psalm teaches us that all of creation looks to God for this sustenance. Humans are the only creatures who might deny God’s provision by failing to believe in Him and give thanks to Him. All other creatures look to God and He gives them their food in due season.
This is the goodness of God who fills us with good things. James 1.17 speaks of the same goodness, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” God is consistent in giving and providing for His people. The next verse in Psalm 104 speaks to a very different reason to offer our praise.
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God’s Hidden Face
God’s hidden face! We praise God in that He is Lord of all in life and in death. Without God we perish and this is true for ALL people, “When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.” This is where skeptics of the Bible would ask why? Why does God hide His face? Why do people suffer and die, sometimes in ways or times that seem so unfair? Those answers are usually beyond our understanding. What we do know is this: God is the Lord of the living and the dead. Romans 14.8, “For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.” Paul is speaking of believers in this instance, but the same may be said for all of God’s creatures. It is the Lord who takes away their breath and they die and return to the dust. There is nothing outside the providence of God. God chooses, God decides, God opens His hands or hides His face in His wisdom and in His holiness. Sometimes those things are simply beyond our comprehension. But this we do, we praise Him for that wisdom and for that holiness and to His glory because He is the Lord of all.
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God’s Spirit Sent
Back to a more positive verse. We praise God for sending the Holy Spirit. “When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.” Once again, “they” is a reference to God’s creatures and all of His creation. He is the Creator and He holds all things together. This is what Paul reveals about Jesus Christ in Colossians 1.15-17, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” All things were created by Christ.
And there is a second miracle here in that the Spirit renews the face of the ground. Now this could be a reference to the Hebrew word for Spirit that can also mean “wind”. God’s wind carries the clouds and brings the rain that renews the ground. That is the most likely meaning. But it might also carry with it the overall renewal that comes when the Spirit comes to us. We have been made new in the Spirit, a new creation (2 Corinthians 5.17). This too is a wonderful reason for doxology.
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The Glory of the Lord
We praise and thank God to His glory. This is one of the solas (alone) of Reformed faith, all to the glory of God, sola gloria – glory to God alone. “May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works…” This is why we were created. This is why we exist – to praise God, thank God, glorify God. We heard from Isaiah 43 last Sunday and we get to hear it again!
Isaiah 43.1-7, But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”
When you take out your Bible this afternoon to read Isaiah 43, I hope you will underline verse seven, “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory”. We are here for a purpose, to glorify God. It is the first question of the Shorter Catechism,
Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
Psalm 104 adds a lot of power to that end. Praise God. Glorify Him. Sing doxology. Sing the doxology. Give Him thanks. Enjoy the Lord! I said it last Sunday and I will say it again, I can think of no better way to begin 2026 that with doxology. Let us conclude with singing the doxology together,
“Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise Him all creatures here below, praise Him above ye heavenly host, praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.” Amen.
