Contemplating the Purpose of Creation

How glorious are thy works O Lord, in wisdom has thou made them all. Every Orthodox Christian is (or at least ought to be) intimately familiar with these words. They come from Psalm 103 and are read at the beginning of each Vespers service, and in the Slavic churches, as the first antiphon in the Divine Liturgy. However, it is easy to hear these words and only focus on the first half of the sentence. How glorious are thy works O Lord.

Every day, we encounter the beauty and majesty of this amazing world God has created. We see it in the flowers we pass by, in the clouds sweeping across the sky, and in the ocean crashing against the beach. We also see it in the people who surround us. They too are all works of the Lord, and aren’t they glorious? 

Every time I hear these words, I think of Psalm 134/135 which says:

Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places. He causes the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain; he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries.

These are the glories of the Lord. He did what he willed, everywhere and truly made the everything that we behold today. 

I am constantly aware of this awe, as I am fortunate enough to be a hiking guide this summer in Rocky Mountain National Park. When leading hikes, it is hard not to marvel at the landscape around me. Mountains tower above pine forests still covered in snow even though it is the height of summer. Clouds will suddenly appear on the horizon and bring the awesome might of lightning and thunder with them. Winds whip over the mountains and rush through the forests with mighty gusts, shaking everything around us. These are the glories of the creation of the Lord. But God didn’t just create all these marvels. He created them in wisdom.

This second phrase adds a meaning that is much more deep and profound to contemplate. We as humans view ourselves as creators. Indeed, we have altered the entire landscape around us to suit our needs. If it is too hot, I can go inside and turn on the air conditioning. If it is too cold, I can turn on the furnace or start a fire. I can drive across a continent in a matter of days because of good roads and mechanical steeds my ancestors could only dream of. We build entire artificial ecosystems with towers stretching to the heavens in a technocratic display of engineering marvel. And yes, we humans have begun the process of true space exploration. However, can we truly say we create all these in wisdom? 

Each piece of technology I mentioned above is something to marvel at. We as a species did build that, and it took ingenious people working for decades, centuries even to unlock the technology to create these. Heck, I am typing this essay on a machine that, 30 years ago, couldn’t do 1% of what my portable laptop can do. However, I don’t believe all of this was created in wisdom. We can see the consequences of these leaps forward. We are beginning to grapple with the consequences of the actions of people who built things more than 200 years ago. How will our descendants be dealing with the things we build today? Our fallen nature means we will always fall short of the glory of God, but we as a species are beginning to see this in real time. And, while painful, this is a good reminder of our limits. For only the Lord is above all the gods, especially the gods we create and worship. Only He is capable of creating a marvel in true wisdom. 

This world cannot be replicated. This galaxy cannot be duplicated. This universe cannot be reproduced. For it is glorious, yes, but it was also created in true wisdom. Every part works for the other, and without all the component pieces, everything will fall apart. This is the wisdom of God, the God of Genesis who made everything good, and when we had fallen away, sought to bring us back to Him. 

So, the next time we look around us and behold the glory of the world, remember that it is not only glorious, but created in wisdom. Each thing and person we see has a purpose, a meaning. We are not mere stardust drifting in a void. We are the personal and loved creation of the good and loving God who was willing to submit Himself, even unto death to redeem the creation we had corrupted because of our fall. This is the full meaning of this verse, and something that we can not only ponder, but understand. How glorious are thy works O Lord, in wisdom has thou made them all!