In my last post I said that I wanted to listen more intently to the Word as I read it and meditate on it. I want to make a point of changing my thoughts and behaviour as God speaks to me. Not long ago, I was reading Psalm 33. I found my attention arrested by Vs 6 – 9, in which it says that the Lord merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born…. For when he spoke, the world began! It appeared at his command.
The reason this made such an impression on me is that I had mused, recently, about the possibility of the days of creation actually being periods of time. I still think that’s a possibility, but one can’t ignore references like these (even though they appear in a poetic context) of the fact that the earth came into existence by a simple verbal declaration of our Almighty God. And similarily, that the heavens and the stars were created by his words. “He breathed the word, and all the stars were born!” Amazing! This is similar to the statement in Hebrews 11:3 where we read that by faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command…
Since I had written about creation in terms of longer periods of time, I thought it was right for me to balance that perspective with attention also being given to these words which imply a more instantaneous creation. It might be pointed out that these references only refer to the beginning of the earth, the heavens, and the stars. They do not speak to the specifics of the days of creation. Yet, it is also true that in the creation account of Genesis 1 it is evident that things came into existence as God spoke.
So the mystery remains. But I only wanted to point out how I really do want to be responsive to the Word of the Lord in my own life — even if it means confessing that I was wrong about something, or correcting something of which I may have been mistaken.
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