IN HIS HANDS

¹O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
²Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
³For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
⁴In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.
⁵The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
⁶O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
⁷For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice!
⁸Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
⁹when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
¹⁰For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways.”
¹¹Therefore in my anger I swore, “They shall not enter my rest.”

I wonder as I read anew this Psalm of praise if our contemporary children’s song, “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” stems from this Psalm? The opening lines match the sentiment of verse 4 and the phrase that shimmers for me, the comfort in the chaos, uncertainty, and helplessness of life, we are still held in God’s hands. That vastness of the world is held in God’s hands; and therefore, whatever I trifle about, is in God’s hands too.

Prayer

Creator God, as our Maker and Redeemer, we sing confidently the truth of childhood songs and allow that trust embed our adult lives as well. In the name of the Lord who promised to never forsake us, Amen.