angela hormberg

Tag: Creation

  • Psalm 148

    Psalm 148

    Commonplace –

    “Let them praise the name of the Lord: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven” (Psalm 148:13).

    With this psalm, David provides us with a beautiful example of a call to praise. Matthew Henry notes the following:

    “This psalm is a most solemn and earnest call to all the creatures, according to their capacity, to praise their Creator, and to show forth his eternal power and Godhead, the invisible things of which are manifested in the things that are seen. Thereby the psalmist designs to express his great affection to the duty of praise; he is highly satisfied that God is praised, is very desirous that he may be more praised, and therefore does all he can to engage all about him in this pleasant work, yea, and all who shall come after him, whose hearts must be very dead and cold if they be not raised and enlarged, in praising God, by the lofty flights of divine poetry which we find in this psalm.” (641).

    It is a call to all creation everywhere: material, living, sentient, rational creation, along with nonmaterial, nonliving, nonsentient, nonrational creation. His praise, even greater than a flood, engulfs all creation to its fullest extent.

    Works Cited

    Henry, Matthew. “Psalm 148.” Matthew Henry’s Commentary On the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition. Volume 3 and Volume 6, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., March 1996.

    Holy Bible: Giant Print with Study Aids. Dugan Publishers, Inc., 1984.

    © 2025 Angela Hormberg

  • Psalm 119:73-80

    Psalm 119:73-80

    Part 10: Yod or Yud or Jod

    Commonplace –

    “ Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments” (Psalm 119:73).

    As mentioned in the last post, Yod is considered the beginning of all letters, therefore it is not surprising that David begins this part discussing his own personal creation or birth. As Matthew Henry notes, “Every man is as truly the work of God’s hands as the first man was, Ps 139:15, 16” (573).

    David goes further and addresses his spiritual rebirth. He asks God as Creator of all things to give him understanding. “[David] addresses himself to God as the God of grace, and begs he will be the author of his new and better being. God made us to serve and enjoy him; but by sin we have made ourselves unable for his service and indisposed for the enjoyment of him; and we must have a new and divine nature, otherwise we had the human nature in vain” (Henry 573). David’s cry for understanding can only happen if he turns from his sinful self and becomes a new creation. We see in the first part of this verse David acknowledging God as the creator of his physical being. Then, in the second part, David asks God to bestow upon him a spirit of understanding, to create in him a new spirit, so he may learn God’s commandments.

    Works Cited

    Henry, Matthew. “Psalm 119.” Matthew Henry’s Commentary On the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition. Volume 3, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., March 1996.

    Holy Bible: Giant Print with Study Aids. Dugan Publishers, Inc., 1984.

    © 2025 Angela Hormberg