27 They all wait for You
To give them their food in [ab]due season.
28 You give to them, they gather it up;
You open Your hand, they are satisfied with good.
29 You hide Your face, they are dismayed;
You take away their [ac]spirit, they expire
And return to their dust.
30 You send forth Your [ad]Spirit, they are created;
And You renew the face of the ground.31 Let the glory of the Lord endure forever;
Let the Lord be glad in His works;
32 [ae]He looks at the earth, and it trembles;
He touches the mountains, and they smoke.
33 [af]I will sing to the Lord [ag]as long as I live;
[ah]I will sing praise to my God [ai]while I have my being.
34 Let my meditation be pleasing to Him;
As for me, I shall be glad in the Lord.
35 Let sinners be consumed from the earth
And let the wicked be no more.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
[aj]Praise [ak]the Lord!
As a reminder, as this passage continues from the last, “They all” refers to all the living creatures of the earth. Here we see something that often doesn’t make sense to us. God sends food upon the earth, as rains come, plants grow, and everything thrives. But then things change, drought comes, animals die, and return to dust. Things change again, and the rains come, and God renews life once more.
We don’t understand it, but somehow it is necessary. Only God knows how and why exactly, though I’m sure some clever biologist could give us more clues. And there is a hint of this towards the end, as the psalmist says “Let sinners be consumed… and let the wicked be no more.” That is not the case then, and still is not. Sinners endure, the wicked seem to be doing all the consuming.
Yet the psalmist still ends with “Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord!” Once again, it doesn’t seem to be logical. Evil still strives against good, and at times it seems it is winning. Like the psalmist though, we can still bless and praise God. Why? Because His plan is being accomplished, even when we can’t see it.
There is a passage from Perelandra (C.S. Lewis) that has stuck with me, whenever I feel overwhelmed, or like this world is out of control: “Be comforted, it is no doing of yours… Be comforted, small one, in your smallness… Have no fear, lest your shoulders be bearing this world. Look! it is beneath your head and carries you.”
God can and will use us for great things, but it is not our doing. We are not called to bear the world, it was created to bear us. Look down, it is carrying you still! And ultimately, the God who created the world bears us all upon His shoulders. Like Ransom in the story, he does not call you to single-handedly defeat evil. God calls you to do your part, and He will accomplish the utter end and defeat of evil. Be comforted then, and do not fret the burden of this world, it is not yours to bear. Cast your cares on Him, and let Him carry them–and you.