What's the spiritual difference between you and your dog?
Psalm 104:27–30 (NIV)
27 All creatures look to you
to give them their food at the proper time.
28 When you give it to them,
they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
they are satisfied with good things.
29 When you hide your face,
they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
they die and return to the dust.
30 When you send your Spirit,
they are created,
and you renew the face of the ground.
Listen to passage & devotional:
Belgic Confession of Faith, Article 11: The Deity of the Holy Spirit
We believe and confess also
that the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally
from the Father and the Son—
neither made,
nor created,
nor begotten,
but only proceeding
from the two of them.
In regard to order,
he is the third person of the Trinity—
of one and the same essence,
and majesty,
and glory,
with the Father and the Son.
He is true and eternal God,
as the Holy Scriptures teach us.
Summary
The Psalms are such a blessing from God because of the way they take complex theological concepts and express them in beautiful poetry. There are some who do not think that God is actively involved in the universe anymore; that God, although He miraculously brought everything into being, has now removed Himself from the equation, leaving His creation to work things out on its own.
Our Psalm today squashes these sort of deistic theories. Two words jump out of this passage:
YOU: Referring to the actions of God. He:
gives His creation its food;
satisfies with good things;
terrifies those He hides His face from;
takes away the breath of dying creatures;
Sends His Spirit to bring new life;
THEY: Referring to God's creatures, including us. We:
Look to God for our food at the proper time;
Gather up our food from God;
Are satisfied with good things from God;
Are terrified when God hides His face;
We die and return to dust when God takes our breath;
Are created by God's life giving Spirit.
Dig Deeper
All throughout the Bible, both in the Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New (two very different languages), there is a close correlation between the words for breath and spirit. Psalm 104 uses the Hebrew word rûaḥ twice, but all of the English translations properly translate each instance differently:
29 When you hide your face,
they are terrified;
when you take away their breath (rûaḥ),
they die and return to the dust.
30 When you send your Spirit (rûaḥ),
they are created,
Just as these translators made a linguistic distinction, we need to make theological distinctions when understanding the relationship of the Holy Spirit to creation.
All creatures that have life and breath are manifesting evidence of the Spirit. But although a dog certainly has breath in it, given to it by the Spirit, we certainly wouldn't say that a dog has the Holy Spirit in it!
But those who are in Christ have a much deeper relationship with the Spirit than do other creatures; even other people! Yesterday we read that God "puts His Spirit in" His covenant people! Certainly this extends to much more than just breath!
Give thanks for God's provision in your life; not just the food you have or the way God satisfies your needs, but for His life giving Spirit which He puts into all creatures, and especially those who are covenanted to Him!
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, to whom all creatures look to;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Thank God for giving you His Spirit, and pray that more and more what's been put in you will be visible to others;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: Galatians 3
