The mighty one, God. The Lord speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting.
– Psalm 50:1
I read this verse and I think about just this week. I was driving in the car in the late afternoon. And it was one of those moments where you’re looking out over the horizon in front of you… Across the road. And the sun is just about to set, and it was huge.
Psalm 50:1 reminds us that creation is sustained by the Lord.
And I just saw this bright sun starting to go down. And I just started singing a song that I remember as a kid… Singing different things at church from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same. The name of the Lord shall be praised. And I was just reminded, and I just want to remind you based on this verse, that the sun rises and the sun sets because the mighty one God, the Lord is speaking and summoning it, and doesn’t just happen naturally.
It’s not just an astronomical mystery how this happens. It’s a supernatural command that’s causing this to happen. And it’s good for us to remember this all throughout our day. When we see the world, when we see clouds in the sky and trees and wind blowing or rain falling or the sun rising and the sun setting or the moon sitting up there to realize God’s doing all this and let it lead us to worship.
We have so many reasons to worship all day long as the mighty one God, the Lord is speaking and summoning the earth. And not just to worship him, but to pray to him. When you get down later in Psalm 50, this is such a great passage when God says every beast of the forest is mine. The cattle on a thousand hills, I know all the birds of the hills. All that moves in the field is mine.
Psalm 50:1 reminds us that everything in the universe belongs to our Lord.
If I were hungry, God says, I would not tell you for the world and all his fullness or mine. So when we pray, we’re praying to the God who speaks and summons the earth, who owns the whole world, the whole universe. It all belongs to him. This means when we pray, we’re not praying to a God who just has a small amount of resources to answer our prayers with. He has it all. He owns it all, and he’s generous. He’s generous with his power.
God is generous with his wisdom. He’s generous with his love. He wants to give just as Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount Ask. And it’ll be given you, according to my word. It’s what this whole podcast is based on in John 15.
So we pray first and foremost, oh God, we praise you as the Creator of everything. We praise you as the One who speaks and summons the earth, who will cause the sun to rise today and cause it to set tonight. Who will move the clouds, who will bring the rain, who will cause the wind to blow, because you’re speaking and summoning it all glory be to your name.
This verse leads us to praise God as the sovereign Creator.
Oh God, as we look at creation, help us in a Romans 1 sense to praise you as the Creator of it all, to live with the right perspective today, to see everything around us in the world under your control, displaying your glory in creation. And God, help us to pray with confidence as a result to worship you. Not because you need our worship, because you are all sufficient. You own everything. Oh God, help us to worship you because you deserve our worship and heaven for the joy it brings us. As we see over and over again through the Psalms, we’re made to worship you.
God help us to worship you to the fold today and to pray with confidence before you that you will be generous with all that belongs to you, the whole world and its fullness that you will be generous to us as we ask for all kinds of things according to your power and your wisdom and your love. And God, we pray that you’d help us to point people to you in creation to your glory in the world around us today. Help us to not talk like we’re atheists, just what a beautiful sunset that is, but what a glorious God who’s causing that son to set. Help us to speak about you today with the myriad opportunities you’ve given us to speak about you in creation around us.
Prayer for the Makonde People
And God, we pray for the Makonde people of Mozambique and Tanzania, this Muslim people group of 2.8 million people who see your glory in creation, but need the good news of the gospel in Jesus. God, we pray that the Makonde people of Mozambique and Tanzania would be reached with the good news of your love for them, that the one who rules the world and owns all of its fullness, loves them so much that you set your son to die for them. God, may they be reached with that good news, we pray and use our lives toward that end, however you will, in Jesus’ name, all according to your Word in Psalm 50:1. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
