Leonard Cohen famously sang:
“I heard that David played a chord and it pleased the Lord”. David’s poetic spirit is embedded in the Book of Psalms.
I wrote this piece for a Catholic publication called Tilling the Soil. Jews and Christians share a love of the Book of Psalms, although our readings and perspectives of it may differ. This article focuses on the idea and power of creation as reflected in this marvellous book.
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In 1984, archaeologists entered an Egyptian Coptic tomb and discovered, beneath the head of a 12-year-old girl who had died 16 centuries earlier, a well-used and remarkably well-preserved Book of Psalms. Bound in wood, the small volume contained about 500 handwritten pages and was the only valuable object found in the cemetery. Its presence speaks not only to the sorrow of the girl’s parents, but also to the spiritual power they associated with the Psalms. They may have placed it there in the hope that the Creator of the world would protect her as she passed into the next.
The Book of Psalms, traditionally associated with King David, though more likely composed by several authors, expresses deep love and reverence for the Creator and points to a reality beyond our own. Creation is about the ongoing revelation of God’s awesome wisdom, and involvement in the world. It’s also how creation connects us to the Creator and to the world we help shape or create each day. As Australian Christian writer, Allan Harman, notes in his magisterial commentary, the theology of the Psalms is a popular theology: not the abstract philosophy of professional theologians, but a concrete expression of how believers make their way through life’s perplexing path. Thousands of years after its compilation, the Book of Psalms continues to challenge, comfort, and captivate its readers. It remains an essential part of Jewish prayer and a quintessential expression of Jewish tradition, thought, and life. It is also a trenchant reminder of our environmental and ecological responsibility.
At the heart of Jewish life and tradition, as for all monotheists, is the story of creation and humanity’s place within it – a theme central to the Psalmists. For Jews, creation also affirms their place within the world’s rich diversity. G. M. Hopkins captures this diversity in his celebration of the “pied”, or dappled, beauty of the universe: Creation’s magnificent variety in all its irregular, flawed, and multicoloured forms. This idea is especially poignant for Jewish people today, living in a world marked by rising, acute, and polarising antisemitism. Yet they continue to affirm a profound belief in the dignity of difference. Hopkins may have drawn inspiration from the splendid words of Psalm 104: “How many are Your deeds, O Lord; all of them You do in wisdom. The earth is filled with Your riches.” He may also have had in mind Ezekiel 47:9, where the river flowing from God’s temple teems with many creatures and “very many kinds of fish”.
Many psalms refer to creation, but some more vividly capture its wonder and significance. Psalm 104 is perhaps the finest and fullest example. Rich in its evocation of the splendour of the natural world, it broadly follows the order of creation in Genesis: verses 2–4 correspond to “Let there be light”, verses 5–13 to the waters covering the land, and so on. Yet the poem’s purpose is not to provide a factual account of creation, but to praise the ordered works of creation as an ever-present revelation of God’s greatness. Fittingly, Psalm 104 is often set to music and sung in Jewish prayer at the beginning of each month, Rosh Chodesh, setting the tone for the days ahead and perhaps inviting worshippers to reset their inner compass. It also exemplifies what Jewish scholar and translator Robert Alter calls the poetic beauty and eloquence of the Psalms. In his own acclaimed translation and commentary, Alter observes that much of their poetic power derives from the strategic use of simple, archetypal imagery -one reason the Book of Psalms has become a primary model for lyric poetry in the Western tradition. It is, of course, also a favourite in many church services. Examples of the familiarity, accessibility, and simplicity of the images are in those resonant phrases:
You make the grass grow for cattle, and plants for the use of man that he may produce bread from the earth, wine to cheer the heart of man, oil to make the face shine and bread to sustain man’s heart (verses 14-15).
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing psalms to my God all my life. May my meditation be pleasing to him. I shall rejoice in the Lord. May sinners vanish from the earth, and the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, my soul Hallelujah (verses 34-5).
Incidentally, this psalm introduces what is probably the most famous word in the book: Hallelujah. The word combines two Hebrew elements: halal, meaning “to praise”, “to boast”, or “to shine”; and yah, a shortened form of God’s name. In Hebrew, it conveys exuberant worship, joy, and thanksgiving. More than an expression, it is a declaration of faith and an invitation to praise God for His greatness, goodness, and mercy.
“Hallelujah” appears frequently throughout the Psalms, often as a call to celebrate God’s presence and His works. It transcends language and culture, a universal word that has been adopted across the world in music, prayer, and worship. Leonard Cohen, who grew up in a religious Jewish home in Montreal, drew on the Psalms in his own songs and poetry and has arguably made the word Hallelujah familiar to countless people who have had no connection to the Bible.
Psalm 150:6 says:
“Let everything that has breathed praise the Lord. Hallelujah!”
In a sense “Hallelujah” can be a reminder that no matter what you’re facing, there is always reason to praise and rejoice in God’s love and faithfulness – just open your eyes to the beauty of the natural world and creation bursting with vitality around you! I know that reciting some of the creation psalms in my morning prayers simply shifts my soul and helps me focus on the world and people outside of me.
The Hallelujah Psalms, Psalms 146–150, form part of the daily morning service and remind me of my privileged role as a co-creator. Psalm 146:5 affirms that:
It is He who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them.
He keeps His promises forever.
The following verses outline one’s responsibility as a partner with the Creator:
He brings justice to the oppressed and gives food to the hungry…
God frees those who are bound; God gives sight to the blind… God watches over the stranger and gives strength to the orphan and widow.
As a believer in the Creator, one bearing His imprint, how can I not copy and live by His ways? Imitatio Dei, or the imitation of God, is fundamental for people of faith. We need to renew and translate it into our daily acts of charity, compassion, and righteousness just as “God in His goodness every day constantly renews the work of Creation”.
God’s forever faithfulness strengthens and reminds me that our relationship with Him is covenantal. Such a relationship is deeper than any contract or transaction because it is touched and guaranteed by the Eternal.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, the great 19th-century Jewish commentator, reminds us that Scripture’s purpose is not to teach astronomy or physics, but to guide human beings in fulfilling their life’s task within the framework of Torah. The Bible and creation fulfil this purpose when a person’s spiritual ear remains attuned to the speech of heaven and earth. This language addresses the thoughtful person through fixed laws, commandments, or mitzvot: placing scrolls on our doorways, eating kosher food, giving charity, and avoiding harm to others through speech or action. In Judaism, law and love are inseparable; the commandments offer a system of ethics that translates noble ideas and virtues into action.
Psalm 8, one of the earliest and shortest psalms, remains among the most powerful and enduring reflections on creation, human dignity, and our responsibility toward the natural world. It opens with these vivid and energetic lines:
How majestic is your name in all the earth! Whose splendour was told over the heavens. From the mouth of babes and sucklings You founded strength on account of your foes to put an end to enemy and avenger. When I see Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars You fixed firm…
While the energy of these lines reminds me of GM Hopkins memorable poem that the world is charged with the grandeur of God, Robert Alter’s lovely interpretation conveys a deep message: “God draws strength from consciously aware humankind, made in His image, even from its weakest and youngest members, against the inhuman forces of chaos. Perhaps the innocence of infants is imagined as a source of strength”.
The description of God’s fingers and not hands point to creative wisdom in every work and every detail which is the art of creation. Every single star is a separate entity in the universe. This reminds us of Psalm 147:4 where the stars have been counted by God and each being given a special name; each has received its own individual shape. The starry skies also remind us that each individual counts for God. Recent discoveries in astronomy of new planetary systems only accentuate the awesomeness of these words. Nasa astronomers this month found two “superpuff exoplanets’’ and Australian astronomers recently discovered a potential snowball planet roughly 6% larger than earth.
The lines of Psalm 8 that follow them are famously breathtaking:
What is a human being that you should remember them, and the human creature, that you pay them attention. You made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and splendour.
The Hebrew words distinguish between the human being – enosh – and the human creature – ben adam – highlighting the paradoxical nature of the verse. The enosh as in Genesis 4:26 signifies the human being who doesn’t see themself as a representative in the service of God, but as a self-creator, a person of violence, pride, and stubbornness. Small wonder that God should remember them… The ben-adam by contrast is like the original Adam, the highlight and pinnacle of creation that Shakespeare encapsulated in Hamlet: ‘What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty …how like an angel…”
Adam always remembers that he is both noble and quintessence of dust, remembering that God has appointed him as a steward of His world. The world does not exist for his sake, but he exists for the sake of the world, to both work it and preserve it. He has received dominion over the world as a loan and responsibility. As it says in Genesis 2:15 you should use the earth but not abuse it, work it but preserve it. God may renew creation every day, but we also need to renew our commitment to maintaining the integrity and beauty of this magnificent creation each and every day. An urgent responsibility in a time of environmental crisis.
In the Book of Psalms, creation therefore reveals not only God’s glory, wisdom and sustaining power, but also our responsibility to the world and its creatures. It is a daily reminder to pursue ethical humility, to learn from God’s ways, and to make the best of our time on this earth which are, in Ocean Vuong’s phrase, only briefly gorgeous.
Rabbi Ralph R Genende OAM
Drashot with a difference