Friday, February 2, 2024

Psalm 111: Sysadmin for 28 Decillion Organisms

Praise the Lord. I will extol the Lord with all my heart in the council of the upright and in the assembly.

Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them. Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever. He has caused his wonders to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and compassionate. He provides food for those who fear him; he remembers his covenant forever.

He has shown his people the power of his works, giving them the lands of other nations. The works of his hands are faithful and just; all his precepts are trustworthy. They are established for ever and ever, enacted in faithfulness and uprightness. He provided redemption for his people; he ordained his covenant forever—holy and awesome is his name.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise. - Psalm 111

It does not take me very long to be amazed by what God does. Really. As a computer programmer, I know how difficult it is to even to create even a relatively simple system running--and the universe is not a simple system. God does that effortlessly, like a sysadmin of an IT network who monitors and watches all things to keep them humming. "They are pondered by all who delight in them."

One of the ways that people try to understand God is to insist that his scope is narrow, as if he focuses on just a person, a people or a geographical scope. God does sharpen his vision sometimes, picking out a people from among the peoples. But that focus doesn't mean he has forgotten all of the rest or loses track of a nation, lets a clan drift away or let a family slip through the cracks. Focus is not a survival strategy for God--it is not of a way to conserve mental energy or to have enough headspace to track all of the ongoing checklist items.  No, his focus is a focus of favor not necessity--an intense regard for those he has chosen. That regard can be so intense that the people of Israel asked him to back off, as we saw in Deuteronomy.

God as sysadmin for 8 billion people and 28 decillion living organisms on earth (1 followed by 33 zeroes, 51.8% animal cited in the Science Journal, April 1992). "To him belong eternal praise."


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