Jesus explained that God loves the cosmos, loves it so much that He gave His only-begotten Son for its redemption (Jn. 3.16). How could He not? He made it, after all, and He sustains and upholds it by His Word of power (Jn. 1.1-13; Heb. 1.3). One does not exert continuous attention and sustaining strength on something he does not care about deeply. God loves the cosmos, the whole vast creation and everything in it. The common grace of God thus flows from the depths of His eternal and unchanging being.

Grace reaches to and sustains the creation because God is love and the creation is His (1 Jn. 4.8; Ps. 24.1). In no single place in Scripture is this truth more concisely explained and celebrated than in Psalm 104.

A catalog of common grace

Psalm 104 represents a kind of catalog or précis of the common grace of God. Here we are invited to consider the greatness, majesty, and power of God, together with the impact and implications of His being and work on the things He has made. Common grace reaches from the heights of the eternal heaven to the beginning and continuation of time, creatures animate and inanimate, and to the very depths of the sea and the heights of the heavens. God has pitched His tent over everything He made, and He blesses, cares for, and keeps His creation out of the depths of His eternal love and power.

Let’s take a closer look.

The majesty and might of God

Psalm 104 begins with a proclamation concerning the majesty and might of God. He is “very great” (v. 1) and clothes Himself in honor, majesty, and light (vv. 1, 2). He dwells over His creation and traverses it freely and continuously, like a shepherd keeping watch over his flock (v. 3). God dispatches His angels as messengers of fire and light to perform His bidding in, through, and on behalf of all He has made (v. 4).

Further, God established and rules the creation by His powerful Word (v. 7). He has made the cosmos such that it is firmly established and shall not be moved, except by His Word. The creation is fixed and knowable, but not by virtue of any inherent properties or strength; the Word and will of God make the cosmos function and continue as it does. Earth, which in Scripture is the stage on which the drama of glory and redemption unfolds, teems with creatures of various sorts, and each of them is provided with shelter, food, and water by the command of their Creator (vv. 8-14).

God, Who is all glory, beauty, power, and life, has made and sustains a creation which declares, in its diversity, splendor, mystery, and strength, the glory and will of Him Who made it. God provides the water which all life requires (vv. 10-13). He causes food to grow from the ground to delight and sustain His creatures (vv. 14, 15). He gives life to trees and plants; provides shelter and work for His creatures; and sustains them in the times and seasons of their lives (vv. 16-20). The creatures “seek their food from God” (v. 21), and man pursues the work appointed to him by the Lord (v. 23; cf. Ps. 90.16, 17).

How manifold are Your works!

By the time the psalmist is ready to compose verse 24, he is filled with wonder, delight, amazement, and joy at the enormity of God’s grace and power. He blurts out, “O LORD, how manifold are Your works!” God has brought His great wisdom to bear on the creation, and the psalmist acknowledges that “the earth is full of Your possessions.” Of course it makes sense that such a great, powerful, all-providing God would exercise loving stewardship over the things He has made.

This extends even to the depths of the sea, “In which are innumerable teeming things,/Living things both small and great” (v. 25). But the sea also provides advantages to humans, who use it for transport and as a source of food (v. 26). All the creatures of the sea, like all the creatures of the earth “wait for” God to sustain and bless them, and to cause them to flourish (vv. 27, 28).

As long as God looks with favor upon His creatures, they flourish. He is the Lord of life and death; His Spirit sustains all that He has made (vv. 29, 30). The purpose of all this wondrous, all-encompassing grace is that God may be glorified. The psalmist cries out exultantly, “May the glory of the LORDendure forever;/May the LORDrejoice in His works” (v. 31). God rules His creation with a mere look and a mysterious touch (v. 32). And all this wonderful, all-comprehending, all-sustaining grace of God leads the psalmist to worship (vv. 33-35).

Common grace reaches to the entire creation, from the deepest sea to the remotest distant galaxy and every sub-atomic particle and power. And why? Why all this lavish, continuous, marvelous, powerful, breath-taking display of beauty, goodness, wisdom, and wonder?

Because God is.

Next steps

Every day we are immersed in, surrounded by, suffused with, sustained by, and confronted with the common grace of our amazing God. Like the psalmist, such a realization should lead us to worship. How might you all the common grace of God to bring more worship into your daily walk with and work for the Lord? Talk with some believing friends about this matter.

Additional Resources

Download this week’s study, Common Grace.

Sign up for ViewPoint Leaders Training and start your own ViewPoint discussion group.

For a deeper study of God’s grace, order a copy of T. M.’s book,I Will Be Your God, from our online store.

Men, download our free brief paper, “Men of the Church: A Solemn Warning,” by clicking here.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.