Gardeners will tell you that getting your hands dirty and caring for plants can be therapeutic. During the darkest days of the American Revolution, George Washington took his mind off the war by drawing up elaborate plans for his gardens back home. Even today, his gardens at Mount Vernon are a delight to walk through.

In Psalm 104, God is pictured as a gardener. The Psalmist proclaims, “The trees of the LORD are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted” (v. 16). God carefully plants and cares for groves of trees. While this is the only verse in the psalm where the gardener metaphor is explicitly stated, the idea of God tending to the created world permeates the whole poem.

The Psalmist praises God as the Creator. Gardeners do not only plant seeds, they also nurture their gardens as they grow. In the same way, God did not only create the world but also continues to uphold and sustain it. God provides water for the animals (v. 11). He creates a home for the birds (v. 12). He provides food for all (v. 27). The created world is not just what God has done, but how He continues to provide day after day.

The Psalmist closes with a reality check: God’s good creation has been infected by sin. Just as a snake entered the Garden of Eden, sin remains with us today. But it will not always be so: “But may sinners vanish from the earth and the wicked be no more” (v. 35). God has redeemed us from sin, culminating in the finished work of Jesus.

>> We look forward to the New Jerusalem described in Revelation 22:2–3: “On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse.”

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