“Enjoying the Countryside and Everything in It”
Psa. 96:11 “Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
12 let the field exult, and everything in it!
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy.”
I am learning Spanish, so I am trying to do my morning devotions in Spanish. On a recent morning, I read the following:
“Alégrense los cielos, salte de gozo la tierra, retumbe el mar y cuanto contiene. Salte de goza la campiña y cuanto hay en ella.”
I could make out a good deal of this, but decided to check myself. Here was the English translation from an online translation site:
“Let the heavens rejoice, the earth leap for joy, the sea rumble and all it contains. Enjoy the countryside and how much is in it.”
Not bad! But not quite right either. It’s okay up to that last sentence. It is not “Enjoy the countryside and how much is in it,” as nice as that sounds. Rather, it is a call to nature and everything in it to rejoice in the LORD and in the LORD’s goodness.
Perhaps nature—and everything in it—don’t really need such a call to worship. Maybe they do quite well on their own. However, we want other people to value what we value ourselves.
Also, remembering that all creation is created by God and should be praising God might enable us to be a bit more humble about our relationship as humans in this universe. Sometimes, those of us who are theists (i.e., people who believe in God) get too full of ourselves, not realizing that God’s goodness and creativeness embrace and infuse more than just the human race.
Of course, it is also important to “enjoy the countryside and how much is in it.”
Recent Comments