We all have so much to thank God for, but we often fail to thank God for Himself; that there is a God, that there is such a God, and that such a God is our God.

The Psalmists lead the way here in helping us celebrate God’s God-ness. For example, in Psalm 103 the Psalmist celebrates God as the Savior-King, and as the Creator-King in Psalm 104. He praises God as the Father of His children in Psalm 103 and as the Creator of His creatures in Psalm 104. Let’s join Him in Psalm 104 as he thanks God for God.

1. Thank God For His Involvement In The World (1-4)
Although God is so high, so lofty, so transcendent (1), yet He is so involved, so near, so touchable (2). He uses the physical world to reveal Himself, the light being His clothing and the heavens His tent. Where we see the clouds, He is there; when we feel the wind, He is there.

2. Thank God For His Creation Of The World (5-7)
The Psalm roughly follows the day order of Genesis 1, and reveals God’s methodical, systematic, and beautiful organization of the creative process. Instead of being an equal competitor with the sea, as in contemporary Baal myths, He simply spoke the waters into being and into place.

3. Thank God For His Rule Over The World (8-10)
The pagan culture of the Psalmist’s day saw the world as weak and vulnerable, continually threatened by unpredictable and uncontrollable natural forces. In contrast, the biblical worldview is that God determines exactly where everything goes, He sets the boundaries of even the mighty seas, and makes sure they stay there.

4. Thank God For His Provision In The World (11-15)
God’s rain is presented as bountiful and beautiful. How can we ever complain about the weather again? The Psalmist celebrates the way God sends it, channels it, and gets it to the beasts, the birds, and humanity; and also to the crops and trees that feed them. And God doesn’t just provide functional food and drink for our necessity but even luxury food and drink for our enjoyment (15).

5. Thank God For His Protection In The World (16-18)
He provides His largest and smallest creatures with shelter in trees, caves, burrows, and various other forms of suitable housing.

6. Thank God For Regulating The World (19-23)
God regulates the seasons, the day/night cycle, and even the human/animal cycle by which humans use the planet by day and the animals by night.

7. Thank God For The Rich Variety Of This World (24-26)
Like the psalmist, we should notice and study God’s creativity in the diversity of His vast creation and turn our study to praise and prayer for creating such an imaginative range of creatures to learn about and admire. Nothing in the creation is to be despised; rather, we are to use each and every creature as a verse of praise to the Creator.

8. Thank God for His Goodness To The World (27-28)
The whole earth and everything in it needs God, and consciously or unconsciously depends upon Him. And He provides and fills with good, so much so that Luther once remarked, “The Lord must have a very large kitchen.”

9. Thank God For His Renewal Of The World (29-30)
For all God’s bounty and the earth’s beauty, the creative order has been invaded and disrupted with death. But even that is under God’s sovereign control. Yes, He takes life from His creatures, but He also gives it. As dogs die, He gives new litters of puppies; as birds fall to the ground, He fills new nests with eggs; as frogs lose their legs, new tadpoles start swimming, and so on. These are not just natural processes; God’s Spirit is involved in the powerful renewal of creation.

10. Thank God For His (Future) Redemption Of The World (31-35)
There’s another hint of the world’s brokenness here, with the reminder that God can start an earthquake or volcano with the merest glance of His eye. That’s why the Psalmist longs for the removal of every disruption, every invasion, every rebellion against His created order (34). He’s looking forward to a world without sin, to the new creation full of new creatures. He’s anticipating and hastening God’s greatest work, redemption, and its result – the new heavens and the new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Thank God For God
Given all this, let’s thank God for God. Let’s work hard at looking behind the stores, the trucks, the factories, and all the mechanized processes that now so easily interrupt and obstruct our view of our Creator at work in His creation, and turn each insight and discovery into a song of praise. God rejoices in His works of creation and providence (31), and we’re invited to join Him in this song (33-35).