The psalmist here touches on the two primary aspects of God’s mighty works: His creation of the enormous realm of Nature and His providential dealings with mankind.
“Magnificent” is an apt term to employ when considering the Lord’s efforts in Creation. It doesn’t require a lot of mental exertion to see what a massive undertaking this was. For instance, consider how the animal and aquatic kingdoms, the insect world and the realm of vegetation all work together in beautiful harmony. Each and every individual species of plants and animals have been perfectly created to function on earth’s environment. An analysis of any single form of creation is an astounding study on how the Lord fashioned it to procreate and survive on our planet.
And yet it is amazing that the scientific community is blind to what the Creator has accomplished! For instance, I stand amazed when I consider how the Lord provided camels with feet that expand out to great webs capable of walking on the scorching, shifting sands of the desert; and when I think about how our God gave these same camels the capacity to drink and store enormous amounts of water to sustain them in the barren wastelands, I can only look on with admiration and wonder! “What diversity, Lord, in thy creatures! What wisdom has designed them all! There is nothing on earth but gives proof of thy creative power.” (Psalm 104:24 Knox)
The typical scientist—who in his arrogance refuses to acknowledge God—ponders the same animal and can only say that it has gone through a series of mutations over millions of years until it developed its own particular abilities to survive. These men never seem to have an answer as to how the species survived before it acquired these necessary abilities! And they have absolutely no scientific facts to substantiate their claims! They begin with the supposition that there is no God, and since there is no God, this must be how all of this came into being.
The same holds true of the history of mankind. God has been unfolding His marvelous purposes in man for some six thousand years. The realm of Time serves as a backdrop for the Lord to play out all of His great plans for human beings. Earth life has been created to serve a probationary function so that individuals can decide for themselves whether or not they will submit themselves to the Lordship of Christ. Each person who has ever lived—the small and great, the gifted and ungifted, the rich and the poor—every man, woman and child has the opportunity to enjoy all of the temporal and eternal benefits of living for God.
But because the human species has been so thoroughly corrupted by sin, he does not have the capacity within himself to do the right thing. But this too was figured into God’s great plan. What did He do? He arranged for His own Son to come to this planet to provide His life as an atonement for man’s sin and failure. God’s solution was to implant His own Spirit within man’s heart to live the life of godliness He demanded of His people. This too is a thought too high for fools who have blinded themselves to the truth. They don’t want to believe any of this because they are unwilling to humble themselves before God in contrition and repentance.