Read: Psalm 104:23-35

What You give them they gather
in; You open Your hand, they
are filled with good.
-Psalm 104:28

An item in the National Geographic magazine carried this caption: "New Spin on Fast Food." The article was about the phalarope, "a wading shorebird that has a unique way of dining on creatures too deep for it to reach." Spinning in the water at breakneck speed - a full spin per second - it creates a vortex that "pumps up" shrimp from a depth of 3 feet.

According to UCLA biologist William M. Hamner, the bird is also a speedy eater. His research team has learned that "phalaropes detect prey, thrust, seize, transport, and swallow in less than half a second, at a rate of 180 pecks per minute."

The author of Psalm 104 probably never saw a phalarope, but he had observed enough of God's creative genius in nature to fill his heart with praise. He wrote, "The earth is full of Your possessions..., living things both small and great.... These all wait for You, that You may give them their food in due season. What You give them they gather in" (vv.24-28).

Do we think of our life-support systems - the food we eat, the air we breathe, the strength we receive - as coming from the hand of God? Most of us take these provisions for granted. With your Bible open to Psalm 104, look again at the marvels of God's world. -Dennis J. De Haan

This is my Father's world,
And to my listening ears
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres. -Babcock

ALL CREATION IS AN OUTSTRETCHED FINGER
POINTING TOWARD GOD.

OUR DAILY BREAD, Copyright 1998 by Radio Bible Class, Grand Rapids,Michigan. Used by permission.