Cheryl’s brother takes incredible pictures of sunsets. He has for years. The picture here is one he took. We have some beautiful sunsets where we live, but he captures some really spectacular ones from his home on Lake Kemp in west Texas.

I was looking at some of his pictures and remembered this Psalm.

Psalm 113 Praise the Lord. Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord. Let the name of the Lord be praised, both now and forevermore. From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised. The Lord is exalted over all the nations, his glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes, with the princes of their people. He settles the barren woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord indeed. The fact that we have such beauty in a fallen, sinful world is incredible. And the one who so lovingly created all things and gave them to us showed us an even greater measure of His love. He came down here to live among us as one of us. He did so to take care of the problem of sin. The guilt of our sin should condemn us to eternal separation from God, but He would do what was necessary to remedy the situation. A penalty must be paid for sin, so He did it. Not just for you, but for all people. Anyone and everyone who believes God’s promise, trusts in what Jesus did through His life and death and resurrection, has the certainty of forgiveness now, and life from now on.

From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised.

Amen.