All Here Below

Praise God from whom all blessings flow

Praise God all creatures here below

Praise God above ye heavenly host

Creator

Savior

Holy Ghost

Amen.

Really?

Praise God all creatures here below, really?

At our church a couple of weeks ago we had a Blessing of The Pets. Pastor Jessica and I followed the liturgy in our official denominational worship book.

And it was delightful! It was noisy, it bordered on being out of control, and it involved most of the kinds of domestic animals you and I think of as pets…including two stuffed animals who came with two pre-schoolers.

But again, Praise God all creatures here below, really?

Apparently so —

Psalm 96 says, “Let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all it contains; let the field exult, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the Lord.”

Psalm 98 gets even better when it says, “Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; break forth and sing for joy and sing praises. Let the sea roar and all it contains, let the rivers clap their hands;Let the mountains sing together for joy before the Lord.”

A much more contemporary song by Mercy Me has this as its chorus: “All of heaven and all creation sing the wonders of His love.”