Thanks, Praise and confession are due.
Indeed, praise is due to God who is most generous. Not only does the Lord deliver from “deeds of Iniquity [that would] overwhelm us” and forgive our transgressions (verse 3) so that we are satisfied through God’s goodness (verse 4), the mighty deeds of God in deliverance from trouble , the salvation that we know, all provide reason for humans to keep on praising God.
And God’s care of the earth and its resources, something we have too often ignored, is telling. The psalmist’s thanksgiving and utterances of praise are instructive.
You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide the people with grain, for so you have prepared it. 10You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. 11You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with richness. 12The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, 13the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.
If only we were to take serious note of how the Almighty tends the earth and its resources about which we read in Genesis 1
30And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’
And this follows: And it was so. 31God saw everything that he had.
And so even as I read the psalm, my thoughts pondered our attitudes towards the integrity of creation.
We must give thanks and praise yet, but we also need to confess our sins of commission and omission concerning what we’ve done to the earth.