All nature sings

In my childhood church we often sang the old hymn “This Is My Father’s World.” The masculine image of God offends many, so we don’t sing the hymn much anymore. But recently a line from that hymn has been playing in my mind: “All nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres.”

The hymn probably won’t stand up to rigorous theological analysis given its quasi-pantheism (“In the rustling grass I hear Him pass”). Yet it recalls an important and early biblical motif, a statement of faith in the face of a Babylonian dualism that attributed creation to a secondary, lesser deity. Genesis 1 proclaims that God is one and that God creates everything that is and calls it good. God loves the creation. In response the creation sings praise and adoration to God.

The psalmists add their voices: