The unity of nature and humanity before the face of the Creator is unfamiliar to human beings. The crown of creation, entrusted with keeping and protecting everything that has been created, usually falls into extremes. Either humanity enslaves the created world or worships it. The desired unity and mutual understanding are found only when everything living and existing stands before God and praises Him—not in hope of receiving a reward, not out of fear, but simply because He is the Creator and everything else was created by Him. A pot cannot praise the potter except by displaying its beauty and usefulness. In the same way, everything living in the world teaches us to praise God through beauty and through fulfilling God’s will for us.

The call to praise the Lord is addressed to all creation, and we see that this psalm of invitation resembles a descent down the staircase of the universe. At its summit is the mention of the Creator Himself, followed by an appeal to the spiritual beings He created, the angels. Then the psalmist addresses the material world: the heavenly bodies, living creatures, and natural elements. Finally, recalling the order in which the world was created, the singer addresses people, as though tracing a hierarchical staircase from higher to lower, from kings to youths.

But then, at the end of the discourse, we see how highly people have been raised in the person of the nation chosen by the Lord. Thus, being mentioned last does not mean being assigned the lowest place.

What seems insignificant may prove to be most important. And what seems like a descent may prove to be the run-up for an ascent and a rising.