By Jeremy Bell
I am going to share my personal study on Psalm 104 using groupings from my motif analysis. I have taken these groupings of the Psalm and put them together. So, the entirety of the Psalm will be posted, but these groupings will present the text in a different order. The groupings are highlighted and color coded in my book, Psalms in Motif Visualization.
Have you ever been around people the discussion of what is better, the PC or the MAC? The Android or IOS? Or maybe it’s browser type, Google Chrome or Internet Explorer. In the music world, ever since digital recording came into being, the discussion is whether analog or digital is best. This is not limited to music pro’s; it affects all music nerds down to the pro listener. A lot of the problem the aficionados have is centered around loss and what many say is the missing of sound colors.
Analog and Digital
Analog does not use digital components and the representations of analog things are typically endless in example. There are an infinite number of colors, infinite types of tones, and even infinite numbers of smells. When analog is shown on a graph as a frequency, it is a smooth line. If you were to magnify a section of that frequency, it would always be a smooth line, there is an infinite smoothness that leaves no blank spots.
Digital is different. Digital is limited and finite. If you went to a paint store, they would only have a select number of the infinite possibilities of paint that exist. There are only a select number of smells in any given restaurant and in hearing, a select number of tones to hear when a bomb goes off next to your ear. In a general sense, if you plot a frequency on a graph, it may look like a smooth wave at first sight. But if you zoom in you will see that wave is made up of many dots. Zooming in ever closer, you will see space between those dots. It is these spaces that demonstrate the difference. The digital is missing something the analog is not.
The Debate; a Simile for Science
So, something is missing, but can anyone tell? Can the human ear pick out what is missing to the level the digitization is providing? No. It’s just knowing that something is missing bothers many and some claim they can tell. For the average listener, digital just sounds cleaner. Missing some things is better for some.
I find anthropocentric science to be similar in nature to digital. There have been a lot of discoveries and lot of progress made in humanity by recent scientists. This is great, and I am appreciative and take advantage of those discoveries for my benefit. But there is a limit. The common science community refuses to entertain a creator in the act of creation or in the upholding of creation. This leaves something out. This bothers a great many people who want to enjoy the benefits science brings us, but struggle with the empty spaces it leaves.
Check out some highlights quoted from the seven theories on the origin of life in an article published on LiveScience.com. ‘Science remains undecided and conflicted as to the exact origin of life, also known as abiogenesis. Even the very definition of life is contested and rewritten, with one study published in the Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics, suggesting uncovering 123 different published definitions. Although science still seems unsure, here are some of the many different scientific theories on the origin of life on Earth.
Popular Science Theories
1. Lightning may have provided the spark needed for life to begin. It may have helped create the key building blocks of life on Earth in its early days.
2. The first molecules of life might have met on clay, according to an idea elaborated by organic chemist Alexander Graham Cairns-Smith at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. Cairns-Smith suggests that mineral crystals in clay could have arranged organic molecules into organized patterns. After a while, organic molecules took over this job and organized themselves.
3. A deep-sea hydrothermal vent in the Pacific Ocean theory suggests that life may have begun at submarine hydrothermal vents spewing elements key to life, such as carbon and hydrogen.
4. Ice might have covered the oceans 3 billion years ago and facilitated the birth of life.
5. Nowadays DNA needs proteins in order to form, and proteins require DNA to form, so how could these have formed without each other? The answer may be RNA, which can store information like DNA, serve as an enzyme like proteins, and help create both DNA and proteins.
6. Instead of developing from complex molecules such as RNA, life might have begun with smaller molecules interacting with each other in cycles of reactions. These might have been contained in simple capsules akin to cell membranes, and over time more complex molecules that performed these reactions better than the smaller ones could have evolved, scenarios dubbed “metabolism-first” models, as opposed to the “gene-first” model of the “RNA world” hypothesis.
7. Could life have been delivered to Earth from space? Perhaps life did not begin on Earth at all, but was brought here from elsewhere in space, a notion known as panspermia, according to NASA.’
Citation — 7 theories on the origin of life. By Charles Q. Choi , Scott Dutfield published February 14, 2022
https://www.livescience.com/13363-7-theories-origin-life.html
There is More
I still want to know what people discover; the universe is a beautiful place. But combined with what God has said about it in scripture, it presents an analog scenario that makes creation and living in it poetic. I have performed a motif analysis on Psalm 104 and as a way for me to highlight the motifs, I have grouped them together. Please read he Psalm as is to get the best reading and understanding from it. For now, enjoy the groupings and the imagery God, the creator, provides that make the story one of analog type.
[ Psalm 104 ]
Grouping A
Bless Yahweh, my soul.
Yahweh, my God, you are very great.
You are clothed with honor and majesty.
I will sing to Yahweh as long as I live.
I will sing praise to my God while I have any being.
Let my meditation be sweet to him.
I will rejoice in Yahweh.
Let sinners be consumed out of the earth.
Let the wicked be no more.
Bless Yahweh, my soul.
Praise Yah!
Grouping B
He covers himself with light as with a garment.
He stretches out the heavens like a curtain.
He lays the beams of his rooms in the waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot.
He walks on the wings of the wind.
He makes his messengers winds,
and his servants flames of fire.
Let Yahweh’s glory endure forever.
Let Yahweh rejoice in his works.
He looks at the earth, and it trembles.
He touches the mountains, and they smoke.
Grouping C
He laid the foundations of the earth,
that it should not be moved forever.
He causes the grass to grow for the livestock,
and plants for man to cultivate,
that he may produce food out of the earth:
He appointed the moon for seasons.
The sun knows when to set.
Yahweh, how many are your works!
In wisdom, you have made them all.
The earth is full of your riches.
Grouping D
You covered it with the deep as with a cloak.
The waters stood above the mountains.
At your rebuke they fled.
At the voice of your thunder they hurried away.
The mountains rose,
the valleys sank down,
to the place which you had assigned to them.
You have set a boundary that they may not pass over,
that they don’t turn again to cover the earth.
wine that makes the heart of man glad,
oil to make his face to shine,
and bread that strengthens man’s heart.
You make darkness, and it is night,
in which all the animals of the forest prowl.
There is the sea, great and wide,
in which are innumerable living things,
both small and large animals.
There the ships go,
and leviathan, whom you formed to play there.
These all wait for you,
that you may give them their food in due season.
You give to them; they gather.
You open your hand; they are satisfied with good.
Grouping E
He sends springs into the valleys.
They run among the mountains.
They give drink to every animal of the field.
The wild donkeys quench their thirst.
The birds of the sky nest by them.
They sing among the branches.
He waters the mountains from his rooms.
The earth is filled with the fruit of your works.
Yahweh’s trees are well watered,
the cedars of Lebanon, which he has planted,
where the birds make their nests.
The stork makes its home in the cypress trees.
The high mountains are for the wild goats.
The rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.
The young lions roar after their prey,
and seek their food from God.
The sun rises, and they steal away,
and lie down in their dens.
Man goes out to his work,
to his labor until the evening.
You hide your face; they are troubled.
You take away their breath; they die and return to the dust.
You send out your Spirit and they are created.
You renew the face of the ground.
Poetic Blanks
God is clothed with honor, majesty, and light. This is analog. He stretches out the heavens and lays the beams of His rooms in the waters. He waters the mountains from His rooms. This is analog. Clouds are His chariots, and He walks on the winds. This is analog. Musing how He accomplished this is fun, and when He reveals His workings, humans can work in these truths to help each other. We can also recognize reasons for awe and adoration in a creator who not only created all things meticulously but upholds them as well. Digital is useful, analog is better and more accurate. It is in the meditation of the analog where true worshipers will worship in spirit and truth, in the very Nature of Joy.
Resources and Notes
All scripture in this article is from the WORLD ENGLISH BIBLE (WEB). The World English Bible (WEB) is a Public Domain (no copyright) Modern English translation of the Holy Bible. The World English Bible is based on the American Standard Version of the Holy Bible first published in 1901, the Biblia Hebraica Stutgartensa Old Testament, and the Greek Majority Text New Testament.
For more related to this blog, check out my post on Reliable Fundamentals for Healthy Discipleship Ministries.
This is a reliable translation, but it is always good to read other translations as well. Biblegateway.com has a multitude of translations to read from. It is a great resource.
Another great resource is Biblehub.com. There are multiple translations, commentaries, and so much more. Great research can be done on this platform.
One more I use regularly is Gotquestions.org. This is a great site to answer questions and find threads of related questions.
There are many resources. The key is that God wants relationship directly with you, the individual. His primary source for revealing who He is and growing in intimacy is His word, the scriptures. Don’t just read for instruction. Analyze and read for understanding. Explore, ask questions, and be transformed in Jesus every moment you possibly can. There is no dispute this is a key desire of God. People are brough to the Father, in the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit. This… This is the Nature of Joy.
Jeremy is an author, musician, and business intelligence manager. His mission is to equip and encourage those in Christ, to equip and encourage others in Christ. Jesus, Christ, is the Nature of Joy and melody of the heart. Jeremy unites business analytics (business intelligence), songs, and Scripture for Christian living in the power of the Holy Spirit.