What the Dirt Knows

In Psalms 96-100 the psalmist tell us to sing to the Lord. And, so it seems, the planet has a voice as the psalmist notes that the earth rejoices- that is the physical planet. In Psalm 97 there is an almost palpable expectation the rises from the soil, the mountains, the coastline. The earth rejoices because its king is coming; to reign and to rescue.
The earth awaits the coming of the rightful ruler, even as it its stated in Romans 8:19ff: “The Creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not of its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in the hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.”


In this day we have many environmental concerns and nearly as many groups acting in an effort to fix the environment. But this earth, our environment, is now held in bondage to decay. That bondage is the direct result of the sin of Adam. The rebellion of the first people brought with it death and death spread to all people and all things. Therefore, even though I may not pour poison into rivers, the sorry state of the planet is my fault and the fault of all mankind. It is not that we do not belong here, are somehow the wrong species to be on the upper end of creation as some contend. For God put humans here. We are the God created species, placed here for God’s purposes, but in Adam we all sinned, and now we all reap the consequences. So it has ever been, when given a role or purpose, mankind has, since Eden, sought his own purpose, rejecting God’s.
The decay and frustration of the earth can be laid at my feet; an effect of my sin. How powerfully evil is the rebellion. How great that rebels can be redeemed. How glorious that the true Kind is coming. And even the dirt knows it