A Theatre of God's Glory

A Theatre of God’s Glory Comparative commentary by Wesley Vander Lugt Cite Share Show Bible Passage Psalm 104 presents the earth and everything in it as a theatre of God’s glory that incites the praise of God’s people. None of the characters or scenes in this creational theatre is insignificant. Whether the orbits of moon and sun (v.19), the growth of trees and the birds that live in them (vv.16–17), or the labour of humans (v.23), everything has a place and a purpose. Each artwork here highlights different aspects of this ordered, cosmic drama that is similarly recounted in the first chapter of Genesis. In both Psalm 104 and Genesis 1, light illumines the whole drama (v.2a) and stands in contrast with darkness, which demarcates the times for sleeping, hunting, and working (vv.19–23). Vincent van Gogh’s painting is ablaze with midday light, while Sandra Bowden’s collagraph carries the subdued light of dawn and dusk. Stephanie Ann Vander Lugt’s weaving places light and dark in contrast, hinting at the spherical and cyclical nature of sun, moon, and earth, and how they sustain life. Just like the creation narrative of Genesis, in Psalm 104 God separates the watery expanse from dry ground and the air above them (vv.3–9; Genesis 1:6–10), providing space for the creatures of sea, land, and air to flourish in mutual interdependence (vv.14–17, 21–26; see Genesis 1:11–13, 20–28). Bowden’s portrayal of the earth’s foundation (v.5) is the scenic backdrop for the intimate drama of grass and butterflies shown by Van Gogh. With comingling fabrics of brown, blue, white, and many other hues, Vander Lugt alludes to every domain of this earthly drama and the life that spills out of them. Psalm 104 gives humans an important but appropriately entangled place within this cosmic drama, dependent on the whole community of creation for health and gladness (v.15), rhythms of work and rest (v.23), and possibilities of trade and travel (v.26). It is fitting, therefore, that each artwork downplays or displaces any element of human presence, focussing instead on the abundance of the broader creation. Only Van Gogh provides a hint of human activity, with a path jutting across the upper left corner of the canvas, but he gives most attention to the more-than-human world. John Calvin affirms the goodness of widening our attention in this manner: ‘Let us not be ashamed to take pious delight in the works of God open and manifest in this most beautiful theatre’ (McNeill 1960: 179). Of course, each artwork in this exhibition also witnesses to how human makers can utilize earthly elements (oil, sand, fibres, stone, etc.) to fashion a visual meditation on the glory of God, just as Psalm 104 does with words. The end of meditative wonder is praise (v.35b), and each artwork here expresses this soulful praise in different forms. Van Gogh emphasizes the astonishing particularity of each blade of grass and fluttering butterfly, showing the abundant cycle of provision that includes what we often walk past or trample underfoot. If we are attentive, we can see as Van Gogh did how the Spirit continues to renew the face of the ground (v.30). Bowden attends to the unseen layers of the earth undergirding the abundant drama unfolding on the surface. Her use of dust alludes to both the origin and future of creatures that are completely dependent on the Spirit who breathes life into dust and also returns us to it (vv.29–30). Vander Lugt shows how the drama of creation displays God’s uncontainable glory, which spills out and radiates as a gift from God (v.27). There is an intense beauty to this work of God that contains harmony but also, as Gerard Manley Hopkins writes, ‘all things counter, original, spare, strange’ (Hopkins 1953: 30). Bright and dull, orderly and chaotic, consonant and dissonant: Psalm 104 leads us into praise for all of it. We live in a time when anthropocentric frameworks are being questioned in light of ecocentric wisdom. These artworks testify to the value of such a shift while pointing us to the deeper theocentric wisdom animating Psalm 104. In wisdom God made the earth and all its creatures (v.24), and in wisdom God looks after each creature and satisfies them at the right time (v.28). We join all of creation, therefore, in giving praise to the Lord. References Hopkins, Gerard Manley. 1953. ‘Pied Beauty’, in Poems and Prose (New York: Penguin Press) McNeill, John T. (ed.) and Ford Lewis Battles (trans.). 1960. John Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, vol. 1 (Philadelphia: Westminster Press)