In Psalm 104, the writer takes us on a voyage across the entire world observing the ever-controlling and all-consuming hand of God on every aspect of life. From one end of the earth God grows a blade of grass one millimeter (v.14), while at the other end, God drops one raindrop from miles high in the clouds causing it to land directly on a tree.
The most striking phrase remains verese 21. 'The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God.' (ESV) When I first read this, I stopped in amazement. In the middle of the jungle, in a far away land, a lion stands on a hill peering into the valley. He scans the plain before him for any moving objects or living creatures. As he smells the scent of a large animal, he lurches forward with a tenacity only demonstrated by a lion in search for his food from God. His eyes land on one target: his God-given food.
This seems so out of place. It is out of place unless we understand the all-encompassing hand of God. There is not one prey that is given over in sacrifice to the delight of another animal without God's active and sovereign hand at work. He actively delivers one animal to another.
But He does it in the middle of a jungle. He does it at this very moment in thousands of scenes across this globe. Venues which by most implications will not be seen by the sight of a man. So why does God do that? Why does He actively, sovereignly, and purposefully work out all things? Why does He take the time to grow a blade of grass on an unseen Mongolian hill? Why does He water a scraggly fig tree on the side of an Andean mountain?
He does it so that you and I, in realization of this remote, unseen work of God, can exclaim with all of our hearts and with all of our beings, "I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being! (v.33)"