Waves Of Praise

“For I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the LORD Almighty is his name.” (Isaiah 51:15, NIV)

“Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it.” (Psalm 96:11, NIV)

“Let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.” (Job 12:8-10, NIV)

Past the gurgling of my own breaths, the water is filled with crackling, snapping, and singing. Dolphins playfully zip through the water, shrimp groom their manicured algae beds, and bright pink and green parrotfish scrape their teeth against corals. A school of whirling amberjacks upsets a clown triggerfish who raises a plume of sand beside the opalescent bed of sea anemones. As I swim between two mountainous corals, I notice that I’m being followed by a red grouper who quietly vocalizes his curiosity with a mild grunting noise. A sliding textured sound reverberates through the water as a pair of yellowhead jawfish dig burrows in the substrate. Echoing across the deep blue vastness comes the bittersweet song of a distant whale.

The noises of a coral reef create a backdrop of joyful cacophony. Anyone who claims that scuba diving is silent has clearly never tuned in to the reef’s symphony. The unique percussion of this living landscape reminds me of a church choir, lifting their voices to praise their Creator.

A characteristic of all creation—from the spineless moon jellyfish to the blue whales of the deep—is that they live in praise of God. If humans have any doubt of this, the Bible reminds us, “Let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind” (Job 12:8-10). Even fish recognize the sustaining power of our Creator.

Perhaps the natural world does a better job of praising God than we humans do. They praise him constantly, but we seem to forget; and yet how can we possibly forget? “For I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the LORD Almighty is his name” (Isaiah 51:15). God writes his character on creation for us to see, to bear witness to, and to be reminded of who he is.

Creation reminds us to praise God, the Creator “of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them” (Psalm 146:6). Just as a coral reef raises a symphony of praise while inspiring us in the process, may we also learn to vocalize and live our lives in such a way that we point creation to further praise God. May we be the ones saying, “Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it” (Psalm 96:11).