1Bless Yahweh, my soul.
Yahweh, my God, you are very great.
You are clothed with honor and majesty.
2He covers himself with light as with a garment.
He stretches out the heavens like a curtain.
3He lays the beams of his rooms in the waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot.
He walks on the wings of the wind.
4He makes his messengers winds,
and his servants flames of fire.
5He laid the foundations of the earth,
that it should not be moved forever.
6You covered it with the deep as with a cloak.
The waters stood above the mountains.
7At your rebuke they fled.
At the voice of your thunder they hurried away.
8The mountains rose,
the valleys sank down,
to the place which you had assigned to them.
9You have set a boundary that they may not pass over,
that they don’t turn again to cover the earth.
10He sends springs into the valleys.
They run among the mountains.
11They give drink to every animal of the field.
The wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12The birds of the sky nest by them.
They sing among the branches.
13He waters the mountains from his rooms.
The earth is filled with the fruit of your works.
14He causes the grass to grow for the livestock,
and plants for man to cultivate,
that he may produce food out of the earth:
15wine that makes the heart of man glad,
oil to make his face to shine,
and bread that strengthens man’s heart.
16Yahweh’s trees are well watered,
the cedars of Lebanon, which he has planted,
17where the birds make their nests.
The stork makes its home in the cypress trees.
18The high mountains are for the wild goats.
The rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.
19He appointed the moon for seasons.
The sun knows when to set.
20You make darkness, and it is night,
in which all the animals of the forest prowl.
21The young lions roar after their prey,
and seek their food from God.
22The sun rises, and they steal away,
and lie down in their dens.
23Man goes out to his work,
to his labor until the evening.
24Yahweh, how many are your works!
In wisdom, you have made them all.
The earth is full of your riches.
25There is the sea, great and wide,
in which are innumerable living things,
both small and large animals.
26There the ships go,
and leviathan, whom you formed to play there.
27These all wait for you,
that you may give them their food in due season.
28You give to them; they gather.
You open your hand; they are satisfied with good.
29You hide your face; they are troubled.
You take away their breath; they die and return to the dust.
30You send out your Spirit and they are created.
You renew the face of the ground.
31Let Yahweh’s glory endure forever.
Let Yahweh rejoice in his works.
32He looks at the earth, and it trembles.
He touches the mountains, and they smoke.
33I will sing to Yahweh as long as I live.
I will sing praise to my God while I have any being.
34Let my meditation be sweet to him.
I will rejoice in Yahweh.
35Let sinners be consumed out of the earth.
Let the wicked be no more.
Bless Yahweh, my soul.
Praise Yah!
There is controversy today in the Christian community far more important than differences among believers in many decades regarding the nature of the Genesis account in Genesis 1, 2, & 3. Liberal scholars have generally believed the creation account was not truly representative of an actual event but embraced a Darwinist explanation of the creation of the world (what is often called macro-evolution), that contends that all of life on earth developed from very small forms of life that were created by an accident in the primordial fluids of ancient earth billions of years ago. Even so, the current debate extends much further than believing in long periods for the creation days and even accepting some form of evolution. The current debate is whether Adam and Eve and the events transpiring around them in the biblical account ever occurred and whether Genesis is only a myth rather than factual history.
Christians, through most of Christian history (and the Jewish people before Christianity), have embraced a literal and factual creation by God that is found in Genesis 1, as well as the more detailed creation of humans in Genesis 2. In current Christianity, several scholars, who are generally conservative in most areas of theology, are advocating that the Genesis One account is, in reality, a myth or fiction. Moreover, there is a rejection of an actual Adam and Eve, a temptation and fall, and many of the events in the book of Genesis and elsewhere in the Old Testament. Allegedly, God only inspired a mythical account that provided a story in which He could teach an inerrant truth about Himself being the ultimate Creator of the universe.
However, there are several reasons to reject this manner of interpreting Genesis. First, this alternate view is contrary to the understanding of various persons in the Old Testament, Jesus, the apostles, and the church for most of its history. Second, though the factual account of creation and the fall arguably contains some poetic features, the essence is a true and historical account that is consistent with the mainstream scientific understanding of the chronology of the creative events. Additionally, the biblical account of creation is not in agreement with Ancient Near East creation stories, upon which many current scholars rely in rejecting the factual, historical account found in Scripture, as well as the uniqueness of the Genesis account of creation. As the literary scholar C. S. Lewis once stated, "Myth comes from history and not history from myth."
I would encourage you to view the free YouTube video, Is Genesis History? Click https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UM82qxxskZE&feature=youtu.be in the browser of your phone, iPad, or Computer for this excellent discussion of the historicity of the book of Genesis.
The writers of the Bible believed in the historical doctrine of the creation of the world and the specific creation of Adam and Eve. The Bible contains about 300 verses on creation.
Gen 1:1-27; 2:1-23; 3:1, 19, 23; 5:1, 2; 6:6, 7; 7:4; 9:6
Exod 4:11, 32; 14:21; 20:11; 31:17
Job 4:7; 9:8, 9; 10:8; 26:7; 28:6; 31:15; 32:22; 33:4, 6, 7; 34:15; 38:4-6; 40:15
Ps 8:3-8; 19:1-4; 24:1; 33:6; 52:7; 86:9; 89:11, 12; 90:2, 3; 94:9; 95:5, 6; 96:5; 100:3; 102:25; 104:2-5, 19, 24, 25, 30; 115:8, 15; 119:73; 121:2; 125:3, 8; 135:7; 139:14, 15; 146:6; 148:1-5
Prov 8:23-29; 14:31; 16:4; 17:5; 20:1, 2, 12; 22:2; 26:10
Eccl 3:11; 7:14, 29; 11:5; 12:1, 7
Isa 17:7; 22:11; 27:11; 29:16; 37:16, 26; 40:21, 26, 28; 41:20; 42:5; 43:1, 7, 10, 17, 21; 44:2, 21, 24; 45:7, 8, 12, 18; 48:13; 49:5; 51:13, 16; 66:2, 22
Jer 1:5; 10:11-13, 16; 27:5; 29:9; 31:35; 32:17; 33:2; 51:15, 16
Matt 13:35; 19:4, 5, 6, 8; 24:21; 25:34
John 1:3, 10; 8:44; 9:32; 17:24
Rom 1:19, 20; 5:12, 14-19; 8:19-23, 39; Rom 13:1, 4
1 Cor 11:3, 8, 9, 12; 15:22, 38, 45-47, 49
Eph 1:4, 39
1 Tim 2:13, 14; 4:3, 4
Heb 1:2, 3, 10, 14; 3:4; 4:3, 4, 10, 13; 9:11, 26; 12:27
Rev 3:14; 4:8-11; 10:6; 13:8; 14:7; 17:8; 21:1, 5; 22:13
Knowing the Truth about Creation, p. 150, from Norm Geisler, The Importance of Creation (PowerPoint Presentation)