An item in the National Geographic magazine carried this caption: "New Spin on Fast Food." The article was about the phalarope, "a wading shorebird that has a unique way of dining on creatures too deep for it to reach." Spinning in the water at breakneck speed--a full spin per second--it creates a vortex that "pumps up" shrimp from a depth of 3 feet.

According to UCLA biologist William M. Hamner, the bird is also a speedy eater. His research team has learned that "phalaropes detect prey, thrust, seize, transport, and swallow in less than half a second, at a rate of 180 pecks per minute."

The author of Psalm 104 probably never saw a phalarope, but he had observed enough of God's creative genius in nature to fill his heart with praise. He wrote, "The earth is full of Your possessions . . . , living things both small and great. . . . These all wait for You, that You may give them their food in due season. What You give them they gather in" (vv.24-28).

Do we think of our life-support systems--the food we eat, the air we breathe, the strength we receive--as coming from the hand of God? Most of us take these provisions for granted. With your Bible open to Psalm 104, look again at the marvels of God's world.  — Dennis J. De Haan