Praise To The Lord, The Almighty
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation! O my soul, praise him, for he is your health and salvation! Come, all who hear; now to his temple draw near, join me in glad adoration.
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Praise To The Lord, The Almighty
For many years, you and I have heard and read about Neanderthals. The first Neanderthal was discovered in a cave in Germany in 1856. This message, however, is not about the science of bones and Neanderthals. It’s about the cave where those bones were discovered: The Neander Valley. The German word for valley is thal.
The valley was named after a young man by the name of Joachim Neander. As a young man, he was a wild and rebellious son of a preacher. In fact, his father, grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great grandfather were all preachers. That was not the life for Joachim, however. He had other plans.
In a defining moment, he joined with some other young men and led an assault on the pastor at the local church. Intending to harass and heckle him while he preached, young Neader was stricken by conviction at the pastor’s words. He turned his life around and two years later was serving as the assistant pastor at that same church!
Neander loved nature and poetry and often went on “worship walks” through the nearby valley. It has been said that he would sit in the caves there and write his hymns. If that is true, it is absolutely astonishing.
Why? Because Neander’s greatest work is a hymn of praise proclaiming God as the Creator of all. That would mean that the greatest hymn-of-creation that the church possesses, describing God as “The Almighty, the King of Creation”, was written in the very place where the challenge against God as Creator would first begin.
Neanderthal man bears the very name of the pastor who proclaimed God as the Creator with the loudest voice. His lasting voice is still heard in his hymn but the fact that he forever stamped his name on the bones of a caveman is testimony to God’s to amazing providence and sense of humor.
The next time you hear someone say that Neanderthals prove that creation is impossible, just smile and remind yourself that Joachim Neander was a living, walking, singing testimony to the Living God who still changes the hearts and lives of His creation.
