Tuesday, February 1

Tuesday

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.  There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.  Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.  In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course.  It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat.

Psalm 19:1-6

We often think of the Psalms as man expressing his heart to God, and of course the Psalms are full of people crying out to God in anger, in pain, in fear, in doubt, in reverence, and in great joy.  Psalm 19, however, is all about the voice of God.  It tells us about how God speaks to us and how we are to hear His word.  The author of Psalm 19 is David (you know King David, the same shepherd boy with the sling).  Long before David became the mighty warrior who killed the giant Goliath or became Israel’s greatest king, he was a lowly shepherd boy.  David was the youngest of 8 sons and he had the task of tending the family flocks.  This meant that David spent a lot of time outside, looking up into the heavens and pondering the God who made the sun, moon, and stars.  When was the last time you saw the sunrise, or did a little star gazing?  It doesn’t happen too often for most of us suburban dwellers.

David begins his magnificent poem by telling us that God is speaking to us through nature.  “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech.”  David is not just saying that nature is beautiful, or that it reminds him of God.  He is telling us that God is clearly communicating through His creation.  He is sending out information to all people about Himself through the natural world.  “There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.” (19:3)  In other words, you can know something about God, something more than merely that He exists, simply by paying attention to the world around you.  You can observe God’s power, His creativity, His glory, etc. in the world He created. 

Think of it this way – why should a sunset move our hearts if the sun is nothing more than a ball of burning gasses millions of miles away?  Why should the first sign of spring fill us with hope if it is nothing more than the endless turning of the seasons in the meaningless universe?  Because (David says) God is speaking to you in those things!  The same reason we delight in great art or great music is the reason we are moved by nature, because they point us to the great artist who made them!

The apostle Paul expands on this in Romans 1:20, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

The reason that creation is declaring the glory of God is because God made it that way.  This is God’s intent for everything He creates, that it would glorify Him!

Every rock, every tree, every grain of sand and every wave in the ocean was made to declare the glory of God…and so were we!

Elisabeth Elliot once wrote that a clam glorifies God better than you.  It sounds a little weird, but her point is that a clam, simply by existing, is glorifying God because it is being just what God made it to be.  But you and I are not always being the man or woman that God made us to be.  Genesis 1 tells us that we are made in His image!  Psalm 8 tells us that we are crowned with glory and honor as the pinnacle of His creation!  If a clam can glorify God, how much more should we? 

This week…

1. Take time to pause and look for the glory of God in creation, I know this is not always easy in the middle of winter in the suburbs.  (I have taken to watching for a little red cardinal who frequents the thorny tree in my backyard in the mornings.  Sometimes his bright red feathers are so brilliant against the white snow on the branches that I think only God could paint such a picture!)

2. Take time to pause and look for the glory of God in people (again, I know this is not always easy and you might have to look really hard, but He is there!)




Jeff Frazier