This is the final edition of a 3 piece thought. The two previous posts reference this. Jim

Psalm 19.1.1

Memorizing Scripture is one of those things that we are constantly encouraged to do, but many of us do not do so. Prayer is another such activity, but I digress. I have been memorizing a verse or two every week due to a challenge from a friend of mine. After years of meaning to do so, he finally moved me off the dime by challenging me to match him in memorizing only one verse a week.

Get an accountability partner and do it. It works. It has been very rewarding as it brings me into contact with a passage multiple times a week. It is not exactly meditating, but it starts the process.

My personal memorizing will be Psalm 19 for the next few weeks. So we will probably enjoy the benefits of this Scripture as it suffuses our thinking. Even the headings provided by the translators are instructive. New American Standard (NASB) summarizes this Psalm as the Works of God and the Word of God. Holman Christian Standard (HCSB) entitles it the witness of creation and of Scripture.

The overall outline can be summarized as God can be recognized in creation, His works, but He can be known in His Word, the Scripture. Only recognizing that there is a God would probably be so oppressive and overwhelming that we would despair. He is omnipotent and omnipresent. What a thought. But the fact that “God is Love,” is only evident in His communications to us.

I did not wait for you. I have already begun memorizing. (HCSB)
1 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands.
2 Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they communicate knowledge.

The writer does not engage in an extended defense of the existence of God. He just assumes it. In fact the entire Bible treats that “crucial issue” of our current society as if it were such a simple foregone conclusion that it is a waste of time even to address it. Do we need to prove to people that there is air? (A famous comic once had an album entitled, “Why Is There Air?”) Just think what it would be like without it. In fact, there would not be anything without it. The same would be true of God.

God exists and even creation, the heavens and sky, proclaims that. Notice the exact words, however. The declaration is not that God exists, but that He is glorious, worthy of praise and adoration. The work of His hands confirm that.

In the Bible, whenever anyone encountered even an angel they fell on their faces in awe and wonder. In fact the angels had to restrain men from worshiping THEM. “Worship God,” was often the admonition. (Revelation 10:19; 22:9)

So it becomes apparent that the glory of God is the key ingredient here. And if men felt compelled to worship angels, then how much more should we be compelled to fall in worship and adoration at the wonders we see? In fact, verse 2 says that the heavens and sky (stars) are constantly, day and night, espousing the wonders of God.

A satellite just went into orbit around the planet Jupiter. News accounts depicted the scientists involved in this feat in jubilant celebration. Why? Because it is a remarkable accomplishment to
send anything 541 million miles into space. And this little piece of “space flotsam” hit this target at that distance and it was able to, by computer, control its approach and descend into the atmosphere of Jupiter to orbit within 3000 miles of the surface.

And it can conduct measurements of planetary parameters and then transmit that information back to earth. Think a second. Light and radio waves travel 186,000 miles per second which calculates to a little more than 48  minutes for that signal to reach the space craft. So the computer command to fire the retro-rockets has to come 48 minutes before they are needed.  (And that same amount of time to return a signal that it was received and executed.)

Or better yet, the on-board computer has to calculate its trajectory and determine when to fire the  rockets. And don’t forget. It is hitting a moving target. This is a staggering problem to solve. And this is just to circle one large-to-us, but minuscule-in-the-scale-of-the-universe, planet out of about a thousand, billion, billion stars.

And these stars are so synchronized that we can find them and calculate their galactic paths, and even whether there are any planets orbiting these objects that we cannot even see with telescopes. Most of them are visible only to the giant radio telescopes scattered around this globe.

...He made the stars also. (Genesis 1:16) I am awestruck, like Job who said, “Now that see you I cannot say anything.” (League version) And Job did confess, Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand. And God did not even leave the earth with His “explanatory” exposition. Think how Job would have replied if the Lord had opened the book of knowledge a little wider.

The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky proclaims the work of His hands. Please notice that the glory comes first. Then the wonders of His work are addressed.

Psalm 8 repeats this same concept. David concludes in verse 4,
What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him?

That is the wonder of it all. God created this unimaginably large, complex, and precise universe and yet He cares about Jim–and you. That is the most mind boggling and awe inducing statement that we can consider.

I am convinced that God created man and placed all of us into this creation so that we would have the exquisite and incomparable blessing of seeing all of this. The heavens and sky are merely megaphones and sign posts to point us to the Object of our wonder.

Glory.