The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament shows His handiwork.
2 Day unto day utters speech,
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
3 There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
4 Their line has gone out through all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world.
In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun,
5 Which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
And rejoices like a strong man to run its race.
6 Its rising is from one end of heaven,
And its circuit to the other end;
And there is nothing hidden from its heat.
Psalm 19:1-6
There is so much to be learnt from a study of the physical heavens that everyone can see. A wonderful example is the true story about the Star of Bethlehem which is quite astonishing and easily verifiable by anyone with a program that shows planetary positions 2 millennia ago.
Even simpler examples of what God wants to say to man abound in the way He created the heavens. We have a song that we sing in Open Arms which says “Jesus at the centre of it all” and indeed He is. And as a picture in this physical world He has put a representation of God, i.e. the Sun, at the centre of all the planets which revolve around it.
These planets include our own. Before Copernicus said otherwise people used to think that the earth was the centre of the universe and that everything revolved around us. But God had made it so that the centre would represent Him not us and in fact everything revolves around Him. Jesus at the centre.
Another similar example is to be found in the rotation of the earth. As the earth turns on its axis we revolve towards the sun and then away from it and so night comes followed by day.
It is a daily reminder that if we turn away from God we will be in darkness, as we turn towards him we are in the light.
Similarly the moon often is seen as representing the devil. It is barren and lifeless, but even it can reflect the glory of God when turned to His purposes. Its courses are set and sometimes it even obscures the sun, sometimes partially, more rarely totally and only ever to a limited number of observers. Likewise evil can sometimes arise and seem to obscure all that is good but that is a rare event. Even in a total eclipse there is light around the edges, the moon can never completely shut out the light of the sun and neither can evil ever completely block out all good. Even at its worse it is actually just an illusion, the sun still shines as strong as ever behind the moon, just as God’s power and glory is not lessened in any degree by the worst evil of men.
Some people say that before the Old Testament began to be written by Moses that some of the descendants of Shem, Noah’s son, could tell you the story of redemption from the patterns God wrote into the stars. This may have been what David meant when he said: “Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge.” Then again it doesn’t have to, there is enough out there that reveals knowledge without having to dig very deeply at all.
Today must have been one of the most gloriously bright days I have experienced out here in the countryside of Kildare. It was all light without much heat…hmm.. I’m sure there is more knowledge to be revealed in there somewhere.
faithfulwon 