Day 37

Psalm 19 prt 1: Read here – https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2019&version=NASB

This Psalm reflects, more than any other, the beauty and splendour of Hebrew poetry. C.S. Lewis wrote, ‘I take this to be the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world.’ Because this psalm is divided into three parts that is how I will deal with it. The three parts are the Natural world v1-6, the revealed world v7-11, and the spiritual life v12-14. Nature, scripture, and man are three parts of one story: the uttered word of creation prepared for the written word of scripture, and both prepare for the incarnate Word; the Lord Jesus Christ.

David looked to the heavens and he clearly saw ‘the glory of God’ declared. He could see it in the blue sky, with the glory of the sun and clouds and the beauty of sunrises and sunsets. He could see it in the night sky, with the brightness of the moon, the awe of the starry sky and the cloudy spread of what we now know to be distant galaxies. These, together with their size, their awe, their grandeur – shouted to David and all who would see, “The God who created all this is glorious, and this is evidence of His glory. The firmament’ repeats the idea in the previous line and is a poetic way of referring to the heavens.

The phrase ‘pours forth speech’(v2) is stronger in the Hebrew text than it appears to be in English, for the image is literally of a gushing spring that copiously pours forth the sweet, refreshing waters of revelation.

Without ‘this knowledge’ and without the starry sky, the blackness of night would have communicated powerfully to all humanity, ancient and modern, “There is nothing and no-one out there, the universe is empty.” Even if every human tongue ceased to publish the glory of God, the heavens above will never cease to declare and proclaim His majesty and glory. C.f. Romans 1:20

The scientist who lives by faith in his intellect and scales the mountains of ignorance to its highest peak will find in the end he has lived a bad dream with no awakening.