“The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words,
whose voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
and its circuit to the end of them,
and there is nothing hidden from its heat...
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:1-6,14
Beholding the heavens, we take in all the psalmist describes: God’s magnificent, infinite, indescribable glory: light, movement, order, splendor that explodes the imagination. The shout both humbles and raises to awe. Our senses and souls expand but find their limit while soaring, trying to comprehend the incomprehensible and articulate the measureless in involuntary praise. It is beyond imagining the splendor, and our perception of it, before the fall.
While the Lord tilts our faces skyward to behold His glories, He intends that we carry what we glean into the horizontal ‘here below’ of day to day. We cannot go through our hours with physical eyes on heaven, but our spiritual eyes can carry the eternal perspective of its beauties to our daily decisions and interactions. His order, love, light, and handiwork can be evidenced in the words of our mouths and work of our hands. (Psalm 90:17; Matthew 5:16)
If the heavens declare, what am I declaring? If this Almighty God dwells in me by His spirit, how clearly and broadly am I displaying His glory in demeanor, kindness, acts of service, care, and generosity? How do my words reflect His grace and compassion? My actions His love and strength and tenderness? My industry His order, excellence, persistence, and purposes?
“God, all nature sings thy glory, and thy works proclaim thy might;
ordered vastness in the heavens, ordered course of day and night;
beauty in the changing seasons, beauty in the storming sea;
all the changing moods of nature praise the changeless Trinity,
Clearer still we see thy hand in man whom thou hast made for thee;
ruler of creation’s glory, image of thy majesty.
Music, art, the fruitful garden, all the labor of his days,
are the calling of his Maker to the harvest feast of praise.
But our sins have spoiled thine image, nature, conscience only serve
as unceasing, grim reminders of the wrath which we deserve.
Yet thy grace and saving mercy in thy Word of truth revealed
claim the praise of all who know thee, in the blood of Jesus sealed.
God of glory, power, mercy, all creation praises thee;
we, thy creatures, would adore thee now and through eternity.
Saved to magnify thy goodness, grant us strength to do thy will;
with our acts as with our voices thy commandments to fulfill.” ~David Clowney (1960)
Lord, infuse my nature with Yours. May there be no thought, speech, or action in which I am not reflecting and declaring Your greatness and glory.
As the rain and snow 