Posted on: Saturday, September 20, 2003
EXPRESSIONS OF FAITH
Skies sing praise to Earth's Creator
By Rick Stinson
On clear summer nights in Hawai'i, countless stargazers tracked the spectacle. Mars traversed the skies with an unprecedented brilliance, granted by the luminary's closest proximity to Earth in 60 millennia. Was this a natural wonder in our lifetime, or was there a message spoken in the skies?
Three millennia ago, a Mideastern stargazer viewed the same skies and tuned into the broadcast of a powerful signal. Israel's greatest King, the warrior-poet David, records the message he received in Psalm 19. "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands."
Just as the masterpieces of Rembrandt display the artist's unseen personality and gifts, so the craftsmanship of the stars exhibit God's colossal power, skill, creativity and goodness.
The skies' broadcast of God's character is pervasive, saturating every square inch of planet Earth. David observes that the signal is continual, transmitted day and night. The communication is nonverbal, transcending all language and cultural barriers. And the message is universal, extending to every corner of the planet.
How do people respond to such a powerful and pervasive broadcast of God's personality?
Some marvel at the glory displayed to such an extent that they venerate the messengers. In David's world, cultures commonly worshipped the sun as the dominating influence in the sky, the source of light and life, and made gods of other luminaries as well. Of course, this response is recognized as primitive and unsophisticated in our scientifically enlightened day.
Yet others, as the Apostle Paul indicates in his letter to the Romans (1:18-20), choose to tune out the signal of the skies. Disregarding the sovereign artist who reveals himself in his artwork, they desire to live their lives seemingly independent of him.
David, on the other hand, exemplifies a worthy response to the glorious broadcast of the skies. Perceptive enough to differentiate between the creation and the creator, the inspired songwriter worships not the artwork, but the artist. David celebrates the dominating power of the sun, yet realizes that this most powerful of luminaries influencing our world simply has its course set by the unseen craftsman who sovereignly rules the galaxies.
In Psalm 19, David responds to the signal of the skies with awe toward the starmaker. In another praise poem he exults, "Our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him?"
During construction of Emerson Hall, Harvard University president Charles Eliot invited philosopher William James to suggest a suitable inscription for the stone lintel over the doors of the new home of the philosophy department. After reflection, James recommended a line from the Greek philosopher Protagoras: "Man is the measure of all things."
Eliot chose to replace James' suggestion with David's words: "What is man that thou art mindful of him?" Between these two statements lie the great distance between two points of view, one that is man-centered and one that is God-centered.
So how did people in Hawai'i respond to the signal in the skies occasioned by Mars' proximity? No doubt there were many, like David, who had ears to hear the broadcast.
A more contemporary songwriter captures the response of their spirit: "O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds thy hands have made, I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my savior God, to thee; how great thou art, how great thou art!"
Rick Stinton is president of International College and Graduate School, an accredited, interdenominational Bible College and seminary in Honolulu.
