Psalm 19

Read this first: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+19&version=NIV

The heavens declare the glory of God- he sends the sun to bring the earth it’s warmth. Sunbeams are transcendent, the path of the milky way is a ridiculous image that stirs the soul. Rainbows remind us of joy and God’s promise. The sky makes us feel small and a reminder of just how grand God’s design is. The sky in creation is where I’ve seen God the most. I’ve asked people where they see God and they mostly agree with that. The second place they’ve seen God the most is in the birth of their first child. I haven’t experienced that but I’m sure they’re right so my answer is the sun and the moon and the stars. God comes in the big and the small and yet most don’t think much of first born and they likely don’t even acknowledge that the sun and the stars exist. In the city you can go months without seeing the sky. You can go years without realizing that other people are a gift. A miracle and the fact that every human exists out of some form of love is a crazy beautiful thought.

God gives us the sun to bring warmth. He gives love to all to bring warmth. He brings his son to bring warmth as well. All warmth comes from God and originally from his voice. Creation speaks his name in this psalm.

Then the psalmist moves from discussing creation to the rules and laws of God. We don’t much about the cosmos- but we do know that they’re run by a mathematician. There are rules to where the stars shine, how they move, even how the stars and planets interact with each other. The universe runs like a clock with orbiting hands keeping everything in it’s place. People dedicate their entire lives to learning the math of the universe. Wise men have done this for eons. Astronomers I’m told are the most religious of all the sciences. There is an order to the way things run and the God of the universe also has rules to dictate our lives as well.

Then the psalmist narrows in and begins discussing the joy of the law of the Lord. We talk about the joy of the gospel- but the Jews to this day delight in the rules of God. Why because they show the love of God too. They show the ways of life- how to love God and love your neighbor. We often think about them as being taken away on the cross but no Jesus didn’t come to destroy the law, but to fulfil it. To do everything exactly as God said we should. We are to strive to do the same and perhaps with the Spirit’s help begin to walk in step with our Shepherd.

Then the psalmist turns from the universe to God’s laws to themselves. They ask to follow God’s laws and that the words of their prayers and thoughts would be acceptable to God. We went from universe, to laws, to my words. The God who spoke everything into being cares about your words in prayer and otherwise. He cares about your innermost thoughts, knows them, and cherishes them. To an outsider these seem like giant leaps from the cosmos to the firing of our inner neurons. To a Christian this is logical. God’s love is there in the vastness of the night sky, but also in the smallness of your infant child, the smallness of your heart and your mind and your day. God’s love is with you in the big and the small. See the glory of God and his handiwork in everything and show it in all you do!