Wineskins Contributor・04/02/19

Words.

Some are voiceless, some form a narrative, and others offera response.

Psalm 19 is a meditative response to words that make nosound and written words that shape life. The Psalmist offers a meditation onhow God encounters Israel through creation and Torah and how believers respondto such gracious revelation.

Creation’s Words

In successive synonymous parallelisms, the poet describesthe impact of creation’s voiceless words.  One cannot read “heavens” and“firmament” as well as day and night without thinking about Genesis 1. The“firmament” is the protective barrier that shields the habitable earth from utterchaos. God’s glory is that God has crafted (God’s handiwork) a place thatspeaks without words.

Creation itself announces or proclaims, and it does thiscontinually–day and night. Creation speaks unceasingly about the reality ofGod’s care for the creation. The intent of God’s glorious speech is to “revealknowledge.”

In our post-Enlightenment world we might immediately thinkthat this refers to some kind of deductive inference about the existence ofGod. In other words, some stress Psalm 19 affirms natural revelation, and thatit assumes nature demonstrates the existence of God. That may be true to apoint (and Paul in Romans 1:19-21 seems to think something similar), but“knowledge” here is more about relationship and encounter. The Hebrewconception of “knowledge” is more about intimacy than it is propositionalinformation.

Creation is a place where God encounters humanity, andcreation speaks in such a way that humanity experiences (“knows”) God. The kindof knowledge assumed here are not mere facts but the reality of God engagedwith the human story. Many testify to their encounters with God through thecreation. Whether it is a mountain top, a sunrise, or waves crashing againstthe rocks, many have experienced God within and through the creation itself.God communicates–creation speaks for God–in such moments.

That speech, though unheard, is unceasing, and it isuniversal as it is heard “through the whole earth” and to the “ends of theworld.” Everyone has access to this speech or revelation; everyone mayencounter God through God’s good creation.

The sun is a prime example. It is universal as it moves fromone end of the earth to the other. The sun’s heat is not hidden from anyone oranything. Everyone feels its heat–whether it is warmth on a cold day orscorching heat in a dry summer. One cannot miss the sun, and the sun declaresthe glory of God–it testifies to God’s unceasing presence.

This glory is like the glory of a bridegroom on his weddingday. As he emerges from the wedding canopy (or wedding night chamber), he facesthe future with joy, excitement, and hope. Like a champion who wins a race, thesun races across the sky in triumph. The rising sun brings a new day with allthe potential excitement of a new adventure.

The Psalmist focuses on the sun, and perhaps this is a mildpolemic against Ancient Near Eastern sun-worship, or perhaps it is simply thegrandest example of God’s glory day-to-day. Whatever the case, the sunillustrates the grandeur, pervasiveness, and accessibility of God’s speechthrough the creation.Creation is God’s first act of self-revelation, and it is an act ofgracious engagement. Humanity does not discover God as much as God speakswithin and through the creation. God makes the first move.