The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Psalms 19:1 KJV
The Context:
We see here again a psalm by David, the one God called a man after His own heart. David was a man who knew how to catch God's attention, because he knew the language God spoke. Most of the greatest hits of today's generation have their roots and words in the collection of psalms and today's extract is one of them. David goes back to the very beginning, the story of creation, as recorded in God's Word. We read of the confusion and darkness that the world, at that beginning, was in. We read of the command of God that light appear, and which was so. We read of all the other things that followed this command of light, and we see God simply speaking the Word, and seeing the beauty of creation simply come to light and life. This account of creation is a testament to the power, splendour, glory and wisdom of God. We see the absolute nature of God revealed in all the things He has created, whereby He poured of his power and glory into all that we see today. That is why at the end of all that God made, the verdict was this: And God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.
And as we consider all of God's creation, you could almost hear them speak, calling you to listen with them as they declare the wondrous works of God. You hear the wind whistle in the trees and hear the ocean waves slap across the face of the rocks. It does not matter how long they have been at this 'monotonous' activity; they don't seem to mind doing it over and over again. If creation without physical lips can testify of the power of God, I wonder what the excuse for those of us with physical lips will be, if we refuse to praise God and testify of His mighty works.
The Message:
We seem to have learnt a few bad habits in addition to our rebellion and disobedience to God's command. Our brains are our biggest assets as human beings, because we can process what we receive through our senses. And these senses also are our greatest limitations, because they permit us to process what we receive and decide how we want to react to them. The rivers don't stop doing what they do; the mountains don't stop showing off God's greatness; the heavens don't stop shining off with God's great deposits of the sun, moon and stars, but for man, we decide when we think we have had enough, and we subject God to the dictates of our untrustworthy senses.
We want to subject God to our human senses. We want Him to validate how we feel, and we could almost want to dictate to Him how we think He should run His own creation. We have left the worship of the Creator, and have elevated the worship of the created. We forget that it does not ever happen where the created tells the creator how best it can function. It is the inventor and creator who uses available resources to fashion out what He wants to achieve and applies resources to achieve that end result. Would a TV tell its creator that it wants to function as a refrigerator? This should not happen, but for us as man, this is what we want to do. We want to bend God to our will, to do what we think is best for ourselves, yet man's greatest achievement will be the total embrace of the will of His creator. Nothing else can or will fill the void that only God can fill. You can try and fill it out with activity, devotion to a cause or some other venture, but if it is not God, it will not end well.
The Response:
What, then, is expected of me, but to live my life in the understanding of who God is, and what I have received of Him. I see that human attributes have been assigned to these created things, and we hear the heavens declare and see the firmament show off God's handiwork. If these 'non-living' things can show regard for God this way, how much more we who are made in God's likeness, of who God spoke at creation that we should have dominion over all that He has created, give Him praise all our lives. Are we like creatures with no brains, no regard for what we have been made and what we have received of Him, and have to be daily reminded of what we need to do and who we need to worship? As we observe all of creation around us, are there no lessons that these things teach us, so we can pay attention to the things that matter most, which is the total worship and praise of our Creator?
I must give regard, honour and praise to the God who created all that I see, including me. My life was made to praise God and that's why I can never experience the fullness of all that God is, until I surrender all to this God. The heavens have made their choice, and it is to constantly praise God. The least I can do is to do the same too, and let my life be a daily routine of praise and gratitude to God for all He is and has done for me. That is my utmost priority and the symbol of my allegiance to God. What is yours? His time of favour is here.
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