The Heavens Declare the Glory of God
The heavens declare the glory of God;
The skies proclaim the work of his hands.
(Psalm 19:1 NIV)
When you are down on your knees crying out to God or curled up in the fetal position wondering how on earth you will ever be able to get to your feet again, find the strength to stand. When the heartache and pain is overwhelming, when hope is running perilously low, when all the forces of darkness seem to be arrayed against you, find the strength to stand. Stand and lift your eyes to the universe above.
Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things, who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name (Isaiah 40:26 NKJV).
Look up and see the night sky “proclaim the work of His hands.” Every star hung in that broad, inky blackness was placed there by Him and He knows each one by name.
“The heavens declare the glory of God,” and they really do declare His glory. In movies, we watch enormous spaceships cross the vast expanse of space silently, but in reality, space is alive with sound. Every star, every planet, every comet, every asteroid, every constellation, pulsates with sound, singing their praises to God. Billions of stars rotate endlessly, following their appointed paths, in absolute precision and perfect timing. Just as God controls the courses of the stars, He controls the course of our lives.
You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day passed (Psalm 139:16 NLT).
For a small glimpse of the immenseness of His universe, ponder these facts:
Light travels at 186,000 miles per second. A light year is how far light travels in one year. One light year equals 5.88 trillion miles (5,880,000,000,000). The most distant galaxy astronomers have been able to identify is thirteen billion light years away, or 13,000,000,000 x 5,880,000,000,000.
The Whirlpool Galaxy is thirty-one million light years away from Earth. Thirty-one million multiplied by 5.88 trillion is the distance you would need to cover to reach it. And it contains 300 billion stars.
According to NASA, there are approximately 10 billion galaxies in the observable universe, with probably, on average, 100 billion stars per galaxy. That translates to one billion trillion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) stars in the observable universe. And that is only the “observable” universe. Who knows how many more billions there are out there?
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? (Psalm 8:3-4 NIV).
God has masterfully planned and ordered everything in all creation. You are part of His creation and He cares for you. And you think He can’t handle your problem? Do you doubt He can’t bring you through your heartache? Do you fear He cannot make something beautiful out of the mess of your life? Look up into the awe-inspiring beauty of His spectacular universe and take heart. He not only can, He will.
