It seems that since David was the youngest son in his family, it fell his lot to keep the sheep. What does a teenager do while he is with the sheep? There wasn’t much he could do except look at nature. It is easy to imagine David lying on the ground at night and looking up at the stars. Later he wrote with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands,” (Psalm 19:1).
David spoke of “heavens.” People in biblical times thought that there were “three heavens,” (2 Corinthians 12:2). The heavens are so broad they are spoken of as a great “expanse.” Stars are self-illuminating heavenly bodies. Our moon is a heavenly body that is not on fire, but only reflects the light of our sun, a star in our galaxy. A “galaxy” is a group of heavenly bodies, primarily stars. We are in the “Milky Way” galaxy which has between 200 to 400 million stars in it. There are thousands of galaxies. With the naked eye, one can see about 6,000 stars.
The Hubble camera took pictures of the heaven – 1/25 of one degree and found 1,500 to 2,000 galaxies which means in the heavens there are something like 50-100 billion galaxies. The ratio of what Hubble took a picture of would be equivalent to holding a grain of sand at arm’s length (The Denver Post 1-16-96).
Our sun is about 684,000 miles in diameter. In comparison, our earth is about 8,000 miles in diameter. Some stars are 600,000 times brighter than our sun. It is estimated that the diameter of one star is 336,960,000 miles. It would hold a half billion “earths.”
Here are some illustrations to help us understand how big the universe is. If someone put a dot on a white board which represent the earth and one inch away put another dot that represents our sun, which is 93 million miles from the earth, the next dot which would represent the nearest star to us, would have to be four and a half miles away. If we were to put a dot to represent the middle of our galaxy, we would have to put it 25,000 miles away with every inch representing 93 million miles.
The Andromeda galaxy is the closest galaxy to the Milky Way. It is 4.5 billion light years away from earth. A “light-year” is the distance light will travel in a year at the rate of 186,000 miles per second. That is over 65 million miles per hour. This galaxy can be seen with the naked eye. It contains 14 trillion stars! Many other stars are many more light years away from us! It is estimated that from border to border our universe is 20 billion light years across. (Remember, a light-year is the distance light will travel in a year at a rate of 186,000 miles per second).
The Power of God
The Bible begins, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” (Genesis 1:1). The Hebrew writer said, “By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible,” (Hebrews 11:3).
The Holy Spirit explained, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being,” (John 1:1-2).
Again, the Holy Spirit explained further, “For by Him (Christ) all things were created both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things have been created through Him and for Him,” (Colossians 1:16).
Think of God’s Care
Scholars tell us that our galaxy is just the right size. If it were larger the infusion of gases would cause our world to ignite; if it were too small, it would be insufficient to sustain life. Our orbit around the sun is not a perfect circle, but an elliptical orbit. For each 18 miles that the earth travels it moves one-ninth of an inch off of a straight line. If this were changed to one-eight of an inch we would burn up. If this were changed to one-tenth of an inch, we would freeze to death. We also have just the right mixture of air to breathe. If the mixture was changed, we could not survive on this earth.
Think about How the Universe Works
The earth is spinning on its axis at the rate of 1,000 miles per hour. While at the same time our earth is orbiting around the sun at 72,000 miles per hour. While our solar system is moving in an orbit. While our galaxy is moving at the rate of 600,000 miles per hour. It is no wonder that Sir James Jeans, a leading British astronomer said that the ultimate reality of the universe is probably forever beyond comprehension by the human mind.
When thinking about all this, we can say with David, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained; What is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him,” (Psalm 8:3-4)?
What Can We Learn about God Without a Bible?
- God is all powerful!
- God loves beautiful things!
- God is good to His creation!
- God is faithful!
- God is the author of order and design!
(Hugo McCord in Truth for Today Commentary by Eddie Cloer on Psalm 19, page 254).
It’s no wonder that C. S. Lewis said of Psalm 19, “I take this to be the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world” (Truth for Today Commentary Psalm 1-50, p. 245 by Eddie Cloer).
Conclusion
Through nature God has given us a witness that He exist. It is said that during the French Revolution, a revolutionist said to a peasant, “I will have all your steeples pulled down so that you will not have any reminders of your superstitious religion.” The peasant replied, “You cannot pull down the stars.” The starry sky preaches a sermon every time we look up. It is a silent sermon; It is a universal sermon; It is a glorious sermon; It is a continual sermon (Truth for Today Commentary, p. 253). Are we receiving that message? The starry sky tells us there is a God, but only by studying His written word, can we know how to please Him.
Wayne Burger
