Who or What Shall Praise Him?
Psalm 19: 1 – 4
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
In Ch. 19 of Luke’s Gospel he relates the story of the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. In this account Jesus is told by the Pharisees to stop his Disciples (and presumably the rest of the crowd) shouting and cheering. Jesus answer as usual was short, sharp, and to the point “I tell you if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out”.
In his answer he echoes the Psalmist’s words here in Ps19
Where do we see God’s glory proclaimed? In the skies
The skies have no voice yet their beauty speaks volumes, if only we have the right ears to listen.
In preparation for an assault on Everest Edmund Mallory and a companion were climbing a nearby peak in order that they could see the upper reaches of Everest and plot a route. They established a very high camp from which they could carry out their reconnaissance. One evening as they prepared for night they sat outside their bivouac and watched the sun set over the high Himalaya. The sky and the snow clad mountains turned from their daytime blue and white to yellow, to orange, to crimson, to purple before finally slipping into darkness via violet. They watched the light show in silence, and as the last of the light faded Mallory broke the silence saying “Do you know there are some that say there is no God”.
The skies had spoken and their voice resonated all around Mallory’s world and beyond to anyone who had eyes to hear.
In these last several weeks at times we have looked hard for God’s message of hope to us, to his reassurance that all will be well. Sometimes we are so busy trying to find rhyme and reason we miss his message in the skies and in his great creation.
Day after day he has answered our prayers in accordance with his will.
Let us praise him, for if we do not then the very stones of the earth will cry forth in his glory.
Prayer
Lord God our loving Father, we see your beauty and take it for granted, we feel your love and take it for granted, too often failing to praise you for our manifold blessings. So Lord hear our praise today, for you are the mighty God who paints the sky and speaks to us in scenes of beauty we can but wonder at.
In your Mercy hear our prayer,
Amen