In this psalm, David praises God for His natural revelation in the heavens and His specific revelation in His Word. David also sings that they both have a purpose. Spurgeon said of David, "In his earliest days while David kept his father's flocks he devoted himself to the study of God's two great books, nature and scripture."
In verse two David sings that the heavens are constantly speaking, around the clock, day after day, night after night. They don't speak in a whisper, they shout. They pour forth speech continually. It's a word for gushing or spewing out. The heavens are communicating to us all day long and all night long. The heavens are making knowledge known by shouting.
In verse three we learn that this knowledge that the skies are gushing forth is visual, not verbal. "There is no speech..." This knowledge is gained by looking up and seeing and beholding. The message going forth isn't using words. Something is being communicated by what we see.
Verse four tells us this voiceless knowledge is available to all. "There line has gone out through all the earth, and their utterances to the end of the world..." The gray, stormy skies here in Western Washington as I type this are telling me something just as the skies are shouting a message to people in Japan, and Israel, and Ukraine, and Viet Nam, and even to those folks in West Michigan! The entire globe is being shouted at. The heavens are speaking to all.
What do the skies shout? What is their voiceless, visual, global declaration? What is the heaven's inescapable message? What are billions of diamonds sparkling against a black, velvet sky telling us? When the sky and clouds are awash in vibrant colors during a sunrise or sunset what message is invading our minds? When the horizon is filled with huge, snow-capped slabs of granite jutting forth as far as the eye can see, some shrouded in mist, the rest bathed with golden sunlight, what should swell up in our hearts?
Verse one tells us...THAT GOD IS GLORIOUS! The message of the skies is the glory and splendor of Almighty God! When we look at the heavens we see that God is awesome in His power and beyond comprehension in His wisdom and knowledge!
David then zeros in on one aspect of the heavens. David says in the latter part of verse four that in these "God-is-glorious-shouting-skies", the Creator has placed the sun. He likens the sun to a bridegroom and a rejoicing, strong man.
For a bridegroom the happiest day of his life is the day he marries, or it should be! When David sings about the sun coming out like a bridegroom from his chamber he is saying that the glory of God is a happy thing. The joyful reality of the glory of God goes out from one end of the heavens and makes its circuit across the skies to the other end. Nothing is hidden from the warmth of this joyful reality.
While the heavens declare the message that God is glorious, it cannot transform the soul. David then sings about what can...God's special revelation, His Word. I'll talk about that next time.
In the meantime, may your heart soar with the joyful reality of the glory of God whether you have blue skies where you are at, or skies filled with refreshing rain...
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