The Footprints of God

How great would it be if we served God with that kind of joy in the same manner? We get out of bed tomorrow with a sense that God has created us to run that course, that cycle with joy, just as Jesus Christ, the Son of Glory, ran, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross. Even that He faced with joy.

Why? Because He had come to win His bride. God's creation reveals His joy.

He took great delight in all that He made. One practical application of that truth is that God wants us to live lives of joy as well. That's just one of the lessons we can learn from creation. Creation reveals much more, and we're going to look at that today from God's Word.

This is wisdom for the heart. In Psalm 19, King David describes the wonder of God's creation. David points out several important lessons for you to learn from observing creation.

So stay with us for this message called The Footprints of God. I have read that President Teddy Roosevelt, who served in the early 1900s, among other passions, loved the outdoors. He was responsible for the creation of several national parks, also a believer. In fact, in his first inaugural address, he said, without apology, I reverently invoke for my guidance the direction in favor of Almighty God. When he served in the White House, there would be times, of course, when diplomatic guests would be entertained and would spend the night there in the White House. He was fond of taking these guests out to the back lawn of the White House at the end of the day, and he would just begin to gaze up at the sky. As, of course, the President stood there gazing up at the sky, everybody else started gazing up at the sky as well. In his day, the vast array of stars wasn't dimmed by city lights, and the magnificent display that maybe you've seen if you've been out somewhere away from city lights would be just overwhelming. After several minutes, Roosevelt would smile and say to his guests, well then, I believe we're small enough now.

Let's retire for the evening. Carl Sagan, the popular television host who taught a generation that the cosmos is all there was, is, and ever will be, said this before he died, and I quote, our planet is a lonely speck in the great cosmic dark. In our obscurity and in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come to save us. The believer has a different perspective though, doesn't he? In fact, the creator God is one we call personal redeemer, and we've learned of him as personal shepherd. Carl Sagan was tragically wrong when he claimed there would be not even a hint of help or salvation.

The truth is, we have been given much more than a hint. One old Puritan centuries ago wrote it this way, God has actually left large footprints throughout his universe. Now when Paul arrived at Athens, you may remember and preach to the leading citizens, he declared unapologetically God made the world and everything in it. And the word he used for the world was a brilliant choice. He used the word cosmos. He used the word more than likely because it would be the choice of the word used by Homer, one of the Athenian citizens of renown. When he spoke of the order of government, he used the word cosmos.

Another favorite Athenian citizen was Plato. He used the word cosmos to refer to the order and precision in which a woman put on her makeup. First this layer, then that layer. I'm not going to go any further with that illustration, but you get my point. In fact, the word cosmetics comes from cosmos. So the footprints of our creator throughout the cosmos reveal precision and order and beauty. David begins to compose what many consider the most brilliant expression in all of his psalms about the self-revealing glory of creator God. You'll find it marked Psalm 19. James Montgomery Boyce in his commentary on this psalm wrote perceptively, God has revealed himself in two books.

He said one of them is a big book and the other is a little book. The big book is the universe, creation around us. We call that in theological terminology general revelation.

It's general because it's available to anybody and everybody. And it allows everyone to marvel, if they will, at a design and the designer behind the design. Then there is special revelation. That's the little book.

That's the one in your lap that you might have brought with you. The revelation of God in scripture and that's special revelation. Creation shows us what God did.

The Bible tells us why God did it. And between the staggering observations of the big book along with what God has revealed in the little book, we are given much more than a hint, are we not, that there's help. God is speaking his grace and his glory and his care and his love every single moment of every single day. Now what I want to do is make five observations from the big book revealed to us in the little book about what God is actually communicating to us through creation.

Let me give you five of them. Number one, creation reveals the signature of God. Look at verse one. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament that is the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Now the Hebrew verbs to declare, the heavens declare and the sky proclaims are participles.

They can be understood as continuous. In other words, he's saying the heavens keep on declaring the glory of God. The sky never stops proclaiming his handiwork.

He just continues to give us more and more information. In fact, his handiwork is another way of saying this is God's signature. Like an artist, God has signed his masterpiece.

His art collection is on display every day and every night. What David does here is he personifies creation and he effectively says then the sun, which is part of this creation, isn't just smiling, it's speaking. The stars aren't just twinkling, they're talking. And the one language that emerges engages their tongues are telling us constantly of the glory of our creator God and they are his signature glory. Creation reveals the signature of God. Secondly, creation reveals the wisdom of God.

Look at verse two. Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge. The word David uses for pouring out speech is the word for bubbling, like a bubbling spring. It just keeps bubbling up more and more knowledge. In fact, it's the same word used by Solomon when he writes the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling spring. Proverbs 18, verse four. In other words, day to day, literally day after day after day after day, the brilliant wisdom of God keeps bubbling up through creation. Don't ever wonder if God is speaking of his glory and his wisdom. Just take a look around. It's bubbling forth with knowledge. The universe is a big book.

In fact, I was thinking about what James Montgomery Boyce said. It's great to know that this book has pictures, isn't it? This one has pictures. I love pictures, don't you? How come when we get old, we get rid of pictures in our books?

What's with that? I remember my Bible as a kid. It had all those classic paintings in it.

You remember that? Man, a lot of us used to turn to those and stare and imagine and enter into those biblical scenes as a kid. If the preacher was boring, I just looked at those pictures, which meant I wore them out. Night after night, not just day after day, but night after night, there's a brand new photo album.

Look at it. Even in the nighttime, the portraits of God's wisdom keep bubbling up. Grand new knowledge. By the way, the word David uses for knowledge can be understood to mean observable data, facts. The observable data of creation is constantly bubbling with knowledge.

That's the idea. So where would you like to start learning? Where would you like to start looking? Study the human body. It's amazing. Study the petals of a flower. Study the blade of grass. Study the world of life in one drop of water. Study the snowflake.

Study the seasons. Study gravitation. Study the atom. Every observable part provides data, he says testifies, bubbles over with knowledge of our creator. But that knowledge, by the way, is that which is suppressed by an unbelieving world.

Paul writes, who by their or by means or because of their unrighteousness suppress the truth of creation, Romans 1, 15 to 20. Even when discoveries point to information, design, precision, the academic world scrambles for an explanation. In fact, for decades, well into the 20th century, textbooks taught the theory of origins called steady state. You remember that?

Any of you old enough? You won't want to admit it, but at any rate, that's what it taught. And that taught that the universe had no beginning and was effectively eternal. In our lifetime, that theory has been totally overthrown with the now popular big bang theory. This theory postulates that the universe exploded into existence some 20 billion years or so, and the number just gets higher as we go along. But at least they got part of it right.

It's a little closer to the truth. The steady state theory, in fact, began to crumble in 1913 when an astronomer discovered that a dozen galaxies close to ours are actually moving away from the earth at high speeds, about 2 million miles an hour. Then along comes Edwin Hubble, maybe you've seen some of those pictures, who postulated even more clearly there was a significant moment in time, there was a beginning, a gigantic fireball of explosion.

Of course, you have to have something to explode, but at any rate, you had an explosion, but at least we're getting closer. God spoke and boom, the worlds were created. The academic community in the early 1900s exploded with frustration and disagreement. Can't have a beginning. So in the 1930s, respected men like Sir Arthur Eddington, a respected British astronomer wrote, the notion of a beginning is repugnant to me. World renowned German chemist said, to deny the infinite duration of time would be to betray the very foundations of science. Philip Morrison of MIT said, I would like to reject it. Albert Einstein said, the circumstance of an initial moment of creation irritates me.

The Apostle Paul said it would. So let's suppress it. Whatever there is that indicates an original cause, anything other than an accident is repugnant and irritating. It must all be the result of an accident.

C.S. Lewis wrote, if the solar system was brought about by accident, then the appearance of life on this planet was also an accident, and the whole evolution of man was an accident. If so, then all our present thoughts are accidents.

The accidental byproduct of the movement of atoms. But if all our thoughts then are accidental byproducts, why should we believe them to be true? I see no reason for believing that one accident should be able to explain all the other accidents. So here's the tragedy of suppressing the amazing stupendous observable data, which reflects the signature of a beginning and a creator cause. We miss the point. Instead of worshipping him, we end up worrying. One author now with the Lord wrote, we have more knowledge about our universe than ever before, but far less ability to live happily in it, because we are ignoring the creator and his purpose, which is to bring him glory. Creation reveals the signature of God. It reveals the wisdom of God.

Thirdly, creation reveals the grace of God. Look at verse 3. There is no speech, nor are there words where their voice is not heard. Now at this point, my translation of the phrase, I'd like to change it.

I would agree with the New King James Version going all the way back to the Wycliffe Bible translation. The problem with this, and you'll find two prevailing views, is that the translator has to supply several words. The text in the Hebrew language simply reads, no speech, no words, not heard their voice. No speech, no words, not heard their voice. Now try to make sense of that. Now some translate it to effectively read, the planets have no speech, no words, their voice is not heard.

Now in a way, that would be correct. There's no heresy in either translation, and that's correct simply because planets don't use our vocabulary. They're not using words like we use words. They don't deliver literal speeches that we can understand. However, consistent with the context of this verse, I think David is saying they are heard.

In fact, you could translate it this way. There is no speech, there are no words where their voice is not heard. And that would agree with the context of verse 4. Look at verse 4. Look at what he says, their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. In other words, there is a language of creation.

And I think David's pointing to that. He's saying that no matter where you go on the planet, no matter what language you speak, no matter what culture you come from, you have this declaration of creation, this universal voice. One British author wrote 80 years ago, these celestial missionaries, these planets and stars, have borne their message to everyone. Sun, moon, and stars are God's traveling preachers.

They are apostles upon their journey, confirming those who regard the Lord, condemning those who deny Him. But even when mankind denies the Creator and gives self-creating attributes to Mother Earth, God in His grace goes ahead and paints one more sunset for the world to see. Do you think if you were God, you would allow a blasphemer to enjoy a sunset? Well, think about it this way. If you were the sculptor of Mount Rushmore, would you stand quietly by while people decided how much rain it took to create that nose?

No, you wouldn't even allow them in the park. You'd have a sign out front that says, unbelievers not allowed. But the grace of God, that's the point, delivers the marvels of His creation to the entire world, even when millions are speculating how long it took for enough accidents to evolve into precision and symmetry and form and beauty. So creation reveals the grace of God. Fourthly, creation reveals the imagination of God.

It's always wonderful to read these authors in Scripture knowing that we know more about it than they did, and yet they spoke with such inspired precision. The word God's Spirit influenced David to use for voice in verse 4, their voice goes out through all the earth, has so much more meaning for us today than David could have imagined. So the Hebrew word that can be translated, chord.

It could be a line, a line used by an architect, chord, spelled C-O-R-D, or it could be actually a C-H-O-R-D, musical chord, and the string is a reference to a musical string that you can pluck. Now we're not sure which one he's talking about unless you weigh in the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible that preceded the ministry of Christ. Christ even quoted from it. And that Greek word used for voice is a word that refers specifically to a musical sound.

Think about it. David is effectively saying, the universe is singing. The music of the universe creation can be heard throughout all the earth. Now certainly David could hear a lot of sounds, a lot of tones, and musical chords, but we know today there are millions more. David would have had no idea that today there would be the science of bioacoustics, a field of science that is revealed that we're literally surrounded by millions of ultrasonic sounds, sounds imperceptible to the human ear. They've discovered that the smallest plants are emitting tones that fit on the musical scale. Massive planets are humming tones. All you got to do is go online.

It's all there. I listened this week. Tones that sort of move as they go through their orbits. Listen to this.

Listen to the discoveries of our generation. One author says, the electron shell of the carbon atom produces the same musical scale as a Gregorian chant. A single hydrogen atom emits 100 frequencies. In fact, it's more musical than a piano, which only has 88 frequencies. The undulations of light waves make music. Even earthworms are beating out percussion staccato. Meadowlarks have a musical range of 37 octaves.

The ordinary fly flying about the meadow is literally buzzing in harmony with other flies. If we could hear it all with our ears, the combined sound would lift us off our feet. Their voice. I don't know if this is true or not, but I believe, I would like to believe that one day we'll be given the opportunity by God and our glorified bodies in the new heavens and new earth to hear the harmony of God's creation. To hear those planetary tones and how those stars are harmonizing. To hear the chords created by planets and stars. Literally to hear the symphony of God's creation that God right now alone can hear. Creation reveals the imagination of our composer creator.

One more. Fifthly, creation reveals the joy of God. Look at verse 5. In them, that is in the planets and stars of the universe, God has set a tent for the sun which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber and like a strong man runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens and its circuit to the end of them and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

Expositors believe that he's going to transition now to get into the little book and nothing can be hidden from it. What David is doing, however, in these two verses is he is personifying the joy of the sun and he's saying that the joy of the sun is like the joy of a bridegroom coming out of his house to go and marry his bride. I mean, how joyful can that be, right? To begin that day, each day in fact, he says, is the happiest day of its life and it races across the sky with joy. Now obviously without telescopes and aids for vision, David would be most impressed with the sun. It is impressive, fearful, amazing. David points to this most impressive being and he speaks of it in terms of joy. He talks about the benefit of heat. He watches, as it were, its activity and he talks about how it must move with the joy reflecting then the joy of its creator. That's his perspective. Now again, we know so much more about the sun than David did.

Here's the point he's making. The sun to him was eager to serve its creator with joy, obviously reflecting then the joy of God who created it for his glory. I mean, how great would it be if we served God with that kind of joy, like the sun in the same manner. We get out of bed tomorrow with a sense that God has created us to run that course, that cycle with joy, just as Jesus Christ, by the way, the son of glory ran, who for the joy set before him endured the cross. Even that he faced with joy.

Why? Because he had come to win his bride. Imagine if we lived our day like that, reflecting the glory of our God who created us with joy that we would give joy back to him. Well, don't ever wonder if God is speaking of his power and glory and imagination and grace and wisdom and joy. Just look up. Look at the big book. Creation reveals the signature of God, the wisdom of God, the grace of God, the imagination of God and the joy of God. Just remember what you do see and what you do hear and what you do know is a message directly from God to you in that big book.

It's a message of his power and his grace and his care and his love, his provision. He tells us every day, look what I'm doing. Look what I've made. Look who you are. He's not hinting.

He's shouting. Just imagine what's ahead for all of us in the new heavens and the new earth. A woman by the name of Clara Knoll was outside one evening. She was out there with her granddaughter, elementary age granddaughter. They were going for a walk and they were looking up at the stars. Clara writes, they were brilliant that evening, magnificent. She said, I named some of the individual stars for her and even pointed out some constellations and we kind of paused in awe of the sight above our heads and suddenly my granddaughter said, grandma, if the bottom side of heaven is this beautiful, just think how beautiful the other side must be.

Isn't that great? Which is another way of saying we haven't seen anything yet. Steven has reminded you today that what you see in God's creation is part of God's message to you.

Remember that the next time you observe the wonder of something God made. Thanks for joining us today. If this lesson was a blessing to you, be sure and invite others to join you in listening each day and contact us because we sure would love to hear about that. You can send Steven an email if you address it to steven at wisdomonline.org. His name is spelled S-T-E-P-H-E-N. Steven will continue through this series from Psalms next time on Wisdom for the Hearts.