Soundless Voice

Ps 19:1-14

 

1. Every year we appreciate and celebrate the beginning of beautiful autumn outside in the midst of the glorious nature created by our Father. When we are surrounded and overwhelmed by nature, “the work of his hands”, we humans humbly return to our position and praise the Creator together with the fellow creatures. When we left the nature and built our cities, our human race became so proud of our own achievements and denied our status of being a creature of God, resulting in losing humanity and collapsing morality. Modern man needs to return to the nature and rethink about our being in the universe.

2. Psalm 19 is one of the greatest poems written by David while he wandered in the wilderness to escape from Saul and remembering his early life as a shepherd. With his sheep David moved throughout the mountain sides of Palestine far from cities. As he lived in the nature, David could hear the voice of the universe. So, he praised the creation of God: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”(1) As he passed many nights alone on the mountain, he could hear wonderful heavenly chorus from the starry skies. One of my most enlightening experiences with the nature happened a couple years ago in the southern Utah. My family traveled to Zion National Park and then before sleeping at a nearby motel I took my family to a field of no light to see the stars. We laid ourselves on the ground and looked at the sky. It was amazing that the hemisphere sky around us was fully filled with stars even down to the circled earth in every direction. It was awesome and holy! In my life I have never seen such a sky full of stars so bright and beautiful. We were totally overwhelmed and praised God with forgetting time. It certainly delivered a clear and unforgettable message to us. So, David confessed his hearing: “Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”(2-4a)

3. God created this grand universe and beautiful nature that his handiwork continuously day and night loudly and eloquently proclaims the message from the Creator. Have you tried to hear from the sky and the nature? Beyond the sounds of winds, waters, birds, or thunderstorms, and in the midst of soundless universe, you can hear a wonderful orchestra and beautiful chorus to praise the Creator. In the sky there are so many great preachers to declare the glory of God. Have you heard a story of a mouse which lived in a big piano. This mouse enjoyed music played there and figured out that the music comes from wires and later from hammers but without recognizing its unseen player. Modern men understand the world only mechanically and mathematically without a grand understanding of the universe and the Creator Who also operates it.

4. David praised God who created the wonderful sun, “which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course.”(5) God created sun, and humans and living creatures on the earth. He kept the distance perfect for his living creatures on the earth, 93 million miles. If it is little more closer or distant, life would be impossible to survive. Also, The earth is wonderfully made with the best condition to live. Only the earth has enough and right amount of oxygen and water for life, proper gravity and atmosphere. Some atheists insist that the living beings happened to exist by themselves and they adjusted to the earth atmosphere. How foolish they are! Then, why no life on the other stars whatsoever? Many living beings on the earth become extinct even with a slight change of atmosphere and pollution. Moreover, if the earth is flat, it will be fully covered with water, hard to live. The earth is also properly tilted so that we enjoy four seasons and rotates daily to give us night and rest. Even though the earth rotates and flies very fast, 1669 km and 105448 km an hour, it is so comfortable and silent without disturbing our life. If we do not hear any message from this wonderful universe, we are surely deaf. Maybe we are too addicted to man-made noises to hear the soundless voice from the nature. Sunrise and sunset inspires us when we contemplate it. According to astronomers, this solar system belongs to the galaxy called the Milky Way, which has 100 billion stars. And in the observed universe there are 100 billion such galaxies! Why did God create so many stars? Only for beauty? We are not able to understand His unfathomable wisdom, but there must be clear reasons and functions for His glory and our benefit, though we humans will not understand it forever.

5. However, not only in the vast universe but also in a tiny creature we can hear a small but clear message of the Creator. Jesus said: “Look at the birds of the air… Consider the lilies of the field…” Every human, every creature, and even every snowflake is all differently and uniquely created. Let us love every star of the universe and every creature in this world as the glorious creation of our Father and our fellow creature. Let us look at this wonderful universe upward rather than making us busy only looking downward. Let us look around to appreciate this awesome nature rather than making us busy only with human struggles and self-centered living. And, let us listen to the Word of God from the nature. It will purify your soul and restore your humility. It will also enlarge our perspective and expand our scale of life. We have to appreciate the high and grand intention of the Creator for human being and thank God always for giving us this wonderful home and fellow creatures for us.

6. God speaks in two ways: nature and Scripture, natural revelation and special revelation. Because it is the same God who speaks through both media, nature and Scripture are harmonious. If we listen only from the nature, we might be confused and worship the Nature than her Creator. If we listen only from the Scripture, we might be dry and out of context. Of course, the Word of God in the Scripture is surely clearer and perfect in this polluted world because of sinful corruption. So, David confessed that “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.”(7-10)

7. David closed his psalm as follows: “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.”(14) In this autumn, I wish that the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart may be purer and deeper to please our Lord and our Creator by closely reading and listening from two books of God, the nature and the Scripture.