Day After Day They Pour Forth Speech

Psalm 19 begins with a claim that sounds like poetry and is actually a doctrine. The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech, night after night they reveal knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.

David is saying that creation talks. Not in Hebrew or English, verse 3 admits, but in a language every human being on earth understands. The sunrise this morning was a sermon. The heat that will build through this June afternoon is a sermon. The stars tonight, if the sky is clear where you are, will preach until dawn. And the preaching never stops. Day after day. Night after night.

Paul was thinking of this psalm when he wrote in Romans 1:20 that God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, so that people are without excuse. Creation does not say everything about God. It does not tell us his name or the gospel. But it tells us enough to know that he is there and that he is glorious, and it tells everyone.

Verses 4 to 6 zoom in on the sun. David pictures it as a bridegroom leaving his tent and a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and circles to the other, and nothing is hidden from its heat. This is not a scientific description, and it does not need to be. It is a description of joy. The sun is glad to do what it was made to do.

Here is the thing to notice. The most eloquent preacher in Psalm 19 has no words. The heavens have no mouth. Yet their message reaches every corner of the earth. That should encourage those of us who feel we do not have the words to speak about God. A faithful life, like a faithful sun, can declare glory without being articulate. Rising each day and running your course with joy is a kind of speech.

The turn toward life is simple. Go outside today, at least once, and listen to the sermon. Then ask what your own day is declaring. The sun does not choose whether to shine. We choose whether to rejoice as we run. Choose it.