Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How Creation Sings God's Praises | The Writings | Psalm 19

Episode Date: January 25, 2024

Do you trust God to hold the world together? Does nature point your heart toward God? Can science and God coexist? In today's episode, Patrick looks at Psalm 19 to discuss how the natural and moral laws of the world point to God. Read the Bible with us in 2024! This year, we’re tackling a group of Old Testament books traditionally known as “The Writings”— Psalms, Chronicles, Proverbs, Daniel, Ruth and more! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 19

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. When you wake up in the middle of the night, what do you fear? Perhaps a difficult day ahead, an anxious meeting, a tough conversation with a friend, or maybe you find yourself worrying about the consequences of what happened the day before. Will he talk to me again? Will I lose my job?

Can I do it? Whatever you fear in the late watches of the night, I bet. you have never legitimately feared this, that the sun wouldn't rise. It's remarkable if you stop to think about it. So much of the world is a given, but if the given stopped giving, life itself would end. If the earth stopped spinning, we would all die. If the sun stopped burning, we would all die. But these are ridiculous possibilities, so cosmic and grand in scale that we know that we have nothing to fear. There's an order to the universe around us that is truly remarkable. We take it all for granted. Electrons, protons and neutrons, quarks and dark matter, atoms

colliding and bonding. There's light, there's gravity, particles, and waves. This great seething mass of stuff all around us that somehow doesn't shatter apart into nothingness, but coheres and in here such that there are galaxies, stars, and planets, plants, and animals, you and me. We take all the laws of physics governing our universe for granted, forgetting that without them there would be nothing. There would be no life, not you, not me. So perhaps it's no surprise that the study of the natural sciences, physics, chemistry, astronomy, and biology all came into existence and into maturity in cultures downstream

of Christianity. You see, Christianity is very different from the pagan religions that preceded it. Many of those religions shared a perspective. that the world is fundamentally chaotic and unpredictable. They thought that divine forces were at war with one another, making and unmaking at will, and that left humans like leaves in the wind of fate. But Christianity suggested a different reality, a single divine being who is a being of goodness and order, who orders all creation to bring life. And because he is good and ordered, Christians believe the world itself would be good and ordered, and could be studied. And in studying that ordered

good world, we would learn something about the ordered good creator. Science, when done honestly, is always a signpost to the maker. Which takes me to Psalm 19, today's Psalm. It is perhaps the greatest poem in all of scripture, and it's a poem that celebrates how all of inanimate creation, despite having no voice, nonetheless sings the praises of the Creator. The order of the non-living world around us sing and point to the maker. They point to all the things we take for granted. From the suns rising every day to the laws of physics, they were all put into motion by him and they're all upheld by him our maker.

There is a law in nature, and it is a good law that comes from a good maker. Let's pick up in Psalm 19 verse 1. 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. They have no speech. They use no words.

No sound is heard from them. 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. It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other. Nothing is deprived of its warmth. The psalmist is saying that creation sings a voiceless song.

It sings that in the creator we live and move and have our being. But right after this passage, the psalmist suddenly changes topics. Or it seems that way at first glance because he moves from talking about creation's voiceless song to a meditation on God's law. But it turns out it's actually not senseless at all. And it's not a change in topic. The point becomes clear if you reflect, just as nature has a good law that causes the sun to rise and atoms to cohere and thereby allows life to exist, just in that same way, God's moral law is good. It holds the common good together. It is the path to good life. There is a natural law and there is a moral law and they come from the same

person. If only we could follow God's law of life as well as the sun and stars follow their laws. The psalmist continues in verse 7. The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing 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 decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. They are more precious than gold than much pure gold. They are sweeter than honey than honey from the honeycomb. By them your servant is warned, and keeping them there is great reward, but who can discern their own errors. Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins. May they not rule over me,

then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression. May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my rock, and my redeemer. Here's what I take away from the second half of this Psalm about God's moral law as a reflection of God's natural law. Here's what learn. If we can trust Jesus to hold all creation together, to guide the stars in the sun, if we can trust him to hold the physical world in consistent ordered existence, if we can trust him to hold together the particles of life, then why don't we trust him with our lives? The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing to your soul. His statutes are trustworthy and make the simple whys. Do you believe him? Do you trust that? Do you trust him that? Do you trust him that

much? None of us can answer that question, yes, as loudly as the sun can. And yet we should all pray that just as the sun proceeds on its course, like a groom leaving his wedding chamber or a champion on his last victory lap, may we proceed in the same way in obedience with joy, with the joy of love consummated, with the joy of victories won on the cross. Trust him, even when his way seems confusing, or doesn't seem right. He holds all things together in nature, immorality, and all of life.