Daily Worship

The Heavens Are Telling

Peter Neilson November 24, 2016 0 3

Psalm 19

The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
    night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
    no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice[b] 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.
5     It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
    like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
6 It rises at one end of the heavens
    and makes its circuit to the other;
    nothing is deprived of its warmth.

The heavens are telling the glory of God

The wonder of his work displays the firmament.

I love singing in choirs. I began in our little church choir in Kirkmuirhill, learned the art of choral singing through school in Hamilton and the Glasgow Phoenix Choir, and have sung in choirs wherever we have lived over the years.

Haydn’s Creation is an inspiring oratorio from beginning to end, but for me it all hinges on the last chorus of part I The heavens are telling the glory of God. I still remember the thrill of singing it at school. Every time since, the words and music seem to flow through me, lifting me up in worship of God the Creator of all things.

Space adventures leave us astonished at the vastness of our universe as frail space craft make their way to the outlying planets or land on a speeding comet. Meanwhile beneath our feet the earth turns rhythmically on its axis, and we walk over rocks that were formed by sand and sediment, or volcanoes and glaciers in a slow-moving minuet of millennia of millennia.

As a younger Christian my focus was very much on Jesus and that personal relationship he offers us through the Cross and resurrection. (I still do and He still does!) But as I grow older, I find that vision of Christ stretched to include the mind-bending words of John: In the beginning was the Word......through him all things were made......  The Word embodied in Jesus is the Word embedded in Creation – telling the glory of God.

 

www.sanctuaryfirst.org.uk/audio

 

Step outside. Look and listen: The heavens are telling the glory of God......

Awesome!