The Heavens Resound with Praise

Scripture Reading — Psalm 19:1-6

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
— Psalm 19:1

Psalm 19 asserts that the heavens declare the glory of God. I recently learned some things about the Hubble Space Telescope and what it reveals about the known universe. Astronomers describe it in a way like this:

Imagine holding up your finger with a grain of sand on it and looking at the patch of sky that the grain of sand blocks out. That’s the field of space the Hubble telescope can zoom into. There are tens of thousands of galaxies in a patch of sky the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length. If that tiny patch of sky is like every other, then we can estimate that the visible universe includes about 2 trillion galaxies. Each one of those galaxies contains about 100 billion stars. And this means the universe contains a number of stars that goes beyond any number we can even imagine. Astronomers say that there are easily more stars in the visible universe than there are grains of sand on the earth.

When I think of the unimaginable size of the universe, I can’t help thinking how true Psalm 19 is: “The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.”

Creation resounds with praise for the Creator!

Dear Lord, although the heavens use no words, we join our voices with all creation to proclaim your praise. Thank you for making and redeeming us in love. Amen.

Written by: Kevin DeRaaf