Giving Voice

1 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 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.

Think of the ways we can give glory to God. When we speak, we can glorify God with our words. We can talk about God in ways that honor him. We can communicate God’s love for us and for the whole world. We also learn and grow to know about God’s glory when we hear others speak about it.

Psalm 19 shows that we can even learn about God’s glory through nature. It says, “The heavens declare the glory of God.” Another way to put it, according to this psalm, is that “the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” This is a strange and poetic picture. The sky can’t talk! The psalm acknowledges this in verse 3: “They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them.” And yet the sky, by its simple, beautiful existence, communicates to the world about God, its creator.

God has created a beautiful world. This world, simply by being what God created it to be, gives voice to the beauty of God himself. People can glorify God with their words, by loving each other and themselves, and by caring for the world that God loves.

The sky uses its clouds, rainbows, and shades of gray and blue to tell about the glory of God. Think of all that we can do as we use our words and even our whole life to share about the glory of our great God!

Glorious God, just as the sky proclaims your creative love and power, let me give you glory in all I think, say, and do. Amen.