The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words,
whose voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
(Psalm 19:1-4 ESV)
This is one of my favorite Psalms. I love how this psalm likens God’s law to God’s creation. There is so much that I could say about this Psalm, but for today I will just highlight one idea this psalm expresses.
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
(Psalm 19:1-2 ESV)
Christ Carrying the Cross
God has fashioned creation in such a way that it continuously declares His glory. It doesn’t stop, it declares it day to day and night to night. At any point in time you can see God’s glory displayed in creation. It could be a bird singing, a flower, an animal playing, a meteor shower, the stars at night, or any number of other things. The point is that creation is the work of God, and because it is the work of God it constantly displays His glory; it endures.
Christians are also God’s creation (in varying stages of completion), but I rarely ever hear endurance mentioned as a characteristic of a Christian. This is unfortunate because I consider this to be the most important characteristic of a Christian: endurance through life, that is keeping your faith in Jesus throughout your life until the end (1).
Just as God’s physical creation endures and proclaims His glory day to day and night to night, so should God’s spiritual creation (2). As Paul says:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
(2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV)
In Christ we gain the endurance to proclaim God’s glory day to day and night to night. We will indeed bear the fruit of the Spirit if we abide in Christ, but we should not forget that endurance is a fruit as well.
Footnotes:
- Doubt does not indicate a lack of faith. Many great saints from the past have wrestled with doubt (Augustine for example). Check out the Credo House Ministries blog for posts on wrestling with doubt.
- To be sure, humans are both physical as well as spiritual.
SRQTom 