How can meditating on the immensity of space lead us to thank God?
Psalm 33:6
What a staggering thought! “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.” God has placed the heavens above us and given us the technology to comprehend their vastness, not that we should worship the stars, but that we should understand the immensity of their Creator. On a crisp, clear night, the naked eye can see hundreds of thousands of stars. In certain parts of the world and at certain times of the year, the galaxy we call home – the Milky Way- is visible along its thickness, but not across its breadth. To our wondering gaze, it looks like a white river of stars from one end of the heavens to the other. The advanced technology of twentieth century astronomy has taught us that the Milky Way is so wide across its breadth that, were we able to travel at the speed of light (670 million miles per hour – the fastest speed possible in our physical universe), it would take us 100,000 years to complete the journey from one side to the other! Even the closest star – Alpha Centauri – would take 4 years to reach travelling at light speed! (A trip from the earth to the moon at light speed would take just a little over a second!) Yet, all this immensity merely appeared at the breath of God Almighty. And at the right time, he will discard them like a used-up garment (Psalm 102:25-26).
The clear testimony of this Psalm is that the immensity of the heavens are swallowed up in the infinity of God. The power of a billion stars is as a flickering candle which will be snuffed by the same breath that created them. In the light of these truths, how can man (even if all the nations of the earth banded together) rebel against him? Indeed, “The Lord foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever…” (verses 10-11).
“Thanks be to God that his immeasurable power is at work on behalf of his chosen ones, and that the plans he has for them cannot be thwarted!”
A God who can, with the breath of his mouth, create (then remove) the blazing giants that, in their incomprehensible remoteness, twinkle peacefully in our night skies… such a God should be feared and praised. Thanks be to God that he is sovereign over the affairs of the “mighty men” who trample the earth… in due time their feet slip! Thanks be to God that they cannot establish their “thousand year Reichs” or their godless utopias! They make such plans, and their power seems unstoppable. But as their couriers scurry about with their secret orders for invasion, they do so under the silent twinkling reminders of a power far greater than they could begin to comprehend. In the end, that power will reach out with precision and cut them off in mid-stride. And finally, thanks be to God that that immeasurable power is at work on behalf of his chosen ones, and that the plans he has for them cannot be thwarted! No power in heaven or on earth can stop him from completing his purpose – to present his children to himself holy and blameless in his sight. And when he is finished, they will “sing joyfully to the Lord” (verse 1) under a new heaven.
