The heavens declare the glory of God         
    and the firmament shows His handiwork.
Psalm 19:1 NKJ

The giant universe reveals God and points to His Son . . .
for Whose delight it was fashioned
and in Whose holy hand it is held.

The heavens are God's forum,
a speech for ears of man,
one open oracle about God
amid all else buried in mystery.

Looking down is a chaotic view,
the ever dirtier planet of our spoiling.
But the heavens in their splendid order,
preach constancy, permanence, beauty.
The "firmament" announces
the God who is over all,
ever and still,
in the unending dominion of His silent glory.

Day unto day utters speech   
And night unto night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech nor language
Where their voice is not heard.
Their line (sound) has gone out through all the earth.
     And their words to the end of the world.
Psalm 19:2-3 NKJ

There is no place where the heavens are unseen
nor the sound unheard.

A silent voice, heavier than words could carry,
higher than intellect can clutch and sort.
A vast beacon to tiny mankind:
teaching majesty, instilling awe.

"Lights" in the expanse
calling, "gaze up,"
to behold Mystery and be overwhelmed,
glimpsing . . . God.

There is no denying the voice of its message.
"There is Something - Someone above,
dwelling in a vast and beautiful order."

No barrier of hearing exists.
No language needed.
From one horizon to the distant other,
every seeing soul, young and old,
can read the sacred message of the clear firmament:
God is . . . and He is magnificent.

Then God said, "Let there be lights      
in the firmament of the heavens
to divide the day from the night;
and let them be for signs and seasons,
and for days and years;"
Genesis 1:14a NKJ

On the Fourth Day the "lights" were hung on nothing.
The lights were set for ruling . . . and we bow.
On earth we have all freedom to destroy, to build,
to run and to defame,
but as toward the heavens, we bow. We do.

Heaven's lights measure time,
mark days, form nights.
Set the seasons.

Heaven does rule. Over all the earth, heaven reigns.
And we dusty ones,
in our delicious freedom from God,
still cannot move one second nor enlarge one day.

We live and move, subject to heaven.
Following the planets, we also revolve and orbit,
circling within the limits God
placed by the ruling of the lights.

The heavens preside.
Heaven rules the day, the night,
the hour, the year . . . the crops, the tides.
And we live ever under the lines drawn
by the heavens above us. For us.

If not to God,
at least to the "lights," we submit.
In the Heavens, the Father utterly rules,
issuing life-in-light, down to us.

". . . for signs"

The lights beam, not merely for their function.
They speak of a reality beyond their own shining.
Signals they are - from God -
with significance as vast
as the expanse in which they hang.

Copyright © 2003 Martha Kilpatrick